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Posted by: toho Sep 1 2008, 04:51 PM

Hi, I was just wondering, when you guys learn an advanced piece of music such as arpeggios from hell or something. How do you practice? Do you learn the whole song at about 50% speed first and then speed it up as you practice or do you learn for example the first 15 bars first really well, up to 100% speed and then go on with the next 15? Hope you get what im asking

BTW I love this site!

Posted by: Capt.Z Sep 1 2008, 05:32 PM

I will usually learn it piece by piece... learn them at full speed, then combine it...

There are lots of oher approaches

Posted by: Kuba Szafran Sep 1 2008, 05:39 PM

I usually start with learning whole piece in a really small tempo, if there are any difficult places I practice them separatly, then I'm trying to play solo properly couple of times in row, after that I increase metronome tempo gradually (5-10 bpm). Ofc when you want to practice any long solos or songs you should practice it piece by piece, then combining them and speeding up.

Posted by: Smikey2006 Sep 1 2008, 05:58 PM

sloowwwlly.. I think sometimes its acceptable to break the song into chunks. If there is a fast solo i obviously practice it slowly until i can work my way up and play it faster. But if i can play the majority of the stuff up to speed i will definatly practice it at speed!

Posted by: toho Sep 1 2008, 06:04 PM

thanks for your answers i usually break the song into pieces aswell but it is more fun to learn the whole slowly and then gradually increase tempo, but it seems like if i do that, i usually do not have the patience to practice it until i got it 100%.

Posted by: Gus Sep 1 2008, 07:35 PM

first of all, use guitar pro

break down in small pieces and practice more the most difficult. play each part at the speed you can (you don't have to play all slowly just because of a part)_

Posted by: Canis Sep 1 2008, 07:44 PM

I break it into pieces, kinda like the lessons here at GMC, and practice at slow tempo. I've found out that when I practice too large parts at a time, I've forgotten it after a while.

Posted by: Siggum Sep 1 2008, 07:47 PM

Start slowly, and make sure you get each part right, a normal piece i normal divide into 6-7 sections and then working on each untill they are playable, and i can move on.

Posted by: Gerardo Siere Sep 1 2008, 09:15 PM

Go directly of the fragments I cant play confortabbly, practice it with no tempo to make sure I know/decide how I should play that passage, then use slow metronome to let my body memorize it.

Posted by: wrk Sep 1 2008, 10:08 PM

QUOTE (toho @ Sep 1 2008, 07:04 PM)

thanks for your answers i usually break the song into pieces aswell but it is more fun to learn the whole slowly and then gradually increase tempo, but it seems like if i do that, i usually do not have the patience to practice it until i got it 100%.

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Sep 2 2008, 02:48 AM

Piece by piece is a good way to go. If there are many similar sequences, try to combine them so they are not boring, and make a nice little interesting "practice game" out of them. You should practice them as long as you feel comfortable playing them. When you stop feeling comfortable, take a break, day or two and carry on pushing it up the tempo.

Posted by: Marcus Siepen Sep 2 2008, 12:15 PM

Normally I go piece by piece, like this I can focus on the difficult parts and only continue after I can play those parts without problems. But of course there are other options as well, like learning the song as a whole, just in a slower tempo. Basically anything that makes it more easy for you is fine.

Posted by: Juan M. Valero Sep 2 2008, 03:24 PM

yeah, the best is going piece by piece, in short fragments (verse, riff A, chorus, etc.) and write your own exercises for the most difficult parts This will help you in the song and in your own technique and imagination

Posted by: Mark. Sep 2 2008, 03:27 PM

I mostly learn the whole piece first at a slow tempo, and then I'm starting to speed things up.

Posted by: Jose Mena Sep 2 2008, 04:40 PM

All of this works, I do both, learn it piece by piece fast, then find out the parts I am having problems with, practice those slow and slowly increase tempo, then put the whole thing together and practice it slow, then start increasing the speed for the whole thing.

Posted by: Danilo Capezzuto Sep 3 2008, 10:17 AM

I prefer to broke down in pieces. When I learn to whole piece i try to play a little faster, this way I'm more confident with the original speed.

Posted by: FrankW Sep 6 2008, 12:10 AM

I usually take an easy song and triple the speed and learn it that way. Then I'm ready for a moderately hard song which I double in speed. Then I'm ready for a hard song which I play at normal speed.