hey muris. i have been practicing many things, but specifically one speed exercise for almost a year. i have gained about 10 bpm clean. maybe 15 with some loss of accuracy. this feels very pathetic. i cant seem to get passed 85 bpm 16th tripelets. for as much as i have practiced, it seems that i should have progressed faster. do you think that i should practice more of a variety of alt. pick exercises, or does it matter? am i retarded? is my central nervous system dead or something? im just starting to wonder. how many bpms per year should i expect with regular/heavy practice? i',m sure its different for everyone, but is there an average or something? should i be progressing this slowly? thanks.

I no expert on this matter, but what i usually do is go up beyond what i want and then back down.. If youre stuck at 85 then go to 100 and keep trying that then go back down to around 90, it should seem easier

I've been stuck around 100bpm 6 notes per beat patterns for ages, now I'm stuck at like 150bpm. But I guess that you cant keep becomming faster and faster. The progress will slower and slower, so I basically work more on dexterty then on pure speed now. It's way easier to play some speed burst 6 note per beat pattern at 160bpm then it is to shred 6 note per beats for 2 mins at 120bpm

At some point you will some how make some progress and then 100bpm will seem more easy, but eventually it's basically I time thing. Though it helps for me if I puss my limits, try playing stuff at 120bpm or something, it's doesnt need to be perfect but after that the 100bpm stuff will seem more easy

Practice other things and when you go back to that exercise in a few months you'll suddenly be a lot faster and better. I love when this happens...

Yeah I love that too Sometimes I find an old music piece which I was never able to play and which I haven't looked at for months and then you can suddenly play it! That are the moments that you're playing guitar for

You should really let Muris answer first to this question as it is a specific question aimed to him.

Ooh [poo], sorry Mr Muris didn't see that it was your forum. Have mercy on me!

Edited for language - Andrew

No worries,help is always appreciated!

Ok,so here's what I think of this subject.
You say per example "I can play 6 notes per beat at 140bmp".
What does it tell us?
Not too much I'm afraid.
Because there are some licks made of 16th at 100bpm
and they are much harder to play comparing with some
licks made of 16th triplets at 140bpm.
Some licks just feel more natural to play
while some others,even slower,are much much harder.
Odd fingering,uncomfortable picking pattern or whatever.

And this conclusion leads us to only one solution,
practice as much different things as possible,
specially picking stuff cause you pointed on picking.
BPM is only a tool to explain which tempo you are using,
but what are you playing at that tempo is much more important imho.

Interesting view.
So if I want to keep track of how fast I am I should actually keep track on several techniques and variants separately. Something like
- alternate picking - straightforward exercise speed
- alternate picking - string skipping speed
- 3 string sweep speed
- 6 string sweep speed
And so on...

Spot on Gus!

Another cool thing is to practice
licks with not the same numbers of notes per each string,
combine it,one note per string,2 notes,3 notes etc.

That will improve picking a lot but at the same time
you'll see that watching the bpm and time value doesn't speak a lot,
it's note choice actually.

Nice tips Muris, really gets a meaning when you say it

Just doing my best Ivan,cheers.

Yeah and nice topic also, could be useful for many people (for me at least !)

You need to get rid of that negative view, see yourself succeeding, and it will happen. Here is an inspirational video.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qcgHMe9Ek_o

Gotta love Ace! Smoke me a kipper ...

Figured you would catch this Andrew. Although, in all seriousness, I believe what he is saying there.


edit: typo

Well its a little hammed up for the comedy, but yes you are right, the point they are making is that the same person had a radically different life and it all came down to a positive attitude ...

@misterj:
I recommend putting your speed quest on hold for a while, and concentrate on finger dexterity, finger independence and minimal movement exercises, as well as synchronization exercises.
If you do that for a while, I bet you'll be able to break your speed barrier.

You could be holding the pick wrong, and you could be positioning your palm wrong.

Everything counts!

I also remember recent discussion about right/left hand synchronization issues when hitting a certain speed.
Could be that. ?

wow, thanks everybody! great tips. muris, could you maybe suggest an alternate picking practice routine from different lessons at gmc that might help? maybe also maybe create a lesson about the 'different number of notes on every string' idea?



too funny!!!



thanks!! just to clarify, what would be application of "concentrating on finger dexterity", and what exactly are "minimal movement exercises?"

I saw a vid with Shawn Lane where he said he did it that way, so I think this is a good advise!

Absolutely!
Try as many lessons as possible,
Roo's lessons are extremely great for picking by the way.

And I will do my best to make one lesson
on this topic,I promise.

I absolutely agree... when I start studying some Dream Theater songs I learnt that sometimes riffs in a slow tempo are too much difficult than 16th triplets at 140

Thanks for your advices Muris

thanks muris!! great tips!!