[earlessdog]

ok, i've played rythem for all kidns of music in my guitar time. Its gotten boring, so i started lessons to learn lead to stuff like pantera and as i aly dying. (big diff i know)
so he gave me a couple scales to learn the first lesson, i learn't them and now yesterday he said i havn't got a hope in hell to play speed metal/shred if i can't play them lightning fast. He set is metronome to 240 he played along, but was kinda behind. He said i basically have to be faster than him. I'm like wo, cause i was playing at like 90.

So any kind of technique/exercises to get me to play like that. I ahve a habit of having my thumb hang over from playing rythem for all this time.

and another thing, who knows about finger weights? I know a kid whos uses them and he is THE fastest player i have ever heard. i know being that fast is beyond my level, my are they a good idea?

[Ryan Freeland]

First of all, practice. I know it's what everyone says but it works. If you play one thing over and over, you will eventually be able to play it full speed or even faster while retaining accuracy. Also, one technique to have down is tremolo picking/alternate picking. That helps a lot.

[earlessdog]

Originally Posted by Building429_Boy

First of all, practice. I know it's what everyone says but it works. If you play one thing over and over, you will eventually be able to play it full speed or even faster while retaining accuracy. Also, one technique to have down is tremolo picking/alternate picking. That helps a lot.

i've been alternate picking for this too, thats also hard to get into because of rythem backround where most is downstroke, and using my pinky. But thats more versatile now

[gtrdave]

Speed comes with time and with focus on minimizing your movement in order to maximize your efficiency.
If you look at some videos of extremely fast players (Paul Gilbert, for example) you will see that he is barely moving his picking hand in comparison to the flurry of notes he's playing.
That's not legato but it's serious clock-like alternate picking as a result of practicing many scales and many patterns over and over and over and over...

One of the keys to this is to play a scale or pattern slowly and correctly and DO NOT move up in time/tempo untill you can play the entire scale/pattern properly s l o w l y.

In doing this you'll be able to develop what picking style works best for you and you'll probably discover what style pick works for you, too.
Note that your finger joints, wrist and elbow are each potential sources of movement when you pick and you'll need to develop technique using whichever pivot point or combination of those that will give you the best results.
Also, no two picks are similar and where as I can use a traditional Fender medium pick for most routine playing, I'll use a Dunlop JazzIII or Cool thin 1mm for speedy stuff. The Fender won't allow me the attack I need for fast alternate picking.

The bottom line in all of this: practice.

[Jenacen]

I've got at least one book to recommend to you; Metal Lead Vol. 1 by Troy Stetina. Explains all the necessary techniques, how to apply them, it gives you some simple exercises to try your hand at that you just bump up on your speed, then he's published a couple other books to allow you to go beyond that. But I can give you a few good pointers right now.

First, hold the pick a certain way so that you have a nice amount of control over it and leave just a smidget of the pick end sticking out. Keeping too much out forces you to attack the string mor violently to get your speed up, but just having the very end stick out allows you to make much finer movements with less restriction from the string.

Second, work on alternate picking. This is just the picking going up down up down up down. To gain speed, you want to develop very familiar picking patterns that you can learn to apply in any situation. There's a few other patterns like down down up down down up or up down down down, depending on what you're doing, but you want to get your hand used to specific movement.

Practice these on scales, alike so.

U D U D U D U D U D U D
------------------------5-8-
------------------5--8------
--------------5-7-----------
--------5--7-----------------
----5-7---------------------
5-8-------------------------

Then do that same pattern going down the scale.

Work on single string movements as well. Check this pattern out.
U D U D U D U D U D U D U D U D
-1-2-3-4-2-3-4-5-3-4-5-6-4-5-6-7---
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 (fingering pattern)

Make sure that when you play, you mute all the strings you DONT want to ring out! You can use your palm on your right hand to mute all the lower strings and use your left hand fingers (or the loose fingers on your right hand) to mute the top strings. When the strings ring out together, they bleed into one another and it doesn't sound nice. Unless you know some nice artistic application for it, it usually sounds icky.

If you really want to get fast, stay relaxed. Any tension you feel in your body needs to leave. It might not feel like it works and you might feel you don't have much control over your pick and fingers, but it actually works. I played tense for a while, and once I learn to relax, my speed suddenly picked up a notch or two.

There's just some starting advice, but I honestly recommend getting a few lesson books on it and learn from the experienced. There's the books I mentioned above, and John Petrucci has a book and a DVD out called "Rock Discipline." I heard it's pretty good. There's a few ways you could go. Though, fast playing in general takes a VERY long time! You have to practice accuracy, timing, learn how to transition from note to note well, there's a whole stew of things in it. Just be patient.

[mapurdy]

If you checked out the latest issue of Guitar World, they have a whole article on techniques to shred. But, shredding won't come "overnight"--it is a serious committment! I agree with some of the other posters--you have to play the scales S L O W L Y and w/o tension. Tension slows down speed, and will be built into the muscle memory of your fingers. You should really read Guitar Princples for Correct Practice, by Jamie Andreas. You'll want to throw the book, because it is all about starting slowly, but the techniques given will help you practice and improve.

www.guitarprinciples.com

Subsrcibe to her weekly newsletter--you won't regret it!

Good luck gettin' shreddy!

[earlessdog]

well, its hitting me that this isn't gonna be a walk in the park to learn to shred. I'm used to practicing half hour a day and that keeping doing ok. But this is a whole new level, and tis gonna take a LOT mroe than a half hour a day to do this. I think i'm up for the challenge, thanks for the advice by the way. If have any other advice let me know. I printed off this tuff already. thanks

[earlessdog]

actually i have another question.

what size string do you recomend for the quick stuff. All my guitars have 10's on them, but i was thinking maybe thin strings would work better for speed, i dunno tho. What do you think?

[Jenacen]

A lower gauge has less tension and allows you to relax a little better. Bends aren't quite as tough and strainful. Legato is a bit easier.

[earlessdog]

Originally Posted by Jenacen

A lower gauge has less tension and allows you to relax a little better. Bends aren't quite as tough and strainful. Legato is a bit easier.

so lower as in thinner, like 9's?

[Shift]

Check out Speed Mechanics by Troy Stetina. It teaches the mechanical aspects of playing lead guitar. I'm not really that far into it but it has improved my speed and technique greatly.

[Jaymze13]

While I want to develop this ability better I do at least want to throw in that, in agreement with a couple other posters, Troy Stetina does have some good material on the subject.

Let me look right quick........................hang on.................

I have "Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar" and it's pretty good.

Here's a question, has anybody ever done shred picking to country music? I think I've heard it one time.

[earlessdog]

the top scale on that pic, my teacher gave me it, but i'm not sure what he menaswith that arrow going down, because i know it doesn't jump down like that. help?

[Jenacen]

I'm guessing that means to play the exact same pattern descending instead of ascending, which is what teachers usually try to get you to do and everything.

[bassfreek208]

may want to lower the action too. i can play faster with lower action.