Guitarist in distress need your help for technique problems

[Frost]

Hey,

I'm 21 years old, guitarist for 5 years, essentially playing Metallica, Pantera, Gun's n Roses during this 5 years. But my musical tastes have evolved.
Today I listen to Dream Theater, Chelsea grin, Born Of Osiris, Periphery, Meshuggah, Veil Of Maya, Job for a cowboy, and band like BMTH, Of Mice and Men, etc...
The most inspiring guitarists for me are John Petrucci, Jason Richardson and guys like Jeff Loomis or Stephan Forté. I'd like to be able to play their songs, but I can't....
So....I'm going to present you the problem which I meet for several months...

I've several problems concerning solos, rhythmic and composition.

Concerning solos, I'm not able to play the solos I shall like playing. In spite of my 2 hours of guitar a day minimum, I find that I don't progress, I stagnate. Nevertheless, I learn songs and solos with the metronome
I am more and more frustrated because I can't play the songs I like, so I have to play easier songs but they don't interest me anymore...

Therefore, I've some troubles with composition. I'm not able to write riff that i would like to play because of my poor skills....

How do I proceed?? Do I have to learn songs which exceeds my level? Very very slowly? And increase 1 bpm by 1 bpm, or after a moment I am always going to surround because the song is far too hard for me?


If it can help, py practice routine is:

I/ Warm Up
-Stretching - 5/10 minutes
-Left hand stretching: 2 exercices, 5 minutes each exercices
-Synchronisation of both hand: chromatic exercices: 2 exercices, 5 minutes each exercices
-Left Hand Warm up: Legato, 2 exercices, 5 minutes each exercices
-Right Hand Warm Up: Alternate picking, 2 exercices, 5 minutes each exercices

II/ Learn a solo/lick/song>>>> No precise time

III/ Get back on a technique which is lacking.

IV/ Improvisation>>> no precise time

V/ Composition>>> no precise time


If it can help too: concerning solos, the problem start approximately at 90 bpm until 120 bpm at 16th notes (I can't play above 110-120 bpm)

HELP ME!!!!

 

[haffner1]

This is the type of thing where it is hard to help you without actually sitting down with you and seeing what the issues are in regards to the actual movements you are making vs. where you need to be. A lot of the problem I had when I was younger and got frustrated with faster metal solos, was that I was led wrong as far as what practice technique I needed to use to get where I wanted to go. People would say "just keep playing it slowly and eventually you will get faster", but most of those people couldn't play as fast as I was wanting to play. You are probably at a phase where you are going to have to spend a little more time on the exercises, and less time making actual music. This kind of sucks, but you won't be stuck there forever. A good place to start would probably be Michael Angelo Batio's "Speed Kills" DVD and run through his exercises. Listen to what he has to say about building picking technique and using tremelo picking as a means to train your pick hand. Exercises should be really only be across 2-3 strings and NOT playing up and down the neck at first until you are really starting to improve your speed. This will allow you to focus entirely on the movements you are trying to master, rather than trying to remember how to play across changes or various scale patterns at the same time.

 

[Frost]

Thank you for your answer

I've bought the speed kills dvd and the rock discipline too to help me on the shred quest

And i've decided to take skype lesson with a french guitarist: stephan forté.
I think it's a good idea, don't you think?


Any other advice?

 

[Maniacal]

my books might be of use. They cover technique, timing, rhythm, practice routines, speed and endurance workouts

 

[Frost]

I will check them out!

 

[redstone]

(II) and (IV) should be your warm up.

(I) is useless and you shouldn't stretch anything until you're totally warmed up.

(III) should be your main concern for now :

- One only builds solid finger speed and independance through all-hammer trills. Start as slow as needed, the cubital edge of your palm leaning against the neck (or your pinkie won't have a proper posture). At least 30mn once you're warmed up.

- If your tremolo-picking is also slow, you're probably trying to control both the opposite muscles responsible for the upstroke and downstroke, which cuts your gesture frequency by half. Start direcly at 155-165bpm (right above half your gesture frequency) and let the upstroke feel like if it was a simple, passive, downstroke picking accident.

- If the picking issue "only" concerns your string changing technique and you live near Toulouse, I can make a quick diagnosis and explain how to fix this. Meanwhile, read http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/mu...21-tremolo-alternate-picking-masterclass.html

 

[kylea1]

also, something to keep in mind is that things like this take serious time. your muscles and tendons need to change and muscle memory needs to be developed. Dont expect a week of practice to yield an extreme improvement. when i was in your same position i spent an entire summer practicing atleast 5 hours a day. dont look at playing as a contest or a race just practice and try to enjoy it otherwise youre just turning it into a sport.

also in my opinion a well written song is much more important that how fast someone can play.

good luck!

 

[Solodini]

Slowing down is key, provided that you're using it consciously. You need to pay attention to what you're doing, if you to make use of playing slowly. You need to make the smallest movements possible, in order to reach your optimal level of ability. Your pick only really needs to move 3-5mm to pick a string and should be no further than a couple of mm from the string before picking it. You're not swinging a baseball bat so you don't need a huge wind up to every stroke.

Your fretting fingers should also remain close to the neck at all times, no more than a couple of mm from the string. Otherwise you waste time moving your fingers to fret. That time may seem inconsequential but when you're trying to get up to great speed, it really matters.

I agree that your improvisation and composition parts can serve as your warm up. You'll trick yourself into thinking you're better than you are if you work at the same linear exercise day in day out. There's no point being able to rip through a chromatic scale at 180bpm if it takes you 6 months to get anything else up to that speed. Give yourself variety in what you use to warm up and come up with new applications of those mechanics to broaden your scope of ability.

With the songs you struggle with, am I correct in assuming your difficulty is just in getting them up to speed? If so, then just work at them slowly, making sure your whole body is relaxed in doing so, and increase speed as things feel natural and flow easily. If you tense up, slow back down. For variety, you can chop up the songs into small chunks and rearrange them to make new phrases and riffs which use the same mechanics but don't feel like you're playing the same song for months with only slow progress. Use these chunks to write new similar things. Again, there's no point getting amazing at one thing if it takes you 6 months to get anything else up to that level. If you come up with more varied ways to practise it then you'll raise your base level of ability and everything should steadily become easier.

 

[Frost]

Firstly, thank you for all your answers, this site is definitely a great place for musicians

So, my practice routine seems to be ineffective.
I have about 3 hours MINIMUM to practice guitar PER DAY, so, if i do:
I/
- Stretching (like petrucci in rock discipline)
- Left hand warm up exercices (2 or 3) (legato)
- Right hand warm up exercices (2 or 3) (alternate picking)
- Synchronisation of both hands ( 2-3 exercices)
- Stretching left hand

II/
Learn Song/ Solo/ Lick and Composition (with metronome and without time limit)

III/
Get Back on a technique with my own new exercises each day (with metronome, and without time limit)

It will get more effective?
If I remove the time limit and play without the stress of having to play this exercices for 5 minutes, or improve for 30 minutes, warm up for 10 minutes, I think I will get more easily faster and better, right?

 

[Solodini]

If you work on fixing your mistakes and building fundamental technique before increasing speed, then increase sensibly while paying attention to accuracy then you should improve.

 

[redstone]

If I remove the time limit and play without the stress of having to play this exercices for 5 minutes, or improve for 30 minutes, warm up for 10 minutes, I think I will get more easily faster and better, right?

This might definitely help.

However, you're putting too much emphasis on such aspect of our training. There's no miraculous daily routine, rather, it's the less important part of the equation.

How to play (gestures) > What to play (long term strategy) > daily routine strategy.

Reversing all your routine won't reverse your technique flaws. It would be better to stretch at the end for example, but what does it really change ? Not much. Routines must fit your personality, exercices must fit your goals.

 

[Frost]

Ok, so i need to work more on my gestures

And what do you think of dvd like rock discipline/intense rock/speed kills?

Are they going to be useful for me?

 

[Solodini]

If you focus on making your movements small, accurate and efficient, then yes, potentially.

 

[redstone]

And what do you think of dvd like rock discipline/intense rock/speed kills?

Are they going to be useful for me?

Not directly. It can help to develop your critical skills and make the difference between fake and true informations. Informations that are grounded in reality or illusion.

 

[Frost]

And for the speed building, 1bpm per week is good? Or i can go with 4-5 bpm per week?

 

[Lifestalker]

And for the speed building, 1bpm per week is good? Or i can go with 4-5 bpm per week?

Move up as much as you want. However, pay very close attention to the tension in your wrist, muscles, etc. Play as relaxed as possible.

 

[UV7BK4LIFE]

And for the speed building, 1bpm per week is good? Or i can go with 4-5 bpm per week?

Find a speed you are comfortable with, then go up by 5bpm, just outside your comfort zone. When you get tired, go back down until your muscles are relaxed again. Then go back up, and so on.

And if you hear something you like from your favorite artists, try to make it your own, feel-wise, regardless of you mastering that technique/tempo or not.

 

[redstone]

@Frost

Left hand & sweep - you just need regularity and the courage to do the most boring and humiliating exercices of the universe (to become really good, that is).

Alternate picking - there are complex moves to learn that can require different approachs. The full, nervous speed approach, can be used to grasp some basic sensations... The slow one, below 8 nps, to focus on secondary details or warm up/relax. And the right-above-the-half-speed approach, 10-11 nps, it's the best place to build a solid technique, fixing high-speed issues.

Intermediary speeds are complete minefields. 8-10 nps speed still allows techniques that don't work at higher speed, it just hurts to reach 10 nps. And 12-15 nps speed just makes high-speed issues harder to fix.

Building speed with a metronome is as dangerous as walking through a minefield while looking at the sky.

 

[viesczy]

Did I miss it where you detailed how you're failing to play a piece? Is it that by hear? By tabs? By score?

The basics of mastering anything are play it clean (no effects), play it slowly, play it 'til you can't get it wrong (not 'til you can get it right).

Honestly, when learning a piece of music I tend to learn the passages in a few places and then put that placement together with what makes the most mechanical sense to my hands. I read everything rather than tabs (or fingering a piece out by ear) so that I am learning the piece rather than learning how transcriber X fingered out a piece.

Could that be your problem?

Derek

 

[meteor685]

For sweep picking check this guys lessons,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phMUH6gkAMw

this shit takes time too, make sure u go slow, somethin i didnt do when i started shred stuff, if u start playing too fast too soon, ur gonna run into problems, and u'll sound like utter shit.

Also if ur into that stuff, focus on vibrato, bends, making simple melodies sing while u can, i didnt do that and sounded like a ....er

This guy(an INSANE guitarist) does a lessons for a per nillson solo, this helps alot for that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vif23Dw_FRc