What helped you the most to build chops

[Aberak]

was it a book, video, instructor, or some thing else?

 

[Xaios]

I'm self taught. I was a typical pentatonic blues/jazz monkey with a strat-type-guitar for the LONGEST time, although I always loved the sound of shred, but I didn't know where to begin, even though I knew the typical scales. Over time, I noticed just how fast I could play pentatonic scales, so I decided to try and apply those skills to modal scales. It was a surprisingly easy transition. That kind of bolstered me to develop my legato (which was already by far my main strength, still is), speed picking, tapping, and sweep picking.

So what helped me to build chops? The love of the sound, and the desire to attain it was definitely the biggest, if not the only thing.

 

[canuck brian]

i think for about 12 years of my 17 years playing, I actually had no fucking idea what I was doing. I was just a tab monkey and I barely practiced. I took about 6 years off in the middle there from playing (another hobby ate my time) but when i started playing again, I picked up Rock Discipline from Petrucci. I also grabbed the Guitar Grimoire - scales and modes, which has been pretty invaluable. I also bought a metronome - i never used one before.

Other than that, practice practice practice.

In hindsight - I was pretty stupid to not do what I am doing now for a practice regime. I still can't play legato worth a shit though.

 

[jaxadam]

What helped me the most were a lot very simple exercises practiced very slowly and very accurately for a very long time.

 

[Splinterhead]

the metronome

 

[dream-thief]

Scales and modes from various sources and John Petrucci's Wild Stringdom book were what helped me the most. Aside from obviously putting in a good few hours a day.

 

[Aberak]

What helped me the most was just hanging around some older dudes that didn't mind helping me out when i had a question. My god mother was a professional singer for the longest time, and even though she mainly did country she always had these shredders play guitar for her.

 

[Shawn]

I just taught myself too. I was influenced by Satch but I listened to alot of death metal players as well.

 

[oompa]

practicing sleepy slow with 100% focus on perfecting my smallest moves in absurdum. that combined with various exercises that fit my need for the moment throughout the years, mainly very small loops of maybe 5-10 notes.

 

[eleven59]

Session work, in a way.

Started when I was playing at a youth group at a church (didn't care for the beliefs, but enjoyed playing with people, and was friends with a bunch of people there, and the original youth pastor was really cool and made it lots of fun without getting too preachy), as I'd basically learn the songs an hour before playing them, which made it fun to try and add my own things mid-song, the 3rd time ever playing them

Similar experiences in college, playing in the studio for fellow students, and playing in a friend's band live.

 

[neoclassical]

1. Playing classical full time instead of in addition to electric.
2. My teachers Jeff Y. He's a sloppy Malmsteen clone who has the speed and the chops. My other teacher Jeff A, a meticulous and precise shredder, and great classical/Flamenco player.
3. The Jean Marc Belkadi books.

Adam

 

[Fionn]

man early days was playing along to metallica and led zep records, and really bad jamming with people, then learnt to play eruption out of a guitar mag! then moved on to satch and vai song books, then got speed kills by MAB, that did the most for my shred and sweep techinques also recording my own stuff, quad tracking stuff means you have to be ultra tight so trying to nail takes and takes and takes helps alot!!!! shameless plug; MySpace.com - Fionn&trade - Torpoint, Plymouth, UK - Metal / Rock / Blues - www.myspace.com/fionnmccarthy

 

[Hawksmoor]

Playing with a great drummer ( Steve Vanderperren) in my band Corpus helped me develop good timing, and improved my technique apparently.

 

[Apophis]

1. John Petrucci - Rock Discipline
2. all vids by Paul Gilbert and Frank Gambale

 

[Maniacal]

1) Being INCREDIBLY fussy with everything.
2) Alternating between playing with a clean and distorted tone.
3) Recording stuff in my studio. Double tracking is an excellent practice method!
4) Jamming with my old drummer who is extremely good.
5) Doing session work for metal bands.
6) Learning Holdsworth lines.
7) Spending at least 2 hours a day on my picking hand which I still do.
8) Always trying to make things harder. Learn a sequence, then add 1 more note to create a grouping of 5. Then play that as 16ths, triplets, quintuplets.
9) You get the idea.

Oh and working on Flight of the Bumblebee on a regular basis, then playing it with groups of 5 rather than 4.

Basically, be as fussy as possible, don't try to copy other players parrot style and never say "I am really amazing at this".

 

[Fionn]

dude you must be shit hot if you play that much!!! i agree about the drummer thing, jamming with a good drummer is priceless!!!

 

[Gilbucci]

1) Rusty Cooley
2) Being really picky about how I sounded
3) Taking lessons with Chris Broderick
4) Rusty Cooley
5) Rusty Cooley

 

[Russ]

i think for about 12 years of my 17 years playing, I actually had no fucking idea what I was doing. I was just a tab monkey and I barely practiced. I took about 6 years off in the middle there from playing (another hobby ate my time)

Same boat here... When I started back I decided I wasn't going to take it so seriously, but at the same time try to stick to some things to see what kind of progress I could make. I don't go for most of the gimmicks out there, but this is one that I can promise will give you a boost: Guitar Speed Trainer - Home

They have a trial edition you can check out. I don't think it's worth $50 as it's a fairly simple utility, so you could see how it works and set up your own practice doing the same thing without the software.

 

[Desecrated]

I'm still trying to build them.

 

[All_¥our_Bass]

Playing guitar/bass a lot.

Legato exercises (Playing leads with as little picking as possible)
Alt. Picking exercises
Bending exercises (Playing Pink Floyd stuff)
Practicing with distortion (Muting practice)
Playing lots of odd meter