Alternate Picking help needed

[bball_1523]

oh one more thing. My stupid tuner doesn't show me how to tune down a whole step (tune down D)

I really want it tuned that way. Help anyone?

go and download ap guitar tuner, if you google it, it should show up. Or if you know the fretboard really well, it shouldn't be that hard.

I'll definitely look into the troy stetina book, I've just had a hard time following along with some of these video lessons from Petrucci/Gilbert, etc, because they don't show the smallest of details, but just exercises.

I don't know if any of you have answered my previous question, but I'll ask again: What motivates you to play and exercise and to keep going?

Also for those who are pretty good alternate pickers or feel comfortable in their playing, how did you start exercising your picking? And how long did it take until you got better? I'd hate to steal your exercises routines, but how did you guys exercise with the metronome and such? did you do 10 reps of one lesson 3 times a day?

 

[seed2003]

I don't know if any of you have answered my previous question, but I'll ask again: What motivates you to play and exercise and to keep going?

Also for those who are pretty good alternate pickers or feel comfortable in their playing, how did you start exercising your picking? And how long did it take until you got better? I'd hate to steal your exercises routines, but how did you guys exercise with the metronome and such? did you do 10 reps of one lesson 3 times a day?

1.as i mentioned before, self improvement on the instrument, and to be able to compose better music.

2.Well I never had a metronome(bad me...) but I'd pick up a malmsteen album, find a run I really liked(trilogy suite was the first I believe) then I'd play the run slowly until I had it memorized. After that I'd blaze through it as fast as I could, then slow down until the point where it sounded clean and do that over and over until I could play along with the CD cleanly. I never really believed in lessons too much, you an get the same practice from learning a song. And it's much more fun.
heres a few things that may help you picking a little:

1.keep your thumb straught and all of your fingers rigid, it helps you play faster and gives you more control.

2.Use your wrist to pick, not your arm

3. make an anchor point for your hand, i use the palm muting position, some people use there pinky on the pickgaurd, whatever works.

and dont get discouraged, if you keep at it you'll get it.
hope I helped!

 

[ChrisFerg]

Do you actually enjoy playing the guitar?
it doesn't really sound like you do, you are speaking about it as if it is a chore!

I adore playing the guitar, and that is why i play as often as i do. What is the point in practising and getting good if you don't enjoy it???

maybe i've misunderstood, and if i have i apologise, but u don't seem particularly happy to be playing :S

 

[bball_1523]

Do you actually enjoy playing the guitar?
it doesn't really sound like you do, you are speaking about it as if it is a chore!

I adore playing the guitar, and that is why i play as often as i do. What is the point in practising and getting good if you don't enjoy it???

maybe i've misunderstood, and if i have i apologise, but u don't seem particularly happy to be playing :S

I like playing guitar, I want it to be a part of my life and even my career. I'm just struggling to improve, but one thing I'll say boldly is: I WILL NOT GIVE UP!. I guess you know something about me now...lol

 

[Meedleyx10]

I'll definitely look into the troy stetina book, I've just had a hard time following along with some of these video lessons from Petrucci/Gilbert, etc, because they don't show the smallest of details, but just exercises.

I don't know if any of you have answered my previous question, but I'll ask again: What motivates you to play and exercise and to keep going?

Also for those who are pretty good alternate pickers or feel comfortable in their playing, how did you start exercising your picking? And how long did it take until you got better? I'd hate to steal your exercises routines, but how did you guys exercise with the metronome and such? did you do 10 reps of one lesson 3 times a day?

Yeah, i would really hold off on the petrucci/gilbert stuff for a good while. The stetina book will definately give you what you want, it goes into great detail about all the basic mechanics and such.

As far as motivation, thats the one thing you can't learn. You need to find your own inspiration and motivation, otherwise guitarplaying wont be enjoyable. Personally, music has been the only thing i have ever been able to see myself doing with my life, i hear great guitar players and great jazz musicians and such and immediately get inspired to kick my own playing up a notch, for me its just a burning inner desire to keep getting better.

As far as excersises go, let me know if you have either powertab or guitarpro, ill try to make some up for you and send them your way

 

[bball_1523]

Yeah, i would really hold off on the petrucci/gilbert stuff for a good while. The stetina book will definately give you what you want, it goes into great detail about all the basic mechanics and such.

As far as motivation, thats the one thing you can't learn. You need to find your own inspiration and motivation, otherwise guitarplaying wont be enjoyable. Personally, music has been the only thing i have ever been able to see myself doing with my life, i hear great guitar players and great jazz musicians and such and immediately get inspired to kick my own playing up a notch, for me its just a burning inner desire to keep getting better.

As far as excersises go, let me know if you have either powertab or guitarpro, ill try to make some up for you and send them your way

I have both programs.

 

[Hrafn]

go and download ap guitar tuner, if you google it, it should show up. Or if you know the fretboard really well, it shouldn't be that hard.

I'll definitely look into the troy stetina book, I've just had a hard time following along with some of these video lessons from Petrucci/Gilbert, etc, because they don't show the smallest of details, but just exercises.

I don't know if any of you have answered my previous question, but I'll ask again: What motivates you to play and exercise and to keep going?

Also for those who are pretty good alternate pickers or feel comfortable in their playing, how did you start exercising your picking? And how long did it take until you got better? I'd hate to steal your exercises routines, but how did you guys exercise with the metronome and such? did you do 10 reps of one lesson 3 times a day?

hey thanks alot man.. but does it say d7 when its tuned down D ?

 

[bball_1523]

hey thanks alot man.. but does it say d7 when its tuned down D ?

it's supposed to be D Standard if you want to tune down a whole step from E Standard, that means you tune each string down one whole step. Drop is just tuning the low E string down one whole step.

 

[Hrafn]

it's supposed to be D Standard if you want to tune down a whole step from E Standard, that means you tune each string down one whole step. Drop is just tuning the low E string down one whole step.

oh.k.. thanks

 

[bball_1523]

when you guys practice, how long do you usually take to master one piece of lesson. For example, there's a 1 bar lick from a solo you like, how long would you practice that lick for until you master it at full speed?

 

[ChrisFerg]

tbh, i don't really like learning other people's solos.

Alot of my practise involves recording a few chords onto my pedal and improvising for ages. It definately helps with speed etc., as well as knowing your way about the scales you're using, but most importantly it's fun, relaxing and gets you playing with some emotion.

I'm not saying don't practise other things, but seriously...PLAYING THE GUITAR SHOULD BE FUN!!!

 

[bball_1523]

tbh, i don't really like learning other people's solos.

Alot of my practise involves recording a few chords onto my pedal and improvising for ages. It definately helps with speed etc., as well as knowing your way about the scales you're using, but most importantly it's fun, relaxing and gets you playing with some emotion.

I'm not saying don't practise other things, but seriously...PLAYING THE GUITAR SHOULD BE FUN!!!

I have been having a hard time just practicing no matter what kind of advice I have been given. I get the excitement to want to play guitar, but as soon as I dive into playing, I get bored and only last about 1-2 hours at most. I lose motivate while I try to practice at slow speeds as I feel like I'm not improving, but rather sucking even more.

Today I picked up the guitar and started off doing some slow chromatics and gilbert exercise, but I felt like even going at 65 bpm, hitting a note every four beats, wasn't doing anything for me. I tried to relax, but I felt like I was still not smooth and in sync with my right/left hands and I felt like I was still hammering some notes. I try playing close to the fretboard, but as soon as I speed it up a bit more, I start hammering notes.

sometimes I find motivate by just listening to music. Other times watching a video of guitar playing helps me. Still other times, my mood in the day makes me just want to grab the guitar and jam. I suck at jamming though, like I'll try to make up riffs, but they are so mediocre. I have a lot of imagination on what kind of songs/riffs I want to create, but I have never gotten it down on the guitar.

 

[metallicafan647]

Still in a rut?

 

[ThornsOfSorrow]

After reading this over, I've realized that you have a lot of the same problems that I do. My guitar teacher gave me a bunch of finger excercises to play, which would help me improve my speed and make my picking a bit less sloppy. I've been forcing myself to play these (and some scales) for at least an hour every day, over and over again. Unfortunately, this makes playing the guitar seem like homework, and as a result, I haven't played for almost a week. It's tough to play all of this boring shit and still keep your motivation. I was doing well after about a month or two or actually playing what my guitar teacher gave me; I could even play 16th notes comfortably at 110 bpm (which is almost 1.5 times what I was doing before). Then, yesterday, after a week of not working on my finger excercises, I tried to get back into them, but I realized that my speed dropped. Then I got frustrated, almost threw my guitar across my room, and went to sleep. So yeah, sorry about my rant, but I just wanted to say that I know how you feel.

 

[Valgeir]

Chromatics aren't too interesting, and odds are you won't be doing a lot of chromatics in a song. Of course there's nothing wrong with using chromatic exercises, they can help. But try focusing on more melodic exercises, like scale fragments. Yngvai X on these forums has a Powertab of scale fragments that can be really useful, and I think if you ask really, really nice he'll let you have it without paying him for lessons . Then, starting around 60 BPM, play each exercise at half speed (triplets instead of sextuplets, eighths instead of sixteenths) for a couple of times, then once full speed.

Do that for about a minute or so, then do it again playing it twice at full speed each time. Again at four times, and you could go to five or six or something if you wanted to, but after about a minute at four you've probably got a solid handle on that speed. Then try a minute of the exercise consistently at full speed. If you fall out of tempo or get sloppy, don't stop, just pause for a second and start playing it again. After that minute, bump up the speed a metronome setting and start the process over again. When you totally crash and can't play it at all at a certain speed, go down a setting or two (or more) and start again from there. You're almost guaranteed some pretty big results if you do this every day. Then after a week or so try getting all of your scales, in their entirety, up to a speed a bit below your maximum. Rinse, repeat as necessary.

 

[bball_1523]

Still in a rut?

a little bit. I've noticed good improvements in my left hand fingering and I don't seem to hit dead notes anymore. I still feel a bit uncoordinated when I play chromatics, but do you think that is natural because I feel like I am just aiming for perfection....that means not a single hint of any type of error.

I've been doing Troy Stetina's left-hand exercise where you legato the notes, and it has helped a lot. I'm at 75 bpm 16th notes. I am still wondering why I am at such a low bpm. I just wanna blaze at 200 bpm, but that's impossible other than on a single string for a few seconds lol.

 

[Heavenscent]

What helped me a lot was just practicing scales, for about an hour every day for about six months (although i did skip some days).
And doing the same excercise very often and very long may be boring, but it's the best way to learn.
I would however recommend that you mix your excercises, like first play some chromatics for 15 mins, scales for 30 mins, sweeps for 15 mins.
There was this handy site somewhere but fuck me if i can remember it's name...

i think it's www.guitartricks.com

If it's been posted before, I'm sorry, but there was just a shitload to read and right now i don't have the time. Hope it helps.

 

[bball_1523]

What helped me a lot was just practicing scales, for about an hour every day for about six months (although i did skip some days).
And doing the same excercise very often and very long may be boring, but it's the best way to learn.
I would however recommend that you mix your excercises, like first play some chromatics for 15 mins, scales for 30 mins, sweeps for 15 mins.
There was this handy site somewhere but fuck me if i can remember it's name...

i think it's www.guitartricks.com

If it's been posted before, I'm sorry, but there was just a shitload to read and right now i don't have the time. Hope it helps.

how do you practice your scales specifically? Do you pick one scale, and do sequences? Do you apply them to chord progressions by improvisation? etc?