picking practice

[digsNasty]

Hey, I got a question on speed picking.... I've been practicing with a metronome recently, (trying to clean up my technique and get faster) playing scales and patterns slowly for about 3-5 minutes then stepping up the bpm's until i get uncomfortable and sloppy. I was wondering what kind of progress you can expect to see in terms of time spent versus speed attained (clean speed that is) practicing in this fashion. Has anyone recorded their progress in terms of bpm's?

Just a little background: I've been playing for about 10 years but recently decided to step up from this seemingly never-ending plateau I've been on. My legato is rather fast (not virtuoso fast) and the same goes for tremolo picking. But I have trouble combining the two hands.

Thanks,
Keith

 

[kirisutegomen]

im no speed player but i do have a lil' shred in my arsenal. ive practiced on speed using the metronome and all i can say is that during your progress you will be thinking less of speed instead cuz it will be so embedded in your muscle memory and you won't even have to think you're playing fast.

as for your two hands you have to practice more excercises to let your hands gel as one. ive found john petrucci's rock discipline helpful.


good luck

 

[digsNasty]

Thanks man. So what yer saying is that the speed will just come naturally? Does that mean I can practice without speeding up the bpm's and I'll still get faster?

Thanks for the reply

 

[Nostalgiaplatz]

I think what meant was that by doing slow exercises at some point after practicing it for a while, you will be playing it so easily that when you try to increase the speed it will just come out naturally. The rule is, play it slow, only then will you be able to reach higher speeds with preciseness and cleanness that a lot of the so called shred-gods seem to have missed..

EDIT: spell fix, mistakes and rearrangements

 

[Acey Jendell]

Playing with a metronome is only one part of the equation.
Try playing the same warm up/practice routine but speed up and slow down during each run through, without a metronome.

That way you've already learned how to play fast at a static tempo with a metronome, and then you can learn how to vary your tempo several times whilst playing.