ive been playing for the better part of 5 years now. im 17, and i really want to get this goin you know? i can improve like mad, i know a few scales mostly learned from this site. ive memorized easily 200+ chords. but one thing i can never accomplish is sweeping or shredding for those crazy fast hendrix solo's or lenny kravitz or santana or satriani or steve vai. i want to be up there with the legends and nothin less. so...any tips so i can get there before im 30?
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Speed is just mechanics, note choice is the other half of the battle, but that is another discussion altogether. There are many different approaches to this speed issue, and the first one is to play slow and speed up. Here are two variations to that: 1.Start with small chunks of notes and learn to man-handle them with your left hand only. For instance, pick about six notes on two strings (see pic) and play them with just your left hand. Go 1-2-3-4-5-6-5-4-3-2-1. Keep playing it until you get smooth and you can hear each note with out picking it. Then start picking just once per string going up, and once going down. This is the basis for sweep picking-the left hand does all the work and the right hand just sweeps blindly over the strings. It's almost like cheating!
2.This is a lesson from Satriani back in 1989. Get a drum machine or computer generated track of some sort that will loop endlessly and press start. Now play random notes all over the neck along with the beat at a slow speed. I mean any note anywhere. Try chromatic scales up and down for example. Then try double speed of the drum machine. This exercise is good for mechanics. hope this helps you kill some time. Oh and you can always sell your soul too! (Kidding) |
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You know those scales you know? And chords? Well play those (scales) up and down three notes per string ascending one interval at a time. Do that alot. Alternate pick it. Once you can play at high speeds, learn to economy pick them. As for those chords, arp. them in the most comfortable position for you. The fingering is up to you. Do what is most comfortable. And slowly drag your right hand down as you fret the board. SLOW. Really slow. Then work up speed. |
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Download Zack Wylde's Instructional Guitar DVD. |
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The only thing that will get you there is practice. Unfortunately there are no shortcuts. Start by getting your technique down at a slow speed. Whether it be sweep picking or playing straight notes, you definitely want to practice at a speed slow enough so that you can play each note cleanly, clearly and accurately. Use a metronome. Play your scales and exercises like this for an hour a day. When you've mastered playing each note perfectly, you can dial up the speed on the metronome one notch. Rinse and repeat. If you do this diligently, you will see drastic improvement in a matter of months. |
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