Fast Trills on Guitar

[catscurlyear]

Hi there,where is there an explanation of how to do fast trills (Gary Moore type thing),,i know there are youtube clips of people saying repeat a trill for hours on end untill your hand drops off, no pain no gain sort of thing and do it with all combinations of fingers all over the neck ,then there are those hand grips you squeeze which are supposed to make your fingers super strong but none of these seem to work and are probably just causing damage to the hand ,i can do it personaly but i can`t explain to my friend how i do it, there must be a way to explain it surely. thanks

[1001gear]

i can tell you from drumming and just learning physical motion that slowly working the _full_ travel of your limbs/fingers/joints is the best way. It develops the muscles and tendons over the widest range. Trills of course should be compact and tension free. If they aren't or aren't developing (my chops are like that) you may have other issues that require specific and expert attention.

[Grant Harding]

I find the key is to relax your fretting hand so the muscles aren't all tense.

 

Also some people just have faster fingers I reckon.

[catscurlyear]

All the YouTube vids tell you To relax but that isn,t explaining the technique that s just telling you to relax which is only part .I suppose it could be only certain people can do it. If it was possible to learn it you,d have thought people like Clapton,Satriani.Jimmy Page .robben ford .Larry Carlton would have learned how to do it.

[Grant Harding]

Yeah - I can play a lot of fast stuff, but I can't match Gary Moore's finger speed and the trills no matter what I try.

 

Same with Guthrie Govan - he's got mind blowing physical capability.

[cooltouch]

Relaxation is important. You don't want your fretting had -- or arm -- to be tense. And it doesn't have to be tense to have your fingers moving quickly. Here are a few things regarding the mechanics of speed.

 

First, the speed by which your fingers move away from the string is just as important as the speed by which your fingers move toward a string. So, by practicing slowly, this is a technique that can be learned.

 

Second, it is important to keep your fingers as close to the string as possible. The farther away the finger is from the string, the farther it has to travel. Often, you can find that the finger will move the correct distance away from the string just by relaxing it. This is another technique that needs to be practiced slowly at first. I think you'll find if you follow this technique, you'll find your hand is also less tense.

 

Third, using a metronome helps a LOT when working on speed. The very gradual buildup that a metronome provides lets you increase speed at such small increments that, before you realize it, you're playing at a pretty fast clip. Use of a metronome is also a great technique for practicing scales and arpeggios as well.

 

Fourth, this is a technique I often use with trills -- I use more than one finger. Let's say I'm holding down a note with my first finger and then trilling a note one fret higher. I'll often use my second and third fingers alternately to trill that note. If the trilled note is two frets higher, I'll alternate between my third and fourth fingers. This technique may take some practice to get good at, but to me it's worth it.

 

[catscurlyear]

Gary Moore was actually left handed so he was using his strong hand on the fret board Gary almost made a full time career out of trills alone. Guthrie Given is just ridiculous i saw him with dweezle zappa a couple of years ago

[catscurlyear]

My friend does the two finger thing on fast trills he,s done that for years to good effect in it,s own way but is still limiting and ties too many fingers up at times to be totally fluid .it also lacks the pull off sound which has a brighter attack sound.

[badpenguin]

Practice dead slow for hours, then slowly increase the speed. As you master the precession, your speed will naturally increase

[catscurlyear]

 

First, the speed by which your fingers move away from the string is just as important as the speed by which your fingers move toward a string. So, by practicing slowly, this is a technique that can be learned.

 

Second, it is important to keep your fingers as close to the string as possible. The farther away the finger is from the string, the farther it has to travel. Often, you can find that the finger will move the correct distance away from the string just by relaxing it. This is another technique that needs to be practiced slowly at first. I think you'll find if you follow this technique, you'll find your hand is also less tense.

good advice he is trying this also and found there is small improvements but nothing too drastic to shout home about.doing exercises like this is very time consuming and at times seems to dominate time spent on the guitar .

 

[AJ6stringsting]

In the 1980's, I got caught up in the shredder movement, EVH and Randy Rhoads led me to the Allan Holdsworth legato world and to the staccato DiMeola / Malmsteen world.

Gary Moore was also in my world of influential guitarists. He knew how to smoke on the fretboard and played with breathtaking Human feeling. Listen to the intro to " The End Of The World" from " Corridors Of Power " and "The Loner " from "Wild Frontiers" .... His songwriting ability was as diverse as his playing styles.

Gary Moore and Neal Schon were / are masters of melody, feel and techniques .

Trilling will lead you into the legato world and from what the OP posted, you're going master the hard touch which is totally different from Rhoads or Holdsworth, medium/ light touch.

Mix it up legato, staccato, trilling, tapping and string skipping .... The sky is not the limit !!!!

 

 

 

[AJ6stringsting]

i can tell you from drumming and just learning physical motion that slowly working the _full_ travel of your limbs/fingers/joints is the best way. It develops the muscles and tendons over the widest range. Trills of course should be compact and tension free. If they aren't or aren't developing (my chops are like that) you may have other issues that require specific and expert attention.

 

Drummers are very underated as musicians.

As a guitarist , drummers are the masters of dynamics , right along wind instruments .... Both of which guitarists can learn from.

[catscurlyear]

thanks for that AJ ,i loved Gary`s playing ever since Parisian Walkways,only time i saw him was on the " Corridors Of Power " tour .i didn`t realize he was touring America back in `69 with Skid Row.i wonder if Hendrix to a peek at him

[cooltouch]

Regarding minimizing movement to play fast, and speaking specifically of drummers, think about when they play very fast rolls on their snare, for example. The sticks are barely moving at all and the hand movements are equally small. This technique of minimizing movement is probably the most important one to master in order to develop speed -- I've found this personally to be true.

[catscurlyear]

Regarding minimizing movement to play fast' date=' and speaking specifically of drummers, think about when they play very fast rolls on their snare, for example. The sticks are barely moving at all and the hand movements are equally small. This technique of minimizing movement is probably the most important one to master in order to develop speed -- I've found this personally to be true.[/quote']

 

I disagree if you turn the guitar round and play left handed or versa vice using your naturally dominant hand and watch the mechanics of those fingers doing trills you,'ll see how it isn,t that small a movement remember there is the pull of part which requires a bit of tension also .

[1001gear]

I attended a Jennifer Batten clinic last century and she would pull and flick the string going down and up across it; much like you'd alternate pick.

[cooltouch]

Sure, you have to lift your fingers up high enough above the fingerboard where you have enough velocity to strike the string so it'll make a loud enough sound, but you still want to minimize the height, and concentrate on velocity instead. If your finger is coming down on the string from two inches above it, you're wasting tons of speed that you'd otherwise have. I just grabbed a classical that is my typical go-for guitar and watched my fingers do a trill. I'm lifting the trilling finger about 1/2" above the string, which for me is about where I need to be with that guitar to generate a hammer so that it will produce an acceptable level of volume. The pull-off is just a straight downward pull, so the finger ends up making sort of a flat-spotted circle to produce a trill.

[catscurlyear]

haha 100 years ago,. do u have a link for the Jennifer Batten thing