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accuracy please!


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Posted

i am a hopless guitarist who has been playing for about 6 years on and off and i still have a big problem with accuracy! does anyone have any excercises that i can do to improve my accuracy.. anything would be appreciated!

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Posted

Originally posted by Deek

How much do you practice a day?


try for 4 per string chromatic excercises. And practice more.

 

 

Chromatic stuff is good, but it won't improve your accuracy at everything. Make sure you practice all types of picking patterns, sweeping, string skipping, etc so that you don't leave any "holes" in your playing. Also, practice super slow and work your way up the metronome 5bpm at a time or so.

 

Good luck

Karl

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Posted

Wow. I'm a hopeless guitarist that's only been playing for 1 yr. Only 5 more years to go...

I've always heard that a metronome works wonders. Not that I have one, but from all the posts I've read on it, I'm considering getting one.

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Posted

Seriously these guys have got it, it bullet form this is how i would tackle it:
1). practice slowly to get rid of any bumps and be vigilant about it - dont say "oh i can play the first 16 bars fine, then the 2 notes in that last bar dont work , but who realy cares about that". cos those two notes are never gonna work..
2). change the problem of certain things not working into"why they aren't working" is it cos you are picking inside the string? or string skipping, or hammer on pull off. and once you know, either practice this when watching tv, or if this is boring then develope exercises to combat this. which

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Posted

Seriously these guys have got it, number form this is how i would tackle it:
1). practice slowly to get rid of any bumps and be vigilant about it - dont say "oh i can play the first 16 bars fine, then the 2 notes in that last bar dont work , but who really cares about that". cos those two notes are never gonna work..
2). change the problem of certain things not working into"why they aren't working" is it cos you are picking inside the string? or string skipping, or hammer on pull off. and once you know, either practice this when watching tv, or if this is boring then develope exercises to combat this. which moves onto...
3). practice the most the things that are the hardest..sounds stupid to say and if you wanna jam then no problem, but if you wanna get better its no good being pleased when you shred the solos you can play but dont concentrate on anything else!
4). use a metronome. dont even buy one if you dont wana, just download one i use wierd metronome lets you type in midi drum sounds from your sound card and play then in any order/any time signiture. try download.com etc
5). listen to what you are playing, instead of looking at what your hands are doing.

the metronome does help. before playing guitar i was a drummer for 12 years and so initally thought " i wudnt need one, i know all time signitures" etc (which i probably don't anymore anyway!). but the metronome does wonders even if its only to take your mind away from counting or tapping your foot to concnetrate on your playing.

obviously only opinions so if you don't agree then no probs thats just what has helped me :cool:

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Posted

Originally posted by drsparkle

practice super slow and work your way up the metronome 5bpm at a time or so.

Everyone is saying this. It's the key to speed. What does it mean really?

 

A) Start playing whole notes at 40 bpm and increase one click a day, so you'll be fast in 2032?

B) Each time you practice a excercise/lick start slowly and increase til top speed? So next year I can, like, play 2 licks at 130 bpm? cause it takes 2 hours to get to top speed...

C) Each day start 5 bpm slower than than day before and work all licks up to 10 faster?

 

- Should I start slow for each lick/excercise, or for each practice session? Or for each day?

- How often should I increase? Daily, weekly, every 5 minute or after 10 times played?

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Posted

Originally posted by Bajazz

Everyone is saying this. It's the key to speed. What does it mean really?


A) Start playing whole notes at 40 bpm and increase one click a day, so you'll be fast in 2032?

B) Each time you practice a excercise/lick start slowly and increase til top speed? So next year I can, like, play 2 licks at 130 bpm? cause it takes 2 hours to get to top speed...

C) Each day start 5 bpm slower than than day before and work all licks up to 10 faster?


- Should I start slow for each lick/excercise, or for each practice session? Or for each day?

- How often should I increase? Daily, weekly, every 5 minute or after 10 times played?

 

 

 

Here is the best way to go about using a metronome. Play the pharse you're practicing (or scale or riff or whatever) at the fastest tempo you can. Start at around 70. If you can play the phrase at 70, increase to 75 and repeat. Eventually you're going to hit a wall and just not be able to accurately play the phrase. THis is the tempo you practice at and while it might take a few days or a few weeks, you'll evenutally break through and be able to play it. Go on from there and add 5 more to the setting and see if you can play it. Repeat until desired speed is reached. I hope that helps.

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Posted
Originally posted by EuphoricGreyGuitar




Here is the best way to go about using a metronome. Play the pharse you're practicing (or scale or riff or whatever) at the fastest tempo you can. Start at around 70. If you can play the phrase at 70, increase to 75 and repeat. Eventually you're going to hit a wall and just not be able to accurately play the phrase.


So far, so good.


THis is the tempo you practice at and while it might take a few days or a few weeks, you'll evenutally break through and be able to play it. Go on from there and add 5 more to the setting and see if you can play it. Repeat until desired speed is reached. I hope that helps.




:eek: Ugh.....NO!!!!!!!! Do NOT do that!!!! When you hit that wall, you have to slow back down a bit and practice at the reduced tempo! Practicing at a tempo where you can't play accurately or cleanly is one of the worst things you can do, because you'd be practicing your inaccuracies!

So, if your technique starts to fall apart at, say, 120 bpm, slow the metronome down to 108...maybe even 100...and do most of your practicing at that tempo. Afterwards, try and speed it up again and see if you've gained any ground. Each time you hit that wall, SLOW DOWN a bit and get to work.

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Posted
Eventually you're going to hit a wall and just not be able to accurately play the phrase. THis is the tempo you practice at and while it might take a few days or a few weeks, you'll evenutally break through and be able to play it

:eek:
Ugh.....NO!!!!!!!! Do NOT do that!!!!

See what I mean? :rolleyes:
When I read different articles, advice, posts, books etc on the subject, there is 1000 ways to do it, and all claim to be right. I guess the answer is that everyone is different. So how am I going to find out how I am going to improve fastest possible?

I have tried different appoaches, and found all to improve my speed with 2 bpm per year....:(

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Posted
Originally posted by Bajazz

See what I mean?
:rolleyes:
When I read different articles, advice, posts, books etc on the subject, there is 1000 ways to do it, and all claim to be right. I guess the answer is that everyone is different. So how am I going to find out how I am going to improve fastest possible?


I have tried different appoaches, and found all to improve my speed with 2 bpm per year....
:(



Everyone IS different, to a degree, but that's essentially a non-answer. The methodology of increasing speed is pretty much the same for EVERYONE, whether they go about it the same way or not.

First off, proper posture is a must, otherwise you've already shot yourself in the foot. Good posture will minimize tension and strain, and lets your bone, muscle, and tendon structure work FOR you instead of against you. Good posture leads to good technique.

Second, there are several aspects to all things 'speed'. There's pure, raw speed...uncontrolled, impractical...but it's a reflection of what your body can handle. Then there's synchronized speed, which requires that your hands work together as one unit. And of course, there's the mental aspect of speed: 'how fast can my brain conceive of a group of notes being played?'.

Third, speed is something you build, not something you 'have'. Playing fast is nothing more than playing a certain group of notes in a smaller period of time. Those notes have to be there in the first place...we 'program' them into our muscle memory. The way to do this is by starting off playing slowly and with the utmost accuracy and efficiency. Once we've got the notes 'locked in', then and only then can we hope to play them faster. The faster you play something, the less precision you have; so if you first learn the notes very slowly and accurately, you'll have established a solid foundation upon which to build speed.

Fourth, we learn what we practice. If we practice something faster than we can truly handle it, we get sloppy...if you practice sloppily, that's what you're training yourself to do: play sloppily. That is why I opposed the advice in that earlier post; once you learn a bad habit, it's VERY hard to unlearn. On the bright side, it's just as hard to unlearn a GOOD habit. :D

Now, I don't know what it is you're trying to play faster, and I don't know how fast you're able to play it. If you could give a specific example (both of the music AND the tempo you can't surpass), then I could show you how go about working on it.

Also, if you do a search in this forum for threads started by me with the word 'speed' in the title (I think there were 7 of them), you'll find some exercises and explanations that may be of some benefit to you.

I don't know what books (if any) you have that deal with the subject, but I recommend the following:

http://www.guitarprinciples.com/Book/further1.htm
http://www.stetina.com/pops/speedmech.html
http://www.raisingthebarre.com/Barre.htm

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Posted

Originally posted by Auggie Doggie

First off, proper posture is a must, otherwise you've already shot yourself in the foot. Good posture will minimize tension and strain, and lets your bone, muscle, and tendon structure work FOR you instead of against you. Good posture leads to good technique.

2 years ago I d/l several articles from Guitar Priciples Jamie Andreas and started my journey towards perfect, tensionless technique. I must get the book soon. But even doing everything perfect and starting ultra-slow hasn't helped me much. In fact my speed hasn't developed a bit. If I practice hard for 2 weeks, it increases about 10-15 bpm at most, but then when I go back to my 40 minute per day workout, it goes back to my max 92 bpm speed limit. No matter what I do!

 

... so if you first learn the notes very slowly and accurately, you'll have established a solid foundation upon which to build speed.


Fourth, we learn what we practice. If we practice something faster than we can truly handle it, we get sloppy...if you practice sloppily, that's what you're training yourself to do: play sloppily.

For me, following the this advice hasn't done anything but make me able to play very clean at slow speeds...

Now, I don't know what it is you're trying to play faster, and I don't know how fast you're able to play it. If you could give a specific example (both of the music AND the tempo you can't surpass), then I could show you how go about working on it.

I can play 16-notes at about 100 bpm + - Difficult things are about 60bpm, and when I play the single-string excercise from Speed mechanics

 

15-0-0-0-14-0-0-0-12-0-0-0-etc

 

I can get up to 112 bpm.

 

I feel this is too limiting for my needs. I been playing for 17 years.....

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Posted
Originally posted by Bajazz

2 years ago I d/l several articles from Guitar Priciples Jamie Andreas and started my journey towards perfect, tensionless technique. I must get the book soon. But even doing everything perfect and starting ultra-slow hasn't helped me much. In fact my speed hasn't developed a bit. If I practice hard for 2 weeks, it increases about 10-15 bpm at most, but then when I go back to my 40 minute per day workout, it goes back to my max 92 bpm speed limit. No matter what I do!


40 minutes per day isn't very much time, but if that's all the time you've got, then you have to make the best of it. That means concentrating on one thing at a time, for entire 40-minutes sessions, until you've made drastic improvements...at that point, you'd start work on something else.


But also notice what you said: if you practice hard for 2 weeks, then you gain 10-15 bpm...that should tell you that you're doing something differently during those times than you're doing it when you're limited to 40 minutes.




For me, following the this advice hasn't done anything but make me able to play very clean at slow speeds...



If you can play very cleanly at slow speeds, then you've already been laying a good foundation...UNLESS there's some drastic flaw in your technique, in which case someone would probably have to see you play and point it out to you.


I can play 16-notes at about 100 bpm + - Difficult things are about 60bpm, and when I play the single-string excercise from Speed mechanics


15-0-0-0-14-0-0-0-12-0-0-0-etc


I can get up to 112 bpm.


I feel this is too limiting for my needs. I been playing for 17 years.....



How fast can you play ONE note repeatedly? I think my first 'speed' thread was devoted to measured tremolo picking with accents on the downbeats. That will give you an indication of what your MAXIMUM possible picking speed is. For the record (and I'm not an especially fast player), I can tremolo pick 16th notes, in time, at about 250 bpm or so. I can play that Speed Mechanics exercise at about the same speed (on a good day). That is, of course, far more speed than I'd ever actually NEED in a musical setting, but warming up with a tremolo study helps keep my picking motion down to a minimum.

Another issue is how your brain is processing the notes, or perhaps I should say how MANY notes your brain processes at a time. If we use the S.M. exercise you mentioned, how do you group the notes (mentally)? One at a time? A beat at a time? A measure at a time? The smaller the grouping, the more difficult it is to speed it up...and judging by the tempos you mentioned, you may be taking it one note at a time. If your brain is thinking note-by-note, then your hands will do the same, and that's something you want to avoid. Also, when you're playing it, are you concentrating on your left or right hand? If you normally focus on your picking hand, do the opposite, and keep ALL your attention on the fret hand (or vice versa). If you've been trying to concentrate on both at the same time, then we may have found your problem. :D

You mention that you max out at 112...is that clean at 112, or are you struggling at 112? If it's clean, then I'd jump the metronome up to about 128 for a bit, and try to force myself to keep up. Then, slowing it back down to 112 should feel easier, and 116 or 120 should be within your reach.

And don't forget...an exercise will only be useful for so long. Sometimes you have to just move on...push yourself into more difficult things, and THEN come back to the earlier stuff. It's amazing how easy some of those things are the second time around. ;)

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