Increasing finger speed when playing lead!

dsouza said:
Slash has got to be older... He still kept his speed. It's lack of practice time as we age.. Don't blame age. Also if you do heavy lifting your muscles will become tight. It's important to stretch the fingers so they are completely relaxed. Any tension in the body will take away from speed. Also breathing is important. Holding the breath causing tension and a rise in blood pressure. To perform at high speeds relaxation of the mind and body is critical. I haven't lost any speed a 53. I still lift, do cardio, stretch and play the guitar. I also am considering adding in 15 min a day of Yoga to help be in the present moment. Speed comes from muscle memory .. You must never rely on thinking unless your LEARNING a new piece of music. There should be no thinking of where your fingers go, what comes next, which footswitch to press. It should all be practiced so many times that the cortex of the brain is free to think of the big picture not the small hand and foot movements. It's just like driving a car . When you first learn you think press the brakes to stop, the accelerator to go, put on your signals, check your blindspot. When you get experienced that's all muscle memory (which seems like speed). Your mind no longer thinks of these things but the big picture. Which is the fastest route? What are the weather conditions? etc. Keep practicing!

dsouza
www.AdrianDsouzaRocks.com
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You figured it all out in less than a week, impressive.
 
dsouza said:
Slash has got to be older... He still kept his speed. It's lack of practice time as we age.. Don't blame age. Also if you do heavy lifting your muscles will become tight. It's important to stretch the fingers so they are completely relaxed. Any tension in the body will take away from speed. Also breathing is important. Holding the breath causing tension and a rise in blood pressure. To perform at high speeds relaxation of the mind and body is critical. I haven't lost any speed a 53. I still lift, do cardio, stretch and play the guitar. I also am considering adding in 15 min a day of Yoga to help be in the present moment. Speed comes from muscle memory .. You must never rely on thinking unless your LEARNING a new piece of music. There should be no thinking of where your fingers go, what comes next, which footswitch to press. It should all be practiced so many times that the cortex of the brain is free to think of the big picture not the small hand and foot movements. It's just like driving a car . When you first learn you think press the brakes to stop, the accelerator to go, put on your signals, check your blindspot. When you get experienced that's all muscle memory (which seems like speed). Your mind no longer thinks of these things but the big picture. Which is the fastest route? What are the weather conditions? etc. Keep practicing!

dsouza
www.AdrianDsouzaRocks.com
Click to expand...
Thanks Adrian. I have zero problems keeping up or playing along with Slash. I more or less was referring to speed demons like some of my favs such as EVH, Randy Rhoads, Ronni LeTekro, Vito Bratta etc... I agree about physical health and over the years I tried to do my best to take care of that. However who can question a person's genetic make up? This plays the ultimate role on who we are. As I sit here I’m 3 weeks in to my 2nd recovery phase in 5 years for lower back surgery. I never imagined I’d be in this predicament again. But I hear I am. Without getting lost in the weeds, I physically never seen myself any different than most people other than having severe spinal stenosis. Shit happens, life moves on better for some than others. There’s no work out regimen or strict dietary obedience that will determine each individuals genetic make up. That’s a fact regardless of what anyone says. Believe me, I’ve tried turning over every stone to find an answer. I’ve been told by countless physical therapist...I'm different and there’s nothing I can do about it but work harder than others. So I do. Around 380 BPM. Lol!
 
Guthrie Govan: 51
Greg Howe: 59
Steve Morse: 68 (and he has had challenges)
Steve Vai: 63
M-A Batio: 67
Eric Johnson: 68
Frank Gambale: 64…..

Just saying. My old man used to tell me: “If you can touch it, you can catch it”. Again, disease and general health issues can stop anybody… but there are a lot of “old” players that rip. So yes, it is possible to continue to advance.
 
SJB said:
Guthrie Govan: 51
Greg Howe: 59
Steve Morse: 68 (and he has had challenges)
Steve Vai: 63
M-A Batio: 67
Eric Johnson: 68
Frank Gambale: 64…..

Just saying. My old man used to tell me: “If you can touch it, you can catch it”. Again, disease and general health issues can stop anybody… but there are a lot of “old” players that rip. So yes, it is possible to continue to advance.
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No one mentioned the huge benefit that experienced ears bring to the table. I was in Guitar Center about a month ago and as usual there was a teenage kid in there plugged in too loud with sh*tty tone ripping thru some speed metal lines. He was really fast but it sounded mechanical and lifeless - like a robot regurgitating preprogrammed lines.

I wonder what would have happened if I gave him a chord chart to "shred" over or sat down and played some 12 bar blues rhythm for him to "shred" over? From what I heard of his playing - not much. Your ears are your most important "muscle" when playing the guitar. If your hands have enough experience to go where your experienced ears want them to without thinking about it - that is the only kind of speed that really matters IMHO. The rest is just memorized parlor tricks. All the players on your list have incredible, experienced, musical ears.

As long as we keep our hearing age will never rob us of that - quite the opposite the experience we gain makes it possible to play more expressively and melodically than we ever have before. Even if we might not be quite as fast as we were in our 20s, our ears, improv and composition skills have 30+ more years of experience than our 20 year old selves.

Wisdom and experience are the tangible benefits of age. Thank goodness we get those! Since they help to offset the less desirable aspects like my graying beard!
 
"We're all told at some point in time that we can no longer play the children's game, we just don't know when that's gonna be. Some of us are told at eighteen, some of us are told at forty, but we're all told."- Moneyball
 
Lots of good info in this thread. Two things that helped with my technique are

1) Tabata training with picking runs. Basically Practicing a scale run very slowly and deliberately with a timer, (NOT a metronome) then doing it at a quick/max tempo for a short period of time. Like 15 or 30 seconds and then returning back to the slow tempo. This is like the jog, then sprint hard thing runners do, but just for your hands. Worked on the paul gilbert 3-note-per string runs, The Zakk Wylde no more tears pentatonic runs as well as legato/hybrid picking passages.

2) Practice in front of a mirror, even "air guitaring". Most of my students don't see that they're using an inefficient hand motion or that they tense up on the wrist etc etc. You absolutely have to use the natural ergonomics of your wrist, hands and fingers while remaining relaxed. Your wrist either moves in a flexion motion (think of waving your hand) or a rotation motion (think of turning a doorknob). Most of my students who struggle with speed do some type of hybrid of both which is not how your wrist works.

Good luck!
 
RoshRoslin said:
Most of my students who struggle with speed do some type of hybrid of both which is not how your wrist works.

Good luck!
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Interesting. I felt I used too much rotation (a combination of both), so I've been trying to adjust it, but someone commented in one of my posts that that is a good thing, as it helps when escaping between strings (pick slants.)
 
TSJMajesty said:
Interesting. I felt I used too much rotation (a combination of both), so I've been trying to adjust it, but someone commented in one of my posts that that is a good thing, as it helps when escaping between strings (pick slants.)
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Yeah, I personally do something similar to Sarod Picking. Copying the wrist/picking technique of Sarod Players from India. They've had 1000+ years to develop the technique to pick quickly, jump between strings, arpeggios and tremolo pick. I would recommend looking at a couple Sarod Players on Youtube and you'll see instantly what I'm talking about. A slight bend of the wrist, and it's mostly a rotational/radial ulnar twist but using the weight of the fist to kind of keep a pick in motion. (Think stirring coffee with a spoon).



Here's me from the other night playing an obnoxious too many notes guitar solo :tearsofjoy:

 
TSJMajesty said:
Interesting. I felt I used too much rotation (a combination of both), so I've been trying to adjust it, but someone commented in one of my posts that that is a good thing, as it helps when escaping between strings (pick slants.)
Click to expand...
Depends how deep your pick grip is - some players leave a small portion of pick exposed below their fingers others leave a lot more. If your natural pick grip leaves a good chunk of pick exposed then I bet you would benefit from that rotation for string escape. If you leave less pick exposed then I don't see how it would help beyond maybe that is just what's comfortable for you. And there is nothing wrong with that.

Tension bad - comfort good.
 
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