Slowing down with age.

sarge

sarge

Power User
So I'm 41. And it is becoming painfully clear I can not play as fast now as I could when I was in my late teens early 20's.

It's not this massive slowdown. I can still solo pretty fast. But listening to an old recording I did back in the 80's, there is a solo I did that I can't last 5 seconds with today at the speed I played it back then.

I know singers are infamous for having to have songs downtuned in there later years, or changing up the melody as to not go so high. Hell, many don't sing them as high as they did on the albums in concert just becuase they have to sing so much and would never last the night regardless of there age.

Was wondering though how many guitarists started switching stuff up later in years.

So I have been on a Joe Satriani kick lately. Posted "All alone" a few weeks ago here and have been working on "Always with me, always with you" since. I have been stuck for over a week trying to get the first really fast run down. When learing a solo I typically use audacity to slow it down while keeping it in tune and just work it up till I can hang with it at full speed. In order to hit that particular run accurately, I still have to slow it down 5-10%.

So I decided to watch a recent video of Satch to see if I could get some help with how he was fingering it. How shocked was I when on the video he changed up the run and skipped the fast part entirely. Which has me thinking that even the great ones slow down with age.

How common is it for the great ones to simplify there solos live, especially as they get older?

A lot of you guys simplify your solos when playing live? Or just simplfy them playing a cover?
 
Was wondering though how many guitarists started switching stuff up later in years.
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i started when i was 5, i was fast in my teens, 20's. i didnt play much for 7-8 years due to lets say hard times.

i picked it back up 6 months ago or so and getting faster by the day..im 35 now and faster than ever

i think its more the fact that you dont want to play fast anymore, not that you are not able to anymore

2 cents
 
joel said:
i think its more the fact that you dont want to play fast anymore, not that you are not able to anymore
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And probably you were working a lot on your speed in your 20s.

To me it's a matter of workout, not a matter of age.
 
Playing fast is one of those types of things where if you don't use it, you lose it. In my experience, if I don't continually work on speed in my practice routines, I take "a step back" and then have to work it back up to speed again.

I'm sure there are exceptions, but I think most older players aren't playing slower because they're physically incapable, speed just simply isn't a priority anymore. I've seen guitarists that are well into their 60's that astound me with their speed.

I'm 37 and I'm playing faster than ever, but that's currently my priority in my practice routines as of late.
 
I'm 47 and usually don't have an opportunity to play the scales and arpeggios I've learned myself thru the years, because I play mostly in Church in recent years. And although I don't have endless shred knowledge I do know some fast things and find if I practice those for a week or two I can play them as fast as ever.
New scale, arpeggio, or chord patterns are a different ball game thou. Its can be like going back to day one and placing each finger on the neck until I put some time and experience behind it.
As far as satch and other shredders a lot of them play things on recordings that are next to impossible to do live smoothly.
My biggest challenge (along with the 50 small ones :) ) is to switch between rythem and leads smoothly, I must be practicing that wrong cause it's still a struggle?
 
I am 47, been playing since I was in my early teens and professionally since I was 19. I keep a pretty solid record of my progress through dated recordings. My experience is not similar to yours. I find that I play faster and cleaner now than I ever have. In addition I can play a higher diversity of melodic patterns faster as well. However, I have always been obsessive about speed and articulation so it shouldn't came as a surprise. I dedicate a large part of my practice time to learning new shapes and making things more efficient. With the exception of a short bout with tendonitis a few months back, I have been able to remain injury free as well.

However, there is something to Joel's statement about players not wanting to play fast. Speed always comes at a price. It takes time to achieve it and time to maintain it. More time than most are willing to dedicate to, even some pros. I would think if slowing down with age were the rule guys like Yngwie and Paul Gilbert, not to mention Michael Angelo Batio would be showing some signs of speed degradation, but that doesn't appear to be the case IMO.
 
Satch seems to change the way he plays this track as he feels and improvises quite a bit.

I am 52, and one of my fingers is not 100% at the moment so some playing is more difficult than normally. Steve Vai, is five months older than me and still seems to manage.

As an experiment I just played along with the track you mentioned and speed I found not a problem on this track as such, but if I was to practice to perform it my focus would be more on timing and the tapping section.

But I probably can't play as fast as I did 25 -30 years ago because I simply don't have the time to practice insane amounts of hours per day any longer. However I would say my playing is more tasteful nowadays and expressive, at least one or two people have said that.

I think in summary to the original question it probably depends on the player, and how age influences may vary hugely too. At the end of the day I think we just need to make the most of what we can do and do it as well as we can. Speed isn't everything.
 
Guys in their 30's have no idea what's coming. :)

I'm starting to get joint pain in my fingers now. I'm far more concerned about being able to play in the future than I am about shredding speed. I'll probably start working on my slide skills soon. :)
 
Phostenix said:
Guys in their 30's have no idea what's coming. :)

I'm starting to get joint pain in my fingers now. I'm far more concerned about being able to play in the future than I am about shredding speed. I'll probably start working on my slide skills soon. :)
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Absolutely 8)

I am hoping my finger heals soon, which feels like tendonitis. Its not fun at all... :(
 
sarge said:
So I decided to watch a recent video of Satch to see if I could get some help with how he was fingering it. How shocked was I when on the video he changed up the run and skipped the fast part entirely.
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Well, I'm glad that musicians, when playing live, don't just repeat the stuff that already has been recorded...

I'm getting older for certain. And my speed changes with it, slightly. And I like it. I'm focusing more now on the tones themselves and impact of those than on runs and technique. I'm feeling more comfortable letting the guitar "cry", than showing off technique. I'm really getting very, very tired of those endless fast tapping runs. Impressive? Maybe. Moving? Absolutely not.
 
Phostenix said:
I'm starting to get joint pain in my fingers now. I'm far more concerned about being able to play in the future than I am about shredding speed. I'll probably start working on my slide skills soon. :)
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I'm 46 and I'm also feeling some constant pain and it's bothering me. Probably have to with the fact that I don't play everyday (typical = 1 to 3 days a weeks, sometimes less), I almost never practice scales and stuffs like that with a metronome, and I'm always on the verge of RSI because of my job which involves using a keyboard & mouse for long hours. I lost a lot of speed and comfort over the years and it's hard to find the time/motivation/energy to get back to my best.
However, I sound better now, not only because of the axe, but also because I pay more attention to bend, vibrato and things like that
 
I'm in my mid 40's . I started playing when I was 13. Played until I was 24, dropped it completely , did not touch a guitar again until 2002.
I wish I could 've played 1/2 as well back then as I can now. I lose the speed if I don't 'woodshed" but when I do it comes right back.
When I start to feel like "I'm losing it" I pull out some Yngwie tabs and re learn "Far beyond the sun" or "Demon Driver" , or "I'll see the light tonight"
any f that crazy shit will do and it gets my mechanics back to where they need to be to play at my top speed.
I too started to feel some joint pain, both of my parents were arthritic.
Went Gluten free last year and all of my joint pain vanished in about 45 days. One of the best things I ever did for myself was to go gluten and dairy free.

I"ve seen the last 4 G3's that rolled thru boston and all of those guys are getting up there and they all still shred like crazy.
 
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I'm 42, and personally I find my speed / chops are directly related to playing time... if i'm in a band and my chops are up, i'm good. I do find i need to warm up a little more each year. when i was younger i could go 0-100 instantly, now i have to warm up a bit. I dont have any pain, more like a tightness.. just need to loosen up.
 
dpeterson said:
I'm 42, and personally I find my speed / chops are directly related to playing time... if i'm in a band and my chops are up, i'm good. I do find i need to warm up a little more each year. when i was younger i could go 0-100 instantly, now i have to warm up a bit. I dont have any pain, more like a tightness.. just need to loosen up.
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I find I definitely need more warm up time too these days, but I think that has more to do with working 40 hours a week, rasing my kids etc.
I can't play for 3 hours a day now like I could back in the day.
but I'm on vacation right now until Jan 2nd, so i'm going to do a little experiment and try to play for a couple of hours a day over these next 2 weeks and see
if it gets me back into full shred mode :)
 
I think it just becomes more of a tasteful preference. Satch can still play that run easily, I mean seeing what he does at the G3 improvs it's quiet clear that he can still play that fast run in "Always With Me,Always With You". The point is at times you just want to change things up to compliment the music further.I mean Petrucci is in his 40s and he sure is still playing a lot of crazy shred runs and everything. I just think you need to maybe get a good workout video and practice again for those runs to come back to you.

Getting fast is a workout for the hands and speed can be achieved when lost. Also trying changing the picks you use. I am only 25 but I recently switched to V-picks it changed my technique,got me better,tone,eased my hands,and increased my speed even further.
 
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