Good exercises to increase speed?

yaff

yaff

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So I have tried to search for good exercises to increase my speed and endurance. I'm playing with pick because that makes better sound than fingers, but if you know good exercise to increase speed while playing with fingers, I would find that useful aswell. But mainly I'm looking for exercise for pick.

Allso if you know good exercise to increase left hand speed(I'm right handed so I use my left hand to press frets) and dexterity, I would be very happy.

Thank you! And sorry my bad english, I'm not sure if there's any mistakes, though I'm sure there are some.
 
I dont think playing with a pick necessarily makes a better sound. It does in certain applications, but not all. Plus a pick is very limiting IMHO in terms of ability and what you can do with your playing. I would suggest doing at least an equal amount of playing with a pick versus non-pick. You will be able to play faster riffs if you are able to finger pick and do so well. A pick is very limited to how many places it can be at once versus having 2 (or in my case 3) fingers picking different things.

Also, try to just run scales up and down cleanly and smoothly to start off.
 
My advice: Play. There is no "magic solution" to play really fast. You have to practice - a lot! iIt doesn't really matter what you're playing, just as long as you play :)

Start with for example 4 notes, play each note 8 times and shift... continue till you feel comfortable, fast and precise.. Then play each note 4 times, then 2 times.. Start with a tempo you can follow and pick up speed.

Also try to find some riffs you can play again and again, and just do them faster and faster.. Do a battle against Joey DeMaio from Manowar ;-)

And remember: it takes time!

I play trash/power metal, and it took a ½ year before I could play something like "number of the beast" (iron maiden) and "williams tale" (Manowar). Now i'm as fast as the guitarplayers in my band... it's nice :D
But I've wanted to throw away the bass many, many times - except it's an expensive warwick :wink:

Oh, and speed doesn't matter if your forget your technique-practising.

keep on practising.
You'll be fast some day!
 
play anything, play scales, play chromatics, practice string skipping, jump wildly between genres, play tango today, play mongolian black metal tomorrow, play with just you ringfinger for an hour, play by plucking strings in a double-stop fashion, play as if everything you can do is a great buffet of which you can just gorge yourself and to avoid getting stuck in a rut. and importantly; listen to what you do. actively listen. record yourself practicing. use a metronome and set out at speeds within your range.

hard, dedicated practice, that comes from your heart: that's the way you get there.

just my 2 cents. :)
 
Practice.... a lot... whatever you can get your hands on, but practice so that your finger get used to moving musically.... after that then you can train them to be faster...
 
Do everything Snooze says... and don't forget to use that metronome! Don't speed it up until you can play perfectly at the current speed!
 
Has anyone else seen the great debate between Jeff Berlin and Steve Bailey on bassplayer.tv? They discuss the use of metronomes and various other things, quite interesting
 
Yeah i watched it the other day, i found it REALLY interesting... i know a lot of people slam Berlin for "arrogance" but i was agreeing with a lot he had to say (about tapping etc)
 
Me too. I see where both of them are coming from, but, as Jeff points out, music is not metronomic, we all have a decent sense of time and rhythm.
And the tapping he "tapped" the nail right on the head there!

And the whole bit on fretless, it really isn't about fingering and all that, it's knowing the notes! A friend of mine, a tuba player, he has never played a stringed instrument in his life. He now wants to start up playing bass, so I lent him my fretted Yamaha. He found it quite hard and almost annoying to play. We went to an instrument store to try some different basses out, after discovering the poor quality of fender, we decided to try some fretless rockbasses and warwicks. Huge improvement! His knowledge of music and his ear made him play in tune. Mind you he has no idea of what proper playing style is! And just a little side note, I didn't try to sell the Warwicks or Rockbasses, he just loved the neck and playability instantly!
 
odominguez said:
Practice.... a lot... whatever you can get your hands on, but practice so that your finger get used to moving musically.... after that then you can train them to be faster...
Click to expand...
+1

I usualy study for a clean sound . But sometimes playing at a very fast tempo, can force you to improve the technique, simplify the move, and play more relaxed. So High tempo forces me to find the best technique. After , I let down the tempo and play using that technique.
 
I always practise with metronome, but find it VERY important not ONLY to do this. Play with a drummer when u get the chance. Human error u know, plus gives a better feel if u actually listen to the drummer. U gotta be tight but ultimately u gotta follow the drummer or else it sounds like ****! When using metronome, I start of slow then go up a bit, and then back a bit, up a bit and back and so on. When I reach the bpm the songs played in I go ABOVE that. Gives me breathing room while playing it correct bpm if I can play it just as tight faster. Make any sense? :shock:
 
I do this: I use the computer, and a software, like Nuendo or something. I program the metronome lile this:
first two bars - each beat
bars 3rd and 4 th - beats 1 and 3
5 , 6 , just beat 1
7- beat 1
8 - nothing
9- beat 1
10-nada
11 - beato uno
12 - 0
13 - beat uno
14 - 00
15 - nuttin
16 - silence

And then... see if you lock with the drum when the loop beggins again :-)
Nothing too complicated, just eights.
 
+1 on the Korg Pandora. I sometimes alternate between the metronome and drum patterns... at the same tempo... so you get some sort of foundation in mind when playing more complicated beats.
 
yeah it's a good idea not only to play to the drums with the pandora. just using the standard metronome at times
 
I remember back in the days when I listened to metal on a regular basis, I stumbled upon an interview with DeMaio from Manowar on the radio. Some guy (who later turned out to be the drummer on my band and the Spanish Manowar webmaster :D) asked him how was possible to play so fast.

I was expecting something along the usual lines "Because of my profound belief on Metal" or "Because I'm the thoughtest guy in da planet"

But he just answered a reasonable thing "Practice..."

Start slow and build your speed, the old way, but also the better.
 
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