TSJMajesty
Rock Star
- Messages
- 5,816
TL;DR- read the last sentence. Lol
Any of you who either know me or have seen my posts probably know I'm mostly about trying to get better at playing guitar. I stopped playing for about 5 years about 5 years ago, then for some reason the spark came back, and I embarked on striving to learn the things I really wished I had focused on much earlier in my life.
I have a few styles I want to get better at, but the common elements in all the things that I can't do, but want to, are: increasing my finger speed and playing accurately wrt to timing, accents, dynamics, etc.
My trill speed is embarrassingly slow. Like, I struggle with playing well-known triplet riffs such as in the solos in Good Times Bad Times, Godzilla, & Mr. Crowley, and I've hit a plateau.
This is the Mr. Crowley riff, which is played at 106bpm, which isn't crazy fast. I can play picked 3 nps triplet riffs faster than that, but if it involves 2 nps pull-offs, fuggetaboutit! Until I can increase my trill speed, riffs like this are out-of-reach for me.
I know about not having unnecessary tension, using the least amount of movement needed, and building finger independence. But I can't seem to find anything that specifically targets finger speed, and how to increase it. If you know of any, please post a link. But I did come across a couple new things today when I searched that topic, that I'd never seen before, so maybe they'll help. I'd really like to some day be able to play solos like the ones I mentioned above!
The first was: Place each finger on the 3rd string, from 5th to 8th frets. Then one finger at a time, without lifting the other fingers, move the finger back and forth between the 6th and 1st strings. Do this with each finger, 20x's. I took it further and did the outer and inner pairs of fingers as well, and boy did I feel a burn! So I figure I'll add this routine to see if it helps with finger independence. I already practice a good YJM riff for this, and have noticed it helping with not only finger independence, but also keeping the pinky close to the fretboard:
The other idea I came across is to play a simple Maj7 arpeggio across the top 4 strings, this shape: string/fret 1/7 2/8 3/9 4/10. Ascending/descending.
But the trick is to keep the fingers relaxed enough that they rest slightly against the string without lifting them, and only pressing down on the string you intend to play. He showed a few variations to make it more challenging too.
I figure it'll be good for building accuracy when changing strings during a riff, since keeping a finger muting a string, as opposed to completely lifting it off the string, ensures that string can't make a sound. And it'll build further on the finger independence thing, which I figure has to be beneficial for whatever I'm playing.
I'm always on the lookout for good practice ideas, so if you have ones you like, please share 'em!
Any of you who either know me or have seen my posts probably know I'm mostly about trying to get better at playing guitar. I stopped playing for about 5 years about 5 years ago, then for some reason the spark came back, and I embarked on striving to learn the things I really wished I had focused on much earlier in my life.
I have a few styles I want to get better at, but the common elements in all the things that I can't do, but want to, are: increasing my finger speed and playing accurately wrt to timing, accents, dynamics, etc.
My trill speed is embarrassingly slow. Like, I struggle with playing well-known triplet riffs such as in the solos in Good Times Bad Times, Godzilla, & Mr. Crowley, and I've hit a plateau.
This is the Mr. Crowley riff, which is played at 106bpm, which isn't crazy fast. I can play picked 3 nps triplet riffs faster than that, but if it involves 2 nps pull-offs, fuggetaboutit! Until I can increase my trill speed, riffs like this are out-of-reach for me.
I know about not having unnecessary tension, using the least amount of movement needed, and building finger independence. But I can't seem to find anything that specifically targets finger speed, and how to increase it. If you know of any, please post a link. But I did come across a couple new things today when I searched that topic, that I'd never seen before, so maybe they'll help. I'd really like to some day be able to play solos like the ones I mentioned above!
The first was: Place each finger on the 3rd string, from 5th to 8th frets. Then one finger at a time, without lifting the other fingers, move the finger back and forth between the 6th and 1st strings. Do this with each finger, 20x's. I took it further and did the outer and inner pairs of fingers as well, and boy did I feel a burn! So I figure I'll add this routine to see if it helps with finger independence. I already practice a good YJM riff for this, and have noticed it helping with not only finger independence, but also keeping the pinky close to the fretboard:
The other idea I came across is to play a simple Maj7 arpeggio across the top 4 strings, this shape: string/fret 1/7 2/8 3/9 4/10. Ascending/descending.
But the trick is to keep the fingers relaxed enough that they rest slightly against the string without lifting them, and only pressing down on the string you intend to play. He showed a few variations to make it more challenging too.
I figure it'll be good for building accuracy when changing strings during a riff, since keeping a finger muting a string, as opposed to completely lifting it off the string, ensures that string can't make a sound. And it'll build further on the finger independence thing, which I figure has to be beneficial for whatever I'm playing.
I'm always on the lookout for good practice ideas, so if you have ones you like, please share 'em!
