what is the first thing one does when trying to increase his or her picking speed?
you guessed it, increasing the speed while practicing.
does this produce results? not at all.
this is another one of those issues that took me long to figure out.
to increase you picking speed you don't have to practice picking faster.
in fact, what you have to do is quite the opposite: practice picking at a very low tempo.
this might not seem logical at first glance so allow me to explain.
only by practicing picking at a low speed, can your brain build new neural connections. you do not build muscle memory if you play fast, the speed is giving your brain a "hard time to learn" so to speak.
the fastest way to learn is to practice everything, especially new melodies and patterns/licks at a very low tempo and to make sure you play it right at the first time. if you can't decrease your tempo even further.
I abandoned my old habits of trying to play everything fast and integrated this new habit into my practice routines - this was one of the most important changes for me. from that point on i became much more effective when practicing.
so to sum it up; it is vital that you practice everything slowly, especially when it comes to picking. try to play everything you learn right the very first time you play it, disregarding the target speed. play accurately, speed will come naturally - as a side effect of playing with accuracy.
this is harder to realize than one might imagine, because at first what you think when practicing so slowly is that you're loosing time, yet in fact quite the opposite is true.
Friday, March 28, 2008
on technique [part1]
This is a short article that will get you started with improving your picking technique.
since i did not learn a proper picking technique from an early age on - my first instrument was the piano - this was one of the toughest issues for me.
i took me a long time to figure out the few methods that really produced the results i wanted.
let me share one of these methods with you.
- inside/inside and outside/outside picking
when applying alternate picking to two or more strings there's two movements your right hand will execute: inside/inside and outside/outside picking. so this is the movement you ultimately will have to practice if you aim at increasing your overall picking speed and developing technique.
here is how to properly practice this:
take a pair of strings and apply inside/inside picking for about a minute at a low picking speed. when the minute is over move on to the next pair of strings and apply the same procedure. when you're done repeat the whole procedure but this time apply outside/outside picking.
Doing this takes as little as 15 minutes of practice a day.
Do this over a longer period of time f.E. over a year constantly every day without fail and you will see a tremendous increase of your picking speed. You'll see first results after about 4 weeks.
This is by far the most effective exercise on developing picking speed that i've come across, and i have tried a whole lot.
other exercises like playing scales up and down the freboard in different fashion are useless in comparison. This is extremely effective especially if you're considering the very small amount of time you have to invest.
since i did not learn a proper picking technique from an early age on - my first instrument was the piano - this was one of the toughest issues for me.
i took me a long time to figure out the few methods that really produced the results i wanted.
let me share one of these methods with you.
- inside/inside and outside/outside picking
when applying alternate picking to two or more strings there's two movements your right hand will execute: inside/inside and outside/outside picking. so this is the movement you ultimately will have to practice if you aim at increasing your overall picking speed and developing technique.
here is how to properly practice this:
take a pair of strings and apply inside/inside picking for about a minute at a low picking speed. when the minute is over move on to the next pair of strings and apply the same procedure. when you're done repeat the whole procedure but this time apply outside/outside picking.
Doing this takes as little as 15 minutes of practice a day.
Do this over a longer period of time f.E. over a year constantly every day without fail and you will see a tremendous increase of your picking speed. You'll see first results after about 4 weeks.
This is by far the most effective exercise on developing picking speed that i've come across, and i have tried a whole lot.
other exercises like playing scales up and down the freboard in different fashion are useless in comparison. This is extremely effective especially if you're considering the very small amount of time you have to invest.
on mastering jazz guitar
Mastering the art of jazz guitar is very hard task.
Everyone that has tried to follow the path of the jazz guitarist know what i am saying here.
i am a young jazz musician based in vienna.
In the past several years i've gone through a lot of instructional material.
what i have found is, that there is actually very litte material out there that deals with the art of jazz guitar on an integral basis.
very few authors show us what the best way to adress all the different areas inside the microcosmos of jazz guitar like; technique, chord voicings, comping, sound and phrasing, would be.
some of the most important aspects of true jazz guitar playing like sound and phrasing are often completely left out, while there's way too much emphasis on scale theory. Jazz theory, although an important subject to learn, unfortunately becomes totally useless once the musician is out there and on stage.
There is virtually no integral method on the subject of mastering jazz guitar on the market.
This is why i've decided to create this blog: to share the insights i've gathered over the years, and show you the very few effective ways i've encountered to this day that really helped on my journey to master the instrument.
Everyone that has tried to follow the path of the jazz guitarist know what i am saying here.
i am a young jazz musician based in vienna.
In the past several years i've gone through a lot of instructional material.
what i have found is, that there is actually very litte material out there that deals with the art of jazz guitar on an integral basis.
very few authors show us what the best way to adress all the different areas inside the microcosmos of jazz guitar like; technique, chord voicings, comping, sound and phrasing, would be.
some of the most important aspects of true jazz guitar playing like sound and phrasing are often completely left out, while there's way too much emphasis on scale theory. Jazz theory, although an important subject to learn, unfortunately becomes totally useless once the musician is out there and on stage.
There is virtually no integral method on the subject of mastering jazz guitar on the market.
This is why i've decided to create this blog: to share the insights i've gathered over the years, and show you the very few effective ways i've encountered to this day that really helped on my journey to master the instrument.
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