Blazing Speed

Mr.Scary

A Blues Legend in My Own Mind
Has anyone who has this course finished it . got all the patterns down faster than 60 bpm on everything and all the sequences also and think they are pretty fast. I'm working it but I'll be at it awhile.
 

kestrou

Blooze Noobie
Has anyone who has this course finished it . got all the patterns down faster than 60 bpm on everything and all the sequences also and think they are pretty fast. I'm working it but I'll be at it awhile.
Yup - but I don't feel blazing... :)

Kevin
 

mountain man

Still got the Blues!
When I finished the course a few years ago I had all them down pretty fast. I'm afraid as I haven't practiced that course in quite a while I wouldn't be able to do it today. Probably not even close. I should probably go back and count them all out again. I need to work on my triplets and 1/16th notes. Especially the triplets........
 

JPsuff

Blackstar Artist
Here's part of an interview with David Gilmour on Guitar.com regarding his thoughts on speed.
It's one reason why Gilmour is one of my guitar heroes.

David Gilmour: Welcome to His Machine
Guitar.com

Guitar.com: Your sound and playing have remained virtually unchanged for two decades.

Gilmour: I have a certain style because I was given these particular fingers. They are the ones I got, and they are not terribly quick. There are some things they can't do, and there are some things they do better than anyone else, thank God [laughs]. I can rehearse and I can practice for months, but I don't get any quicker. I've given that up years ago. And I can't be bothered with too much practicing, I'm afraid. I should, but I'm terribly lazy about it.

Guitar.com: Have any of the younger generation of speed-oriented players interested you?

Gilmour: Ah yes, and where are they now? [laughs] There aren't many of the speed merchants that I have any great curiosity about. Eddie Van Halen is great, a brilliant guitar player. Some of his solos on his own stuff and on Michael Jackson's "Beat It" are short, concise, brilliantly crafted solos. They're not just about speed. He can do a bit of something that's quite gentle and then throw in something that just blows you away because of the sheer pace of it for a second. And then he goes back to something else.

There are moments when I would like to be able to do that, but, as I said, you get what you're given. I mean, Jeff Beck is still my guitar hero, really. He's the one that pushes the boundaries. He's consistently exciting. Jeff can play damn fast -- he can do speed, but he chooses not to most of the time, and that's what impresses me. It's what he chooses to leave out rather than what he chooses to stick in.​
 

Mr.Scary

A Blues Legend in My Own Mind
I would like to get some sort of speed to at least play shuffle decently without having to slow the song down. Also was looking on BGU blog lessons and came across Griff doing seq of 4 and one with 5. Now if I hadn't been watching and just listening I would have never figured out what he was doing. I would like to be halfway fast enough to just to be able to listen to something and say hey this is what they are doing if I can't play it as fast.
 

HotLks

Blues - it's in me and it's got to come out.
Do speed drills work for you? Daily speed building excercises should produce results. I've had great success with my fingering from working with Pentatonic Scales and Technique Mastery. Working through the early exercises has helped me a lot with finger speed and accuracy. I go through fast and slow phases. Probably because I don't practice every day. That's my own fault. I hope you find something that works for you. It can be frustrating for sure.

See you down the road! :thumbup:
 

OG_Blues

Guitar Geezer
I don't have this course, so can't comment on it specifically. However, I can say that in during the past couple of years of going through various other BGU courses, my speed has increased tremendously, even at my age (67). I beg to differ with Mr. Gilmour however, and am 100% certain that I am right - it's NOT the fingers that result in achieving speed - it's the brain. The fingers will do what the brain tells them to do, but the brain needs to get far enough "ahead" of the fingers to get the desired end result, and the brain must be able to move through the sequence fast enough. Just drum your fingers in sequence on the top of a table or desk - a motion that is somewhat second nature to most people. That's how fast you can also play guitar - in due time, with practice. More often than not, it is the right hand that limits one's speed. It's harder to pick fast accurately than to fret notes quickly. That's why the speed demons use a lot of sweep picking.
"Muscle memory"? Total BS - there is no such thing - it's more a figure of speech not to be taken literally. That phenomena is actually the brain getting faster and more efficient at processing and commanding the muscles. Nobody ever dissected a muscle and found any memory matter in there. :D
Tom
 

JPsuff

Blackstar Artist
I don't have this course, so can't comment on it specifically. However, I can say that in during the past couple of years of going through various other BGU courses, my speed has increased tremendously, even at my age (67). I beg to differ with Mr. Gilmour however, and am 100% certain that I am right - it's NOT the fingers that result in achieving speed - it's the brain. The fingers will do what the brain tells them to do, but the brain needs to get far enough "ahead" of the fingers to get the desired end result, and the brain must be able to move through the sequence fast enough. Just drum your fingers in sequence on the top of a table or desk - a motion that is somewhat second nature to most people. That's how fast you can also play guitar - in due time, with practice. More often than not, it is the right hand that limits one's speed. It's harder to pick fast accurately than to fret notes quickly. That's why the speed demons use a lot of sweep picking.
"Muscle memory"? Total BS - there is no such thing - it's more a figure of speech not to be taken literally. That phenomena is actually the brain getting faster and more efficient at processing and commanding the muscles. Nobody ever dissected a muscle and found any memory matter in there. :D
Tom

I think Gilmour was speaking more figuratively than factually and meant that playing fast is simply not his cup of tea.
And based upon his body of work, I'd say that's probably true.

I DO however agree that "It's harder to pick fast accurately than to fret notes quickly".
But there are ways around that too. For example, I've seen the opening riff of AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" played using both alternate picking as well as using only hammers and pulls with just the fretting hand and both ways sound equally as good.

I think too many guitarists are obsessed with speed as if it was the only thing that defines a good player.
This of course is nonsense and all anyone has to do to prove that is to look at a list of great Blues players and see if they could find one true "shredder" among them.

As for myself, I find that if I need or want to get faster in some way, it's generally more productive for me to do so in some specific way (like a lick or a riff in a particular situation) as opposed to just mindlessly running scales to achieve some arbitrary level of speed-oriented competence.
I find that a combination of techniques generally works better for me and that speed seems to come more naturally if I just relax and try to play what I hear in my head rather than trying to force something to happen. It's a lot like an old expression in golf that says: "Good golfers swing to hit the target, bad golfers swing to hit the ball". If the music I have in my mind is my target, as long as I stay focused on that, the rest will eventually take care of itself. Or to speak to your point, OG, my brain will figure it out.

Cheers! :Beer:
 

OG_Blues

Guitar Geezer
JP - you may very well be correct that Gilmour was speaking figuratively, and your other comments are also on the money IMO.
My point, maybe poorly made, is that unfortunately, there are lots of guitarists / people who are so desperately seeking magic bullets and simple answers that they take what other people say very literally, and this is how myths develop or morph into perceived "fact" that are passed and perpetuated endlessly. Not to resurrect my least favorite topic here, but tonewood is the perfect example. There is no "tone" in wood. It does, to a certain degree, influence tone. Similarly, there is no "tone" in one's fingers, there is no "memory" in one's fingers, there is no "speed" in one's fingers, but how you use your fingers affects these things. Taking a commonly made statement like "tone is all in your fingers" leads to a literal translation and conclusion that my poor tone is because I have deficient fingers, which is total hogwash.
Your point about relaxing is a big one I think. As one approaches that fast lick, it's very natural to tense up in anticipation, and even pick harder in an attempt to blow through it. I know, I have done it countless times. But that is exactly the wrong thing to do. Relax and pick more lightly, and chances are you get through it much more successfully. That takes significant discipline when first learning something. After the sequence is firmly implanted in the brain, it becomes easier to do because the brain becomes more efficient at multi-tasking those specific actions. It would be a fascinating field of study I think. The pursuit of speed may not be totally without merit, as it is quite possible that improving speed capability, most likely improves one's slower playing proficiency also.
Tom
 

Griff

Vice Assistant General Manager
Staff member
At BGU Live I saw a lot of people "out-thinking" their technique. They had an idea, one that probably worked great at home, but "under pressure" didn't come off and their technique failed them.

I agree that speed for speed's sake is a problem and not a solution. But more and more lately I've seen BGU'ers who are getting farther along and have great ideas that cannot be implemented at their current technique level. It always helps to have an extra 15% "in the tank" for when the nerves get you or the band speeds up a little :)

It also helps with the natural tensing up as OG_Blues mentioned - if you're at the very edge of your ability, the conditions have to be perfect for it to come off. If you've got some in reserve, most things will be well within your reach and that makes playing more enjoyable in general.
 

Rockybottom

Senior Bluesman
I second Griff on that !! I have been doing a lot of cover versions lately, playing all instruments. When I have to lay down 5 guitar tracks as with the one I am doing at the moment, all with different guitars and effects, I obviously have to "Punch in" a solo, or a rythm section. Just the pressure of hitting the timing on the punch in and maintaining exact timing with other tracks means something you can play normally just goes all "Pete Tong" (wrong) when that metronome starts, particularly if you are near your limit, which with a new song is not that high for me!!!!
 

Scotty R

Blues Newbie
It's not so much that I want to be able to play fast technical pieces and shred, rather I want to be able to play the flurries that are in so many solos in time, and have an easier time learning them too.

I wouldn't call SRV a super fast player per se, but when he had to put the pedal down he could and it sounded great.

I see that the Feb edition of BGU Labs is focusing on speed and technique. I like that and have signed up.
 

Tim

Blues Newbie
I think it's cool to be able to have a fast run and then return to slower pace. That's why I work on speed!
 
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