Fast Walking Blues

Bob630

Blues Newbe
Trying to develop the speed to keep up with full speed recording seems almost impossible. Is it really necessary to play it that fast?
 

ScottMFL

Blues Newbie
Hi Bob. What I found is that if the speed is lacking there is probably something that still needs to be learned or a skill developed.

It can be frustrating for sure. I’ve gotten to the point in the lessons that I have sort of figured out what is causing the issue and then determine if it’s time to go onto the next lesson. But if I do move on I’ll still keep practicing the previous lesson until the speed develops.

Presently I’m working on Pleading The 5th. I moved on from 6th St when I felt that 95% of it was accurate. The remaining 5% was just going to take repetition to get the technique under the fingers. After my warm ups and before working on “Pleading” I ran back through “Shuffle”. Eventually the G-Emin-A7 that was tripping me up got fast enough.

2 more lessons to go! Very anxious to start BGU. But not anxious enough to move on before I am ready.
 

jammoore99

Blues Newbie
I too have problems playing at the faster pace. I start off well for maybe the first three to four bars then the wheels come off. I can play it at a slower pace and what I think is fast in my mind but when I try to play along at the faster pace, it becomes a problem. When this happens, I move on to the next lesson and come back periodically to the lesson I'm having speed problems with. Little increments of success seem to come, but it's a slow process. Eventually I'm sure it will come.
 

MikeS

Student Of The Blues
Staff member
Trying to develop the speed to keep up with full speed recording seems almost impossible. Is it really necessary to play it that fast?
It's not impossible, you just need to work on it more. This is of course the Beginning Blues Guitar Unleashed course, so EVERYTHING is verry likely hard ( it is wasn't then you wouldn't need to take this course)

Be sure to start with the slow track and if that's still too fast use software like RiffmasterPro, Audacity or any of dozens of free apps that can slow it down for you. If you are playing along with the video, remember that you can use the little gear icon to slow the video down too (Either 75% or 50% speed).

Count it as you play. Slow it down enough so that you are playing the notes in the right place.

Occasionally take the speed up by 20% to remind yourself that playing it slowly is not the goal.
You should find that after you have it memorized and played accurately at slow speed you will be able to bump the speed up 5%-10% Every day until you are at or beyond full speed (it's a good idea to play it at 105%-110% for a little while because you want to know that you can play it and still have some "in the tank".
 

Bob630

Blues Newbe
Hi Bob. What I found is that if the speed is lacking there is probably something that still needs to be learned or a skill developed.

It can be frustrating for sure. I’ve gotten to the point in the lessons that I have sort of figured out what is causing the issue and then determine if it’s time to go onto the next lesson. But if I do move on I’ll still keep practicing the previous lesson until the speed develops.

Presently I’m working on Pleading The 5th. I moved on from 6th St when I felt that 95% of it was accurate. The remaining 5% was just going to take repetition to get the technique under the fingers. After my warm ups and before working on “Pleading” I ran back through “Shuffle”. Eventually the G-Emin-A7 that was tripping me up got fast enough.

2 more lessons to go! Very anxious to start BGU. But not anxious enough to move on before I am ready.
Good thought, that’s something I will have to figure out.
 

Paleo

Student Of The Blues
The "key" is to have it memorized.

Then it's just a matter of increasing speed.

Any energy still used to "read" or "think" will slow you down.


Maybe try swinging it for a little variety and practice counting "swing".:sneaky:
 
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