Junior#1

You clearly have no idea who you are talking to. Zaphod has proven himself to be not only a great guitarist, but also one of the foremost people to listen to in terms of technique and theory on this site.

With that said, exercises have their place when it comes to learning, as do songs. My approach to it is to use exercises to gain an understanding of how to use certain techniques, but use songs to practice the techniques. If you just practice an exercise over and over, you will get very good at using whatever technique(s) in that certain pattern. But if you then attempt to learn a song that uses the same technique but a different pattern, you will be no further ahead than you were before you started running through the exercise.

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astholkohtz

then your approach is not much different than mine. what's the big deal?
keep in mind that the stuff i say here is basically what i've been taught by 2 really awesome instructors (and musicians), that i personally know and look up to. i don't know zaphod.

i won't rephrase my suggestion again, but you guys are just quoting what i said, and taking it to the extreme of "not ever playing any song, it's useless, only do exercises because it's the only source of improvement"

the guy's question was very simple: how to get faster. i suggested not to make the mistake of picking up a song which involves techniques he doesn't know, in which case he should build up the basis with some exercises. that's exactly what you do.

i get the impression you're just irritated because you feel i disrespected zaphod (which i did not intend to do).

example: i decided i want to get as fast as possible on alternate picking, both because i want to play a couple of songs which require that, and because i want to write my own fast runs. i practise on all the seven 3nps boxes with the metronome. this has proven to be very useful both in playing other people's music, and my little licks.

W4RP1G

I'm a believer in learning new techniques outside of a song. I really don't see why that's a bad idea?

Seems like people are bickering over nothing.

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Homemade pickup winder!

kaes

Agreed with junior, as someone who has just started trying to improve his fast playing, choosing a few typical 3nps exercises and a song to apply them to has helped me. I'd also take a look at legato licks, combining the two can be very effective.

B&J

Everyone can play fast... If you can play slow, you can play fast. Its a matter of practice and muscle memory. this thread reminds me of myself saying i cant play barre chords........

lamb of dog

I've seen many guitarist who can run but can't really walk!!!

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deltadaz

I think the general idea Is

Do you play a song to learn a technique
or learn a technique to play a song

I think you have to find what works for you.
personally i would move away from the song to learn the technique first
as have got to frustrated and going down the song route.

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But this goes up to 11
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macashmack

Every lick that you would learn in a song is fundamentally the same as any exercise you would do though...

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Modes and scales are intelligent and useful. Start learning them. Seriously.

Anon17

How is it any different learning a technique from an arbitrary exercise than a section from a song?

Both are passages of notes. Whether you use one in a song or not is irrelevant.

If I use an exercise in a song, is it suddenly unsuitable to be practiced by someone because it is a passage in a song and not an exercise any more? ...




Unless the songs have licks which use the seven 3nps boxes in the exact way you practice them, you'll be able to make quicker progress by practicing the licks in the song instead of the 3nps boxes.

You have provided no good reasons why someone should practice exercises instead of practicing a section of a song as an exercise. Both will improve your technique since both are passages of notes, but only one gives you musical context. Guess which one it is.

For the record, I went about the "practice exercises all the time" approach for about a year. I made much more progress as a musician AND in my guitar technique by practicing passages from songs as exercises instead. It also gave me the bonuses of learning songs and learning a musical phrase in the correct context, as opposed to learning exercises which I could never use in the vast majority of musical situations.

MegadethFan18

That's what I was thinking.

Jimii00 was asking how to play fast and from a purely technical point it shouldn't make a difference if you learn through songs or running exercises.

As for playing fast as macashmack said play slow then speed it up, if you don't push yourself you will just stay but pushing yourself to much may lead to sloppy technique.

As for how long it takes, I can only speak for myself. It took me maybe a year, the earliest video I have of me shredding I'd been playing 1.5 years.

crazytjeuh

Playing fast is being mentally prepared to move your fingers very fast and especially ACCURATE.
It costed me some time and frustration as well, but in the end it's all muscle memory that you gain by playing things over and over and CORRECT. It's like you learned to ride a bike, a car, preparing an egg, getting through school and all of that.

gui8tar

Practice scales using a metronome. Turn up the beat 8 counts every time you get comfortable with the speed until you get to 200 every day. If you cant get to 200 then 160 is get spot. I used to spend at least 1hr on just this every day.

You can use virtual guitar tabs. Go to songster.com

You can slow down the tempo of a song so you can slowly increase the tempo until you can play it. Their are programs that use the same set up as songster one of those programs is called guitar pro its a grate tool.