2 Questions...!!!

[sadromanticghost]

Hi!....Again...:)I have 2 Questions for you and i would like your answers...1)I have stuck at the speed of 100bpm 16th notes..What i have to do to go over it???
2)I can not create a good solo..It may be (speedy) but not good..Can you give me an advice for how creating a good solo..Or give a link which will teach me how...

[SLY]

For speed , you may need to develope your picking hand technique .
Mainly , the less movement the more speed you can achieve ... Try focusing on wrist (only) picking or finger (finger holding the pick) picking movement.

For making good solos , it's more about creativity than anything else ... Unfortunately this can't be taught , but music theory will always help ... Learn as much scales, modes , chord progrssions , arpeggios as you can ... This will help you to avoid repeated lines in a solo.

[canuck7]

knowing a lot of theory is good for solos because then you have more ink to write with. if you only know the pentatonic scales, sometimes you can be limited. but if you know other scales and patterns, then you will be able to use more colors. if you know something like a Phyrgian pattern than you could try using that instead of the same pentatonic scales you can't quite seem to use properly. so instead of struggling with one scale, try others.
BTW, nothing against people use the pentatonic scales because i do and so did Eddie Van Halen, and i remember that Zakk Wylde also does(and his stuff speaks for itself).

[sadromanticghost]

Well thanks....But this does not help very much...I did not start to play guitar yesterday..And that's the reason i am sad with this problem...I usally be carefull of my wrist to make little move but nothing..But there are days i can play at 110 and other i can only at 90...Of course alternating picking..Can you stil help me???

[SLY]

I still say try to focus on the picking hand technique (in case you can already play faster legatos) ... Watch videos for great fast pickers like Malmsteen , Michael Angelo , Petrucci , Jason Becker , etc. ... Try to imitate their picking technique .
Playing their stuff up to speed or even with higher speed definately helps. (Michael angelo goes up to 16th @ 300 bpm, no one realy have to play faster than this ;) )

These guys have different apraoch to picking , I'm sure you'll find one of their ways more suitable for yourself to apply.

[aiwass]

Practice alot at a time, every day, and with a metronome. Also, don't be afraid to play so fast that you start messing up, cuz if you don't do that, you never progress. The trick is to first warm up to your max speed, then set the metronome slightly higher than that, and play at that speed until you no longer play mistakes. Then go higher and continue the process. I went from about 140 to 200bpm in about a year doing this last year, and now I practice much more. My speed varies now, though. At one point, I was doing chromatic scale exercises at 230/240-ish, but now I'm focusing on playing REAL scales, with economy of motion and ZERO mistakes. This makes chromatics seem much easier, due to awkward order of down/up strokes for each new string when playing three-note-per-string scales.

I can pick regular scales at about 160 to 200, depending on how much I warm up, playing each scale using the pattern: All notes on first two strings, back again, all notes on first three strings, back again, all notes on first four strings, back again, etc. This pattern consisting of alltogether 111 notes is hell when it comes to stamina and accuracy, and I don't allow ANY mistakes.

I can do certain chromatic runs or repeating scalar two-string stuff at 280/ 290 at the fastest for short periods of time. It really helps to focus more on the notes than the speed itself. After all, I don't wanna sound like Chris Impelitteri, who only hits like every fourth note he plays...

[flash2ace]

hi, i have found that alot of your speed comes from the right hand. paul gilbert once said in a video i have of him that you can only play as fast as your picking hand, this makes alot of sense, somthing to try and im not saying this is wright for everyone but it realy helped me with speed, go out and buy some stylus picks, this have hardly no friction and allow total movement without drag and you will imediately see a difference, but they will not make up for lack of practice or lack of knowing what to play, as far as making your solos sound better you just realy need to spend alot of time to solo over different progressions and mix modes together, to be honest there is no magic involved here its just taking your time to practice and paying your dues just ike all the big guys did, there is no overnite remedy.but personnally in my opinion the stylus picks have helped some of my students that i teach alot. so good luck and practice practice practice, you can never do it to much.

[N4Player]

Back to the basics....soloing is 99% heart/feeling and 1% theory. Play from your heart, not from your brain...if you can play like Yngwie - great, but with no feeling behind it, you'll sound like a machine....too many guitarists now days fall into that rut...and they go nowhwere from their little "closet", except to ...old age.
-Bob
http://guitar-wav.com

[noticingthemistake]

Getting out of a rut with speed.

Most guitarists who inspire to become great shredders get in this rut. Why?? An easy question to answer, it's lack of control. Most guitarists will start off at the fastest speed they can play good at, then try to move up. The biggest reason they struggle with perfecting the next level is control. The best way to better your control is too do rhythm patterns at extremely slow tempos. Most you shredders are probably thinking I'm crazy but try it. Try to actually play a solo you know perfectly at 40bpm. It's a completely different work-out which focuses on control, not speed. Somebody's quote on here said something like, "speed is nothing without control". This is absolutely true. In the end, if you work on your control along with speed exercises. You will excel to higher levels a lot quicker. I have students right now who have only been playing a year or two who can pull off pretty difficult solos that I see people with 5-6 yrs of experience having trouble with.

About being better at soloing.

Of course learn as many scales as you can. But try going through one rotation of a scale and sing each note as you play them. Up and down the scale. As you become more familiar with the scale, try singing the note before you play it. Later try jumping around the scale randomly. If you have ever seen guys who can just jump in and play exactly what they want to hear. This is the quickest way to achieve this because your memorizing the sound of each note in the scale along with the scale itself, by ear. Being a good musician is being able to play what you want to hear, right? Well there's how to accomplish that.

For those, who need to think up a solo rather quickly, a good idea is to get yourself one of those hand-tape recorders. Make yourself a loop of the rhythm parts and just hum your solo over that into the recorder. Then go back and figure out what you hummed. Of course you'll want to doctor it up, but just keep working with it until you get the entire solo down exactly how you want it. Very quick way to get solo ideas out, especially the melodic ones. This also boosts your skill of being able to pull the ideas out of your head, and as you develop; you won’t even need the recorder.

These three exercises will develop everything you need to be a better improve soloist. Control along with speed will allow you to pull off any rhythm at and tempo at will. Most importantly being able to understand what you did. Learning how to pull the ideas out of your head will allow you to improve the exactly solo note for note that you want to play at the drop of a dime. Of course this is a many year journey but it is the most effective path to follow.

[jleraan]

I have a question aswell. What's the deal on "16th", "8th", "32th" or whatever th-s we're talking about. What does it mean?

[aiwass]

I see you belong to the tab generation...

It's rhythm. One whole note is the equivalent of 2 half notes, four quarter notes, eight eighth notes, sixteen sixteenth notes, thirty-two thirty-second notes, etc.

In a standard rock or pop tune (which is usually in 4/4), the beat (one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four) is quarternotes.

[jleraan]

Okay, thank you Aiwass. You don't know of a couple of solos which could be a good practice? I am desperate after learning some solos. I'll find someone myself eventually, but maybe you know some great ones aswell?

[aiwass]

Dream Theater solos. Under a Glass Moon, Lie, Fatal Tragedy, Erotomania. If you learn these, you'll receive some serious respect the next time you're in a guitar store... :D

[jleraan]

Great, I'll write it down.

Tonight I learned Adrian Smith's solo on The Evil That Men Do. I have seen several tabs of it, but I found out my own way to play it. Pretty good training for the ear. I'm sure it sounds quite exact. My next project will be something by Slash, Van Halen, Judas Priest and, as you recommended, a couple by Dream Theater.