Just thought I would chime in as more of a novice that has been working on the same thing. Just in the last week I have broken through to what I like to call the next level in my speed building Quest. Yes I like to think of it as a Quest :) The reason I wanted to reply is because I started with CSchlegel's Speedy Ideas. And Benoits picking drills. And I still use my own altered forms of those more than a year later. Just keep after it!! My latest breakthrough happened after playing nothing but acoustic guitar for about 3 weeks. But still practicing all my speed drills on the acoustic. To me this was like the affect you feel after wearing angle weights all day and then after taking them off you feel like you can jump to the moon!! This was the affect I had when I finally allowed myself to go back to the electric guitar It was amazing how much cleaner each note sounded and how effortless it was. After a couple of days of getting used to the change. My speed increased by about 10 to 15%.
Also I changed from economy picking to strict alternate picking all the time and this helped a bunch also. I had to slow down for awhile to make the change but in the end it cleared up a big roadblock that I had hit in my Quest for speed. If you watch anything by John Petrucci, Paul Gilbert etc. They always say to use strict alternate picking. And I always thought I could be faster using economy picking instead but in the end it caused a disruption in the flow that you get when you use strict alternate picking. Kinda like getting out of step when you are marching... I am getting long winded but I am just excited about the subject since I have seen good results over the last couple of weeks. :rolleyes: P.S. USE A METRONOME!!!!!!