Try this simple test

Hey guys,

The other day I randomly decided that I should figure out how fast I can alternate pick on one string without worrying about my fretting hand. Literally just picking one note. So I decided to play 16th notes and started dialing up my metronome. The results kind of shocked me, as I couldn't play as fast as I thought!

I got up to about 185 bpm picking 16th notes, and that was really hard. I'd say comfortably I could pick 16th notes at 175 bpm. And at that speed you can't even really count 4 pick strokes, you kinda just need to know what groups of 4 sound like. It was almost more difficult for my mind to keep up than my hand.

When it comes to actually playing chromatics, I got up to 145 bpm playing 16th notes.

So if you haven't found out your max in either of these exercises, go for it. It's a good exercise anyway.

That's a great exercise, now try it on all 6 strings.
Without stopping, start on 6th string then to A and so on.
Then reverse it . Peace.

Ah, good idea! I'm always thinking of new exercises to work on.

If you do legato hammer-on and pull-off chromatic runs and scale runs too, plus tapping, arpeggios, and sweep picking, you'll clock out even faster! I'm just getting into all that after working on straight picking for a bit.

It takes a bit to understand the metronome. Starting out in slow chunks works best for me. Then, I just relax and let my body take over as I speed up. The hand is quicker than the eye. After watching my fingers the first few times, I learn to play from feel, not by watching my fingers, I read the tab while playing instead. After memorizing the tab, I like to sit back with my eyes closed and see the patterns in my mind's eye while I play. After a lot of practice, then physically watching can be done from an objective point-of-view, fun to watch..."I did that?"

Yeah I've actually been trying some of those things. I recently bought John Petrucci's Rock Discipline and he actually goes over everything you mentioned. And I'm with you, I can't actively listen or watch for the metronome, I just have to let my hand gradually build up speed.

But I haven't tried it with tapping yet.

Originally Posted by: bbzswa777Ah, good idea! I'm always thinking of new exercises to work on.

yeah thats a great excersise,i do it everyday till my hand wants to fall off.lol