Am I crippled? Right hand not connected ?

Whats up all, ive been playin for about 15 yrs now (off and on). My left hand (fret hand) can fly across the fret board at light speed but my right hand just doesnt want to cooperate, I mean it's awefull how slow it is. I find myself doing alot of hammer on /pull off stuff in my leads, but I want that cool, smooth, flowing sound with my scales and single note stuff. Any ideas, practices I could do? If youve seen a good link on here let me know. Thanks in advance.

are you a southpaw?

My friend has the same problem... he hasnt been playing long though.
I also find my fretting hand can play really fast but so can my picking hand.. just not at the same time.
I can play fast but not as fast as i could do.
I think using a metronome will help you here.
Can you pick fast with your picking hand while not fretting any notes ?

Basically you're asking, "how do I go from a 60s/70s type lead to an 80s lead guitarist?", right?

I'm doing the same thing right now. There's really only about 4 techniques that you need to learn, on top of the scales. I'm learning two, alternate picking and legato picking. (do a search to find out what they are). Others would include sweep picking and economic picking, oh yeah and tapping.

It's just a matter of bringing your pinky into play, learning the minor scale patterns and then very slowly bringing it up to speed until you can play so fast nobody gives a crap what exactly you're playing.

Dude do I feel your pain. I am coming out of that struggle right now. I am very left-handed. My right hand was so out of whack it was funny. I learned to play right-handed because my folks were poor and I had to sneak and use my uncle's guitar when he was at work. So it kinda stuck.

After about 15 years of playing my rhythm was very weak. I could hit the beat but it just sounded very forced. My lead lines were fast and I could pick very quickly, but not very accurately. Forget strummed acoustic.

After playing that long, I had learned habits that were very bad. For example: my alternate picking was not strick. I would alternate pick all the notes on the same string, but always start with a downstroke on the next string. BAD. I found out that not keeping an up and down motion either at my wrist or at my elbow was holding me back from playing fast and accurate.

So, I started over. I took a metronome and set it slow. I would play an octave of a scale, or E-123, A-123, D-123, G-123, B-123, E-123 (this I suppose is quasi-chromatic) than work back moving up a 1/2 step: E-432, B-432, G-432, D-432, A-432, E-432 and so forth. During this I FORCED myself to look at my picking hand and say outloud "Down Up Down Up". It was horrible. I felt like I had flipped the guitar over and was now playing left-handed. My mind said "Forget this, you have played too long for this humiliation". But I kept it up. Once I could play all notes smooth and clean I bumped the metronome up 8BPM. I did this with various patterns, scales, etc.

Low and behold after a few weeks, my scales sounded a ton better, my improv skills improved and guess what - my rhythm was even solid and smooth. I had focused too many years and shredding with the left-hand being more important than the right.

Now my guitars do not have to have the action so low that a piece of paper barely slides between a fret and the string and the frets buzz because I can play more accurate and not rely on brute strength of the left hand to sound the notes.

Sorry about the rant.... :D

All good advice Chrome, thanx man. I'll start with the metronome tonight and just do it over and over till its about to drive me crazy, then ill change the key ;) .
Do you also find yourself in a rutt of playing the same little lead tricks over and over? I'll record a little jam track and then do a lead over top of it and I always end up doing the same runs and bends and blah, blah,,you know what I mean. Any advice there? I was told that if you quit for awhile, just give it a break, that when you picked it back up you would have different ideas, ive yet to see that! Same o'le same o'le here.

YES I did have that problem. Always playing the same licks and using that Pentatonic Box. Here's how I broke out of that one:

Record a backing track in Aminor. Use a clean sound so you aren't to tempted to burn it up with the old licks. My progression used the following chords: Am, G, F, G. Use open chords since they sound better clean, IMHO. Now since we know Aminor had the notes A,B,C,D,E,F,G,A play ONLY on one string ONLY these notes. Start slow and say the note names as you go. Start on the high E. Don't worry about phrasing just yet. Engrave the notes and patterns into your brain. Remember: only one string at a time. Don't worry about starting on A. Start on open E. Once you are cool with that, start building some licks. Use triplets, speed picking, whatever. Remember to take time to let the some of the notes "breathe" (that was a challenge for me). Record yourself. You should sound totally different. Now go to the B string and do the same. Once you got that down, use both strings. Then go to using only G string, then the E,B,G together. Get to the point where you can solo on each string alone. Finally all the strings. At this point you will have a real good understanding of the fretboard and some cool new phrases.

Key points:
1. ONLY one string at a time.
2. Say the note names when learning the pattern on each string.

Hope that helps!

A few hours of this and you will find some new REAL cool stuff.

BTW - Don't put the guitar down just to try to break out of a rut. All that will do is bust the chops. Must be a wife or girlfiend that told you that.....lol (just joking) :D

Hold on a second.

You want a legato sound.. but you want a better right hand?

You're not really looking in the right place man. A lot of guitarists say, Derryl Gabel for example. Plays like you wouldn't believe... but hardly uses his picking at all.

It may seem obvious, but try playing outside the "box"..I used to get locked
into "pentatonic" scales and the modal scales...but try visualising angular patterns and shapes on the fretboard. Try any shape that comes to mind of course you'll hit clunkers on the way but it will get your fingers used to odd patterns and eventually be able to hear some kewl stuff. Arpeggios are a good way to start, but even some of those have become "standardized"
just pick shapes within a 7 fret distance from one another and try to pick out chords, skip strings etc...that will also help develop your reach
hope that helps :cool:

Practise pure, artificial and multiple-stop harmonics until you can play them at high speed. Playing like this requires a lot of feel and dexterity. When you switch back to playing "normal" again, everything becomes a lot easier.

Originally Posted by: Azraelare you a southpaw?

whats is a southpaw????

yeah using a metronome does work. i am improving... but not enough... i notice after i raise the tempo when practicing a lick my right hand starts cramping up... and i still have trouble eliminating distance between strokes..
any advice?

Originally Posted by: ranma187whats is a southpaw????

A left-handed bloke.

Cool story: In the old days (maybe even to this day, but I'm not sure) pro baseball fields were designed so that home plate was north of second base. So, when a pitcher would stand on the pitcher's mound in a ready stance, a left-handed pitcher's left hand would be pointing south. That's where the term comes from, apparently.

OK, I found the actual explanation:

Originally Posted by: www.wordorigins.orgSouthpaw has its origins in 1880s' baseball slang. Baseball diamonds were often arranged so the batters would face east, to avoid looking into the afternoon sun. The pitcher's left hand, or paw, would therefore be on the southern side.

ChromeBeast, your advices really helped me too. Man, I acctually think it was some of the best stuff I've ever seen on this forum.. Thanks a lot, dude! :D

Inisfail,

Looks like I will be back at square one. I had a dirtbike wreck, and really screwed up my left arm. See surgeon tomorrow. Also broke 3 bones in foot. So, I am a mess....lol

Glad it helped! I know it helped me alot! Keep pickin!

Shane

Wow...Chrome, that was some awesome advice...

Sorry to hear about your mishap man...

I have one little problem that maybe someone here could help me with...my speed and accuracy has increased immensely since practising as suggested, but after a while my right hand chokes up, this is odd, cos its not may hand that hurts, but my forearm, I am sure that this is a result of a bad picking technique or summin.
I have been playing for about 4 years now, but I have never had a problem like this before...anyone have any solutions?

Andrew,

You need to warn up before and during practice without a guitar. I dont know how to describe these exercises, but they help. I'll try to explain:

1. Massage forearm.
2. Massage palm and fingers
3. Take one hand and gently pull the other back (hold the hand to be pulled back like you were making the "stop" sign a crossing gueard uses) lol.
4. Do the same as number 3, but point the tips of the fingers down and palm facing you.
5. Repeat 1-4 with the other hand.

I played a show 2 weeks ago and did not have time to do these excercises and by the 4th song, I was cramped almost too bad to play.

Chrome