How can you get fast?

I download the samples that people have contributed and they are so damn fast it's unbelievable. I wanna get that fast. Anybody know what I can do to shred like the pro's?

Practice,practice,practice,are the three most important things i can think of off-hand.

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Life is a banquet,so eat me.

A lot of new guys think that there is some magical thing you can do to get better, but I can tell you with 100% certainty, there's not.

It all comes down to practice.

If you've got what it takes, you'll be great, if you don't, then find something else to work at.

THats what I really like about musical instruments.

THey kind'a kill off the ones that don't have the discipline to work hard enough to experience what it's like to be able to play what you want when you want.

THe way I've always felt about music is as follows:

If you don't have the dedication to stick with it, find something else cause you're just getting in everyone else's way.



[This message has been edited by Luke (edited 09-30-2000).]

Well said

Thanks

All I meant was, if you don't have the dedication, get out of people who do have it's way!

I'm tired of little pop stars singing about things they've never experienced and in the process, clouding the publics eyes to actually TALENTED musicians.

And I REALLY hate it when people call someone
a "musician" just cause they have an instrument in they're hands. JUst cause you make a sound on an instrument, does that really make you a musician?

And this is not something that can go either way, that's just how it is , like it or not!

quote:

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Originally posted by Luke:

If you've got what it takes, you'll be great, if you don't, then find something else to work at.


THey kind'a kill off the ones that don't have the discipline to work hard enough to experience what it's like to be able to play what you want when you want.

THe way I've always felt about music is as follows:

If you don't have the dedication to stick with it, find something else cause you're just getting in everyone else's way.



[This message has been edited by Luke (edited 09-30-2000).]

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I see what you're getting at but I think this is a relative matter and not one of absolutes. I mean, really, how does one know if one "has it" or not? What if I thought you didn't have what it took? Should I ask you to please get out of my way? Who's to say and how exactly would you be getting in my way or the way of anyone else? What way? Is this a race? Where's the fun? And how about if some people are later bloomers? I know guys who were less than mediocre for years and then, by sticking with it though the drought years, made dramatic breakthroughs. What if they had given up at the first sign of "not having what it takes"?

And "having what it takes" is relative to what you want to play. Blues? Country? Grunge? Folk? Each has variance in levels of technique and other things.

I figure the world is a big place and there's room for everyone. And if a person is happy to keep trying rather than falling out of some race just so they're not getting in somebody's way, then I say keep at it as long as it's fun.

discipline and hard work can get a person a long way but some people are happy not to put themselves through guitar boot camp just to meet somebody's external critera of what it takes to be good.

I don't know, it's a pretty complex set of issues. And, actually, I've seen lots of evidence over 20 years of playing and teaching that when some people stop trying so hard they make better progress than if they stuck their noses to the grindstone of "discipline" - in other words, there is no one right way to play guitar and no one right way to do anything. You gotta find your own way, in your own time, and find a place you're happy with.

Peace,

b

Now thats well said,

I totaly aggree with you, there are people out there happy just to be able to play, and they don't want to be the best in the world. I mean, so what if someone who has been learning for a long time is still crap. If they enjoy music (guitar) and can get something out of playing it then i don't think that anyone else has the right to tell them that they don't have it and that they should give up.

Sure some people have more time to put into into their music so are better at it, but that still doesn't give them any right to tell others not to keep playing. And i think that being musicians it isn't our job to look down on people but to help and support them as much as we can.

I've downloaded and heard some of the sample players on the site. What are some exercises to help to increase my speed. I'm willing to practice but I know that certain exercises can really help to improve speed.

I don't think it matters much what you do as long as it challenges you and you keep at it. Having some background music really helps cause it takes your attention off every little mistake you make and gets you used to playing in time.
One thing I found that made a huge improvement in my speed was learning scales with 3 notes per string. Previous to that I played for about 10 years and couldn't get any speed at all. Then I started learning all the scales backwards and forwards, partial scales, string skipping etc. and within 2 years I doubled my speed and suddenly had a better understanding of the fretboard. Like, knowing where the notes are that you want to hit and not fumbling around and stuff.
You've just gotta keep at it. I've been playing for about 30 years now and some of the stuff I tried to learn when I was in my teens like Kiss, Sweet, Deep Purple etc.. sounded so impossibly fast. Now I put the records on (yeah records :) and they seem like they're in slow motion. Even Van Halen who I thought was the fastest player alive after I heard his first album, sounds kind of slow to me now.

I'm with you on the pop star thing. It's really irritating sometimes when I think ok...I'm 43, I've been playing guitar since I was 12 and can play just about anything. But cause of the luck of the draw and other commitments, never had any real success in 'the business'.
11:30 p.m. comes along and some young bunch of teens come on the Jay Leno show with a band with a guitar player that sounds worse than I did 25 years ago and I just wanna grab that kid and kick him. It's like, I'm 100 times better than this guy, I've struggled all my life to play as well as I can, but I'm stuck here in this stupid basement listening to the neighbors dog bark while this kid who sounds like crap with his guitar hanging around his ankles is selling millions of records.
I've learned along the way that talent alone ain't gonna get you there. It's who you know and how you play the game. (And having long hair and being skinny is a sure fire way to success no matter how bad you are)

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[email]hootayah@email.com[/email]

quote:

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Originally posted by Luke:

I'm tired of little pop stars singing about things they've never experienced and in the process, clouding the publics eyes to actually TALENTED musicians.

And I REALLY hate it when people call someone
a "musician" just cause they have an instrument in they're hands. JUst cause you make a sound on an instrument, does that really make you a musician?

And this is not something that can go either way, that's just how it is , like it or not!

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Well, you and I both don't like it, that's for sure, Luke. But let me ask you, let's pretend that all the fakers, poop stars, teeny boppers, and whatnot, did get out of the way of talented musicians, would the public then, in the absence of their former idols, then turn to the musicians with real talent? LOL, no way. They'd tune into somethng else innane and unsubstantial. The fact is that there is nothing standing in the way of real musicians other than the fact that the public doesn't give a hoot about real music or talent, skill, dedication, or anything else for that matter. The record co. knows this or they'd sell real music. So still there is no reason for Ricky Martin et al to get out of our way, because we'd still be nowhere. And that's the way it is, like it or not.;-)

I often wonder if Gatton finally came to this conclusion and just decided to end it all for that reason.

But remember hootayah, the public couldn't care less how well you play guitar. There are thousands of people out there who can play malmsteen licks note for note who aren't successful in the industry, and that's because the record buying public wants to hear music, not guitar playing. I'm not saying that its necessarily good music that the public wants to hear, but just because you're capable of playing the licks, doesn't mean that it's unfair that johnny six string is famous and you aren't, because johnny six string is capable of making marketable music, that's the difference.
I'm not a fan of blink 182, or nirvana, or any of the guys you're probably refering to, but I don't think that I should have a record deal just because I play better than them. They are making catchy pop tunes, to judge them by their skill as guitarrists is foolish and irrelevent.
Listen to what you like, but don't judge others because they listen to or perform music that requires less skill to pull off, if I listened only for skill then I'd probably listen to elliot fisk all day long, but I have other tastes as well, and I don't get angry every time i see somebody bashing out power chords on tv.

Succsses in music is more luck then abilites... and ofcorse you can be better player than anyone but... the ability to play every van hallen / malmsteen / page or whatever lick doesnt make you good... the difference between good guiatist and bad one to me is the ability or the lack of the ability to write something original.... for example: i heard from my father that when he was young people were saying about someone that he is better than page cause he plays stairway better... this is a s*** because page wrote this solo , and song and the guy from my dad's place didnt ...
i mean maybe the guy on the tv is the worst guitarist you've ever seen... but he wrote this song and he succssed to sell it and you didnt... so the ability to play every song you know doesnt take you anywhere

And take a guy like Vai. I think we could all agee to rank him as one of the best guitarists alive. But I wonder where he would have ended up had it not been for Whitesnake and DLR? And he not "made it" in terms of fame and public recognition I wonder if Satriani's star would have risen? And to call DLR or anybody in Whitesnake a "musician" could at least be called a subject for debate rather than consensus. So, here, you have pop slop actually helping the 'real' musician to get some recognition.

And then who is to decide what is and is not valid music and skill? Neil Young can't shred but there is something to his style that is wonderful and human than a buch of arps and scales up and down the fretboard. Who is going to be the final judge to decide what is and is not good music, who is a musician?

quote:

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Originally posted by bofatron sofasaurus:
And take a guy like Vai. I think we could all agee to rank him as one of the best guitarists alive.
And then who is to decide what is and is not valid music and skill? Neil Young can't shred but there is something to his style that is wonderful and more human than a buch of arps and scales up and down the fretboard. Who is going to be the final judge to decide what is and is not good music, who is a musician?

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Exactly. I think people often forget about this, and focus more on technical ability than on the music. I think it's because you can measure speed, but you can't say objectively "this is good music" or "this is bad music." So people go for the stuff that they can touch when they want to define greatness, and that ends up being irrelevent stuff like speed.
For the reason you mentioned above, I wouldn't even rank Vai that high. To me, he's a guy who knows scales, sweep patterns, and sound effects, and doesn't have much in the way of musical sensitivity. Well he sometimes does, but he usually chooses to opt for musical masturbation instead (I like stuff like sisters, but he usually goes for the sound effects/noodling shred instead.)
I'm not ragging on anybody who likes Vai, I'm just saying that's not the kind of stuff I like. I like some of the guys in that genere, mostly satriani, but I listen more often to jazz and classical. People will often say that jazz is too technical, that it's all of the things I was just denouncing above, and to that I reply that there is some jazz like that, and that's not the stuff I listen to. I prefer guys like chet baker, miles davis, and wes montgomery, guys who could say a lot when they improvised, even if they can't blaze up and down the scales like clifford brown, dizzie gillespie, and jimmy bruno (all three of whom I also like, but not as much.)