To all the shredders out there

How did you go about building you speed?

I'm stuck around 16th notes at 100-120bpm I'm constantly trying things that push me but progress is slow so I'm just wondering what the speedy gonzalos among us did to bring their speeds up.

I became more conscious of my picking,and
the syncing between my left and right.

I also became aware that the picking hand of
every guitarist has a natural delay in its reaction
time,a very Very small delay,but its there.

So what I would reccomend for you to do is build up your
picking hand speed,with a metronome,by tremolo picking
at a slow tempo,then gradually increasing to more and more
no left hand fancy stuff,just hold one note and build speed on
that.

Next,i would try to bring my left hand to par with the right.
For example
Play 16th note hammer-ons and pull-offs @120
Then
pick 16th notes alternate picking @120
INDEPENDENTLY IE. hammers and pulloffs by themselves
then picking.
Then try to match the notes together as in play 4 fretted notes
and pick 4notes simultaneously,ie. syncing that 120bpm
speed to both hands,and making things smoother and more even.

The biggest mistake all people who want to play fasr
t make is to develop one hands speed more than the other.
If your left hand can play 16ths @150 but your picking
hand at only 120bpm,it wont work,and it will sound bad,and the flow(illusion of speed) wont sound right. So like I said up there work one hand
first,then bring the other up too speed,then sync.
A basic formula for speed.

M/(*-+)
gs2112

*please disregard all spelling errors,first pist of
the morning,no coffee yet >_

That's OK man. Go drink some coffee, take your second pist and all should be well. XD

LOL I meant to say *post hahahahHah...guess i really
needed that coffee LMAO!

Remember to properly warm up your hands before trying to play fast, since you can damage your hands if you just jump right into playing something taxing without warming up.
It took me forever to learn how to do that really fast tremolo picking stuff, mostly because my technique was off. Once I got comfortable with holding my hand a certain way over the strings, everything else sort of fell into place.
I find it easier to fret a note on one string(say the 12th fret on the high e) and practice tremolo picking that and building up speed that way. There's less string movement between each pick hit and it makes it easier to play more successive notes than an open high e(IMO-don't know if there is any science behind this or not, I just always found it was easier to do).
DEFINITELY use a metronome. Practice slowly while concentrating on right hand technique first(or left if your a lefty). Just like Gs pointed out, don't worry about the fancy stuff yet.
It will also help you out to practice alternate picking scales up and down(great warmup). Doing that over and over and over will help you get used to moving around various positions while picking with your hands in unison-not just picking 1 note 300 times.
To play fast, you gotta start slow man. You'll get speed eventually, it just takes a bit of time.

Start slowly - make sure to play with a metronome and make sure you are PERFECT before you upgrade to the next tempo... play in CLEAN!!! If you play with distortion you won't be able to tell where exactly you mess up.

But just do all the typical practices - they may be boring, but that's necessary...

This. If you can play clean and shred like you would if you had gain going, you're golden. Plus playing clean gives everything a lot more clarity and you can hear your mistakes as Jazz mentioned. It's just overall a lot better for jamming most of the time if you're alone.

just my two cents. :p

Ozz

I play clean (actually unplugged) and use a metronome starting off slow.

One thing I'm concerned about is my picking hand position, I angle the pick for tremolo picking but I tilt it backwards, and most guitarists I've see tilt it forwards. (backwards side of picking facing the ground is closest to the bridge)

I actually say learn a different way.

Distortion first, then Clean.

To me, playing Clean is just to polish off the sound, so when you do use distortion you can hear the note more than the distortion (if that makes sense). If you start off clean it's gonna give newer guitarists the thought that they could never reach that level of playing. So play with a tad of distortion for a while (7 out of 10 on a Marshall for instance), Then smooth out the rough edges by playing on clean.

That worked for me. Just a suggestion though.

I kind of agree with DarkRiff. It just depends on the technique. If your doing sweeps, then I think practicing with distortion is better because you can learn to control the notes better and not have accidental "fart" note

I agree with Jazz. Play clean and slow. If you are bored, playing the same riff over and over clean and slow, it's an indication that you are not ready to play fast. It's more of mental thing than a physical thing. We can all move our hands fast but why do some play so fast so clean? Because they start out clean and slow.

@mac We all cant move our hands fast,technique and speed builind is
about muscle memory,and repitition. The physical (picking really fast) Is just as important as mental(knowing which notes you are going to be playing fast) Because without one,you couldnt have the other.

And on this clean vs. distorted practice topic.

Id like to say that you should practice with whichever tone
you use more. If your stlye of music requires alot of distorted
playing,practice with distortion. If your stlye requires alot of clean tone playing,than practice with clean tone.

Practicing with a tone that you hate or dont use will not
benefit you in any way. It will make practice miserable and boring.
Why not make practice fun,and dial in your favorite sound,wether
it be clean or distorted,w/e and get comfortable sounding
good playing your favorite sound.

My 2 ¢

\m/(*-+)
gs2112

Im with whatever is fun, is the benefit greater or lesser, I dont care, but I dont spent my freetime to get bored, I want it to be fun.
to be great shredder with hours and hours clean with metronome...well, im not ready for it and I never get so good... Then mote it be.

I guess you have a point if you never play clean. I like to play fast clean as well. If you do both, I suggest clean first. You won't have to practice in both tones. Playing clean gives you an idea of how well you attack the strings with your pick.

I do have to say that my favorite way to play is with distortion and kinda dirty!

|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|

B|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|

G|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|

D|------------------------------------------------2-----------2-4-5-4-2------|

A|----------2-----------2-4-5-4-2-----------2-3-5---5-3-2-3-5-----------5-3-2|

E|----2-3-5---5-3-2-3-5-----------5-3-2-3-5----------------------------------|

this is what i do for accuracy and to build up that anooying lag on my pinkie start slow with this and then go faster as you feel more confortable..... im sorry but i dont play it untill i feel its perfect i play untill im confortable... cus if you try to play it perfectly youll never get it cus we are human and will always make mistakes.... aslo you can repeat this on any three string but. add one for the high b and e also you can play this on a bass too biuld confidence with your bassing :D bassically this is my cheat sheet and warmup :D

@everyone thanks for everything

@mac I used to be able to play a bit faster in some respects than I do now but I spent about 8-9 weeks not playing a year or so ago because of ligament damage in my picking hand and I've had a paranoia about it that meant that I wasn't trying to build my technique back up.

But now my hands been fine for a year I'm ready to break previous speed boundaries :D

Good luck man,if you want,im happy to answer
any questions you might have about speed and
technique through p.m.

Btw....Y'know...they dont call me Gshredder cause
Im good at disposing of important documents....just sayin..

\M/(*-+)
gs2112

@Gshred
I think it's due mostly to your user name. XD

@DanielM
Didn't know about the ligament damage, and keeping that in mind, though it is probably fully healed and back to 100% I would definitely take caution and do a long slow warm up before trying to tackle anything speed related-you don't want to cause the same thing twice ya know?

AND...my 2 cents on the clean/distortion thing:
Jamming with distortion is a load of fun-it just sounds cooler for riffing and soloing and is easier to manipulate, however, playing on the clean channel will really accent any weaknesses in your playing(and highlight your strengths). Clean is more of a look under the hood so to speak. Either way is fun and fine and you should be able to play cleanly no matter what amount of gain you use-though clean will help you determine certain things about your playing that distortion might cover up. Plus, clean jams are always more fun IMO, since you can hear your notes a bit more clearly rather than just buzzsaw riffage \m/ haha

@case ...Touché.