Overcome Your Guitar Playing Problems With Speed Testing
Craig Bassett
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Article Title:
Overcome Your Guitar Playing Problems With Speed Testing
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Article Description:
A large number of guitarists make a number of mistakes when
they find that they have trouble playing something... They
try to improve their playing of something without doing a
few vital things... Read this article to get your guitar
playing technique back on track...
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Distribution Date and Time: 2010-07-27 14:45:00
Written By: Craig Bassett
Copyright: 2010
Contact Email: mailto:arti...@guitarmastery.co.nz
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Overcome Your Guitar Playing Problems With Speed Testing
Copyright (c) 2010 Craig Bassett
The Guitar Mastery Newsletter
http://www.TheGuitarMasteryNewsletter.com/
Let's imagine for a minute that you are feeling really sick. In
fact...you feel downright dreadful. You can't remember the last
time you felt this bad.
Because you feel so sick, you decide to visit your local doctor.
After the usual annoying wait, you go into the doctor's office.
Before you say anything your doctor writes out a prescription for
you...even though they haven't even tried to diagnose what the
problem might be.
You then leave and stop by a pharmacy on the way home to get the
medicine that was prescribed. You take the medicine for a couple
of weeks. But it doesn't help...you still feel sick.
So you go back to the doctor again. You mention how you are still
feeling sick...but all the doctor does is write out another
prescription.
Pretty Crazy Huh?
I know the story was far-fetched. It's highly unlikely that it
would ever happen. (At least I hope not!). But did you realize
that this is exactly what a large number of guitarists do when
they have trouble playing something?
They try to improve their playing of something without doing a
few vital things...
1. Spending some time to find out accurately what the actual
problems are.
2. Making an accurate diagnosis of what is causing the actual
problems.
3. Checking whether-or-not what they are doing to fix the
problems is actually working.
And that's why I recommend making Speed Testing a tool that you
use in your guitar practice sessions...
Understanding Speed Testing
Speed testing is a term that I use to describe the process of
testing my playing. It involves playing something at
ever-increasing speeds for a few minutes until my playing starts
to fall apart.
When I say "starts to fall apart" I mean that I start to notice
one or more of the following things happening...
* I start to play out of time with the metronome.
* My picking-hand starts to feel unnecessary tension.
* My fretting-hand starts to feel unnecessary tension.
* The quality of the notes starts to suffer. (For Example: Often
when people start playing faster, the picking-hand starts picking
softer, so the notes get quieter and quieter).
* I make mistakes. (This is a neon-coloured-billboard-sized sign
that your playing has fallen apart!).
Notice how some of the above are quite subtle? And that's
important...because if you learn to notice these subtle signs,
then you'll be able to catch and fix the problems earlier!
How To Do Speed Testing
Probably the best way to learn this is to do it. So think of an
exercise that you've been practicing. Once you've decided on
something, then I recommend doing the following steps...
Step One:
Turn on your metronome and set it to a speed where you can play
the exercise perfectly in a very relaxed way. It must feel very
easy at the speed you have chosen.
Step Two:
Play through the exercise once. Rest for a few seconds, and then
play through the exercise a second time.
If you were able to play the exercise perfectly, then move onto
the next step.
Step Three:
Increase your metronome speed by a small amount (say 3 to 5 bpm),
and then repeat Step Two again.
Step Four:
Repeat Step Three until you start to make mistakes or notice some
of the other symptoms that I mentioned earlier in this article.
Step Five:
Play the exercise a few more times and pay close attention to
what both your hands are doing. (In other words...watch your
hands closely as you do this). The aim with this step is to try
to notice exactly what is causing the problem in your playing.
It is important to realize that this step can be very challenging
to do if you are new to it. The reason is that you are trying to
closely observe your playing as you play the exercise. (Many
people have trouble doing this. They have to concentrate so much
on the actual playing actions that they find it hard to observe
anything at all!).
And this is why getting help from a guitar tutor can be very
helpful. They will be able to watch you closely as you do the
speed testing. And they will be able to notice things much more
easily. If you don't have access to a good guitar tutor, then
you might find video taping yourself really useful. You'll be
able to concentrate fully on your playing during the speed
testing, and then observe your playing later when watching the
video.
Step Six:
Write down the last metronome setting where you could play the
exercise perfectly. This will usually be a few bpm slower than
the setting you used in Step Five.
So...What Do I Do Next?
At this point you now have done the speed testing and figured out
to the best of your ability where and why things start to fall
apart at fast speeds. The next step is to fix the problem that
causes your playing to fall apart.
It's impossible to give specific advice here because everyone
will have different problems that need fixing. But my usual
approach is to do both of the following...
* Isolate the problem area and practice it very slowly. For
Example: Let's imagine that my pick motions were too big for a
particular section of the exercise. I would then practice that
section over-and-over making sure that my pick motions are very
economical.
* Design support exercises. This is where I design new exercises
that work on the specific problem I had when speed testing. They
will often be very short, and work on the problem area in a very
laser-focused way.
After working on the problem area are for a few practice
sessions, I then usually do speed testing again. This helps me to
see if I have effectively solved the problem. How? Because If I
have solved the problem then I should be able to reach a higher
metronome setting before things start to fall apart.
So what are you waiting for? Grab your guitar and metronome, and
start getting your guitar playing to the next level!
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If you're a motivated electric guitarist wanting to make
substantial improvements to your lead guitar playing then be
sure to check out: The Guitar Mastery Newsletter, published by
Craig Bassett at: http://www.TheGuitarMasteryNewsletter.com/
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