The Guitar Resource » Exercises

Guitar Lesson – Tremelo Picking Ludicrous Speed!

James — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:23:31 +0000

One of the best weapons a guitarist has in the the battle to improve their playing speed is the Metronome. This small machine keeps perfect time with a series of beeps that can be configured for several purposes.

In this article I will explain the 2 most crucial settings to use on the metronome and their relationship to developing lethal shredding speed!

A Major factor to becoming truly fast is mastering tremelo picking. And guess what! Yep, our buddy the metronome is going to help us to do it.

Temelo picking is just alternate picking – down,up,down,up etc. - on one note so lets set the metronome up and get started!

Set the Metronome to 8th note triplets and adjust the tempo to a nice easy speed. Your starting tempo should be something you can play easily with no error for an extended time period. You should heara steady pulse of clicks (Tic, tic, tic – Tic, tic, tic – Tic, tic, tic – Tic, tic, tic) with a staggering feel.

Now start alternate picking in time with the clicks on the 5th fret of the large E string(note A). The clicks come in a series of 3 so I want you to play the 1st click of each group of 3 slightly louder than the other 2. This is your pulse click which needs to be in perfect time.

If your metronome has a pendulum arm or a horizontal LED display you should play the pulse note whenever the arm reaches the extreme left or right. In the case of an LED display this is the extremeleft or right LED light. It is common for metronomes to play the pulse note louder as well.

You should realize that when you hear a guitar player playing fast tremelo picking that the notes are a series of small bundles - in this case they are 3 note bundles – tied together to form a larger musical pattern. The pulse note will become familiar to you so if you solo over a song with a fast 4/4 tempo you can simply count off the pulse notes in time with the beat. A bar of tremelo picking using the above setting produces 12 notes per bar. By recognising you pulse note you only have to count from 1 to 4 to keep effective time using tremelo picking.

So now that you have a few ideas about how and why to do things you can increase the tempo speed. I like to jump up in 10bpm lots but you can use smaller amounts. The main thing to remember is not to increase the tempo by large amounts too quickly. Lets say you started at 80bpm and you executed your tremelo picking with no mistakes using relaxed alternate picking technique and economy of movement(small controlled movements). Now, bump it up to 90bpm and listen to clicks before you play anything.

Before you start you should realise that there is no difference between playing slow and fast. Its common for students to hear a faster tempo and immediately say to themselves “That's too fast I'll never do that”. And guess what? Their mind makes it true. Your mind is so powerful that it will make statements like this a reality. You should instead clear your mind of all thought and simply play.

Lets continue. Using the correct mindset above you tremelo pick perfectly at 90bpm so you would bump the tempo up to 100bpm make your mind calm and clear of distraction then go for it!

If you find that you were not able to make the jump to 90bpm then stay on 80 bpm for a day or two or even a week. If you are new to tremelo picking then you have to condition your muscles to perform the work. Training your muscles should be done at a slow tempo from 40 – 60bpm. Once this is done then attempt to increase your speed again and you will see a huge improvement.

I mentioned 2 crucial settings earlier. The 2nd is 16th notes. Set your metronome to this setting and listen to the clicks. This time you will hear bundles of 4 clicks(Tic, tic, tic, tic – Tic, tic, tic, tic – Tic, tic, tic, tic – Tic, tic, tic, tic). Lets start with a nice easy tempo say 60bpm. As before, start alternate picking on the 5th fret of the big E string(Note A). Play the pulse note slightly louder than the other 3.

The process for improving speed is the same for 16th notes as 8th note triplets.

You should practice tremelo picking separately on all 6 strings as each string has different resistence and uses the muscles in your hand differently

If you are interested in more information on my guitar teaching methods I do have an ebook available with MP3's titled Shred Lords – Neoclassical Guitar available at my website www.jameserceg.com. James Erceg is a full time professional guitar teacher and player.

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Trilling Terror – Finger strength and speed exercise for guitar

Joe — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 00:59:07 +0000

This is a great finger exercise for guitar you can use to build speed and strength. The best part of this exercise is that you really don’t need to focus that much. It can be done with ease while watching TV or reading or even chatting with a friend.

So here is what you do. You are going to “trill” (rapidly hammer on and pull off) on the high E string (you can start at any fret, I normally start around the 5th) as fast as you can using various finger positions. Sound easy? Well guess what, it’s not. You are going to trill for 15 seconds straight in each position pictured below. And you are going to do it was fast as you can. And you can’t rest until you go through all 8 positions below. That’s two minutes of straight of trilling. And this is just to start off. The goal is to work up to a minute straight with each position.

The different positions to use are pictured below. Be sure that you can hear all of the notes clearly when you play, especially for exercises 4,5, and 8. If you need to slow down a bit for those ones, you should. Also, if your hand starts hurting at any point, stop and take a break. You don’t want to hurt yourself.

The numbers after each picture represtent the fingers you are using (1= pointer and 4=pinkey, you can figure out the other two)

(1, 2, 1, ect...)

(...)
Read the rest of Trilling Terror – Finger strength and speed exercise for guitar (107 words)

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

String skipping between octaves to revitalize your solos

Joe — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 17:58:34 +0000

There are a lot of simple things you can do to spice up your guitar soloing. One great technique many guitar players use is string skipping. There are many different ways to use string skipping to beef up your chops. But for this post I just wanted to focus on one simple method you can use.

One really cool string skipping technique is to jump back and forth between two different octaves when you play a scale. So lets start by looking at a normal C major scale:

Now we can spice up that scale by skipping octaves from one note to the next. You can play this with your fingers or with alternate picking:

You can apply that same concept to any of your lines. Play around with different melodies. This will inspire even more creativity in your playing. Have fun!

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Play What You Hear – Getting Your Ears and Fingers In Sync

Joe — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 02:11:42 +0000

When you solo your lines should be an extension of what you here in your head. The better you get at guitar, the less you will have to think about what to play and the more you play what you feel. Getting to that level of guitar playing takes some time and practice. But one of the ways you can speed up the process is by training your inner ear to recognize the sounds in your head, and training your fingers to execute those sounds on guitar.
(...)
Read the rest of Play What You Hear – Getting Your Ears and Fingers In Sync (296 words)

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Change Your Rhythms to Spice Up Your Guitar Solo – Video lesson

Joe — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 05:59:36 +0000

Guitar solos can get boring when they only use one rhythm. One way to spice up your solos is to play different rhythms while in your guitar solo and improvisation. This is a great exercise to help you learn to switch rhythms while playing lead guitar.

So grab your metronome and watch this video and soon you will be able to switch your rhythm with ease. This lesson uses the A major scale. Also note that i am using alternate picking while I play. If you have any questions please post them to the comments and I will do my best to answer them!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh