Chords for This Is Why You CAN'T Play FAST! (and 2 exercises to FIX it)

_ _ [G] Shredding!
[Gm] _ _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ _ [Bb] _
What's [Am] the big secret, the shortcut, the [A] life hack, the miracle
exercise that will increase your guitar speed, control [Dm] and precision in a matter
of seconds?
[A] Short answer, I don't think that there is such a thing _ _ _ _ _ [Gb] _ but there is
one incredibly important technique aspect that will get you there much
faster if you start implementing it today.
I wish I knew this [Ebm] when I started
out working on my shredding skills back in the day but I'm very happy and
excited that I [Db] can finally [B] share this with you today!
Today's incredibly
important [F] topic is called economy of motion.
_ _ _ _ _ [Bb] _
_ _ _ [Dm] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ I was honestly really bad at
learning about physics when I went to school [Abm] but this is something that even
makes sense to me.
It's [Gb] extremely hard to speed up a big, uncontrolled, cramped up
full arm motion when it comes to picking technique.
Believe me, I tried to do this
in the past and I thought I just need to push even harder to get to those super
fast tempos but to make a very long story short that got me absolutely
nowhere.
The [E] same goes for your fretting hand.
If your fingers are flying across
the neck like that and you [Gb] constantly have [Ab] to move them back and forth [B] in
extreme angles like this in order to [Ab] reach the next note that you're playing
it will also really stand in the way of playing very fast, controlled and precise.
That's a short summary of [Ebm] what economy of motion is all about, reducing the size
of your motions [N] and making them more precise, effective and controlled. _
_ _ _ _ But how
do you effectively work on this in your daily practice routine aside from just
paying close attention to your [G] fretting hand and your picking [Gm] hand?
I have two
extremely powerful exercises for [N] you today that will improve both your
fretting hand technique and your picking hand technique simultaneously.
This will
instantly help you out with developing a relaxed wrist motion with your picking
hand and your economy of motion with your fretting hand will also greatly
improve after just a couple of practice sessions.
So this will help you with
getting rid of that full arm motion and it will also really help out with your
fretting hand technique in case you're struggling with rising fingers [F] like
that or with the flying pinky finger.
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_ [F] _ [Ab] _ _ [Fm] _ _ _ _
_ _ [Ab] _ _ [Fm] _ _ _ _
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_ _ _ As always I made some really awesome
practice backing tracks, [G] guitar pro files and PDF tabs [E] especially for you on
patreon.com slash band so make sure to download all of these files after
watching the following really important instructions.
Before you go and practice
this we have some really important details to discuss and the workout won't
help you if you skip this.
I will make it short and effective. _ _
_ [N] _ _ _ First of all this is
a really cool practical minor arpeggio featuring the 9th, basically a chord
tension.
Make sure to try out this arpeggio shape next time you play over a
minor chord when you're improvising or when you're working on a guitar solo it
sounds extremely awesome.
Secondly I'm working with alternate picking here so
a strict and constant pattern of downstroke, upstroke, downstroke, upstroke
and so on.
Yes this might be easier for you with sweep picking or with economy
picking but that's not the point of this exercise.
The really difficult string
transitions right here will shape your alternate picking motion and in my
personal experience it's only possible to play this with a wrist motion.
A stiff
arm motion like that will get your pick stuck between the strings and you won't
really be able to escape that dead zone between the strings so this is a great
factor to double check and to make sure that you're working with a wrist motion
when you're practicing this exercise.
So while we're at it let's discuss the
picking hand in detail first. _ _
_ _ _ As you can see I'm placing my palm on the bridge.
I
don't like to work with the so-called floating hand approach where your
picking hand doesn't come into contact with the guitar at all.
I personally
always need that kind of connection to the instrument when I'm working on
alternate picking, sweep picking or any kind of challenging material.
I didn't
get any good and reliable results so far when my wrist isn't touching the guitar
at all and it's also much easier for me to switch between open and palm muted
notes when I just have to move my hand back and forth like this.
So my picking
hand is very relaxed but I do feel some muscles working right here or even right
here when things get really fast. _ _
[Ab] _ _ _ _ [E] _ [G] As _
_ _ [C] _ you can see in this footage I also tend to
use my arm just a little bit in order to push for those really extreme alternate
picking tempos but once again the motion is never just coming from my elbow like
that and I'm never locking up my [Bb] wrist completely.
So at mid tempos like this I
could go for a very long time and focus on keeping the motion small and
effective.
[G] One last detail, make sure to angle your pick a little bit, it's [C] much
harder to play this with the string transitions when you're working with a
flat angle or parallel angle like that.
Also those string transitions are really
hard when you're [G] using a big surface of your pick to play instead of just
working with the tip so I make sure to angle my [Ab] pick when I'm playing and I'm
also only working with the tip of my pick.
Now let's quickly summarize the
fretting [N] hand. _ _ _ _
_ As you can hear I don't want the notes to overlap right here
like when I would play a chord for example.
I want to separate each note
effectively so once again I don't want these notes to overlap.
This obviously
means that I have to lift my fingers just a little bit and this is the most
challenging aspect of this workout.
I'm currently working on my middle finger
because it's sometimes rising when I play certain arpeggio shapes or certain
scale patterns like the extended pentatonic licks that I often like to
play so my personal practice goal with this exercise is getting my middle
finger closer with extended shapes like that for example when I'm not using my
middle finger.
So when you play this exercise for the first time all your
fingers might actually rise and it will be very hard to control them at first
but it's no problem at all, this all comes with time so don't be frustrated
when you start out with this.
Just play it really slowly with the backing tracks
that I uploaded for you on Patreon and focus on keeping the distance between
your fingertips and the guitar neck as small as possible.
This will help you out
much more than playing it as fast as possible and sloppy when you're starting
out.
Please also remember that this is not primarily a speed exercise, this gets
both your hands fit in order to perform fast and controlled alternate picking
licks later on. _ _
_ _ _ _ So let's say you worked on this for a couple of days already and
you want to make it a bit more challenging, this could be level two of
this exercise.
[F] _ [Ab] _ _ [F] _ [Ab] _ _
[F] _ [Ab] _ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [F] _ [Ab] _ _ [F] _ [C] _ _
[F] _ [Ab] _ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Fm] _ _ _ _
_ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _ [Fm] _ _
_ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ You don't just make the exercise longer and more difficult [Bb] this
way, you also work [N] on keeping your technique consistent when you're
switching between different arpeggio shapes.
So working with multiple
different arpeggio shapes or with cadences is the first step of making all
of this more practical and the real part of your guitar technique.
I provided the
tabs, guitar profiles and really helpful practice backing tracks in different
tempos for both exercises on Patreon and they [C] start very slow so that you can
practice [E] with them immediately.
_ _ So _ [Gb] _
as we established together in this video this
awesome exercise trains both your hands, you will develop a controlled, precise
and super effective wrist motion with your picking hand and your fretting hand
technique will also become much more effective as well over time.
Do you know
how you can make even more progress on your guitar journey right away?
You might
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And in case you want some personal feedback on your guitar [F] technique or if
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Thanks [B] a lot for tuning in today, leave a like in case you
enjoyed [E] today's lesson, I will see you very soon, bye bye! _ _ _ _ _ _
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