I just wanna take a second to say thank you to everybody who contributed to the subject in the comments. This is a controversial topic but there has been a surprisingly little amount of backlash and an overwhelming amount of encouragement. Do you guys wanna see more lesson snippets like this? It's great to have this community where we solve musical problems together. What topics would you be interested in? Also mega thanks to Pedro - takes huge balls to expose yourself like this, but you're helping people out in a big way.
So just stumbling on this - I think this format is GREAT - the analysis from a physological perspective is unique and I like that perspective - like all things music, it's a blend of art and science
I most definitely do want to see more snippets like this! Haha Thank you too Martin, your lessons really are on another level, and the way that you present concepts is very refreshing. For me, your objectiveness is extremely effective in that it leaves no room for doubt, and gives much confidence regarding the material at hand. Also, thanks for the compliment on my balls, they appreciate it very much. Now, on to shredding mindlessly...
Kudos to both Pedro and Martin for allowing us this and a resounding YES to the snippets! Personally, I'd love to see your approach on conscious note choice within scales/modes that addresses tension/release/expectation . For example, that G altered video you did with Troy Grady. Everything from a Jazz Fusion context would be outstanding. Thanks Guys ..
Well, I always wonder.. most teachers show students individual techniques-how to play them slow and fast, but I always found it very difficult to combine them together while improvising, maybe you could shed some light on this subject? Because the thoughtprocess behind combining different licks seems very vague to me... Oh and also, I feel like im struggiling with proper legato technique, maybe you could explain the left hand's motion - how to properly execute pull offs, hammerons etc. :)
Watched this video about a month and a half ago. I spent YEARS trying and failing at starting slow and working the tempo up slowly always getting stuck at 110 bpm. Applied this logic and I can do 2 cycles of the "dadadadadadadada" at 190 bpm on a single string now. Started working on string skipping today and i'm figuratively flying up the metronome. This is nuts. Playing slow has its place, but that methodology doesn't belong in training for speed. Martin nailed it on this one. Best "how to play fast" video ever. Period.
It's funny back in 1998 my teacher told me this... basically, start faster than you can and get control, then move faster and get control. I also find Ben Higgins tremolo picking "lesson" video was really helpful. It helped apply Troy Grady's pick slant. I doubt I'll ever reach even half Paul Gilbert's speed, but 140-168bpm 16th notes up and down with strict alternate picking would be great.
I think most people don't realise this video is not about practicing with a metronome. But about the conversation you guys were having on the thought process while practicing and playing at faster speeds. I think is cool that you addressed the fact that many people think that they will eventually play faster by practicing at slower speeds. I my self was one of those who used to think like that. But playing fast is something one has to practice, and practice in an efficient proper way. I also think is cool that you addressed only technique, and left at least for this video the music theory out. I think thats where people fail to see the value of the lesson and say "bah just practice with metronome, nothing new". I have been playing for around 23 years, and I found this video very educational.
Great content from teacher and student. Dude was waiting for permission to go faster and you could hear he had more in him than he was willing to go for until encouraged. It's better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission. Keep going Pedro!
Yes Chris, putting on chains creates inhibition and that leads to frustration. Children are the best learners cause they don't care about falling over. It's only when society tells them whats right and whats wrong that they lose their open mind.
At first I thought you were calling him Pedro to be a dick. Then I clicked show more on the description and it says "Taken from a lesson with my 18 year old student Pedro Asfora from Brazil." Now I'm the dick. Life is weird
0:41 my teacher changed my whole practice life when he explained “your hands/body can’t learn how to do something fast by always practicing it slow”...excited to watch the rest of this video
So essentially you have to play "slow enough " to learn the notes of a passage, and apply the correct technique... Once that happens you have to practice faster, and push the limits in order to develop the speed.
I think there was more to it than that: practice right hand technique (one note fast); play small snippets or phrases to coordinate the left hand; keep these phrases short and do not tense up; repeat phrases to lengthen the exercises. The idea is to practice a "chunk" that you send with one conscious command.
@@MartinMillerGuitar How is that different than what the student said at the beginning of the video that you snapped at him and said "no, that's wrong!"
I love martin’s no nonsense approach to teaching and he’s absolutely right! I did exactly the same thing and so did Shawn Lane and we all know how that turned out!
“It’s not that I’m faster than anybody else, it’s that I learned to get across the strings.” Brilliant! Aside from you Martin, watching Troy Grady, Rick graham, and going through the Guitar Acceleration program we’re all huge catalysts to helping me with string transitions. Keep up the amazing work!
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Yes, the Guitar Acceleration Program philosophy is basically what is going on here. Learn the technique well, find your limit tempo, work there and push it into the "suicide zone".
Wow! This method actually works. I have been practicing this for three weeks now and achieved 15 bpm more. I wish somebody had told me this ten years ago.....Thanks Martin Miller, this was very educational.
First time I heard by a teacher what seemed to me as an evidence for so long : You have to work what you need to work. If you want to play fast you will have to play fast in the end and you really will start to work your speed when you will be pushing your limit. Before that, working slow you will work fundamental technique but not speed. Thank you for this.
This was really helpful for me. I'm an acoustic player who wants to shift towards electric, but despite my 4 years of lessons I feel like I never really learned how to actually play more notes faster without making everything sloppy. After listening to your advice, it makes so much more sense. Thank you so much!
I like the way you explain this subject. I hear a lot of people say that a metronome is no good for speed building, but I find that it helps me to target the first note and stops my brain from trying to focus on each note.
Practising as isolated as possible and in small chunks is by far the best method to get a better technique. I've struggeled with the downward motion vibrato for 18 years because I've never practised it isolated. I thought, it would develop automatically someday, but it never did. Some months ago, (after having seen a youtube video with similar content as in this video) I started to practise it completely isolated. Nearly like for complete dummies. Ét voilà... I can do it now. Not like a master yet, but the method worked well enough to get a foundation to work on now. So yes, I'm pretty sure, there is no better way to practise, than to calculate things down to an "idiot-level". Even things that you think your brain will never be able to do (like for me this kind of vibrato), will work in a (relatively) short amount of time.
I mean that absolute standard wrist vibrato where you pull the string down (E A D and G string). The upward version came somehow natural. I can do that nearly from the beginning. But pulling down to vibrate the string was like a brain error. Is that enough or do you still need a video link? Cheers!
Markus D. I understand what you mean and I'm having a similar problem lol... I can't bend a string and add vibrato while the string is bent. 12 years playing and I've never even tried. I look and sound like a fucking idiot. That's something I'm incorporating into my practice.
The only key to get it down (not talking about the vibrato while bending, but this will probably be the same) for me, was to take a metronome and make series of halftone-bends on different strings (mostly just chromatically up and down with all 4 fingers). 4ths, 8ths, 8th triplets, 16ths and so on. After a while, I recognized, that the motions got smoother, more frequent and precise and I was more and more able to do it spontaneously. Meanwhile, I even have to hold back because I vibrate the sh*t out of the guitar. :D But be aware: practising like this will HURT! You'll need even more callus to execute it without pain. And if there is one thing you don't need, then to be irritated by pain. Pain is vibrato's enemy. ;) Good luck!
Michael Enochs most people while doing this technique try to slightly loosen the string and bend it back up to pitch while it is bent in hopes of giving it a vibrato sound, the trick is when you bend the string to pitch actually bend it slightly higher or sharp to the note that you bent up to and return to the pitch and repeat.
I have just found this video tonight and I felt the need to share my thoughts around it. I am an indie/alternative guy that has forever had more interest in quirky riffs and song serving than shredding but have always attempted here and there to learn how to, just for the sake of it and normally then gave up because I wasn't doing something right and as mentioned it's not the end of the world as it's not really required for the music I create. Tonight I hit speeds that I have never achieved and that is also coming off the back of not playing for a couple of months which is even more impressive. The thing I have noted where this lesson delivers where all the others have failed is. The approach, whether it's intentional or not and apologize if not, you are almost militant, the student at times was wanting to go off on tangents and many other teachers may have allowed it to be nice, but there was zero nonsense with you. The play faster than you can approach along with the quick break, did more for me in 30 mins than all other videos, the first reason being I was able to hear the pattern in my head and what to expect at fast speeds, the do do dod dodod do... which wouldn't be possible if trying to do too much, and biggest reason of all.... I had always tried the play slow, get it right and build up speed approach and this worked until I got to a certain speed and then I'd not be able to get it, yet tonight by starting off at an even greater speed I soon managed to get the speed and every note!! It's like I had a spot between slow and insanely fast ( for me ) that was not possible but bypassing it and going straight to warp speed it came together..... And last thing, this is more of a me thing is pick placement.. If my pick is not held in the correct position it all goes to shit, I finally got the right spot to be able to hit the speeds accurately I needed and no doubt tomorrow when I pick up the guitar, i'll spend a good 30 mins trying to find it again.. this really made a difference also. This should be the go to video for ANYONE looking to increase their speed.
It's like talking. You don't think about the alphabet and single letters when you speak. A child doesn't learn talking by spelling words. It learns talking by doing so, and makes less mistakes the more it speaks, but it doesn't learn to speak by spelling and thinking of single letters. A lick or one 1234-sequence from the video would be the equivalent to a spoken word.
@Diego Zalaquett Durand yeah, and so is the message of this video. skipping speed is going to fuck up your muscle memory, you will learn wrong technique and get more inaccurate than when learning at slower tempos. slower tempos=control, which is the key to speed.
Excellent snippet here, and I fully agree with Martin's approach. It's worth mentioning Pedro has the right approach to learning as well, which is commendable - proactive, attentive and willing to put in the sweat! :)
Martin: I can't say I've really delved into this practically, but you're dead on theoretically. It's fantastic to see someone actually incorporate neuroscientific principles of motor learning into playing (I've got a psych degree in which I heavily focused on neuropsych). Your channel is a gold mine in general, I'm really appreciating your content!
Can you tell me roughly how long the neural 'loop' actually is in milliseconds? I assume it's not 2ms as Martin says. If you're playing semiquavers at 200bpm (faster than Pedro) then you have 75ms between each pick strike. I don't know much at all about the brain, but in terms of electronics, 75ms would be a very long time.
I'll have to go dig up my old neuroscience texts, will reply when I get a chance to do so. I don't know precisely how long it is, but the idea isn't that you can only play things restricted by that timeframe; it's that beyond a certain timeframe, your ability to differentiate precisely between individual pickstrokes diminishes and your brain more or less switches to processing "chunks" of information. I think you may have calculated it out in a way he didn't intend -- the idea of a 2ms feedback loop is the idea that your brain is unable to receive and process feedback in shorter timeframes. Of course that's somewhat a sliding scale -- you can still hear wrong notes, or if you pick a note out of rhythm, but your ability to pay attention specifically to the mechanics of each individual pick stroke or note diminishes almost completely. It's why it's considerably easier to hear and sing a slow, simple melody, vs being able to recall the notes of a comparably short 250 BPM run (it's not just the quantity of notes). You can likely tell that it has a particular tonality (i.e. it sounds Dorian, or Diminished), and can even tell where "chunks" deviant (i.e. he screwed up in this particular section), but you can't actually "hear" each individual note apart from the chunk. The idea is to get the slow, precise mechanics into "muscle memory" (i.e. out of your prefrontal cortex), and then apply speed to already proficient slow mechanics.
I have always thought of speed like Martin described it and did it his way. Never regretted it. I would like you to make a video about emotional and technically advanced playing as opposed to each other, I've always saw pursuing technique too much as a possible obstacle for playing emotional, not exactly slow...but with emotion. Great video, thanks Martin!
Oh MY GOD! Thank you Martin!! You just said out loud what I've always wondered about! Back in 1989 I took a course with one of the G.I.T. instructors (I forgot his name, and he passed away since then..), but he said something that is basically the same as what you're saying in this video, and now I TOTALLY get it! What he said is that there are 2 ways to practice and that you should do both. One is to play slow and clean and gradually increase speed. The other is to play fast and sloppy and to gradually increase accuracy. He was talking about closed and open loop neurophysiology! Now my question is: What about that very weird speed that is neither fast nor slow, and you're in some weird place that's neither open or closed loop? So your brain can't "chunk" it, nor do you have absolute control either. I'm guessing that the chunk will win in the end, correct?
so awesome. I am in the same boat as this guys and I got my speed up with JPs Rock Discipline videos. I will modify my speed oriented exercises accordingly for the next 2-3 months and we will see what happens.
@@ivioca so due to "life and work" problems I had to drop the guitar for months. I came back to it roughly 3 months ago and I have been practicing almost everyday. 2 things made a difference for me. 1 optimising technique to be as relaxed as possible. I know some ppl do it intuitively but I had to be told that and it takes a lot of focus during my playing. 2 what Martin said in this video. top two speeds of alternate picking exercises are always above what I can perform clean. I just focus on relax technique and slowly cleaning up the playing. 1st month back at the guitar was pretty much all about getting used to it but the last two months I have been really enojying it and I have increased by 30 bpm. Disclaimer: I am a trash guitarist anyway. I have a full time job and a girlfriend so most I can manage is to practice 40 minutes to 1h 30 minutes a day. Martin's advise is spot on as much as my experience is considered. I also vouch for his fret board visualisation method. He has a course on some website I have purchased. Pretty much the PDF he provides is enough videos are not that useful. I have never had a lesson with a teacher so maybe that's why i find it so illuminating. My Advice: everybody is different and some people react to different things better than others. Try different stuff and don't take any advice as gospel. I think the learning technique that promotes being relaxed as possible applies to everyone. Sorry for 200 essay. I just wanted to be as clear as possible. I am at relatively low level so argument can be made that I could make progress with most approaches.
Hey Martin. This is so true. Thanks for your insights. Lately I have been learning some tricky songs. I noticed that I get to a certain speed and no faster. Then I decided to screw the cleanliness and accuracy and just push. After a while I reach my target speed. Then I slow it down a bit again and start focussing on getting it cleaner, speeding it up again. It is so cool to “stumble” upon someone who sees it the same way. Cheers for the upload.
I completely agree with not worrying about being sloppy. I've watched enough videos of young guitar gods and their just making shredding uncoordinated noise. So I figured that's what I need to do. It's been working. Now I understand why. Thanks for sharing this to both of you!! :D Love from Canada!
This makes so much sense. Athletes have been using this way of training for decades, so why would any other physical applications be different? Once you have good technique you have to push yourself a little past your limit to improve.
to have something like this when I was growing up in the 70's . mind-blowing. excellent material. it would be awesome if you could spell it out a little more sort of as a method. How long should one stay on one note on one string before moving to multiple notes on a string, and then on to string skipping?
I’ve always fell into the trap of learning everything slow and then failing while trying to play it perfectly up to speed. I would go back to playing slow and then fail once again up to speed. After watching this it has made realize that I really just need to push myself by playing the pieces faster than I need to, even if mistakes are made. Once I get somewhat comfortable with playing over the actual speed and dial back everything should feel slower/easier to play.
I am with MM here; what I would add from my (extremely limited) experience is to focus on the fundamentals, or as MM puts it - the technique - and go crazy - John Petrucci calls it pushing the envelope, I believe. I am speaking of finding the sweet spot for picking in relation to palm position & movement, and picking the right guitar pick for the job (so important!). Jason Richardson often mentions that speed comes from the wrist/palm movement, not the arm. It’s taken me months of adjustments to finally realize that he was spot on. Thanks, Martin!
Starting slow and building up speed is a great way to develop the technique briefly mentioned here as a prerequisite. Yes, once the technique is there, there are less limiting factors for pushing even more speed.
Fascinating content. I too got mired in the "practice slow and the speed will come automatically" trap for far longer than I care to admit. Looking forward to putting these concepts into practice.
There was a sort of interesting thing I can remember reading that Martin mentions at one point, there was a study done between regular joe non-musicians and classically trained pianists/guitarists to try and measure finger speed. They didn't find a hugely significant difference between people who didn't play anything and people who had dedicated their lives to playing an instrument, they determined that it was more about muscle memory and efficiency of movement than it was any sort of trained superspeed that they'd acquired over the years.
I heard this same advice from Shawn Lane. I would say you and Shawn would be about as good of a source as there is, so it must be true. Thanks for posting this.
This video had the same effect on me: it gave me permission to practice faster. Hit about 184 doing the sixteenth note single note exercise. I've practiced slow for so long and put limits on my own playing. I'm the type who will keep drilling away and then one day, I'll test myself and realize I can do much better (faster, cleaner, etc.) when I push. Thanks for the video, Martin!
It will work in my opinion. I have been doing this for a few months unknowing of why I was getting better. But a had a moment watching old Alex LIfeson when he was a real young loud guitarist and it's sloppy and uncoordinated when he's shredding. So I was like to hell with it I'm just going to move both of my hands as fast as I can together sometimes and let my brain take care of the rest eventually.
This is actually something that I've been subconsciously doing for a long time, albeit in a less focused way. I find that I have "closed loops" when I play stuff like the first position of the Ionian scale for example. This was beyond helpful to see, so I definitely appreciate you posting this. :)
This puts 17 years of practice into context. I've been hitting a brick wall trying to wrap my fingers around sweep picking and never got beyond a brisk and precise arpeggio, yet I know I can play faster as there are plenty of recorded examples of me playing fast runs. And it's usually a semi-legato blast through a familiar shape that I need to run through a pitch analyser to work out what I did as it just happens. So yes there's a mental gearshift that not just going faster. The closed loop to open loop transition makes sense. Perhaps I should have thought about it before. I've programmed engine management systems and dealt with the conditions which cause a switch from closed loop to open loop. Importantly, I don't really use the shapes in sweep picking exercises outside of that. I tend to have three note per string shapes across two or three strings locked down into phrasal bursts, because that's how I improvise. Perhaps what I need to have locked down to finally crack epic sweeps is being comfortable with those kind of arpeggio shapes as an improv technique so I'm not relying on closed loop to make the shapes?
Forgot to say Martin .... congratulations on your signature guitar, you definitely deserve it! I loved the Floyd mash up thing you did with that ensemble of other great musicians Cheers
What he's saying is more or less: feel comfortable in 100, then jump to 200. No need to control the notes the way you do in 100, just burst and get comfrtable.
Wow,that was mind blowing,,use the mind loop to lock in the first struck note then allow chunk memory to complete the phrases at speed , crazy in sight !
Man, I've watched a video from Megadeth's guitar player Kiko explaining how he feels when he's playing fast and he mentioned this same concept of loop, but in his own words. Great to hear it from two excellent musicians. Thank you for sharing this knowledge!
Oh WOW!! This is nothing short of an epiphany! I've been playing for a long time but still can't play at decent speed. Will definitely practice this way
This same goes for martial arts. Boxers train combos and you throw the 3rd punch already in your head when youve thrown the first. The game comes from anticipating your opponents combo
Right so I watched this last night and I've been using the whole pushing past the comfort zone and it really does work, and makes sense honestly, I know this doesn't sound incredible but I can play a chromatic semi quaver run at 110 which I've never been able to do before, I thank you so much for this as I feel I'm actually improving speed at a decent rate now, cheers buddy
I like it! I have always been told to practice slow and the speed will come and to some extent I have found that to be true but this explains why I would always get to my terminal velocity and be stuck there for ages until one day I could play the exercise at twice the speed, it was because the exercise was no longer a string of notes separated by the ping time from brain to fingers and back, it was a single chunk! the data goes by bus load. Genius
Yup isolation. Playing fast is really different from play slow... I myself doing chunks and focus only on that speed doesn't matter if it is fast or slow... The thought here is to play fast as it is bec. it requires fast speed and you're correct phrasing will just come. Thanks Martin Miller.. how i wish i was your student.
The hard part is translating this across strings. I feel like I do a somewhat different pick movement when I go to a higher string after an upstroke. It’s like I exaggerate the pick pulling away before I do the downstroke on the next string, so I can be sure it gets hits in the right way. Very aggravating.
This is so damn true. If i learn faster stuff i brake it down in bars i can remember. Usually like 8-12notes. Push them to where you can get them. Often times way faster than the original song. Once you got the speed covered you can listen for nuances, styling, voicing etc. But if you can play it quite a view beats faster it should be quite clean on regular speed already.
For all Troy Grady brought "to light" CHUNKING is by far THE MOST IMPORTANT THINK to understand BEFORE you start SPEEDING UP. Just applying this simple concept in small fragments made me play thinks I NEVER THOUGHT was POSSIBLE to my level. Wise thoughts: "walking faster and faster don´t make you learn how to run". Simply that.
Shawn Lane is the one that said you should play fast, then faster than you can, in order to play faster with better accuracy. Over play, then slow it down. So, go 180 BPM for example, then down to 160 BPM for the same run and 160 will be easier and maybe more accurate than when you were going beyond your limits at 180. Just an example. Basically exactly what you said. 😂
I'm a slow ass blues player but I still found some things to use in this lesson. I don't understand all the negative comments here. Thanks for the lesson.
Martin is exactly correct. By boosting your speed right away after you gain basic control and get the feel of the neck at the speed.... You will feel like your accomplishing every note exponentially...and you become a musician master... When you do sweeps it is much the same. A slight speed assist would be to raise the neck of the guitar to the Classical position...
Training doesn't stop as soon as you've mastered alternate picking, economy picking and legato... You need to muscle memory your way through different Pentatonic / Ionian Nat minor box patterns and their *sweet spots* (triads, good note combinations etc.) Guitar is hard, really hard
Before I stopped playing and forgot what I'm doing I built my speed up by learning eruption and practicing it till I got it right then used it as a warm up like Eddie did learning metallica solos helped alot too
He's absolutely correct. Step one get the technique right, then in short bursts start going beyond your limit. Most people won't try it because it may break down a little, but you absolutely have to go past your current limit. He's correct that you can't think about every note like you do when you are developing technique. The brain will process in chunks and if you are sweeping it will process a whole ascending or descending riff at once. It's weird at first because you don't feel like you are playing guitar. It's like unlearning old habits of processing every note separately.
Wow a lot of comments in just a few days. That's awesome that there's so much interest. It's messed up how our brain uses electricity but in the body it only goes a few hundred miles an hour. The hand is quicker than the brain. I thought this was maybe a clickbait topic but I'm glad I watched it, so thank you!
Just a quick story... Learning to play the main motifs and themes of The Flight of the Bumblebee, from an opera by Rimsky-whats-his-name .. somehow changed my brain and enabled me to achieve high speeds, initially it was messy in places, and because it's mainly chromatic there are lots of different ways to perform each phrase. Now I am refining, and leaning all types of hybrid pickings, and studying as many different people as possible. I also spend many hours improvising and playing for FUN ;~) England
Wow, brilliant video - thankyou. Wonderful stuff. The advice for relaxation at high tempos is prime advice. I'm sure the starting point for such release is 1 ego, 2 the A O joint in the spine....it reminded me of the fantastic and utterly under - regarded Alexander Technique which saved my ass after intensifying focal dystonia for decades and now leaving me with no seeming limitation other than a belief in gravity and a need to break from practice and drink Tea......Cheers again! A real inspiration dude.
Wow amazing lesson!! I came across MABs tip on playing fast, and it’s exactly the same principle! Thanks again for sharing the secret of the closed loop!!! 👍
Interesting video, specially for someone with more of a beginner profile. As Martin says himself, those short bursts are only the beginning, the very foundation. When you start adding more variables, like crossing strings, long phrases, uncomfortable/unpracticed sequences, all of that he explains here is worth very little, so you must put way more time and effort.
hey just found this, I have been searching for amethod to play fast economy picking so I can try sweep picking . I followed along and by the end of this video I had a break through. for the first time. its a bit sloppy but I finally got it...thank you Martin! excellent help!
Good advice, but it's propably for those who don't have any trouble with speed in the first place (and who got effortlessly got the speed without even thinking about it). The kid in the video seems to able to play moderately fast. 180-190bpm 16ths is a very fast tempo. 130-150bpm is a good tempo that prooves that there's nothing wrong with your hands. The trouble is when you can't play any faster than like 110-120bpm (regardless of your hand position, motion type etc). Trying faster either causes chaotic motions impossible to speed up or it causes extreme tension which leads to trauma. If there was an explanation to how break that speed limit (110-120bpm) that would be good.
I'd really have to sit down with that specific person. That case is extremely rare. Out of the people I taught I managed to get pretty much everybody up to picking a single note to about 180bpm+ 16ths.
Just my guitar teacher told me to do the same thing. Didn't work for me, unfortunately. Anything faster than 110bpm causes extreme tension/pain/numbness. Not sure if I'm doing anything wrong (pick doesn't bounce though), or if my hand is too weak.
Your hand is not too weak. Playing guitar doesn't require much strength, it's about efficiency. Something must be wrong with your fundamental technique, which I say in this video is a requirement before trying to gain speed.
Yeah, I used to until I injured my elbow joint. I'm trying to learn wrist deviation movement (moving it sideways like your student does). I tried your method (also I'm using rest strokes when playing slow which helps) and I could reach about 150bpm. Could you spare another 5 seconds and tell me if I'm doing fine? Now I can do only 130-140. ua-cam.com/video/WhyuX2dl9pQ/v-deo.html
Playing fast is just like EVH said 35 years ago: "... it's like falling down the stairs and landing on your feet" I guess no-one was listening because 'orthodoxy'. Great job Martin, thank you.
"If you're too clean, you are not pushing yourself"
I love this
same here
I just wanna take a second to say thank you to everybody who contributed to the subject in the comments.
This is a controversial topic but there has been a surprisingly little amount of backlash and an overwhelming amount of encouragement.
Do you guys wanna see more lesson snippets like this? It's great to have this community where we solve musical problems together. What topics would you be interested in?
Also mega thanks to Pedro - takes huge balls to expose yourself like this, but you're helping people out in a big
way.
So just stumbling on this - I think this format is GREAT - the analysis from a physological perspective is unique and I like that perspective - like all things music, it's a blend of art and science
I most definitely do want to see more snippets like this! Haha
Thank you too Martin, your lessons really are on another level, and the way that you present concepts is very refreshing. For me, your objectiveness is extremely effective in that it leaves no room for doubt, and gives much confidence regarding the material at hand. Also, thanks for the compliment on my balls, they appreciate it very much. Now, on to shredding mindlessly...
Kudos to both Pedro and Martin for allowing us this and a resounding YES to the snippets! Personally, I'd love to see your approach on conscious note choice within scales/modes that addresses tension/release/expectation . For example, that G altered video you did with Troy Grady. Everything from a Jazz Fusion context would be outstanding. Thanks Guys ..
I loved to see a cross picking lesson with one of you students.
Exercises, ways to approach (alternate, down down up, etc)
Well, I always wonder.. most teachers show students individual techniques-how to play them slow and fast, but I always found it very difficult to combine them together while improvising, maybe you could shed some light on this subject? Because the thoughtprocess behind combining different licks seems very vague to me... Oh and also, I feel like im struggiling with proper legato technique, maybe you could explain the left hand's motion - how to properly execute pull offs, hammerons etc. :)
Watched this video about a month and a half ago. I spent YEARS trying and failing at starting slow and working the tempo up slowly always getting stuck at 110 bpm. Applied this logic and I can do 2 cycles of the "dadadadadadadada" at 190 bpm on a single string now. Started working on string skipping today and i'm figuratively flying up the metronome. This is nuts. Playing slow has its place, but that methodology doesn't belong in training for speed. Martin nailed it on this one. Best "how to play fast" video ever. Period.
You're right; this technique is very helpful. I don't think you are "literally" flying up the metronome. "Figuratively" is the term.
@@mesabman Fixed. Thanks!
It's funny back in 1998 my teacher told me this... basically, start faster than you can and get control, then move faster and get control.
I also find Ben Higgins tremolo picking "lesson" video was really helpful. It helped apply Troy Grady's pick slant.
I doubt I'll ever reach even half Paul Gilbert's speed, but 140-168bpm 16th notes up and down with strict alternate picking would be great.
man i've also been stuck at 110bpm for basically two years now, gonna see what this exercise will do to my speed
@@GerbensBackingtracks generally when we're stuck at that spot it tends to be because of stringhopping as well
I think most people don't realise this video is not about practicing with a metronome. But about the conversation you guys were having on the thought process while practicing and playing at faster speeds. I think is cool that you addressed the fact that many people think that they will eventually play faster by practicing at slower speeds. I my self was one of those who used to think like that. But playing fast is something one has to practice, and practice in an efficient proper way. I also think is cool that you addressed only technique, and left at least for this video the music theory out. I think thats where people fail to see the value of the lesson and say "bah just practice with metronome, nothing new". I have been playing for around 23 years, and I found this video very educational.
very good lesson. thank you. ""No, Your limit is way more higher than you know. trust me" this word is so inspired me. thank you again martin!
You can clearly see my happiness when he said that. It was a liberating lesson! I recommend learning from him to everyone.
Pedro Asfora you got a great teacher pedro. Just keep learning and do not give up!
Great content from teacher and student. Dude was waiting for permission to go faster and you could hear he had more in him than he was willing to go for until encouraged. It's better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission. Keep going Pedro!
Chris Brooks Guitar Thanks Chris!
Yes Chris, putting on chains creates inhibition and that leads to frustration. Children are the best learners cause they don't care about falling over.
It's only when society tells them whats right and whats wrong that they lose their open mind.
I could not agree more mate :)
At first I thought you were calling him Pedro to be a dick. Then I clicked show more on the description and it says "Taken from a lesson with my 18 year old student Pedro Asfora from Brazil." Now I'm the dick. Life is weird
Well, I was never the dick, so it's not that weird from here haha. Vote for Pedro!
0:41 my teacher changed my whole practice life when he explained “your hands/body can’t learn how to do something fast by always practicing it slow”...excited to watch the rest of this video
So essentially you have to play "slow enough " to learn the notes of a passage, and apply the correct technique... Once that happens you have to practice faster, and push the limits in order to develop the speed.
That‘s it in a nutshell!
@@MartinMillerGuitar thanks for this! I saw your video on troys site. Excellent stuff. Very motivating.
Much appreciated.
I think there was more to it than that: practice right hand technique (one note fast); play small snippets or phrases to coordinate the left hand; keep these phrases short and do not tense up; repeat phrases to lengthen the exercises. The idea is to practice a "chunk" that you send with one conscious command.
@@JimmyDevere i agree with you.
I think this is a critical point in development that alot of pros are failing to point out.
@@MartinMillerGuitar How is that different than what the student said at the beginning of the video that you snapped at him and said "no, that's wrong!"
This is legit! I've added nearly 20bpm to several fast runs in the last 2 months!
I love martin’s no nonsense approach to teaching and he’s absolutely right! I did exactly the same thing and so did Shawn Lane and we all know how that turned out!
“It’s not that I’m faster than anybody else, it’s that I learned to get across the strings.” Brilliant!
Aside from you Martin, watching Troy Grady, Rick graham, and going through the Guitar Acceleration program we’re all huge catalysts to helping me with string transitions. Keep up the amazing work!
Yes, the Guitar Acceleration Program philosophy is basically what is going on here. Learn the technique well, find your limit tempo, work there and push it into the "suicide zone".
Wow! This method actually works. I have been practicing this for three weeks now and achieved 15 bpm more. I wish somebody had told me this ten years ago.....Thanks Martin Miller, this was very educational.
First time I heard by a teacher what seemed to me as an evidence for so long : You have to work what you need to work. If you want to play fast you will have to play fast in the end and you really will start to work your speed when you will be pushing your limit. Before that, working slow you will work fundamental technique but not speed. Thank you for this.
This was really helpful for me. I'm an acoustic player who wants to shift towards electric, but despite my 4 years of lessons I feel like I never really learned how to actually play more notes faster without making everything sloppy. After listening to your advice, it makes so much more sense. Thank you so much!
"Didn't we talk about this already" is something I can relate to saying to students. Great lesson.
I like the way you explain this subject. I hear a lot of people say that a metronome is no good for speed building, but I find that it helps me to target the first note and stops my brain from trying to focus on each note.
Practising as isolated as possible and in small chunks is by far the best method to get a better technique. I've struggeled with the downward motion vibrato for 18 years because I've never practised it isolated. I thought, it would develop automatically someday, but it never did. Some months ago, (after having seen a youtube video with similar content as in this video) I started to practise it completely isolated. Nearly like for complete dummies. Ét voilà... I can do it now. Not like a master yet, but the method worked well enough to get a foundation to work on now. So yes, I'm pretty sure, there is no better way to practise, than to calculate things down to an "idiot-level". Even things that you think your brain will never be able to do (like for me this kind of vibrato), will work in a (relatively) short amount of time.
what kind of vibrato is that? do you have a video of someone doin it?
I mean that absolute standard wrist vibrato where you pull the string down (E A D and G string). The upward version came somehow natural. I can do that nearly from the beginning. But pulling down to vibrate the string was like a brain error.
Is that enough or do you still need a video link? Cheers!
Markus D. I understand what you mean and I'm having a similar problem lol... I can't bend a string and add vibrato while the string is bent. 12 years playing and I've never even tried. I look and sound like a fucking idiot. That's something I'm incorporating into my practice.
The only key to get it down (not talking about the vibrato while bending, but this will probably be the same) for me, was to take a metronome and make series of halftone-bends on different strings (mostly just chromatically up and down with all 4 fingers). 4ths, 8ths, 8th triplets, 16ths and so on. After a while, I recognized, that the motions got smoother, more frequent and precise and I was more and more able to do it spontaneously. Meanwhile, I even have to hold back because I vibrate the sh*t out of the guitar. :D
But be aware: practising like this will HURT! You'll need even more callus to execute it without pain. And if there is one thing you don't need, then to be irritated by pain. Pain is vibrato's enemy. ;) Good luck!
Michael Enochs most people while doing this technique try to slightly loosen the string and bend it back up to pitch while it is bent in hopes of giving it a vibrato sound, the trick is when you bend the string to pitch actually bend it slightly higher or sharp to the note that you bent up to and return to the pitch and repeat.
I have just found this video tonight and I felt the need to share my thoughts around it.
I am an indie/alternative guy that has forever had more interest in quirky riffs and song serving than shredding but have always attempted here and there to learn how to, just for the sake of it and normally then gave up because I wasn't doing something right and as mentioned it's not the end of the world as it's not really required for the music I create.
Tonight I hit speeds that I have never achieved and that is also coming off the back of not playing for a couple of months which is even more impressive.
The thing I have noted where this lesson delivers where all the others have failed is.
The approach, whether it's intentional or not and apologize if not, you are almost militant, the student at times was wanting to go off on tangents and many other teachers may have allowed it to be nice, but there was zero nonsense with you.
The play faster than you can approach along with the quick break, did more for me in 30 mins than all other videos, the first reason being I was able to hear the pattern in my head and what to expect at fast speeds, the do do dod dodod do... which wouldn't be possible if trying to do too much, and biggest reason of all.... I had always tried the play slow, get it right and build up speed approach and this worked until I got to a certain speed and then I'd not be able to get it, yet tonight by starting off at an even greater speed I soon managed to get the speed and every note!! It's like I had a spot between slow and insanely fast ( for me ) that was not possible but bypassing it and going straight to warp speed it came together.....
And last thing, this is more of a me thing is pick placement.. If my pick is not held in the correct position it all goes to shit, I finally got the right spot to be able to hit the speeds accurately I needed and no doubt tomorrow when I pick up the guitar, i'll spend a good 30 mins trying to find it again.. this really made a difference also.
This should be the go to video for ANYONE looking to increase their speed.
It's like talking. You don't think about the alphabet and single letters when you speak. A child doesn't learn talking by spelling words. It learns talking by doing so, and makes less mistakes the more it speaks, but it doesn't learn to speak by spelling and thinking of single letters. A lick or one 1234-sequence from the video would be the equivalent to a spoken word.
@Diego Zalaquett Durand yeah, and so is the message of this video. skipping speed is going to fuck up your muscle memory, you will learn wrong technique and get more inaccurate than when learning at slower tempos. slower tempos=control, which is the key to speed.
Excellent snippet here, and I fully agree with Martin's approach. It's worth mentioning Pedro has the right approach to learning as well, which is commendable - proactive, attentive and willing to put in the sweat! :)
This was really a great dude, so much cross over with vocals love how functional and objective you are.
Martin: I can't say I've really delved into this practically, but you're dead on theoretically. It's fantastic to see someone actually incorporate neuroscientific principles of motor learning into playing (I've got a psych degree in which I heavily focused on neuropsych). Your channel is a gold mine in general, I'm really appreciating your content!
Can you tell me roughly how long the neural 'loop' actually is in milliseconds? I assume it's not 2ms as Martin says. If you're playing semiquavers at 200bpm (faster than Pedro) then you have 75ms between each pick strike. I don't know much at all about the brain, but in terms of electronics, 75ms would be a very long time.
I'll have to go dig up my old neuroscience texts, will reply when I get a chance to do so. I don't know precisely how long it is, but the idea isn't that you can only play things restricted by that timeframe; it's that beyond a certain timeframe, your ability to differentiate precisely between individual pickstrokes diminishes and your brain more or less switches to processing "chunks" of information. I think you may have calculated it out in a way he didn't intend -- the idea of a 2ms feedback loop is the idea that your brain is unable to receive and process feedback in shorter timeframes. Of course that's somewhat a sliding scale -- you can still hear wrong notes, or if you pick a note out of rhythm, but your ability to pay attention specifically to the mechanics of each individual pick stroke or note diminishes almost completely. It's why it's considerably easier to hear and sing a slow, simple melody, vs being able to recall the notes of a comparably short 250 BPM run (it's not just the quantity of notes). You can likely tell that it has a particular tonality (i.e. it sounds Dorian, or Diminished), and can even tell where "chunks" deviant (i.e. he screwed up in this particular section), but you can't actually "hear" each individual note apart from the chunk.
The idea is to get the slow, precise mechanics into "muscle memory" (i.e. out of your prefrontal cortex), and then apply speed to already proficient slow mechanics.
I have always thought of speed like Martin described it and did it his way. Never regretted it.
I would like you to make a video about emotional and technically advanced playing as opposed to each other, I've always saw pursuing technique too much as a possible obstacle for playing emotional, not exactly slow...but with emotion. Great video, thanks Martin!
Very useful, and a great reminder on my end, thanks Martin and your student for allowing us into the lesson! 🤘🏻
Oh MY GOD! Thank you Martin!! You just said out loud what I've always wondered about!
Back in 1989 I took a course with one of the G.I.T. instructors (I forgot his name, and he passed away since then..), but he said something that is basically the same as what you're saying in this video, and now I TOTALLY get it!
What he said is that there are 2 ways to practice and that you should do both. One is to play slow and clean and gradually increase speed. The other is to play fast and sloppy and to gradually increase accuracy.
He was talking about closed and open loop neurophysiology!
Now my question is: What about that very weird speed that is neither fast nor slow, and you're in some weird place that's neither open or closed loop? So your brain can't "chunk" it, nor do you have absolute control either. I'm guessing that the chunk will win in the end, correct?
That dude's 18?!
*WHAT*
He seems older and more advanced for his age
This video has done so much for my alternate picking.
Would love more content like this
so awesome. I am in the same boat as this guys and I got my speed up with JPs Rock Discipline videos. I will modify my speed oriented exercises accordingly for the next 2-3 months and we will see what happens.
Two years passed. What happened? Are You much faster now?
@@ivioca so due to "life and work" problems I had to drop the guitar for months. I came back to it roughly 3 months ago and I have been practicing almost everyday. 2 things made a difference for me. 1 optimising technique to be as relaxed as possible. I know some ppl do it intuitively but I had to be told that and it takes a lot of focus during my playing. 2 what Martin said in this video. top two speeds of alternate picking exercises are always above what I can perform clean. I just focus on relax technique and slowly cleaning up the playing. 1st month back at the guitar was pretty much all about getting used to it but the last two months I have been really enojying it and I have increased by 30 bpm. Disclaimer: I am a trash guitarist anyway. I have a full time job and a girlfriend so most I can manage is to practice 40 minutes to 1h 30 minutes a day. Martin's advise is spot on as much as my experience is considered. I also vouch for his fret board visualisation method. He has a course on some website I have purchased. Pretty much the PDF he provides is enough videos are not that useful. I have never had a lesson with a teacher so maybe that's why i find it so illuminating. My Advice: everybody is different and some people react to different things better than others. Try different stuff and don't take any advice as gospel. I think the learning technique that promotes being relaxed as possible applies to everyone. Sorry for 200 essay. I just wanted to be as clear as possible. I am at relatively low level so argument can be made that I could make progress with most approaches.
@@hYpYz Thanks for your explanation and your advice.
Thanks Martin, I needed to hear this again. also I love watching you play the song, You Too, just beautiful !!
Hey Martin. This is so true. Thanks for your insights. Lately I have been learning some tricky songs. I noticed that I get to a certain speed and no faster. Then I decided to screw the cleanliness and accuracy and just push. After a while I reach my target speed. Then I slow it down a bit again and start focussing on getting it cleaner, speeding it up again. It is so cool to “stumble” upon someone who sees it the same way. Cheers for the upload.
WOW! Fantastic that both of you allowed us to review this remote lesson! So helpful!
I completely agree with not worrying about being sloppy. I've watched enough videos of young guitar gods and their just making shredding uncoordinated noise. So I figured that's what I need to do. It's been working. Now I understand why. Thanks for sharing this to both of you!! :D
Love from Canada!
This makes so much sense. Athletes have been using this way of training for decades, so why would any other physical applications be different? Once you have good technique you have to push yourself a little past your limit to improve.
to have something like this when I was growing up in the 70's . mind-blowing. excellent material. it would be awesome if you could spell it out a little more sort of as a method. How long should one stay on one note on one string before moving to multiple notes on a string, and then on to string skipping?
I’ve always fell into the trap of learning everything slow and then failing while trying to play it perfectly up to speed. I would go back to playing slow and then fail once again up to speed. After watching this it has made realize that I really just need to push myself by playing the pieces faster than I need to, even if mistakes are made. Once I get somewhat comfortable with playing over the actual speed and dial back everything should feel slower/easier to play.
I am with MM here; what I would add from my (extremely limited) experience is to focus on the fundamentals, or as MM puts it - the technique - and go crazy - John Petrucci calls it pushing the envelope, I believe.
I am speaking of finding the sweet spot for picking in relation to palm position & movement, and picking the right guitar pick for the job (so important!). Jason Richardson often mentions that speed comes from the wrist/palm movement, not the arm. It’s taken me months of adjustments to finally realize that he was spot on.
Thanks, Martin!
Best guitar technique lesson I had in my entire life! Thanks Martin!
Starting slow and building up speed is a great way to develop the technique briefly mentioned here as a prerequisite. Yes, once the technique is there, there are less limiting factors for pushing even more speed.
Fascinating content. I too got mired in the "practice slow and the speed will come automatically" trap for far longer than I care to admit. Looking forward to putting these concepts into practice.
This is why I really admire you... thank you! Easily one of my favourite guitarists
There was a sort of interesting thing I can remember reading that Martin mentions at one point, there was a study done between regular joe non-musicians and classically trained pianists/guitarists to try and measure finger speed. They didn't find a hugely significant difference between people who didn't play anything and people who had dedicated their lives to playing an instrument, they determined that it was more about muscle memory and efficiency of movement than it was any sort of trained superspeed that they'd acquired over the years.
You're the coolest guy ever. And one of the greatest musicians on this planet.
I heard this same advice from Shawn Lane. I would say you and Shawn would be about as good of a source as there is, so it must be true. Thanks for posting this.
Best advice I’ve heard. Total gold here. This is 100% truth.
This video had the same effect on me: it gave me permission to practice faster. Hit about 184 doing the sixteenth note single note exercise. I've practiced slow for so long and put limits on my own playing. I'm the type who will keep drilling away and then one day, I'll test myself and realize I can do much better (faster, cleaner, etc.) when I push. Thanks for the video, Martin!
Going to try this for a month and see where it gets me!
Let us all know!
Andrei Let us know how our works!
It will work in my opinion. I have been doing this for a few months unknowing of why I was getting better. But a had a moment watching old Alex LIfeson when he was a real young loud guitarist and it's sloppy and uncoordinated when he's shredding. So I was like to hell with it I'm just going to move both of my hands as fast as I can together sometimes and let my brain take care of the rest eventually.
How is it going after a week
Andrei how are you going? It is working for you?
This is actually something that I've been subconsciously doing for a long time, albeit in a less focused way. I find that I have "closed loops" when I play stuff like the first position of the Ionian scale for example. This was beyond helpful to see, so I definitely appreciate you posting this. :)
This puts 17 years of practice into context. I've been hitting a brick wall trying to wrap my fingers around sweep picking and never got beyond a brisk and precise arpeggio, yet I know I can play faster as there are plenty of recorded examples of me playing fast runs. And it's usually a semi-legato blast through a familiar shape that I need to run through a pitch analyser to work out what I did as it just happens. So yes there's a mental gearshift that not just going faster. The closed loop to open loop transition makes sense. Perhaps I should have thought about it before. I've programmed engine management systems and dealt with the conditions which cause a switch from closed loop to open loop.
Importantly, I don't really use the shapes in sweep picking exercises outside of that. I tend to have three note per string shapes across two or three strings locked down into phrasal bursts, because that's how I improvise. Perhaps what I need to have locked down to finally crack epic sweeps is being comfortable with those kind of arpeggio shapes as an improv technique so I'm not relying on closed loop to make the shapes?
I love to see videos like this with other peoples prospective on how to get faster keep it up thx
Forgot to say
Martin .... congratulations on your signature guitar, you definitely deserve it!
I loved the Floyd mash up thing you did with that ensemble of other great musicians
Cheers
"200 - way to comfortable".. and here I am, struggling with 120..
What he's saying is more or less: feel comfortable in 100, then jump to 200. No need to control the notes the way you do in 100, just burst and get comfrtable.
This comment is a year old. Did you manage to go above 120?
Lenny van Riel lol, nah, i dropped guitar practice, wasn't doing good progress, just isn't for me I guess, occasionally play acoustic though
Wow,that was mind blowing,,use the mind loop to lock in the first struck note then allow chunk memory to complete the phrases at speed , crazy in sight !
I saw a Shawn lane video discussing the same concept, wish I’d discovered it years ago! Haha
charlie day yeah, I saw that one “just play as fast as you want and then cleanliness will come”
which video is?
Can someone please share a link or the title of that Shawn Lane video? Would be much appreciated!
+ Peter Dragon - Just type in Shawn Lane talks about speed (Radisson hotel) - it may be in that video where he discusses a similar concept.
Got it.Thanks!
Might want to pay attention, this is golden stuff here.
One of the best lessons i ever saw
Man, I've watched a video from Megadeth's guitar player Kiko explaining how he feels when he's playing fast and he mentioned this same concept of loop, but in his own words. Great to hear it from two excellent musicians. Thank you for sharing this knowledge!
Can you tell us which video is?
Oh WOW!! This is nothing short of an epiphany! I've been playing for a long time but still can't play at decent speed. Will definitely practice this way
Two years passed. What happened? Are You much faster now?
This same goes for martial arts.
Boxers train combos and you throw the 3rd punch already in your head when youve thrown the first.
The game comes from anticipating your opponents combo
Right so I watched this last night and I've been using the whole pushing past the comfort zone and it really does work, and makes sense honestly, I know this doesn't sound incredible but I can play a chromatic semi quaver run at 110 which I've never been able to do before, I thank you so much for this as I feel I'm actually improving speed at a decent rate now, cheers buddy
I like it! I have always been told to practice slow and the speed will come and to some extent I have found that to be true but this explains why I would always get to my terminal velocity and be stuck there for ages until one day I could play the exercise at twice the speed, it was because the exercise was no longer a string of notes separated by the ping time from brain to fingers and back, it was a single chunk! the data goes by bus load. Genius
Yup isolation. Playing fast is really different from play slow... I myself doing chunks and focus only on that speed doesn't matter if it is fast or slow... The thought here is to play fast as it is bec. it requires fast speed and you're correct phrasing will just come. Thanks Martin Miller.. how i wish i was your student.
I've discovered this to be true as well! Glad to have it confirmed by a professional!!
The hard part is translating this across strings. I feel like I do a somewhat different pick movement when I go to a higher string after an upstroke. It’s like I exaggerate the pick pulling away before I do the downstroke on the next string, so I can be sure it gets hits in the right way. Very aggravating.
This is so damn true. If i learn faster stuff i brake it down in bars i can remember. Usually like 8-12notes. Push them to where you can get them. Often times way faster than the original song. Once you got the speed covered you can listen for nuances, styling, voicing etc. But if you can play it quite a view beats faster it should be quite clean on regular speed already.
Troy Grady and Martin Miller. Some o' the best teachers out here in the wild. Love the approach!
I’m bout 2 months in and This was really important for me to here thank you.! Loud how you gonna get faster if you don’t just push it
This old dude found this to be helpful. Best quote ....Just worry about speed !!! Thanks man
Damn, “if you’re too clean you’re not pushing yourself.” Words to live by! I won’t feel so bad for playing a little sloppy sometimes
For all Troy Grady brought "to light" CHUNKING is by far THE MOST IMPORTANT THINK to understand BEFORE you start SPEEDING UP. Just applying this simple concept in small fragments made me play thinks I NEVER THOUGHT was POSSIBLE to my level.
Wise thoughts: "walking faster and faster don´t make you learn how to run". Simply that.
True
Shawn Lane is the one that said you should play fast, then faster than you can, in order to play faster with better accuracy. Over play, then slow it down. So, go 180 BPM for example, then down to 160 BPM for the same run and 160 will be easier and maybe more accurate than when you were going beyond your limits at 180. Just an example.
Basically exactly what you said. 😂
Great stuff! We touched on this in our interview, I think it's great that this is being addressed!
Finally someone explains this stuff.......thanks a million Martin.
I'm a slow ass blues player but I still found some things to use in this lesson. I don't understand all the negative comments here. Thanks for the lesson.
Q:How do I play fast? A:Just play faster.
😂
Start fast, go fast in the middle, and end fast haha.
I always love these lesson videos from you, Martin!
Martin is exactly correct. By boosting your speed right away after you gain basic control and get the feel of the neck at the speed.... You will feel like your accomplishing every note exponentially...and you become a musician master... When you do sweeps it is much the same. A slight speed assist would be to raise the neck of the guitar to the Classical position...
Training doesn't stop as soon as you've mastered alternate picking, economy picking and legato... You need to muscle memory your way through different Pentatonic / Ionian Nat minor box patterns and their *sweet spots* (triads, good note combinations etc.) Guitar is hard, really hard
Best Guitar Tutor Mr Martin
Best advice ever “if you want to play faster, just play faster”. Martin is the man!
Before I stopped playing and forgot what I'm doing I built my speed up by learning eruption and practicing it till I got it right then used it as a warm up like Eddie did learning metallica solos helped alot too
He's absolutely correct. Step one get the technique right, then in short bursts start going beyond your limit. Most people won't try it because it may break down a little, but you absolutely have to go past your current limit. He's correct that you can't think about every note like you do when you are developing technique. The brain will process in chunks and if you are sweeping it will process a whole ascending or descending riff at once. It's weird at first because you don't feel like you are playing guitar. It's like unlearning old habits of processing every note separately.
this video confirms everything I've guessed over the years .. its very helpful .. Thank You Martin.
Wow a lot of comments in just a few days. That's awesome that there's so much interest. It's messed up how our brain uses electricity but in the body it only goes a few hundred miles an hour. The hand is quicker than the brain. I thought this was maybe a clickbait topic but I'm glad I watched it, so thank you!
It's mindblowing but true!
This is very very cool. Most people do talk about playing slow all the time. It's valid but I guess you gotta push it!
Fili Filizzola you play slow to practice time, this is a different practice
Totally agree!
That was awesome and has cut all the BS away! Thank you so much! From the first minutes a light bulb lit on my fingers
Just a quick story...
Learning to play the main motifs and themes of
The Flight of the Bumblebee, from an opera by Rimsky-whats-his-name .. somehow changed my brain and enabled me to achieve high speeds, initially it was messy in places, and because it's mainly chromatic there are lots of different ways to perform each phrase.
Now I am refining, and leaning all types of hybrid pickings, and studying as many different people as possible.
I also spend many hours improvising and playing for FUN
;~) England
Wow, brilliant video - thankyou. Wonderful stuff. The advice for relaxation at high tempos is prime advice. I'm sure the starting point for such release is 1 ego, 2 the A O joint in the spine....it reminded me of the fantastic and utterly under - regarded Alexander Technique which saved my ass after intensifying focal dystonia for decades and now leaving me with no seeming limitation other than a belief in gravity and a need to break from practice and drink Tea......Cheers again! A real inspiration dude.
I am glad I found this channel. Thank you Robert Baker for showing me this awesome channel
Wow amazing lesson!! I came across MABs tip on playing fast, and it’s exactly the same principle! Thanks again for sharing the secret of the closed loop!!! 👍
I play the piano, and the lesson here is gold! Thanks!
Interesting video, specially for someone with more of a beginner profile. As Martin says himself, those short bursts are only the beginning, the very foundation. When you start adding more variables, like crossing strings, long phrases, uncomfortable/unpracticed sequences, all of that he explains here is worth very little, so you must put way more time and effort.
You're the best teacher man.
Good content. Short bursts at high speed and slower speeds for long periods of time (3 minutes+ straight) and you have both areas covered.
This is very informative and I had no idea that this exercise existed. Thank you so much you may have just taken me to the next level in playing.
This style of video is incredibly useful thank you
hey just found this, I have been searching for amethod to play fast economy picking so I can try sweep picking . I followed along and by the end of this video I had a break through. for the first time. its a bit sloppy but I finally got it...thank you Martin! excellent help!
Two years passed. What happened? Are You much faster now?
@@ivioca yes, and finally living my dreams..
Thank you Martin! Finally someone tells the truth and has a viable way to achieve faster speeds.
Good advice, but it's propably for those who don't have any trouble with speed in the first place (and who got effortlessly got the speed without even thinking about it). The kid in the video seems to able to play moderately fast. 180-190bpm 16ths is a very fast tempo. 130-150bpm is a good tempo that prooves that there's nothing wrong with your hands.
The trouble is when you can't play any faster than like 110-120bpm (regardless of your hand position, motion type etc). Trying faster either causes chaotic motions impossible to speed up or it causes extreme tension which leads to trauma.
If there was an explanation to how break that speed limit (110-120bpm) that would be good.
I'd really have to sit down with that specific person. That case is extremely rare. Out of the people I taught I managed to get pretty much everybody up to picking a single note to about 180bpm+ 16ths.
Just my guitar teacher told me to do the same thing. Didn't work for me, unfortunately. Anything faster than 110bpm causes extreme tension/pain/numbness. Not sure if I'm doing anything wrong (pick doesn't bounce though), or if my hand is too weak.
Your hand is not too weak. Playing guitar doesn't require much strength, it's about efficiency. Something must be wrong with your fundamental technique, which I say in this video is a requirement before trying to gain speed.
I just watched one of your videos and you're playing much faster than 120bpm 16ths.
Yeah, I used to until I injured my elbow joint. I'm trying to learn wrist deviation movement (moving it sideways like your student does). I tried your method (also I'm using rest strokes when playing slow which helps) and I could reach about 150bpm. Could you spare another 5 seconds and tell me if I'm doing fine? Now I can do only 130-140.
ua-cam.com/video/WhyuX2dl9pQ/v-deo.html
I love this video. Amazing lesson and a very handsome boy.
Playing fast is just like EVH said 35 years ago: "... it's like falling down the stairs and landing on your feet" I guess no-one was listening because 'orthodoxy'. Great job Martin, thank you.