Nita Strauss' Practice Tip: how to shred steel?

Mark Hepler · From: Virginia, USA

Guys & Gals,

If I were starting out, Iâ€™d use Nita Straussâ€™ speed-building tip, but my struggle has always been against tedium: watching this makes me want to fast-forward, even though itâ€™s the right approach.

http://www.guitarworld.com/lesson-videos-rock/nita-strauss-shares-her-top-tip-better-guitar-playing/29678

Itâ€™s too late for me to undo my misspent muscle memory . . . besides, if everyoneâ€™s fast, no oneâ€™s fast Smile

Right now, I practice an hour or two a day, with Saturdays off for good behavior (or gigs): I jam through headphones to modern tracks we cover in bands, some lilting music to work on crying tones, and then wrap up with impossibly fast bluegrass tracks, until I can play one pass through a verse, on tempo.

What about you all? . . . just curious.

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

The metronome method works! Start slow, get it right, and then bump it up a notch. Lather, rinse, repeat. I try to reach the point where I can play the part without mistakes a couple of notches faster than the record. That really firms up the muscle memory.
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Rich Peterson · From: Moorhead, MN

Yes, it works.

Except when it doesn't. Starting at a slow speed can lead to developing a bad habit that doesn't become apparent until you try to speed up. You can play a lick with bad te chnique at a very slow tempo, but the awkwardness stops you from progressing past a certain pooint.

So, use the metronome, don't assume practice will eventually enable you to do that ONE lick that you have a mistaken understanding of.

ajm · From: Los Angeles

Taking into account that this is coming from someone who is not nearly as successful, or as cute, as Nita..........

In addition to:
1) Using a metronome
2) Starting slow

3) Record yourself.
That piece that you just played with perfect timing is probably going to have a couple of surprises for you.
I discovered this unwelcome characteristic about my playing when I tried to record a couple of solo acoustic fingerpicking pieces.
That was about two years ago. I started using an old drum machine as a metronome and was humbled by how off my timing was.
I'm still not perfect, but I'm better than I was.
It's probably more apparent when you're playing by yourself. If you're playing with a band, I have a feeling that everyone kind of blends together and masks everyone else's imperfections.

4) (Primarily for 6 stringers) Turn off the distortion.
Yes I know it's more fun with it on, but it can mask poor technique.

5) (Primarily for 6 stringers.....duh) Don't wear your guitar so low.
It's something that I read in a Roy Buchanan interview about 40 years ago. Even though I never was a huge fan like some people, it made total sense when I read it.
It's not an issue when you're sitting down. But standing up it can slow you down, lead to physical issues, etc.
Yes I know that Billy Gibbons and Jimmy Page and Nita and (fill in the blank) don't seem to have any apparent issues, but it still makes sense to me.

ajm · From: Los Angeles

To add, here is a video from Brain Wampler.
It's more for 6 stringers, but some of it may apply to 10/12/20/etc stringers as well.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////

We've come up with a list of 12 ways to improve your tone, and thereby your playing ultimately, without buying anything. This isn't a total absolute - end all/be all list but rather of 12 ways that we came up with and that works well for us. Those 12 ways include:
-Use a good tuner
-Practice without headphones
-Stand when you practice instead of sitting
-Practice playing around chords instead of just playing a scale
-Practice your vibrato, and practice it to a metronome or drum track
-Use Karaoke-Version.com to download a multitrack version of a song and remove the guitar to practice with the track
-Practice with a drum loop or metronome
-How to make the best of hitting the "wrong" note in front of the audience
-Listen and learn to other instruments and singers to mimic how they phrase their melodies and note choice
-Take a break
-Slow down the tempo of a solo to learn it note by note and each nuance
-Learn chords everywhere on the neck, as well as the scales around those chords (See CAGED system)

The video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbq_QVAXQzg

Rich Upright · From: Florida, USA

"How to make the best of hitting the "wrong" note in front of the audience"

I'll usually yell out "AW CRAP" at the top of my lungs--the band laughs, and if the audience isn't so self absorbed in their drinks & cigarettes, they'll laugh,too.

I read somewhere that Emmylou tells her band that If you're gonna make a mistake or hit a bad note, make it a real doozy so we can laugh about it afterwards. Makes sense to me.
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b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

I was working with a metronome on marimba once, very focused at a high tempo. When I stopped playing, it sounded like the metronome sped up! <center>
Whoa!

</center>
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Mark Hepler · From: Virginia, USA

John Hughey said something to the effect that if you can sound good to yourself, through headphones, chances are that other people will like your playing.

It can be psychically painful though, since you notice pick noise and dissonant chords.

I practice through an amp, too, to try out stage-tone settings, and sometimes treat myself to tube amp nirvana through an old Super. But headphones reveal all.

Kevin Fix · From: Michigan, USA

Head phones don't lie. I noticed that I had some pick noise now and then. Made me a lot more aware of my volume pedal.!!!!!!

Jeff Harbour · From: Western Ohio, USA

I was told to 'practice slow' early on in my 6-string days. Then I developed the bad habit of chronically practicing slow and never building up speed.

To correct this I always try to use Steve Morse's 80/20 approach. He has stated that he practices about 80% of the time slow and even, and 20% of the time trying for speed. He elaborated by saying (paraphrased) that if you only practice fast you will play sloppy... but if you only practice slow you won't gain the experience of playing fast.

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

The metronome will certainly make an honest player out of you Cool

What Rich Peterson said.
If you are not using correct technique and maximizing efficiency with the least physical movement, all the metronoming in the world will not get you up to speed.

John Polstra · From: Lopez Island, WA, USA

There's one aspect of the metronome method that I've never seen addressed by anyone. Your fingers are ballistic objects, with weight, inertia, and momentum. They behave differently when they're moving fast. Sometimes it's easier to play a lick fast than to play it slow. You see this all the time in instructional videos that folks make. They try to demonstrate a lick very slowly, and they screw it up. Playing a lick very slowly is like trying to throw a baseball so slow that it takes 10 seconds to fly from home plate to first base. The metronome method is definitely useful, but it's not quite as cut and dried as it's often made out to be.

John (who will never be mistaken for a speed picker)

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

Most of those instructional videos are not very instructional, including the one posted here because you can't see the player's picking hand. (Okay, maybe that wasn't the point of the video, but if it were attempting to be more comprehensively instructional...)

You make an interesting point, John. It would be FAR more instructional to watch a master practice something they have never played before and eventually get it up to speed than to watch them play something they've been playing for years and could do in their sleep.

Charlie McDonald · From: out of the blue

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

Charlie McDonald · From: out of the blue

No, I mean with a Thomas or Metronome de Maelzel, where the backbeat has a lag. Doesn't really apply nowadays. Embarassed

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

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