Exercises for Fast Right-Hand Speed?

[Dhrystone]

Hi all,

I'm re-discovering the love of bass after not playing for quite some time, and am influenced by a lot of death metal guys (Alex Webster, Stefan Fimmers, Jeroen Paul Thesseling, Steve DiGiorgio, Tony Choy). I'm trying to regain my right-hand finger speed again, and was wondering if anyone has good exercises for speed. I'm hoping to use the first three fingers of my right hand to mimick the fast tremolo-style picking guitarists do.

Thanks!

[fearceol]

Originally Posted by Dhrystone

I'm trying to regain my right-hand finger speed again, and was wondering if anyone has good exercises for speed.

Speed comes with practicing slowly, and building the tempo gradually. The exercises themselves wont be of any benefit unless executed in this way.

[Pollinator95]

For the 3-finger technique, set your metronome to about 60bpm (what do you mean, you don´t have a metronome??!!). It may seem painfully slow, but bear (polar bear, preferably) with it. Play Index, Middle, Ring, Index, etc. Make sure you accent on the one, and don´t play in 3/4.
After a minute or so, raise the tempo by 20bpm. If you miss a note, take a rest and try again. You will reach a point where you´re too fast for the metronome, just set it slower and play 16th notes or whatever.
Soon you´ll match your 2-finger speed, it´s just a matter of time. Half an hour of this a day should do.

[Jason P Bass]

Or go Ring, Middle, Index. I adopted this sequence after seeing Billy Sheehan's videos on youtube, and highly recommend it.

With the basics down, I start doing runs and string changes:


----------------------------------6-7-
---------------------6-7-----5-8------
---------6-7-----5-8-----6-7----------
6-7-5-8------6-7----------------------

7-6-8-5-----7-6---------------------------------
--------7-6-----8-5-----7-6---------------------
--------------------7-6-----8-5-----7-6---------
--------------------------------7-6-----8-5-7-6


It doesn't sound like much, but that's not the point. This pattern is designed to be especially confusing for your left + right hands simultaneously. If you can get this pattern down, you're well on the way to being a shredder.

Start slowly. It is CRITICAL that you keep up your 3 finger pattern REGARDLESS of the strings or LH finger. This will begin to train your muscle memory to work that 3 finger trill without conscious effort. Good luck!

[SLaPiNFuNK]

Do you have the concept of "raking" solid?

[NCD]

Originally Posted by Jason P Bass

This pattern is designed to be especially confusing for your left + right hands simultaneously. If you can get this pattern down, you're well on the way to being a shredder.

On a related note, I'm having issues with keeping my hands coordinated when the speed really picks up. What shocked me is that my left hand is actually faster than my right, as I hear my fretting hand hammer on before my finger can pluck when the right hand falls behind. Because of those hammers, I know that I'm fretting the correct notes.

That just blows me away considering that these are large moves for the left hand that are not at all difficult for the right. This would have to mean that the issue is in the brain, and I'm losing concentration during larger or faster moves. IE:

2/4 time... 117 bpm... '-' = 16th note

--------|--------|---------|-----
--------|3-------|---------|-----
------4-|--6-4---|6-4-----|-----
2-4-6---|------6-|----6-4-|6----

This is from the chorus of Kansas' "What's On My Mind". I end up fretting the F on the D string (3) while my plucking hand is playing catch up. My left hand keeps trucking along though and so I end up hearing the 6's and 4's hammering away but they're nowhere near strong enough without a good pluck.

I'll also loose coordination in a fast run of 0-1-0-1-0-1-0-1.

I'm hoping that the mentioned exercise is designed to help with exactly this sort of issue. Yes / No ??

[Stilettoprefer]

Start playing jazz. Thats how I improved my timing between hands. Walking bass lines may look simple, but at higher tempos they can be a workout. And I find jazz and funk to be much more fun to play than metal but that's me.

[Pollinator95]

Did I say index middle ring? I meant what Jason said. And yes, string crossing is important.

[Thaos627]

i had the same problem awhile back, i played in a funk band. my cousin plays in a death metal band so we were able to trade off and teach each other how to use the other hand. i started out playing iron maiden's run to the hills which gave me a significant boost.

[Jason P Bass]

Originally Posted by NCD

I'm hoping that the mentioned exercise is designed to help with exactly this sort of issue. Yes / No ??

I think you might be over-analyzing things. It sounds like you're getting up to speeds where your R-L coordination falls apart. Happens to anybody if you go fast enough. I would simply practice with a metronome and gradually bump up the speed.

[Dusty89]

G--------------------------------------------------
D--------------------------------------------------
A---------------------------1-------1--------------
E-1-3---1-3------1-3---1-3---3-1-3---3-1-0-1-3---

Of course, I had to reference Dusty, but the ending riff to "cheap sunglasses" is a great right/left hand coordination exercise. Practice along to the music at his tempo and then by yourself at an increased bpm. A simple exersize that helped me build a lot of right hand endurance.

[Jason P Bass]

Thought of another one! This was a run in an original song written before I joined my band. At first I had to revert to 2 finger technique to get through this at tempo - now it's a part of my 3 finger speed shredding practice.


--------------------------------------
--------------------------------------
--------------------------------------
3-5-6-3-6-3-3-5-3-6-3-3-6-5-3---------



Obviously this simple run can (and should) be practiced anywhere on the neck.

It was the change from ascending (first three notes) to descending (last three notes) that tripped me up.

Nothing a little time with the metronome couldn't solve!