Fast finger picking

[Waspinators]

I'm playing in a death metal band where the bass follows the guitar most of the time, which does extremely fast arpeggios. I have to keep up with these playing with my fingers, and when I play the lines, my fingers feel a lot of fatigue, and lose speed quickly, causing me to miss a lot of notes. Of course the obvious answer would be to practice, but how should I practice? Anyone know of any techniques or exercises to help me out?

[JimmyM]

Check the exercise sticky. Also, practice your fast licks at a painfully slow speed until you master it, then gradually speed up until you get to the right speed. Don't move past a tempo until you've mastered it.

[GianGian]

You play along with the guitar arppegios?

[Rattlehead]

I'm just now getting speed at arpeggios.

For practice you might want to look up some classical music too - there are lots of songs where the left hand of the piano is constantly playing arpegios at a fair speed, sometimes very fast, and also violinists 'sweep' a lot by changing the angle of the bow so it switches strings.

Not only will it help by giving you more stuff to practice, it might give you ideas you can use and apply in your own music!

Good luck.

[GianGian]

Ohh I was thinking sweeping, that's why I got so

[Rattlehead]

Originally Posted by GianGian

Ohh I was thinking sweeping, that's why I got so

I think he or she is, no?

[GianGian]

Originally Posted by Rattlehead

I think he or she is, no?

I think not...He said arppegios, sweeps are mostly parts of guitar solos, never saw them "doubled".

[Foxworthy925]

I play in a death metal band and get to sweep for about a minute straight in one of our songs. OP, are you talking about following sweeps or just very fast arpeggios?

[GianGian]

Originally Posted by Foxworthy925

I play in a death metal band and get to sweep for about a minute straight in one of our songs. OP, are you talking about following sweeps or just very fast arpeggios?

I am talking about following sweeps.