number one practise/exercise to increase speed

[Pumpkin_Howie]

my fingers on my right hand just can't keep up at all with my upstroke downstroke picking speed. What's the best exercise i can do to increase max playing speed? i wanna know because playing with a pick is a bit limiting at times

any help is most appreciated!

[Sarbecue Boss]

Play with a metronome a lot
Start with a slow tempo, one at which you can play your excersizes perfectly. Run through the excersises, and then bump the metronome up 5 bpm. Continue this process until you reach a bpm at which you cannot play the excersise.
Once you reach this point, back off the metronome about 5-10 bpm and play that tempo tons, play it until it becomes very easy, and then continue the process.
Some important points-
- You should do this 6-7 days a week.
-Always Maintain a constant upstroke to downstroke pattern, there should never 2 upstrokes or downstrokes in a row.

[Dsmalls]

I agree with everything of the above post in general, but I don't see why you can't play two "upstrokes" or "downstrokes" in a row. Whether you mean by upstroke and downstroke, downpick and uppick, or index pluck, middle pluck, doesn't matter. Either way, it is common practice to use one finger to rake up the strings and multiple consequtive downpicks. So that's why I disagree with that part of your post.

[Sarbecue Boss]

If you develope the habit of playing 2 upstrokes or 2 downstrokes in a row, you simply won't be able to play fast.

[Liten]

If the issue is playing with a pick.. I can't be of much help..
Turning to fingers instead you get the option of learning to use 3 fingers .. or 4 if you whant/can.. this however is what I beleve to be VERY hard and tedious when you have gotten used to a way of playing.. like me.. always been playing with 2 fingers.. recently started working with 3..

Garry Willis has got some great 3 finger "nonfretting hand" instructions in his vids.. youd find some on youtube if you search...

Also check out the doublethumb stuff that Victor Wooten does.. using your thumb as a Pick (down and up) and adding 2 extra fingers "index" & "middle" to get 4 diffrent "strokes" instead of just 2 that you get when using a pick.. pretty darn fast if you ask me..

But.. for those metal songs.. I bet youd just whant to save your skin the strain.. and practice that pick stuff anyways..

tada..

[trasser]

I agree with Sarbecue Boss, all the way. Someone posted a thread with a technique called "the buddha rope" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyUCOeUTM7E) a while ago, I haven't tried it myself, but some say it works.

[Dsmalls]

Originally Posted by Sarbecue Boss

If you develope the habit of playing 2 upstrokes or 2 downstrokes in a row, you simply won't be able to play fast.

Tell that to Yngwie.


Lol. That's simply not true at all my friend.

For my example I will use the common guitarist technique known as economy picking, or in the extreme example, sweep picking, where multiple strings are picked in an upwards or downwards fashion in order to increase SPEED.

Now please explain to me why a bassist can't use one finger in a sweeping motion to increase speed? Also please explain, in detail, why that would be "slow?"

Face it, you are completely wrong, bro.

EDIT

[Tuvoe]

I don't think he's talking about raking or anything like that. He's saying that if you're picking twice on the same string that you should alternate up and down strokes in order to keep your technique clean just as you would playing fingerstyle.

Personally I would stay away from raking, it's easier, but I've found that it's helped me a lot more to simply use an alternating technique, it sounds cleaner and there's less of a chance for a screw up (rakes are less controlled than alternating would be).

[santucci218]

while i do not agree at all that raking is bad, i can say that its different for different people. You can all play what, and how you want. for me, my nitch is raking.

[Messiah25]

Originally Posted by trasser

I agree with Sarbecue Boss, all the way. Someone posted a thread with a technique called "the buddha rope" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyUCOeUTM7E) a while ago, I haven't tried it myself, but some say it works.

Actually i practiced with "the buddha rope" But i used an ordinary cloth that i twist as a rope and place it under the strings on the last fret. It's builds muscles on your fingers and after about a week of practice i noticed my tone got cleaner and my stamina for long giggin is better. Try it, It might help.

[Sarbecue Boss]

dsmalls-
what you did was take an example of an individual scenario in which case playing multiple upstrokes or downstrokes was acceptable, sweeping, and try and use it to prove me wrong, good one man, that was really intelligent

now lets apply proper technique to the scenario which was implied, playing an exercise

if you try to pick this improperly, e.g. 2 upstrokes or downstrokes in a row-
--------------------------
--------------------------
---------2-----------2----
--1-2-4---4-2-1-2-4---4-2
you will not be able to play it fast


"Now please explain to me why a bassist can't use one finger in a sweeping motion to increase speed? Also please explain, in detail, why that would be "slow?""

No

[daffy]

I have been using "Bass Fitness" by Josquin des Pres over the past couple of months and I have noticed a marked difference in my playing.

- I have much more even finger dexterity
- I am using all my fingers more evenly instead of preferring some over others
- my accuracy has increased
- my fingers are staying close to the board at all times
- I am definitely faster. Passages that I could not play at speed before are very straightforward now.

It's an exercise book, and it's pretty mindless at times, so you have to make it a part of your practice drill - I warm up with it by doing one part per day (one or two pages) and repeating it if I go less than about 15 minutes.

As he says at the start, you begin on the lowest metronome setting and concentrate on your finger position and your sound, then work your speed up. I went through the whole book at 60 (I lie - I jumped the metronome round randomly between 60 and 65 so I didn't get stuck on one tempo), then started again at 80, then 100 and so on.

I'm not up to 180 yet, and there are some exercises that I'm dreading at that speed :-)

Very useful book.

[HaVIC5]

Originally Posted by Sarbecue Boss

dsmalls-
what you did was take an example of an individual scenario in which case playing multiple upstrokes or downstrokes was acceptable, sweeping, and try and use it to prove me wrong, good one man, that was really intelligent

now lets apply proper technique to the scenario which was implied, playing an exercise

if you try to pick this improperly, e.g. 2 upstrokes or downstrokes in a row-
--------------------------
--------------------------
---------2-----------2----
--1-2-4---4-2-1-2-4---4-2
you will not be able to play it fast


"Now please explain to me why a bassist can't use one finger in a sweeping motion to increase speed? Also please explain, in detail, why that would be "slow?""

No

I still dont see why raking in this situation is bad. That excercise can easily be played with raking technique.

[Sarbecue Boss]

the point is't playing the excersise, it is playing it fast, with a pick

[Erick Lam]

But the OP is asking about fingerstyle!

[Sarbecue Boss]

ORLY?
point out where in that post he mentions fingerstyle playing

[Erick Lam]

Unless he's left-handed (even then)...

Originally Posted by Pumpkin_Howie

my fingers on my right hand just can't keep up at all with my upstroke downstroke picking speed.

Translation: I can't play as fast with my fingers as I do with a pick.

Originally Posted by Pumpkin_Howie

What's the best exercise i can do to increase max playing speed? i wanna know because playing with a pick is a bit limiting at time.

Translation: What's the best exercise to play faster with my fingers, so I won't be as limited as with the pick only.

[santucci218]

yeah, that thing you posted to play without a rake....defiantly rake...its just as, if not, faster.

[Sarbecue Boss]

I assumed he was left handed
lots of pick player develope fast pick speed and can't keep their fretting hand up to par

I NEVER said anything about playing without a fingerstyle rake technique rake

[Pumpkin_Howie]

yeah sorry about confusing people, Erick Lam got what i was saying. just want to be able to play with my fingers alot faster!