Stuck with Hysteria for 2 months. No improvements.

[Derp]

About two months ago I learned Hysteria by Muse. I practice almost every day but I see no results. Fretting is easy on this one. The thing about this song is that it's very fast. My picking hand goes totally nuts.

Sorry, "plucking hand". I play fingerstyle.

 

[john_g]

Are you practicing slower to get it right before speeding it up a notch? For example, when I learned YYZ by Rush, I had to get the metronome set to much slower until I got the lines right, then bump it up a little, then some more, etc, until I could do it full speed.

 

[Derp]

Are you practicing slower to get it right before speeding it up a notch? For example, when I learned YYZ by Rush, I had to get the metronome set to much slower until I got the lines right, then bump it up a little, then some more, etc, until I could do it full speed.

I'm doing it full speed.

 

[MalcolmAmos]

Slow your metronome down to a setting you can function with. Get comfortable with that and then speed up in stages.

 

[Dark Star]

In addition to slowing the metronome down, try setting a daily goal aimed at incrementally working up to playing the full song at full speed.

Take, for example, the first 12 bars of the song and make your goal something like, "Be able to play the first 12 bars of Hysteria at full tempo" and work towards completing that in a day's practice session. Achieving that goal can take as long as you need it to.

Make another goal for the next day to play, for example, the next 12 bars up to full tempo and then make the goal for the day after that, play the first 24 bars at full tempo with no more than 3 mistakes. And so on until your daily goal is play the full song, full speed, no mistakes.

Trying to learn the whole song in one hit at full speed is probably the hardest way you can go about learning something new. With me, I use that method above and it works well for me. Plus it makes me feel good after playing - like I actually made some progress.

 

[Hamlet7768]

In addition to slowing the metronome down, try setting a daily goal aimed at incrementally working up to playing the full song at full speed.

Take, for example, the first 12 bars of the song and make your goal something like, "Be able to play the first 12 bars of Hysteria at full tempo" and work towards completing that in a day's practice session. Achieving that goal can take as long as you need it to.

Make another goal for the next day to play, for example, the next 12 bars up to full tempo and then make the goal for the day after that, play the first 24 bars at full tempo with no more than 3 mistakes. And so on until your daily goal is play the full song, full speed, no mistakes.

Trying to learn the whole song in one hit at full speed is probably the hardest way you can go about learning something new. With me, I use that method above and it works well for me. Plus it makes me feel good after playing - like I actually made some progress.

The one problem with this is that about 80% of Hysteria is one riff, so you'd have to deconstruct it more.

That said, the best things to improve the picking side is to play very light, and make sure your setup is in optimal condition. That, and practice, first at, say, half tempo, then bump up to two-thirds tempo, then three-fourths, etc.

 

[WiflB]

I'm guessing from the fact you said 'picking hand' that you use a plectrum in which case make sure you've economized motion effectively by alternate picking (if you're playing it finger style then make sure you're using the rake technique). The main way I learnt the hysteria riff is by taking it one beat at a time - make sure you've got the first 4 notes down then move on to the next four. Once you can play the riff at a slow tempo without messing up I would set a metronome to 90 and play two notes per click and gradually speed up the tempo by 10 every time you feel confident playing at the tempo you're on. Good luck!

Ps. the second bar is often tabbed with frets 10, 12, 15 and 17 on the low E - a far easier way if you're playing finger style is to tab it all at frets 10 and 12 (fret 15 E = fret 10A etc..) This will also be easier if you have a shorter neck, and it just means no need to change position

 

[DiMarco]

Hysteria is easier played without a pick.

 

[jblmusic1994]

Learn it sections of 16 notes. The main riff is steady

 

[awilkie84]

Drop your pick. Play with your fingers. It makes the string changes MUCH faster. I learned this one in about a week.

 

[Derp]

Drop your pick. Play with your fingers. It makes the string changes MUCH faster. I learned this one in about a week.

I play fingerstyle

 

[Depth_Charge]

Took me about a week to learn the opening riffs at speed. As everyone said, slow it down then bring it up to speed a few BPM at a time. I naturally rake and had to learn to play alternatively to play this one clean too. As per WiflB I play it without having to move my hand too much. Its available as a GuitarPro tab on Ultimate-Guitar.com . GuitarPro has a cool loop function where you can select a section and loop it, incrementing the BPM a few % as you go.

If that doesn't work after a week, crank the fuzz

 

[WiflB]

Also if it's any consolation it took me forever to learn hysteria, I just worked through it in small doses for months until I had it down fluently so don't give up because I imagine everyone will attest to having had "I give up, I can't do this at all" moments then finding the same thing very easy a few months later - it's all about practice

 

[omie]

I also learn to play difficult passages and songs at slower speeds first. Learn to play it at whatever speed you can play it PERFECTLY.. and incrementally speed it up.

 

[David Jayne]

That said, the best things to improve the picking side is to play very light,....

Bolded for emphasis. Turn your amp up 'too' loud and play lightly to compensate.
Goes without saying that there are LOTS of effects going on there. Compression makes stuff like that easier to play.

 

[henry2513]

If you're not already, try relaxing your right hand.

 

[funkingroovin]

For me,this one's all about the fretting hand. Have you tried using hammer-on's/off's?

 

[MarkH_129]

let me chime in as a new bass player. What works for me is a. breaking things up into small parts and then connect the dots and b. starting out very slow, to do this I use my portable recorder to slow down the original song by 30 to 40 percent. most of the newer hand held recorders have the option to slow down the playback and maintain the correct tone (key). I highly recommend this. and.... practice, practice, and more practice.
Mark

 

[HaVIC5]

I'm doing it full speed.

Ready to get the most important advice of your musical career?

Practice things slowly. Painfully, unmusically slowly.

Only this way will you be able to break down the music into a way where you can accurately understand what your hands are doing, and be in total control of the situation. Slowly, over the span of weeks or months, you will be able to fully understand and intuit all the nuances of what you do when you're doing it stupidly slowly, and only then will it behoove you to speed up.

Until then, playing something at tempo when it is not clean is not the same thing as practicing. It's useless, and frustrating. There is simply no way you can execute something intricate and complicated if you haven't broken it down and understood it from a standpoint of mechanics and muscle memory. It's a nervous habit a lot of us share when we are beginning to want to play everything fast, because we want it to sound like the record so badly, but we end up trying to play it quickly far too soon.

Slow down!

 

[JimmyM]

Relax your hand, too. If you tense up, you won't be able to play it. Pretty good advice so far. I learned it recently my own self and that's how I learned it...played it slowly at first then worked up to tempo gradually. But a relaxed right hand is key.