faster scales, arpeggios

[oldhippiegal]

I don’t want to go faster just to go faster--I’ve seen those youtubes of people who can play fast and have zero sense of musicality, and that’s not what I’m after--but faster in the service of musicality, I am interested in. I have recordings of songs where clearly the guitarist is moving considerably faster than I can.

I seem to be topping out at eighth notes at 144 bpm on major scales, a bit less with minors. Arpeggios are slower at this point, but I admit I practice them less often.

I realize it might be something I'm doing wrong and that, without video of me, you can't diagnose that, and of course there must be an upper limit for each of us based on purely physical factors we can't change.

But if you have any advice or a link to an instructional video that worked for you, I'd appreciate it.

[bluesbassdad]

Originally Posted by oldhippiegal

I don’t want to go faster just to go faster--I’ve seen those youtubes of people who can play fast and have zero sense of musicality, and that’s not what I’m after--but faster in the service of musicality, I am interested in. I have recordings of songs where clearly the guitarist is moving considerably faster than I can.

I seem to be topping out at eighth notes at 144 bpm on major scales, a bit less with minors. Arpeggios are slower at this point, but I admit I practice them less often.

I realize it might be something I'm doing wrong and that, without video of me, you can't diagnose that, and of course there must be an upper limit for each of us based on purely physical factors we can't change.

But if you have any advice or a link to an instructional video that worked for you, I'd appreciate it.

Just to clarify are you saying that you can play 288 notes per minute?

In his video, _Pumping Nylon_, Scott Tenant demonstrates what he calls "bursts". It's easier to play, let's say, four notes very fast than eight notes very fast.

Something like this:
1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-1-e-and-a, 2-e-and-a, 3-e-and-a, 4-e-and-a, 1-2-3-4.

The one measure of 16th notes would be played at a speed just faster than the player is comfortable with.

I've used a similar approach in brass playing. I think it should be helpful on guitar, as well.

[oldhippiegal]

Originally Posted by bluesbassdad

Just to clarify are you saying that you can play 288 notes per minute?

yeah, but that makes it sound faster than it seems. Thanks for the advice.

[carp]

I've been working hard with the material on this site and her books. The approach makes a lot of sense, and my technique is definitely improving, but as I have not attempted too much application of it to music I can't say much else at this time.

www.GuitarPrinciples.com