I know this might be profanity here, but have you tried using a pick for some parts of the song? I’m also struggling with speed, specifically with The Handler (MUSE), and watched a video of Chris using a pick for that part of the song (the solo/ending). Anyway I still have issues with how to be consistent with it, because I never use pick.
like anything else, it takes practice. It feels natural eventually.
One thing that helps for me is I learned picking decades before having lessons that teach the “right” way to hold it, and am super comfortable with the more natural (to me) way I hold it.
Same here. I intend to wait until I will be stable in playing fingerstyle and learn to play with a pick only afterwards. I feel that it would be too overwhelming for my brain to learn both at the same time.
Picks aside, seriously, check the videos. It’s magic. Somehow you get better and better.
In a nutshell the method consists on splitting the part you want to improve in chunks and then you play loops of these chunks at different speeds, from slow to fast and back to slow again, adding each time more chunks to the loop.
She claims that it helps for the muscle memory. If you have physical limitations well, that’s another story. It’s LIKE magic but not magic
I posted this a little while ago. I am working on same issue. Below is working well for me:
Relaxed plucking…
Sharing a trick for newbies I learned for relaxed plucking. Using a metronome, set it on 16th notes and a high speed (eg 200 bpm). Start by plucking every quarter, then eighths, and finally 16ths.
I find it helps to get in groove with 8th, then add two 16ths, back to 8th… building to four 16ths… then 8, 12… and eventually cranking 16ths.
There is no way to keep up on 16ths unless I relax… fingers, hand, wrist, body.
Takes some time but as I get it, it translates to smoother relaxed plucking in other exercises and songs.
Well for my own experiences, it comes with time. Slowly. I used to dedicate around 20-30 mins per day to build up speed with various exercises. After 4 months, there was little progress. I was stuck on around 80 BPM, so I gave it up, and just started playing more covers and other non speed related exercises. One day I was playing an old cover that has some fairy quick triplets, I was never able to do it, so I cheated and used hammer on for the second note. This time, it was not super easy, but I was able to. Then I thought I should try my speed against my previous exercise, so ai set the BPM to 80 and it went fine, then 85 then 90. I was able to do it. Super fluid and with lots of string crossing? No, but my speed had increased.
I don’t do specific speed exercises anymore. It simply caused me to get frustrated and questioning my efforts and my way of playing. Do I push myself with songs that are out of my reach, also plucking wise? Absolutely I do, is it frustrating to have to slow it down and maybe only play it at 80-90% speed? Sure, but it’s easier for me to track progress playing harder songs than by doing mind numbing speed exercises.
Thanks for linking these videos Ferk. It’s a super interesting technique for practising and improving speed for specific parts. I’ll be trying this out for sure.
Glad to read! For me it was like a kind of magic trick. Although to be honest I tend not to practice it much because of the tedious roll back and change of speeds… everything has a price
I came here today to ask about speed. I’ve been playing for about a year now and speed is probably the biggest struggle. Watching this video was nice because… it’s something similar to what I decided to do anyway—slightly different exercise because I have a song in mind that’s a gallop (8th, 16th, 16th x 4) but I thought that might a bit more interesting than just… all the plucks, lol. (One Headlight by the Wallflowers if anyone is interested. The tempo with 16ths seems like an attainable goal in the next few weeks.)
I noticed recently how often I hold my breath and mistakes always lead to a cascade of failure because it leads to… tensing up and holding my breath.
Anyway… nothing to add or ask. Seems like I just need to keep at it and actually focus specifically on speed. I never thought my plucking hand would be the one holding me back. That’s been a big surprise in all of this.
Usually comes with time, I find that when I am not playing and my hand is not busy doing anything, I will practice using a pick held with thumb and forefinger, allowing my others to flail away on the tip of the pick. Had an “old timer” show me this, as it helps with speed and accuracy. I thought him a loon when he said it, but found myself trying it out. Lo and behold my timing sped up an string accuracy got a bit better too. Everyone finds their groove at some point, so keep at it, it will come.
Like others said it comes with time. As someone who will get bored of practicing with a metronome in approximately ten seconds I found it helpful to have a few songs with fast, long, and simple plucking sections that I can slow down to my desired practice speed and essentially use as a more interesting metronome.
The Trooper by Iron Maiden is a good one for gallops and Hunting High And Low by Stratovarius for 16th notes. I started at half speed and worked my way up to full speed over time. The final climb from 150bpm to 180bpm took twice as long as getting from 80bpm to 150bpm.
You can also adopt techniques that a more comfortable at high bpms (e.g. 3 fingers) but they’re probably not worth the time investment unless you’re really interested in high speed genres.
Play this song a lot, I used to use it for a warm-up, it will increase your single finger plucking or your two-finger roll speed, ZZ Top “Legs”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mCpu4_pKk0
Speed plugging secret is also the backstop. If you can just get a bass ramp this helps a lot. It provides a consistent feel under your finger as you plug and prevent digging.
Above with Vincen Garcia is a ramp user. Mohini Dey plays right over her bridge pickup and uses the pickup as a ramp. The Billy Sheehan, Relentless pickup is literally designed as a ramp.
