The Need For Speed

Hi guys,

could anyone suggest any drills to help increase both left and right hand speed

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Are you taking the B2B course?

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Yep! Half way though module 8

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Cool, keep practicing. I promise the speed thing will come to you eventually. Have you nailed the fast version of Billie Jean? That’s a great one to practice, in fact it’s one of my daily warm up licks.
A good (and fun) way to work on speed is to play the major and minor scales, up and down, from one key to the next. Even if you just play one scale such as the C Major scale up and down as fast as you can (a metronome or drum track will help). Set a goal such as doing it ten times in a row, up and down, without making a mistake. Great exercise.

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This book is really good for that.

Bass Fitness - An Exercising Handbook: Updated Edition!: Now Including Bonus 5-String Section! (Guitar School) https://smile.amazon.com/dp/0793502489/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_DCBRHZT623CZ5W21CADZ

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Funny, I bought that book over 2 years ago when I was first starting, and it’s been sitting on a shelf ever since. Other than flipping though it when I removed it from the envelope, I have never looked at it.
I got so wrapped up in courses, and then learning songs and doing covers, I never felt the need for it.

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It’s good back to basics fretting and gets going your finger busyness. I still use it quite often

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some days are good and other my fingers dont hit the notes they should :grin:

Thanks for all your suggestions

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This is a great one too…

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Thanks @John_E … that looks like a great one to practice as well

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Wow - this is killer. This is the first time I’ve felt some pain in the top of my hand so I stopped.

Just a question regarding this @John_E - do you practice this? He mentions playing on your finder tips and not playing with fingers flat across the strings, I’ve always played semi-flat if that make sense (not entirely up on my finger tips, yet not entirely flat) - have I been learning wrong?? Did I miss something in one of @JoshFossgreen lessons?

I do play that one often.

I’m a sorta tip sorta pad of finger guy. My form is a mess

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hahaha well that makes me feel better

I’ve almost never practiced being fast at anything, i just practiced a lot slowly until i could play it perfectly and then i could also play it fast as well. Playing fast is mostly muscle memory and playing slower allows you to focus on the movements more carefully. The only thing i’ve worked at getting faster on was playing 16th notes and I used Josh’s Hysterial tutorial. I started out with with a metronome at a relatively slow speed and then gradually bumped it up until i could play faster than I needed to.

A few nights ago I was practicing the first 1/4 of a song on yousician at 75% speed and after about 45mins of that, I decided to try it at 100%. I turned up the speed, and I was thinking “wow man, this song is really fast!!!” Then after playing through the song several times I noticed it was on 125% :joy: it was much easier when i went back to 100% ! :smiley:

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Ive done this before with exercises that build up to 100% on and realize I’m at 120%

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That’s actually how I would practice Billie Jean while I still practiced that monstrosity. Put the drum track on at normal tempo, play it; then work up to 140bpm. Then stop and play songs I liked :slight_smile:

It’s been a while since I did that, I would probably sound super bad if I tried it now. I tend to play that song really sloppily.

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Spiderwalks. 9-10-11-12 on a, 10-11-12-13 on d, 11-12-13-14 on g and Back down. It’s a little hard to nail at first, but start slow. It’ll come to you.

I’ll feel fast when i can nail scales at the speed of josh fossgreen. That’s somewhere near light, i believe.

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I’m getting quicker than when I first started that’s for sure and its all come down to regular practice and consistent playing

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There it is. It works. Keep going, it’s there.

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