Middle aged dad from Ontario

Introduce Yourself
#1

Hey all,

I’m a 43 year old guy from Ontario, Canada. I’ve been playing for about 30 years. I took lessons when I was starting out as a teen and I have a B.A. with a minor in music…so I do understand theory. I’ve played lead guitar in pretty much every band I’ve been in. I can handle melodic stuff and bluesy stuff…My main hurdle is speed. I’m a huge fan of Eric Johnson, Andy Timmons, etc. and so far “drilling” with a metronome hasn’t given me the results I’m hoping for. I can play 16th note runs on a single string at about 160-170bpm, but multi-string runs are much slower (too slow), currently topping out around 135bpm. I’m hoping this place can help me get “above the hump”.

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#2

Thanks for signing up — we’ll get you sorted. These problems have mechanical roots, and highly repetitive “metronomes and exercises”-style practice doesn’t tend to fix them because it doesn’t address the actual techniques involved.

The good news is that you probably already do plenty of things well, and we can simply leverage those, with a little strategic smarts about which phrases will work best with the motions you do best.

The Primer is the best place to start. The table tap tests will give you a sense of your raw physical capabilities and provide a little background on what “escape motion” is and which kind you might be using. After that, make a Technique Critique and we’ll take a look!

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