Glad to hear we’ve kept your thread on track:)
At the risk of asking you to repeat yourself (maybe you already answered this and I missed it, but) - why not?..
In my experience it doesn’t seem to improve my ability to consistently execute said licks up to speed. It may help in the beginning stages of learning a new lick when you’re just memorizing the notes, but for me it doesn’t seem to help much after that. I spent many hours over the course of several months doing this kind of practice with several fast licks from Cliffs of Dover and I’ve still only been able to play them properly and up to speed around 50% of the time. It seems like my brain (and hands) get confused quite often when I try and play through something long and fast at full speed (without chunking) and tends to lead to my right hand locking up in the middle of a lick or my hand synchronization falling apart.
I thought this video on chunking was AWESOME. @Yaakov found it and shared it. It seriously changed the way I practice.
https://forum.troygrady.com/t/jason-sulliman-on-starting-with-not-working-up-to-fast
This would be when you already know the notes and all required movements. In my experience, it’s helped tremendously with hand sync but also on reminding the hands to stay relaxed.
Is the etude on the forum somewhere?
That’s funny; I’d almost forgotten I posted that! I didn’t have as much success with it as you, apparently, but I admit that that’s quite possibly because of this next point regarding repetition…
So there’s a popular YT guitarist out there, the guy can really rip, and he posted something about metronome. But he admitted that no great players probably ever did what he was suggesting to do. Likewise, in another video he did recommending a no-guitar hand exercise, I was thinking, this is another thing I doubt any solid player ever did. But…
In another vid, he got pretty passionate talking about building speed, and claimed that without massive repetition, he would never have achieved his present level. Hours and hours running patterns in front of the t.v., etc. That struck me as likely; he’s not the only one who says so.
But I’m raising this because of something else this guy said… A lot of people come back to him and say it’s not working. So then he has to emphasize the ‘massive’ part of massive repetition. Not a ‘lot,’ or ‘for months,’ but many thousands upon thousands of times. Like a crazy amount.
I can’t claim to have experienced this - but I’m trying to;) Because right now, it’s the only thing that makes sense to me regarding the training of the left hand to fret through a given pattern fast.
You mention having worked a lot on Cliffs of Dover licks. Not to put you on the spot, @cthom02, but in the interest of science;)… Did you run them to the point where you could hold a conversation while playing them repeatedly?
(…that’s the definition of “massive” rep)
I have never been able to talk and play anything at the same time (even campfire chords). I doubt I’ll ever be able to do that…
Don’t give up so easily. Let’s play our licks a million or so times first and see;)
Been there … done that! Still no talking/singing for me!!
I haven’t gotten to the point where I could hold a conversation while playing virtually any fast picking lick. Usually I only work on that skill if it’s something that I’m playing and singing over. I definitely agree with your point about how a lot of great players talk about repeating things in front of the TV, but does it really take years to get a handful of licks to the point where you would be comfortable playing them live? I can’t imagine that it should take longer than I’ve been working on some of these licks, which is what leads me to believe that it’s an error in how I’ve been practicing as opposed to me simply not putting in enough time. I also can’t really imagine that most players focus exclusively on a handful of licks for hundreds of hours to get comfortable playing them, since most of these guys are good at such a wide array of other things on the guitar. Thanks for the added input though!
Does anyone else have any experience with “massive” reps leading to consistent fast playing?
I think the massive reps leads to the consistency, but as @Yaakov and the general CtC forum has beat to death, it won’t develop good technique on its own.
I did the Erotomania riff over and over, around the 1:20 or so mark I feel warm and just beat the riff to death:
What kind of repetition do you use when practicing? Do you just run through a given lick slowly and emphasize accuracy or do you practice it in chunks? Sorry I can’t watch the video to see at the moment
@cthom02 slowly to memorize it and warm up, then i switch to the actual speed to find the issue parts and work on them, usually by chunking the transitions into and out of the “hard part”.
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