I know this question appears regularly but i must ask again How to build speed.
80 percent of my practice time is spent on building speed but not getting anywhere in a hurry
so any tips other than practice slowly, use a metronome and keep your down ups in order would be helpful.
In one of Devin's earlier videos he talked about picks and how to hold them in order to build speed. Wish I remembered which video it was, because it was very helpful.
It seems like all I do is try to get better on chord changes. I was using different fingerings on the G and F chords than Devin uses and that has been hard to get used to. I could just use my own but I like to learn as many as possible.
@jrick92 I have no problems with chords its more speed needed on fiddle tunes and improvising licks.
@jrick92 Yeah, that kind of threw me, too. He does a G that I'm not used to and I do another different just out of habit. It's hard to break habits, especially when you're playing and trying to remember a different chord shape on the fly.
@wjssavhotmail-co-uk Yeah, I'm looking forward to being frustrated playing licks and fills. I've started on them but that's about it.
I know this question appears regularly but i must ask again How to build speed.
80 percent of my practice time is spent on building speed but not getting anywhere in a hurry
so any tips other than practice slowly, use a metronome and keep your down ups in order would be helpful.
don't try to get anywhere in a hurry. focus on playing the notes 100% correctly. if you play something quickly, and wrong, 99 times, why would you do it right the 100th time? But if you play it slow 99 times, you can be sure that 100th will also be perfect. use a metronome, and move the BPM up by 2 every time you get comfortable at whatever speed you at. Once you hit a BPM where you can no longer play the lick, or run, or whatever it is perfectly, drop that sucker way back down and start working back up. without knowing more specifically what you're trying to play that's my best advice.
I just keep backing backing backing and backing. Lol
@ijonahperson Good advice thanks, I guess 99% is quality practice. I can only hope that someone after this lock down is over
and we get back to playing a session or at a Jam says my playing has improved as I have put a lot of hard work in over the past year.
I know this is contrary to the advice, but I've found that playing too slow is almost worse than playing too fast. Putting the metronome at 30 BPM is just torture for me and I'll make mistakes that I wouldn't make if I was playing 70 BPM. There's a sweet spot there that you have to find in order to improve. Just my two cents.
@shysue I agree. I'll only go as slow as 40 for triplets practice. If I can't play it at 50 I just go one or two measures at a time until I can.
I agree. I usually start off about 50-70 then creep my way up
I'm curious at what tempo some of you can play at. In Devin's lesson overview of Red Haired Boy, he is playing at 90 BPM. I can match that pretty good (I might not play as cleanly here and there, but I'm happy with it). I usually start around 70, then work my way up. Of course Tony Rice and our other Bluegrass heroes will play the same song and others at 120 and beyond. Too fast for me!
