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Just listened to Biu playing quot;Spanish Flyquot; and that got me wondering. When I hear him as well as some of the younger players at my local music store play I just can't believe how FAST some of these guys can pick! Is it because they're young and their hand and arm muscles are more limber compared to someone like me who's not only older, but who did'nt even start playing guitar until he was 43? I know speed is not everything but no matter how long I practice I just cannot get past a certain point with my picking hand. My fretting hand (left hand) can fly with the best of them, but my right hand just cannot keep up. And I've tried holding my right hand/arm everyway imaginable. Think youth has anything to do with it?

It's because we have time to practice 4-5 hours a day .

Well, I do, at least until High School starts next year.


Originally Posted by Mike M.Just listened to Biu playing quot;Spanish Flyquot; and that got me wondering. When I hear him as well as some of the younger players at my local music store play I just can't believe how FAST some of these guys can pick! Is it because they're young and their hand and arm muscles are more limber compared to someone like me who's not only older, but who did'nt even start playing guitar until he was 43? I know speed is not everything but no matter how long I practice I just cannot get past a certain point with my picking hand. My fretting hand (left hand) can fly with the best of them, but my right hand just cannot keep up. And I've tried holding my right hand/arm everyway imaginable. Think youth has anything to do with it?

well... maybe.

Those high school kids have all the time in the world. I however do not. Thus I remain slow as f*ck. (Actually... my left hand can keep up but my right hand typically doesn't)

Better you and me get to work

slade


Originally Posted by DeadSkinSlayer3It's because we have time to practice 4-5 hours a day .

Well, I do, at least until High School starts next year.

What? Dude, I wish I had all the time now that I had in high school to practice. It's when you leave high school you should worry.

Hmmm, wow! I'm blushing now, man. But seriously, I'm not sure if it has to do with being young or not. I recorded quot;Spanish Flyquot; this morning after a 4 week hiatus from guitar (AP classes, constant testing, insane homework, track amp; field, prom, just real hectic things keeping me from guitar!), and I dunno, it doesn't seem to have to do with constent, consistant practice (for me, anyway). I think it's more to do with making practice WORTHWHILE. If I get something down pat, it will normally become natural and just stick forever. On the otherhand, my song memory is about as good as a goldfish's, I'll forget in a matter of hours


Originally Posted by XeromusWhat? Dude, I wish I had all the time now that I had in high school to practice. It's when you leave high school you should worry.

1I can't believe how much time I had to practice in HS... It's so hard to find time to practice now... I could play my fastest when I was about 19...but since then I've slowly gone down , but even though I might not be the technical player I was before, I've found I'm much more musical and expressive now, which is something I believe is just as important if not more important than sick shredding skills.....speed isn't everything

Yeah, I'm very sure that time has a LOT to do with it. I get in about an hour, maybe an hour and a half a day, Monday thru Friday if I'm lucky. Weekends I'll get in a lot more but it's still very hard for me to break those picking barriers. Regardless though it's still fun to play.

Was this the case back in the '60s and '70s?

this is an interesting question...I wonder if it's like a language or bicycle, in the sense that if your learn them young, it's easier and you never forget, whilst its more difficult when you're older?

Don't think so... I am 26 and I've been playing 8 years and it's quite difficult for me to play fast. Sometimes my finger just doesn't reach what my mind wants!!! May be I just started too late .

Well, and I play with 11-52 strings, which makes it harder!!

I think Biu and some of the other younger guys are are the exception rather than the majority. I don't thinks its an age thing though, I can play as fast and certainly cleaner than I could when I was young.
I remember when I started playing in 1987 EVERYONE played fast as hell due to the musical climate of the 80's. Teaching throughout the 90's I noticed kids started slowing down and caring alot less about speed and technique which is fine of course. Now there is a slight resurgence thanks to guys like Zakk Wylde and some of the newer Metal guys who have influenced the new kids. But I think Biu and these kids influence by EVH and Paul Gilbert is very RARE!! We should keep encouraging them as they may be the guys to bring it all back again.

I don't think age has to do with much. I've seen some really fast players who are older. Theres just people getting better and better at a younger age nowdays.

HMMM.....try thinking you are like a robot and count 121212121212121212....using up down picking. Then refer yourself to some mock scales like.......index finger 1st fret middle finger 2nd fret ring 3rd fret pinkie 4th. Start on a up stroke so when you pick the next string you are following a downstroke......Know what I mean? So fret 1U 2D 3U 4D. When you are finished picking 4th fret you should be following downstroke.....now jump to A string........up down up...ect...follow all the way to High E...sounds really boring but I guarantee that you will pick up speed properly!!!!! That is the key. I think im going to post a vid clip from my camera one of these days. Im no virtuoso I can turn some heads just like the rest of you guys im sure.

Now my GEETar is calling me.......what a bummer....

i think i have 100 times more time than i had in junior high in high school.

i quit doing all those speed exercises last year. It wasn't worth it for me, it's all about the feel now since im doing alot more blues and jazz than rock these days....speedy players:use it wisely-don't be a guitar center shredder! Put it to good use!

In the same vein i hate listening to fast bassists that simply slap their strings and fret randomly. They might as well play with a ping pong paddle!

Ahh, INFLUENCE~! Makes perfect sense, don't it? You more than likely play (or try to play) the stuff you enjoy listening to, and maybe some of you older guys are more into less-speedy, more song-orientated stuff? I definitely think Craig nailed it.


Originally Posted by DeadSkinSlayer3It's because we have time to practice 4-5 hours a day .

Well, I do, at least until High School starts next year.You actually practice for 4-5 hours a day?

I started playing in high school (cripes, about 15 years ago..ugh..lol) and while I'm sometimes relatively quick, I was never a burner like an impelleteri or someone like that...

depends on alotta things...and yes, I used to play for 6 and 7 hours a day more often than not back in the day =)

and yes, Craig hit it on the head....in today's musical climate, people like Paul Gilbert, Marty Friedman, Andy Timmons, Chris Impelleteri, Tony McAlpine..well, they've fallen off the radar..at least insofar as younger kids go...cause they get no airplay..they don't get played on the headbangers ball or MTV..so as craig said, a younger kid being influenced by one of these 'guitar heroes' isn't as likely as it woulda been say, 10 or so years ago..if not longer ago than that...

when I started playing in highschool, playing guitar didn't mean much of anything anymore..it was on the way out...back in the early 80's, if you played you were seen as some type of god...lol...in the 90's, it started to fizzle out..I blame the cancerous growth that was the grunge movment for that....LMAO...

anywho, there is a whole new host of good guitar bands for kids to be influenced by these days...I guess they'd be considered 'nu metal', but bands like Killswitch Engage, Soilwork and Shadows Fall (even though I'm not their biggest fan, they're relatively technical and there are leads) have some good old fashioned riffing in there...and it's more what kids are listening too these days...

also, when I first started to play, I wanted to play fast fast fast! as I got older and into other players and influences, I got away from that..don't get me wrong...I still smile when I pull off something fast I didn't think I could do or nail one of those 'magical mistakes' that you didn't plan that just comes outta nowhere..but it's more dynamics for me these days...palm mutes, bends, vibrato, harmonics....I think the more I got into George Lynch the more these things came out in my playing....

ok, I'm rambling now...but I agree with Craig...well said, well spoken!

Funny, I was just thinking about this the other day...

All of my favorite guitarists (e.g. Jimmy Page, Alex Lifeson) played solos
on their first couple of albums with kind of a quot;gunslingerquot; mentality, and
consciously showed off their technique.

But when you compare the the guitar soloing technique from their first
albums to their last/later ones, they don't play the same--both Page
and Lifeson went through phases where they didn't do fast single note
stuff, but got more into the chordal/textural stuff (like the Edge from U2)
or did short/no solos!

Maybe this is just due to maturity catching to them; after all, no one
starts off their career as a minimalist and progresses to a shred guitarist--
it almost always goes the other way, doesn't it? With Page, all of his live
performances since the mid-80s have gotten worse, as far as technique-
very sloppy (and kind of sad).