Speed Guitar Master
Speed Guitar Master
Have you ever wanted become a speed guitar master? If you are reading this article, the chances are the answer to the question is yes.
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The problem is that many guitar players want to be shredders to some extent, but don’t
know what to do to achieve this. It is like a mystery to most people, but it shouldn’t be
and is not, believe me. |
There are some mistakes that are repeated a lot of times, and I mean A LOT, by almost
all the guitar students, and even some pros. I can see a lot of false doors in this labyrinth
of advices with myths, silly traditions, wrong understanding, etc. to reach the goals of
becoming a shredder.
Ok, my point for this article is to show you what is a fact and what is a fiction, and what
sometimes is a lot of times some of both. In a sea of shred advisers you should be given
the correct information once and for all so that you can take the right path to the shred
world.
What I am going to do now, is put a list of suggestions and briefly explain what is fact
and what is fiction.
Practice 8, 10, 15 hours a day to be a shredder
Well, the most important is not how many hours you practice, it’s how much focus you
keep in your practicing time and how good is your guitar guidance. (Guitar guidance
must be done by an experienced teacher or a good guitar player at least, not by your
friends or another instrumentalist). The main reason for there being numerous guitarists
with 20 or more years of experience in vain is simply because they do not have the
correct focus or a professional instructor to guide them. You can practice 2 hours a day
and make a bigger improvement than practicing 15 hours, just keeping the focus of what
you are doing.
Always use metronome
There is a trick here. If you’re learning something new, it is not good push yourself
right away with a metronome because you need absorb the sound and enjoy the flow of
notes in your fingers and body. Many people forget this and that is why there are lots of
sloppy shredders. Take your time to UNDERSTAND THE FEELING behind a fast
passage before you touch your metronome and your learning experience will be more
solid and FASTER without becoming another sloppy player. Of course once you feel
how the fast notes flow then you can touch your metronome but again don’t push
yourself right away with a super fast tempo, build up slowly. Doing this will make you
more accurate and you will increase your speed in a shorter period of time by doing this.
Learn these licks, chops, etc. and you will write a good song
Wrong! If you think like this you probably know a lot of licks, chops, etc. The chops
are tools to improve your skills in songwriting. If you only learn licks that have
challenging chops, what you’ll get is just a Frankenstein song of chops without any
sense of dynamics or feeling. Because, after all, the most important elements behind a
song are the feelings and emotions. There is an incredible amount of people “writing
songs” with exactly the same chops that Yngwie Malmsteen has played for over 20
years, yet lack the emotion that he possesses. I’m not saying that the learning of chops
is bad, the chops are mainly tools for your physical skills, so the chops aren’t the best
way to compose a song or an instrumental track, but you can see how the composer of
those chops selects certain notes.
Do this routine and your playing will improve
If you follow a routine during many weeks without any change, you’re wasting your
time. You need a routine that keeps you in constant progress, what is good for another
player is not necessarily good for you. This is why it is so important to have a
professional instructor that will tailor your specific goals into the lessons. Keep in mind
your long-term goals so you can make the list of short term goals in order to achieve
your main goal. Each short term goal will need a different routine or routines to
accomplish it. Again the help of a good guitar instructor is highly recommended.
Of course, this list of suggestions is extremely short, but I’m just giving you some
advice to give you the truth away from what you hear from numerous other sources.
There is a lot of false information that you are hearing or reading from your friends,
family, instructional materials and teachers (yes, I said teachers, there are thousands and
thousands of ignorant “guitar teachers” out there [including some in the “best” guitar
schools] preaching lies mixed with truth and mostly they aren’t conscious of that). By
simply removing these false sets of information, you have already taken a massive step
in the right direction on the path to become a master of guitar.
Be sure to check the Part 2 of this article for an even more extensive list of practical
suggestions.
See you next time!
Angel Zamora
www.angel-zamora.com
Any comment is welcomed: angel@angel-zamora.com
©2006 Angel Zamora All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission.
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