Speed Milestone: 112bpm!
I've done it. I've mentioned here, here, and here that I'm working every day on getting a particular Dream Theater lick up to full speed at 112bpm. I finally made it the other day. Celebrate.
The pictured slip of paper has been floating around my desk for nearly 2 months. Every time I hit a new tempo at least once at satisfactory cleanliness, I'd cross it off the list, no more than one per day. Some days I didn't make it to the next level. Some days I blew past my goal but stuck with one slash per day.
You'll notice the list goes to 120bpm. I'd like to keep increasing my limit so that 112bpm is more comfortable. Right now, I'm lucky if I hit the lick cleanly once out of 10 attempts at full speed. I'm getting pretty good in the 100-105 range though. If I really want to master this tune, I need to be able to play it right every time, not just once in a while. I'll have the luxury of choosing the best of many takes when it comes time to record the final video, but I still need to get through all the tricky parts in the same pass. The more consistent I am, the easier time I'll have recording.
Peter (23 Jan 2012 at 7:17pm)
Hi Joe: I found this series of posts very interesting as I recently set myself a somewhat similar challenge (more modest: I'm trying to nail the "machine gun" riff from Metallica's "One" and the entire rhythm part for "Master of Puppets" -- the latter using downstrokes exclusively).
So far, progress has been slow but non-zero. After an initial period of frenzied practicing attempting to get up to speed quickly, I found that, although I was I was committing the cardinal sin of letting my forearm gradually tense up and starting to lose "cleanness". Recently I've slowed right down to speeds at which I can comfortably play for 1 minute or more without any tension creeping in, and am planning to try to gradually ratchet up the speed from there.
I was wondering in your case to what extent getting that lick up to 112bpm (which seems horrendously fast for 16th triplets!) was actually a challenge to your basic technique? i.e. were you already comfortable playing, say, open string 16th triplets at this speed, or was that something that was also developing as you worked on the lick?
Also, I guess you have probably covered a lot of ground since this post -- with the benefit of hindsight do you still feel that the approach you took here was effective/optimal?
All the best, and keep up the good work!
Peter,
Sydney, Australia.
Joe (24 Jan 2012 at 2:18pm)
Hi Peter,
Thanks for reading and discussing. That all-downstrokes rhythm method will definitely give you a workout.
I think I've gained two big bits of wisdom since my days working on this lick. (It's in this video at 0:36.) One is that building speed takes time, no matter how dense your practice routine is. Doubling your practice time per day will not double your rate of progress in speed. Your brain needs days/weeks/months to build that muscle memory, regardless of how many hours you're putting in. The second insight came from Guthrie Govan, in one of his two Creative Guitar books: "Speed is a by-product of accuracy."
So I think your new approach is good. Stick with speeds at which you know your technique is comfortable and efficient. Speed will naturally develop the more you do that.
Regarding this specific lick, it was a huge challenge. When I started the quest, I could probably tremolo pick on a single string at full tempo. Throwing my left hand and some string changes in there was really tough. It literally took me two months to climb from 75bpm to 112bpm. That was averaging 8-10 hours of practice per day, most of which was not devoted to this lick, but still, I was totally immersed in guitar during that time.
I think the best thing I did was the Metronome Regression, starting at a tempo on the border of my comfort zone and gradually reducing it over 10 minutes, continuously playing the lick. As my hands fatigued, I could pay more attention to the details of my technique with the tempo always decreasing.
Don't expect your progress to remain slow or non-zero for long. I found that once I polished my existing chops over the first few days, I plateaued pretty hard. I kept at it, and eventually surged 5 or 10bpm in a single day. Petrucci talks about this quite a bit, and I've noticed it many times since.
Thanks!
Joe
Peter (25 Jan 2012 at 6:12pm)
Thanks Joe for the good advice and words of wisdom --- it's always helpful and encouraging to hear from someone further down the road! Nice video by the way -- looks like you really nailed that riff in the end :-)