Why can't I play basic things fast (why do I suck at guitar)

[Guest]

So I was playing the beginning of the fade to black solo the first one in the song about a year ago, and I came across a part that was a little to fast for me and it was sloppy then I slowed it down a lot now a year later nothing has changed even though I’ve been practicing it for a year nothing helps, this is very frustrating for me, I’ve been trying to speed it up slowly that doesn’t help, I mean what’s wrong with me, anytime I think I doing good I just go down again, and I get sick of playing.

 

[idssdi]

Could you show how you play it? Maybe we can help you!

 

[Ed Seith]

Are you sure you’re playing it right? And consistently fingering and picking exactly the same way, every time? This is how I play that part.
View post on imgur.com

Notice there’s a fair bit of economy picking in there, two string sweeps. These are an important part of it sounding right, and once it’s under your fingers, it’s easier to play quicker.

 

[Adin Shepherd]

It could be that when you try to play fast you lose synchronization between your left and right hands. If, as an example, your left hand us fretting the notes faster than your right can pick them things are going to get gnarly.
Do you notice either left or right struggling to keep up?
As Ed said, if your picking hand is slowing you down, check out your picking pattern, a few tweaks could make all the difference to your picking hand keeping pace.
I know you say you have been doing it, but another fix is to slow down and really concentrate on getting things lined up between your fretting and picking hands and build up the speed ONLY when you can nail it at the current speed you are on.
Even running the good old ‘spider’ drill and it’s variants for a good 5 to 10 minutes a day will help. Yes it can be as boring as hell but no pain no gain. There are also plenty of cool single note riffs out there, any will do, that will do the same job if you want something more musical.
Edit – another thing to keep in mind is economy of motion, sometimes when we try to play fast we exaggerate our movement, try to keep your movement as small as possible.

 

[Aaron Aldous]

Ah mate, I can relate to how frustrating this is. The good news is that whilst there are players that can naturally play at high tempos with seemingly little effort, speed is a technical achievement that can be achieved by absolutely anyone. The rub is that speed is a by-product of a multitude of automated pyscho-physiological processes that essentially have to be trained individually and then related to one another (sounds daunting but it’s really a case of compounding various skills) . To gain a better perspective of where you are at, what specific technical areas are you struggling with?

 

[Guest]

Yes it gets sloppy when I play fast how do I fix this?

 

[Julian Barton]

Well Lachlan I would continue slowing down and speed it up until it gets sloppy practice it right there then continue until it is up to speed! We all have a song or two that refuses to work form time to time you just gotta dig deeper into it.

 

[Guest]

I’ve been doing this a year how much longer I mean Jesus

 

[Guest]

When I was a student in college, we’d break any solo down into sections – this meant in most cases we would be playing two notes at a time. then slowly pieced a solo together. Sometimes looking at the big picture can be quite daunting and could subconsciously be putting us off. As well as slowing things down, try breaking the solo down into little sections, and just repeat. Then when you are happy with that little section, link the sections together. Worked very well for me.

 

[Guest]

Just to add to what I previously posted (Because I appeared to have missed this point). You dont suck, no one sucks. You put the effort in, people love that. Keep at the hard work!

 

[Dan Shipway]

I will use the riff for endless sacrafice as an example. I know what you are thinking “not again” but hear me out. It can be something as simple as a riff, something that lasts seconds but there is so much that goes into what is being played,take things one note at a time and understand how everything fits and how to make hand movements flow from one section to the next and it will get cleaner and quicker once you know how to get it all in sync.
Trust me, you do not suck by any stretch of the imagination, we never suck we just dont know everything there is to know about how to play certain things and believe me, I have walked in your shoes and felt the same but it is baby steps at first and then you can eventually fly through songs and riffs like you knew them from birth

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Lachlan, I love you buddy, you know I do. But I don’t know how many more times I need to encourage you to post up videos more often. You simply saying, “I keep sucking, I can’t get better, I try practicing slowly. Nothing helps.” Doesn’t tell us anything other than you’ve tried one thing and automatically you’re giving up because you’re not getting the results you wanted. This will be roughly the fourth or fifth time you’ve posted something like this without any videos posted despite me encouraging you to do it so we can help you better. Please let me explain further…
If you don’t post up videos we cannot see what you’re doing wrong. I posted up several videos at first, and I got a few compliments and I too was stuck at a plateau. It wasn’t until I posted up a video of me playing where you could easily see both my fretting hand AND rhythm hand that Papa Gates literally said, “You really need to reconsider how you’re holding your pick. I think it’s holding you back.”
From that moment on, I have been able to improve nonstop. Just recently I started learning my second goal song and YEARS ago I couldn’t even play certain parts half-way up to speed without flopping and failing no matter how hard I tried in FOUR YEARS. In just a few days I got the intro down and fully up to speed now with my new picking technique.
You could be holding the pick wrong, you could be having really bad fretting hand techniques. You could have wrist tightness. But until we see HOW you’re actually playing, we really can’t help you. You don’t suck at guitar. You’re confused about why you’re not improving. If it’s difficult or not ideal for you to post a video, please try to explain to us in little more detail so we CAN help.
And you’ve been trying for a year? My dear friend, I literally clocked my Hail To The King hours at roughly 300 hours spent on that song. And I was working on that song for almost 2 years. TWO YEARS. And Fade To Black may be slightly difficult for someone who’s only been playing for three years. It takes time, my friend. It’s frustrating, it’s discouraging, I know. BELIEVE me. I’ve been there too. But the only way I got better with Hail To The King is I constantly uploaded my progress. Ben Newton above here, was actually someone who I had to reach out to and say, “I really need help with these sweeps.” And he did after he saw my video with them! Richard O’connor was able to confirm something else for me about doubling up notes on the high E string. We’re all here to help. But it really makes it difficult if you don’t post up videos. Keep going with it. It takes time, believe me, it does! I sincerely mean all words out of love. Tough love, but love nonetheless.

 

[Guest]

I must add to Jak’s comment, music is the most frustrating thing I could ever learn. Just when you think you are making progress, your brain raises the bar, and it is like a journey that just doesn’t have an end. Lachlan, the journey for me is more exciting than the goal. Playing music with people, studying, listening, practicing etc is actually more so the reason why I play. We have these goals, but its only natural that those goals slowly disappear, due to the fact we have hit goals and are forever looking for a way to continuously improve (Or we have developed other interests).
When I first saw this topic, I clicked on your profile and found one video dated back in Janaury. In this video titled ‘Melody’ you had some great ideas which I really enjoyed. I think sharing difficulties through videos is the best way to explain what you are trying to explain.
Please understand that Kirk Hammett, though he has a very mixed opinion, is very technical. When something is too technical for me, I have it in the back of my brain that I go to practice every now and again. At the moment I have some Nuno Bettencourt stuff thats far too advanced for me, but I practice this every now and again. This is more of a long term goal. Whilst having this long term goal, I have these short term goals to give me a feeling of success. This could be really basic concepts or something a little intermediate (But something achievable).
I know it must be frustrating when you ask “why cant I play this” or “Its too fast, any ideas?” you get a response quite similar or along the lines of “Slow down!”. We are all occasionally guilty of asking questions like this. I did this on a video I posted recently trying to learn a certain section of the Beast and the Harlot solo. But the answer will ALWAYS be “Slow down”.
A final thought. Remember the topic I posted about confidence, strengths and weaknesses as a musician? Tell me about one of your strengths, and tell me about a weakness and how this weakness can be improved. “Whats this got to do with my question” you might be thinking. Remember its a very positive thing to identify a strength (that we do ALL have) and then find a weakness and say “BUT, this is how I will tackle this weakness”. When you have identified your weakness, post it on the riffs page – and then we can help.

 

[Guest]

Okay this is for both of you so first Jak thank you so much for your comment and taking time out of your day to comment on this. Yes I remember when I was learning the hail to the king solo the tutorial that you created you said that you put 300 hours into it I was like, ummmm what did she say, I think the Reason I don’t upload more videos is because I want to work on to many things at one time like if I want to learn that solo I’m like we’ll I want to do this other thing, and I focus on one thing then when I say I’m going to upload a video I don’t and I’m like it can wait, now I I think I have to upload a video if I need some help, now I’m completely going to focus on getting more clean with my playing and improving we that section of my playing. Thanks jak, and Ben you are one of the reasons I kept going with guitar your comment inspired me so much. And for my strengths and weaknesses for guitar I’ll start off with weaknesses. So I want to learn to many things at one time I want to play fast and all these solos that I haven’t practiced at all. And I can’t focus on one thing, there’s maybe more and for strengths, my rhythm playing is really good I have a fast down picking style and my timing is good if it’s not to fast but I guess that would be more lead playing, I have learned some good techniques and music theory, I can play a song and people can guess what I’m playing. I’m going to try to post a video today or Thursday I’m going to try today. The video is going to be on this solo the beginning solo on fade to black. And the quality won’t be that great so beware. Or I may do one on my picking technique and that section I’m having problems with. That will be a better idea. So look at for that. And thanks again guys!

 

[Guest]

I’m glad I could have helped mate. If I may suggest something in regards to your weakness you have brought up (I’ll try and break this one down into a few points).
I don’t think your weakness is strictly due to wanting to learn lots of different things, you could learn as much as you’d like (if you really wanted to) and this wouldn’t be a problem. It’s about managing your time in such a way that it doesn’t pile up mentally. What would tend to happen in this scenario is your brain has developed an expectation to learn lots of songs, but without any idea of any form of structure to work by. In this case, we would over work ourselves. When we overwork, we stress. This stress then causes pressure and tension. Once at this stage, we feel frustrated and start to feel that we are not getting any better. This then results in sadness and anger, causing us to throw guitars out windows. So you;
Overwork
Stress
Become frustrated
Experience anger or sadness
Throw guitar out window
Time management is easy to overcome. You need to physically write down on paper long term goals and short – Once its physically on paper, its a bit of weight off your shoulders. So at the back of your mind you need something quite challenging (Ie the intro to fade to black) – this is a long term goal. Because this is a long term goal, you need a feeling of success and triumph before this. You would come up with short term goals. If I were you, my short goals might help develop my long term goals. My short goals would be to practice arpeggios (Major and minor) and because I need to work on my arpeggios I would also need to work on my right hand technique to get a smooth and even rake across the strings (Might involve some economy picking). I’d also need to develop my hammer ons and pull offs, and may as well throw in a bit of legato licks just because why not. Hammett is full of expression, I might just practice some vibratos, slides and just for the hell of it learn a bit of Dorian blues.
So to simplify, your overall goals (for example) are;
Big goal
– Play the intro to fade to black
Short goals
– Major arpeggios
– Minor arpeggios
– Economy picking
– Hammer ons/Pull offs/Legato
– Embellishments (Vibrato/slides), and
– Dorian Mode
– Lets just throw in 12 bar blues
You would then give yourself a certain amount of time on each, occasionally revisiting your big goal.
I hope this helps Lachlan. Just try to remember we are always here to help each other. You are here for the very reason the rest of us are here.

 

[Guest]

Well I can’t get the riff to post it’s on youtube https://youtu.be/FFjznVfMufQ

 

[idssdi]

It seems to me like you sometimes don’t know where to go next. Try to really memorize the notes so you can dream them. Also what I can see from the video(it’s pretty dark) you hold your pick in your finger tips. Try to get used to the way PG teaches.

 

[Guest]

I may do one more that brighter. Thanks for the feedback. And yes I do play with my finger tips. I can’t play the papa gates showed unless I’m alternate picking while play muting but I will try. I’ve changed my picking style once and it was hard but I’ll do it thanks idsids

 

[Guest]

Also to add on to my last comment I play the pick with two fingers my thumb and index, and sometimes I let my hand close. I tried with three finger and I could not play well at all haha

 

[Ed Seith]

I think the way you hold your pick holds you back less than trying to play all that alternate picked, which is how you’re doing it, from what I can tell. If you are economizing it, it looks like your economy is not smooth, but still “bouncing” from one to the next. When you have two notes across two strings and you approach it with economy, both notes should be struck by the pick with the same, singular pick motion, like a sweep or even a STRUM, just with better muting from your left hand.