need tips on fast leads

Alive77

Ok im having troubles playing fast lead solos, for example right now im working on the song Gel by Collective Soul, now Im wondering at the part of the solo where it starts to go really fast should i be playing all those fast notes with individual fingering on each of the notes, or do I bar the key notes with my index finger then play the real fast parts with my other 3 fingers, i dunno if im explaining myself clear, but im just having troubles to reach that speed level that the song demands during that solo, anyone here with help I would appreciate it, thanks

Pearl Jam and toast

find your own style and practice like crazy.

If you get hung up on little technical shit like that you lose track of just playing how you like and how you think it sounds good.

xtremehardy388

Pearl Jam and toast wrote:

find your own style and practice like crazy.

If you get hung up on little technical shit like that you lose track of just playing how you like and how you think it sounds good.

+1

MichaelMcKevin

Pearl Jam and toast wrote:

find your own style and practice like crazy.

If you get hung up on little technical shit like that you lose track of just playing how you like and how you think it sounds good.

+2 Phenominal answer. Do your own thing.

lucylespian

Actually there are many good answers to this question.
Metronome work is invaluable in building speed. Learning to economise your picking movements so that you optimise up and down strokes, and minimise direction changes.
Sometimes you get to a wall with speed and the metronome and you just have to go crazy and have fun and play as fast as you can even if it is sloppy, just to break your own barriers.
Some times it's quicker to play the way you said, but mostly it's faster to individually finger the notes. Some will be pull-offs/hammer-ons etc.
There are several excellent training DVD's, one by PAul Gilbert and one by John Petrucci. I will go to my car in a minute and get teh names out of a mag I haev there.
The problem with the "just do your own thing" answer, is that there is no discipline or direction in it and it won't take you far. I gauruntee that every truly expert player has applied themselves to the discipline of learning to play hard stuff accurately .

Pearl Jam and toast

lucylespian wrote:

The problem with the "just do your own thing" answer, is that there is no discipline or direction in it and it won't take you far. I gauruntee that every truly expert player has applied themselves to the discipline of learning to play hard stuff accurately .

Problem with most of those people is that they play boring predictable music.

See:

Petrucci, Steve Vai, etc etc etc there's a million of them.

It's easy to be fast if you work at it, but it takes something special to be unique. I'll take Neil Young over Petrucci anyday.

lucylespian

Pearl Jam and toast wrote:

Problem with most of those people is that they play boring predictable music.

See:

Petrucci, Steve Vai, etc etc etc there's a million of them.

It's easy to be fast if you work at it, but it takes something special to be unique. I'll take Neil Young over Petrucci anyday.

Yeah, it's not really what he was asking is it. He asked, "How do I play a certain section correctly". It takes a lot of skill before you can go where you want on a guitar, and discipline. I'm betting Neil Young did his hard yards too, and knows his way around as well as any of these other guys.
Hendrix too, he could go anywhere, anytime, cos he spent 10yrs playing shit he had to play, not just doing what he wanted.
The guys that take the easy route never last long. Sometimes too, people actually WANT to play it the way it sounds, which this guy apparently did.

MichaelMcKevin

lucylespian wrote:

Yeah, it's not really what he was asking is it. He asked, "How do I play a certain section correctly". It takes a lot of skill before you can go where you want on a guitar, and discipline. I'm betting Neil Young did his hard yards too, and knows his way around as well as any of these other guys.
Hendrix too, he could go anywhere, anytime, cos he spent 10yrs playing shit he had to play, not just doing what he wanted.
The guys that take the easy route never last long. Sometimes too, people actually WANT to play it the way it sounds, which this guy apparently did.

I agree with a lot of that and overlooked the question. What i meant by saying "Do your own thing" applied to answering a possible question like "Do I hammer-on or slide this part?" or playing something in reference to the exact way Mike might do it. I'll never say take the easy way, but don't feel like because you're playing someone else's music, that your own creativity isn't allowed to come into play. Contrary to that, I don't recommend ever playing something your way just because it's easier. You definitely do need to practice the stuff you might try to steer away from. A good way to get better w/o lessons is to play a song that's both harder than what you're used to, and by a guitarist with a different style than you're used to.

Well-roundedness is the key to not being typecasted as a musician.

MLC2006

if I get hung up on a fast part of a solo, I look to see how close some of the same notes are located on nearby strings. I usually can find an easier way to play a difficult lick and it's usually only a string or 2 up and a few frets over.

in the 2nd solo of Hendrix's "All Along the Watchtower", there is a really quick part that I was having trouble with (from trying to play by the tab), but I worked it out on a different string and it was no problem. there was also a Jerry Cantrell solo I did that way, but I can't remember which one at the moment. I also had to do it a lot on Neil Young's "Cowgirl in the Sand", but I eventually gave up on that. I'd have to say that's THE hardest song ever. Neil's "no technique" technique is hard to get down.

seanw1010

MLC2006 wrote:

I also had to do it a lot on Neil Young's "Cowgirl in the Sand", but I eventually gave up on that. I'd have to say that's THE hardest song ever. Neil's "no technique" technique is hard to get down.

isnt that the 2 note solo? just with a helluvalotta bigsby bends?

MLC2006

seanw1010 wrote:

isnt that the 2 note solo? just with a helluvalotta bigsby bends?

no, definitely not 2 notes. granted, one of his trademarks is often times playing a single note repeatedly, but "Cowgirl in the Sands" pretty much utilizes the whole Am pentatonic minor up and down the fretboard and probably a few notes NOT in the scale. and yeah, a lot of bends too.