(instrumental music)
- One thing that a lot of guitar players
do to develop speed is to use a combination
of hammer-ons and pull-offs along with picking.
Some players use alternate picking and economy picking
and hybrid picking as a way to achieve speed,
and some players like to add
hammer-ons and pull-offs to this.
So one example of this is just instead of picking the notes
to use hammer-ons and pull-offs like this.
(guitar strumming)
So (guitar strumming)
Can obviously (guitar strumming)
play a lot quicker when you use hammer-ons and pull-offs.
So I encourage you to experiment playing scales
with hammer-on and pull-off technique
to help increase your speed.
Using the metronome is very helpful to increase speed.
I think that it's a great tool to keep you on track
with your practicing.
So each day you can make the metronome
go a little bit higher in order to increase your speed.
So if there's a passage in a group that I'm playing with
that is a technical passage that I'm trying to master
in order to get it up to speed to play in a rehearsal
or performance, there are certain things that I will do
with this passage in order to make that happen.
So the first thing is, let me show you what the passage is.
It's this. (guitar strumming)
Now this is a melodic phrase in G major.
Now the first thing I will do is just try to play it
with alternate picking to see if that's
going to work for me.
(guitar strumming)
So I may not be able to play this entire phrase
with alternate picking at the tempo
that we're trying to play it.
I might have to look at some other techniques
to see if this is going to help me.
So what I do is I check to see if there are any places
that I can play hammer-ons and pull-offs.
Well there are in this phrase.
(guitar strumming)
There you go, instead of (guitar strumming)
I can play pick, hammer, hammer.
(guitar strumming)
Now what I can do is add some hybrid picking in there
to help with the skip across the strings here.
So I can go like this.
Pick, finger.
(guitar strumming)
So what I did there was pick, hammer, hammer, pick, finger.
(guitar strumming)
Now in the next section, I can use hammer-ons as well.
And then for the next two notes,
pick and finger, hybrid picking.
(guitar strumming)
Now I can also use a hammer-on at the top
and pick at the top as well.
(guitar strumming)
What I've done with this phrase
is I've transformed it from a difficult phrase to play
with alternate picking to a much easier phrase
to play by incorporating hammer-ons and pull-offs
and hybrid picking.
Now the next step is to try to increase the speed,
and this is where the metronome comes in.
So I start with the slow tempo and then I gradually move
up the tempo until I feel like it's perfect
for the performance.
(guitar strumming)
Now I'm going to increase the tempo by 10 BPM.
(guitar strumming)
I will keep increasing the tempo
until I get to the desired tempo of the performance.
(guitar strumming)
Now here's the tempo that I'm trying to get to
for the performance.
(guitar strumming)
So when you're working on a passage,
the first thing you want to do is find
the proper technique for the passage,
and work with a metronome step by step
until you get it to the tempo of the performance.
(instrumental music)