To everyone who keeps "defining" slow and fast by using terms like Larghissimo, Allegro, etc.... congratulations! I've never in my life seen someone fail so badly at grasping a simple point. Watch the video again... this time, slow it down to "Largo".

This concept made a breakthrough for me. I played slow and practiced slow to get notes perfect, but when I sped up it didn't work. Everything sounded sloppy. I finally decided to push myself to go fast, no matter how sloppy it sounded, and I noticed my wrist and arm movements totally changed, and the lightbulb went off. I started to focus on those very specific arm/wrist movements, and slowed THOSE movements down to clean them up, before getting back up to speed.

this dude has become way more charismatic than the first time i saw his videos! he used to look half asleep in his video, and now he feels like my new york bartender friend who's always cleaning a glass and tells me how to live life

It's a colloquial use of terms. Fast = The desired tempo Slow = A speed lower than the desired tempo

I'd say that "slow" in this context means the tempo at which you still feel comfortable, or the tempo at which your playing is still clean.

When I'm learning a new technical piece, I will run through it slowly and as accurately as possible for 15-20 mins. Then I'll blast through it a couple times as fast as I can, keeping it as clean as I can I'll repeat that process over the course of days (weeks, sometimes). A number of repetitions for accuracy followed by repetitions for speed, back to back. This is how I find gains in both accuracy and speed.

Gold advice! When I started guitar, one of the first classical pieces I learned I tried playing as fast as possible. It was mostly clean with 16th notes over 90bpm eventually ratcheting up to 130bpm. Eventually I got side tracked by the "playing slow" mantra and gave up on it altogether for a while.

Solid video. As a pro sax player with 30 years and tens of thousands of hours of practice, learning the guitar for the past 2 years has been satisfying and challenging. The methodology talked about in this video is some of the best pedagogy I've seen online regarding learning to play. Not as entertaining as some of the bigger name youtubers, but infinitely more valuable as far as real training and developing good practice habits. When you mentioned picking hand vs fretting hand vs synchronization as 3 separate things, you got me hooked. Same philosophy I use practicing and teaching the sax: break everything down into its fundamental components and work on them separately, as well as integrating them. Love it. I'm sure there are many other informative videos on your channel and I'll be working my way through lots of them. You got a new subscriber today.

3 words.....ECONOMY OF MOTION

Thank you for your logic and honesty!

Something about this guy's shirts, biceps and guitar placement give me strong militant vibes lol

It _is_ very exactly defined what they mean by slow. It is the highest tempo you are able to play the particular lick at. They say you should practice at this tempo until you are able to play the lick 4 times in a row without a mistake. Then you can increase the tempo by a few BPMs and repeat the whole process until you reach the desired tempo. It's _not_ sloppy language at all. You can say that this is not the most optimal method, and you know a better one, but please don't say it's not exactly defined, because it is.

This is how I do it... I learn the solo slow so I get all the notes correct. When I speed up, my technique changes a little bit. When you go super fast it can get sloppy and you have to use other techniques to clean it up. So basically the faster you go the more techniques you apply.

So far, I've made the biggest gains in skill in a few months trying to get the song 40oz by Polyphia down. Initially, it was way beyond my skill level, but I wanted to learn the melodic and harmonic patterns to apply to my own playing, and so I started learning it. I learned the intro, sweep section, first and second "verse" sections all super slow, until I could play them with the correct timing (quarter notes vs eighth notes, etc...) And then, I turned the metronome up to the actual tempo, and had to relearn how I was moving my hand from phrase to phrase to keep up. I'm still not quite there, but I'm about 20bpm shy of being able to play it (mostly) cleanly at speed. But I wouldn't have gotten there nearly as fast without speeding it up initially, to get a feel for what my hands would need to do to play it at speed.

From my own experience, levels of tempos (slow/fast) can be defined as such: (depending, of course on a player's skill level regarding the particular whatever it may be) > comfortably slow / non-productive slow > challenging slow (slow enough for you not to be afraid (not to panic because) of the *perceived high-speedneess and be able to play the thing to some degree, but fast enough to keep your brain (and consequently your hands/fingers) at unrelaxed/working state (which is to guarantee that you're improving) (happy medium) > comfortably fast (can be seen as the upper level of "happy medium) > challenging fast > "on the edge of falling apart" fast / crazy fast Sure, these are more of regions of tempos rather than specific BPMs First phase: you hone your technique at the "right for you regarding the particular thing" challenging slow tempo. This is where basic mechanics come together, you put it on the rails, as I like to say, at the same time you built necessary muscle strength and endurance and over the course of time get ready for the second "Shawn Lane" phase, where you challenge yourself by playing (trying to play) the thing at "challengingly fast" tempo, while trying to fix any errors at that very tempo. From there, it's pretty much going back and forth between "challenging slow" thru "comfortably fast" into "challenging fast.", gradually (and hopefully) moving towards the faster end. Yeah, and from time to time, you wanna try it at "crazy fast" tempos. Why? Well, because that gives you an idea as to what is your top speed for that particular thing (or in general), ignoring the errors and overall sloppiness, which, in its turn, changes your perception of the "challengingly fast" tempo, making it feel more like "comfortably fast." (but be careful not to harm yourself!) And as a conclusion, as one of the guitar players said (I believe it was Martin Miller but am not 100% sure): playing / practicing slow and hoping that one day you'll get fast, is like keep walking for days (and weeks and so on..) and hoping that one day you'll be able to run. That's not gonna happen. If you wanna learn to run fast(er), you should (learn to) run at slow(er) speed. Not walk but run! Of course, before that, you have to learn to walk, and even before that, how to crawl... P. S. Comfortably / non-productive slow can also be challenging in a different way. Below certain point, it's very difficult to keep the sense of rhythm (and it becomes more and more difficult) as the tempo slows down. But that's a totally different topic.

Will be great that you talk about the importance of stamina on Speed and how to train it. Because many times the Speed a problems or bad sensations comes from doesnt have enough stamina. I know you practice powerlift so I think you know what I'm Talkin' about Mike, regards and great video 👍🏼

I agree with most of what you are saying, but there are words for specific tempos. Grave, Moderato, Allegreto, Allegro, Vivace, etc.

For speed picking it does come down to wrist picking vs forearm picking. Forearm picking will give the speed you want but you don’t want to erase your wrist picking because it is much more expressive. However like you said if you waste all your time on wrist picking which is what I did after watching the 90’s Pertrucci video you won’t get faster.

this video put a huge smile on my face! great content...been following you for about 5 years maybe a bit longer!

Not trolling per say,.....they just think everyone wants to play at 900 miles an hour......Every guitar player need to find out what works for themselves.......Thanks much for tackling the subject!!!!.....

Mike, you are a true philosopher of music and the instrument. Also, I was shocked when your shirt changed color ahaha! Cheers bro!

Whenever i watch this kind of videos i notice how obsessed and frustrated some players feel for so many years for not reaching their goals... and i feel very thankful for having some natural talents that allowed me enjoy my teenage years playing all kind of stuff without too much problems, I'm far from perfect but never wanted to play a song and then had to give it up for being too fast or something like that

I sort of figured out that advice on my own when I was struggling to use a metronome at a certain point. Maybe my ears are broken but when it gets to a high enough speed the metronome and my notes are moving so fast I can’t cleanly sync them up. So I just stopped bothering with it and just pushed as hard as I could focusing on proper technique and after a week I’m up to about 5 notes a second on one string.

Lol when I was a kid I would play as fast as I could until I started feeling tingles in my arm, and then gradually taking longer and longer breaks in between reps to do other things until I'd stop for a while. Rinse and repeat 12 hours a day for a week or two then take a week or two off and suddenly everything you were working on just happens automatically.

Can't agree more. This is how I started playing fast and shredding. And improvising in general. You just go for it. Then you clean it up as Shawn Lane stated by breaking it into little chunks, but still speed bursting

I used to be able to pick fast, like Paul Gilbert fast back in late 00s. I didn't have a metronome and especially the patience to practice haha so I started on a bit faster tempo. And it worked. Unfortunately I can't play it again now because somehow my picking style changed and I find it hard to fast pick like I used to. Tried the slanting and even bought an alternate picking book but my right forearm keep giving in. I just don't know how I did it then.

Hand and picking position are not the same at higher speeds. Also the pressure on the pick from the fingers changes. This is a matter of fact.

Thanks, very reasonable, as always.

Smart concise content - Thank’s for posting.

I started at a speed that was comfortable and sped up my practice over time... now I play like lightning whenever I feel. Is nice!

Ive been doing it this way for years. Glad im not alone. Amazing video

I started learning drums by trying to learn fusion grooves it was a nightmare 🤣 but eventually I got it maybe just from liking the music so much , but then I had to practice to learn slower more simple grooves In other styles but cause I had spent so much time learning the harder stuff but without building up fundamentals

I always start slow/clean. I continue like that until i hit my speed wall. This way i get as close to muscle memory of the song as i can for speed. When i know longer have to think about what i play, then i cant start pushing fast and sloppy. Try that a couple of times, and slow it back down abit to where every i can play it semi clean, and work there for a bit to get used to speed. Then i slow back down where i play cleanly, and work up to the semi clean speed, while trying to maintain accuracy.

+1 for barbell training

Feel is the most enjoyable way to playin...the big secret is...your tension in your hands wrist arms , get total control of your tension speed will always be there ..BUT it will be so much more tasteful, not the boring blah blah blah ..100mph borefest..YAWN!... Nice channel, very entertaining

So, heres my take on this: When people say if you can play slow you can play it fast its just a fallacy. You learn it slow and then you learn it fast, but you can only play it fast if you learned it perfectly. A better phrase would be: first know the notes when you play slow and then you need to push yourself in order to play fast those notes you've learned.

Starting something slower to get it right, then speed up as you go makes sense can work. I taught for years, and I agree. But what Sean Lane says makes sense too as well. When you get faster your technique may shift a bit in order to facilitate the speed you're going for. Vice Versa as well, going from playing fast to playing slow same concept. Keep playing fellow guitarist and remember always have fun when playing! 🎸🎼

Such a helpful video, thank you!

This is great stuff!

Shawn was primarily an upstroke escape player. His picking motion was a diagonal "dart-thrower" wrist movement (alternation between flexor carpi ulnaris and extensor carpi radialis). The reverse pick grip helps to make this movement feel smooth. I've been a "fast" guitar player since my early teens. I learned to imitate Shawn's picking method in my late twenties by studying footage of his playing and analysing his line construction. I practiced the movements as Shawn suggested. I play as fast as Shawn. I don't have the extensive vocabulary that Shawn had at those speeds yet, but mechanical facility is there.

Okay, I believe Shawn Lane!

This concept changed the way I practice the Guitar now. I am doing lessons with him and he has trained me to break my speed barriers. After a year of training with him, I was able to play the Hotel California solo... (which was my dream solo). You can check it out here: kzfaq.infoTWyBf1grjLw

So we can say with certainty that if you do one motion when you play slow/with more feeling vs doing the same with speed, if the motion changes, it means that the slow motion is bad? or is it still good to have one motion on certain tempos and another for fast tempos? pd: It still make sense to slow the fast motion to train it to be more precise, my question doesn't go that way, maybe the clarification isn't needed but who knows.

I usually say to start practicing at the fastest comfortable and clean tempo you can play, then push yourself to play a few BPM faster. It's gonna sound sloppy, probably, but the more speed you push yourself, the more the base speed increases. If you can play a clean scale at 80 BPM, push yourself to play 90 or 100BPM. The next day, you may be able to play clean at 85 BPM. Keep doing that until you get the tempo you want.

For my part I started ripping right away. It was a tad sloppy but it cleaned up in short order. I was very fast by the mid to late 80s and over the years I found phrasing and silence to be my friends. But thats me.

Lol that pick slanting trolling :)

Playing fast is like going fast on the race track. You can be the fastest on the straight away but on the twisty track you getting very slow because of the lack of knowledge of the track. Practicing the song slowly with time you will learn it 100% than with out forcing your self speed will come automatically.

Michael Angelo Batio says you should go straight into light speed fast and work it out to perfect it

I'm not a guitar player but I clicked when I saw Michael Romeo.

There's a difference between shredding and learning how to play faster if you are a beginner. So maybe the question needs to be asked correctly. For me noticed that my strumming speed was faster than my picking speed. So I thought about that.

Slow and fast is within context of the song that you’re playing. Mostly people think a whole and half notes would be considered slow or quarter notes could be argue all depending on the tempo whereas you get into eighth 16th and 32nd notes which we can fit settled fast within the context of the song.

1 word for building speed: speedbursts

Dr. Viossy in one one of his videos revealed his way of getting faster lines quickly.. he goes slow but with the process not the tempo. but takes first 3 notes plays them in original fast tempo, gets comfortable with it then add the next note. now same method with the 4 notes..and so on . Trust me this way works.. there was a petrucci lick i was trying to play for months if not a year. then after this method i learned the lick in a single day. and i treid the same method with other licks and it works everytime

He’s absolutely right! At some point you have the break the cycle of going slow. Kind of like heart rate training for runners. I’ve seen guys end up running 13 minutes miles because they’ve been a slave to the proverbial metronome. This also applies to shooting. If you’re key holing you need to speed up.

Shawn Lane used backward picking angle, like Paul Gilbert used to do when he was a teenager. He talked about his picking techniques on a clinic in 1995 that you can find on KZfaq, (the one with his hat and his ibanez Sabre; in Atlanta if I remember correctly)

Playing fast is not possible without a solid foundation that can only be built by practicing slowly with attention given to precision, relaxation, sound and correct movement. But equally, running is not fast walking.

the average human heart rate is around 80bpm..so i would guess that any tempo lower than 80bpm is considered to be slow and any tempo higher than 80bpm is considered fast

Why would you play with both arm and wrist at slower tempos when you can do it perfectly with a more relaxed, natural motion - just from the wrist? It's not like transitioning from one to the other as the tempo changes poses any kind of problem.

Yeah man. Those definitions of slow and fast has been around for a while... Larghissimo - very, very slow (24 bpm and under) Adagissimo - very slow (24-40 bpm) Grave - very slow (25-45 bpm) Largo - slow and broad (40-60 bpm) Lento - slow (45-60 bpm) Larghetto - rather slow and broad (60-66 bpm) Adagio - slow with great expression[10] (66-76 bpm) Adagietto - slower than andante (72-76 bpm) or slightly faster than adagio (70-80 bpm) Andante - at a walking pace (76-108 bpm) Andantino - slightly faster than andante (although, in some cases, it can be taken to mean slightly slower than andante) (80-108 bpm) Marcia moderato - moderately, in the manner of a march[11][12] (83-85 bpm) Andante moderato - between andante and moderato (thus the name) (92-112 bpm) Moderato - at a moderate speed (108-120 bpm) Allegretto - by the mid-19th century, moderately fast (112-120 bpm); see paragraph above for earlier usage Allegro moderato - close to, but not quite allegro (116-120 bpm) Allegro - fast, quick, and bright (120-156 bpm) Molto Allegro - very fast (124-156 bpm) Vivace - lively and fast (156-176 bpm) Vivacissimo or Vivacissimamente - very fast and lively (172-176 bpm) Allegrissimo or Allegro vivace - very fast (172-176 bpm) Presto - very, very fast (168-200 bpm) Prestissimo - even faster than presto (200 bpm and over) (When you get to this tempo, you usually switch to cut common time and change the beat to a half note)

Einstein always said time was relative. My fingers may be moving slowly through space, but they're moving faster through time.

I’m a metal rhythm guitarist. The way I developed my picking speed was to play along with songs that I like, never slow them down. Just learn them at their actual speed and let all of the muscles and stamina developed naturally. So learning to play anything from slow and gradually increasing the speed might not be the way because walking and running are two different things. Your body approaches these two activities differently.

Yeah Lento or slow is 45-60 bpm. Italian is the standard for tempo markings …btw just cause a set is fuzzy doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. If you want speed use Economy or sweep picking! Watch Frank Gambale’s videos

i gain my speed when i push myself to play white lion broken heart solo , i try to hit the correct notes and tempo because i really like that solo

I watched a guitar vid and my 1 rep max increased by 20%. Which workout vid should I watch before attempting some paganini?

What does it mean when I cannot do tremolo continuously? What I mean is I can do it a few seconds but it sort of misses the string here and there. Is that because of the wrong motion? The distance of the pick from the string? This is one mystery I keep thingking about for a long time. I think I need a teacher who can say whether or not my playing is relaxed.

I would like to add that moving your fretting fingers and picking your hand faster will not equate to a higher speed.

Largo (40 - 60 bpm) literally translates to slowly, Allegro (120 - 156) translates to fast and Presto (168 - 200) translates to very, very fast.

Slow versus fast is subjective. It can be different for each person. I define slow as something that is not very challenging and fast as something that is challenging. The line can be different for different people. and even if you could not find exactly where the line is, does not mean, the line does not exist. That is a fallacious argument. that being said, I pretty much agree with the sentiment of this video.

It's simple plain and simple Play with the recording job done Then work out everything else thats related. Peace of paper Write down the procedure from the start It's the only easiest way Write down everything where the major minor pentanics on 6 5 4 EAF chords Ouse f alot than the full e shape and it's easy to move to a a minor type shape 5th fret BPM the drum machine. But myain think I do is when I listen tousic walking down the street I imagine the fret board under my fret hand and move your fingers it may seem strange to passers by but who cares what they think it works believe me I've been playing 30 years and of I hear something fresh are moving usually with the pentonic in mind.

Shawn lane is too cool

Pettrucci is another guitarist who preached truth on this openly and generously

I played this video at 2X speed, it was really cool...

Who knew Ralphie May played guitar.

Paco de lucia! He was the fastest by bps and h can still here the individual notes. I understand what ur saying bit starting slow helps so that u have muscle memory for where the notes are then speed up once u know the pattern. If u start fast u miss notes and get into bad habits that are harder to break once u already have muscle memory. A body builder doesnt lift up a 1000 pounds the 1st day it takes years.

I thought we talked about this. EVERYONE in music is a troll. That became clear when Amy Grant played us all for a fool.

That's it my friends. If you want to be a fast player, play fast. The articulation will grow with practice. You will never get the twitch instinct if you gradually speed up the tempo. It will also open up your confidence into playing anything fast. It will open your imagination on putting the large amount of notes in a single beat in different patterns and rhythms. If you practice with slow stuff, you'll learn only the patterns you practice. If you practice fast playing you learn fast playing.

My biggest obstacle is I think about it too much as opposed to letting muscle memory do it's thing.

I find learning a song at half speed and then playing it at 3/4 speed before practicing at full speed works for me. I'm a bass player so, I don't know how well that translates to guitar

Hey!!! I forget to tell ya, you have a very nice looking WIG.

Being super clean and making every note count come from slow practice. Build that up slowly but some licks ya just have to go for it.

I took Shawn Lane's advice. Miss that guy....

I think power lifting is best anology to playing that i ever heard. Getting the technique is the most important part of playing.

Eyy mans a powerlifter and guitarist, niceee same

Maybe when they say slow it’s relative from where they are they don’t give actual metronome numbers I noticed...

This is one more example of how the internet fucks with peoples heads. Why would you say these guys are trolling? Musicians dont have time to play junior high school games. It seems they are simply sharing their experience and knowledge.

"Depending on what bad habit you're trying to do" haha 😂

agree with Shawn lane , work for me

This guy is cooked.

Beginning right away from the start playing fast material you're not good at would only help you learn with a lot of mistakes. Rushing through practice can get you speed but won't get you quality. In fact it's quite easy to spot when a guitar player has jumped directly into fast stuff without building the blocks of quality in his playing - I've done it as a beginner and many other folks do it this wrong way, but it's just a waste of time. Can not learn to run without knowing how to walk. Not everybody is Shawn Lane.

You have to start slow with anything. It’s so ridiculously stupid when a guitar player says they started fast and then cleaned it up. You clean it up by going slower

Everything works but not Everything works for everybody... geesh.. fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fiber isn't equal in everybody. There isn't a short cut, it's hard work, practice and dedication 🤘

I tried to learn to play fast, but it never ended. So, I just learned to play instead. How many people recognize the playing of the fastest shredders around, and how many people recognize Edge’s playing.

As a non-talented guitar player(yes there are guitar player who have natural talents), I discovered that just digging in an getting used to speed is the way to be fast. You see, when you started playing slow.. you get used to it.. and that's the only speed you're gonna get used to... which is slow.. You really have to DIG into it.. even if it's sloppy.. then that where if your NATURAL talent can take it to that level.. That's where either YOU HAVE IT.. .. you YOU DON'T HAVE IT... I really believe great players just HAVE IT. It's like penmanship.. some people have naturally good way of scribbling letters than other people.. of course you CAN practice but for others.. it's just THERE. A good technique to learn is try to play few notes at such a blazing speed.. then add more notes to that as you get use to it.. until it becomes a long run of fast notes. Treat a sequence of notes as one thought.. it's called "synapse".. like 4 notes per string.. each string is thought of as 1. Then connect them to each other. For you those 4 notes is just 1 thought. But for others it's 4 notes and they think you have come up each and every note at a fast rate..

Playing profissient slow is better than sllopy fast...if you you want to get the feeling of a very fast rythm, you start slow and you speed up...its not about the speed...it is the feel you want to get by speeding something that is not relevant to you....and also runners run always straight .. you can go backwards ,its like dancing...you start slow to get the feel and get stamina. If you got the feel and the taste,then you speed up because you know what to expect sonically ...

After all is said and done Gotta move while it's still fun Let me walk before they make me run

It’s both. You don’t just do it slowly and you don’t just do it quickly.

It's not about speed. Ask any woman.

"Slow" means practice at the speed that you ucan do it clearly and RELAXED

HERE'S THE THING..... you HAVE TO PRACTICE what your actually going to play....! There is limited point in you practising to a metronome over the first four fretts for hours and not practising up past the 12th frett. It would be like practising all your riffs up past the 12th frett and not in the first position. A lot of guitar exercises are not thought out in terms of their practical application... you are often just advised to 'play them all over the neck'... when in truth... it's more important that you play them high up on the neck... because... THAT'S WHERE YOU'LL BE PLAYING THEM...!

simple, presto = fast.