I'm not a fast player.. I admit it.

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equalsqlequalsql Frets: 6084
edited January 2019 in Technique
There.. I've said it.

I've been playing since I was 17 and will be 60 this year and in all that time I've, generally, never had the desire to be a really fast guitarist. Apart from Jan Akkerman, none of the players that influenced me and that I strove to play like were particular lightening quick on the fretboard.  People like Kossof, Jeff Beck, Peter Frampton, Pat Travers and Larry Carlton.

I remember listening to Van Halen's debut album with my band mates back in 1978 and being blown away by Eddie's guitar work, but it seemed so out of reach (cos there was no way to see how he did it back in those days..  this was before MTV) that it just passed me by.

I can with a bit of planning, and using legato hammer on and pull offs play short sections of semi-quaver passages at around 150 bpm but the lightening fast Paul Gilbert stuff has always been completely beyond me.. short of a few of the classic 3 fingers repeating blues licks.

When I see such young players like Owane or Plini playing with such speed and precision I do admit to being just a little bit jeaolus and would love to be able to just master one ot two of those shredding phrases that they seem to be able to effortlessly play.. but I thing my old hands seem too slow now.. although I have recently started looking at some of the tapping videos on youtube.

Do we have any fast players on here? How many of you folks are have the same dilemma as me I wonder?


(pronounced: equal-sequel)   "I suffered for my art.. now it's your turn"
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  • I used to be really pretty quick back in my teens/early 20s. I could pretty much adapt on the fly and play almost anything from my repertoire at any speed I could want.

    In the last seven or eight years, though, I've noticed a definite slowdown and a lack of agility in my digits which makes any fast passages I play sound...stunted and unnatural. I really hate hearing myself play fast - I have much more fun playing stonking riffs. Unfortunately, folk round here (including those in my bands) only ever seem to want to hear me do the widdly-widdly stuff.

    As a result, I've become very limited in my playing.

    Woe is me etc.
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  • Place your licks right and you don’t need to be fast. 
    'Vot eva happened to the Transylvanian Tvist?'
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  • BarneyBarney Frets: 614
    I'm 56 now and can play fast iff I want to but most of the time I would rather put something in that makes sense ...the speed thing is ok as well but as long as it's part of the solo and not just something for the sake of it 

    I can probably play quicker things now than I ever could so I don't really think age comes into it as long as you keep at it ...mostly I use legato stuff cos I find that easier....
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  • NPPNPP Frets: 236
    I've never in over 30 years of on-and-off playing got up to any speed whatsoever. It doesn't help that I usually prefer well-phrased, slower playing anyway but I am so clumsy I never got up to any useful speed. I should have tried harder earlier on but when I was taking lessons my teachers didn't pick up the things I now know I was doing wrong and with the limited time have these days I'm unable to make up for it. 

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  • Place your licks right and you don’t need to be fast. 
    I dispute this. There are times and places where playing fast is absolutely the best thing to do - just like slower playing or interesting phrasing, it can serve the music better than anything else in the right circumstances.

    And "fast playing" comes in many varieties, each of which has as many appropriate places as inappropriate.
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  • I can't play fast - never could. I've spent hours and days playing the same riff over and over in an attempt to get it up to speed and never managed it. Now that I am getting older (49 last week) I struggle to play even the stuff that was pretty easy 10 years ago.

    I must admit, these days if I struggle to play something for the band I usually just find a different way to play it, rather than slogging my guts out trying to do it right. And I can 'fake' fast playing enough for a pub gig.

    I value phrasing and taste over speed generally. As an illustration, yesterday I was trying to figure out a lick Lee Anderton played in a video...I have never, ever wondered how Chappers plays his licks. =)

    The things that frustrate me aren't fast, so much as a bit awkward...like the intro to Mr Brightside - I'd love to be able to play that but it's just too much of a stretch for me to play clean.
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  • sweepysweepy Frets: 4159
    Speed is just another part of your vocabulary, handy if you can do it but not essential in being a Happy Bunny Guitar-slinger :)
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  • fastonebazfastonebaz Frets: 4065
    I can't really play fast arpeggio stuff like the super cool players but I can tap pretty well:


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  • fastonebazfastonebaz Frets: 4065
    I tried to learn Highway Star too once, but couldn't quite pluck it so had to invent tapping for that too:


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  • Place your licks right and you don’t need to be fast. 
    I dispute this. There are times and places where playing fast is absolutely the best thing to do - just like slower playing or interesting phrasing, it can serve the music better than anything else in the right circumstances.

    And "fast playing" comes in many varieties, each of which has as many appropriate places as inappropriate.
    Agreed. My point was that you don’t need speed to be an interesting player. Dropping the right lick in at the right time can create the illusion of speed as you play with/ahead/against the rhythm etc. Jeff Healey is my go to guy for this. 

    No denying it’s nice to have a speedy widdle though
    'Vot eva happened to the Transylvanian Tvist?'
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  • RolandRoland Frets: 8592
    This is a very timely thread. I’ve just come back from a rehearsal where we did Don’t Stop Believing. Years ago I could play Neal Schon’s guitar entry, but tonight I couldn’t get anywhere near the right speed. The same with Jan Akermann. I was discussing Hocus Pocus to our sax player in the car on the way home, and played the track. There’s no way I could play that fast nowadays.
    Tree recycler, and guitarist with  https://www.undercoversband.com/.
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  • octatonicoctatonic Frets: 33725
    edited January 2019
    I teched for Larry Carlton in 2011 and got to watch him warming up before a gig.
    He shredded the ass off the 335 that was provided to him for a clinic (he flew in for it and wasn't using his own gear so had never played that guitar before).

    He then went out and played some of the most soulful guitar I'd seen in my life.
    He had amazing facility and incredible restraint- which is what it is all about.

    Not everyone slows down as they get older- some people just get sick of all the maintenance playing you need to do to retain a level of technique.

    I guess I'm a pretty speedy player.
    The way you get speed is by being accurate and rinsing and repeating.
    Speed by itself is just messy.
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  • robertyroberty Frets: 10893
    I tried to learn Highway Star too once, but couldn't quite pluck it so had to invent tapping for that too:



    Fair play, that's the keyboard solo. I got into doing that with alternate picking but never got it finished. Did you learn that by ear?
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  • LewyLewy Frets: 4127
    I’ve never learned to play fast stuff primarily because I haven’t ever wanted to play the kind of music you associate with that sort of approach - rock, metal etc. 

    But often when I see a player nowadays playing stuff I like and I find myself marvelling at their facility on the instrument, it turns out they were shredders in their earlier days and I tend to think it would have been good to put some work into that even if I wasn’t particularly going to play in that way.
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  • BarneyBarney Frets: 614


    I try and mix things up a bit bit like I do on this one ...most of the quicker bits are legato type of stuff... it's a good way to get the right hand loosened up ...
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  • equalsqlequalsql Frets: 6084
    Wow @Barney, you've got some serious chops there mate! :+1:  :)
    (pronounced: equal-sequel)   "I suffered for my art.. now it's your turn"
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  • fastonebazfastonebaz Frets: 4065
    roberty said:
    I tried to learn Highway Star too once, but couldn't quite pluck it so had to invent tapping for that too:



    Fair play, that's the keyboard solo. I got into doing that with alternate picking but never got it finished. Did you learn that by ear?
    There's some tab somewhere for it I used but i made up the final tapping section as I just couldn't pluck it as per the original
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  • Danny1969Danny1969 Frets: 10357

    I can play in a Van Halen half legato, some fast picked stuff manner but in recent years I've got fed up of the sound of quite distorted guitar ... the kind people generally use for shredding and am now more of a fan of a cleanish tone and fast country or classical type stuff. 
    You can create the illusion of picked speed by doing half picked, half rolling legato like I'm doing at the beginning of this vid. This is also the kind of tone I prefer for fast playing now but it doesn't cover up as much of my poor technique as a heavier gain would but I think it sounds prettier 


    www.2020studios.co.uk 
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  • fastonebazfastonebaz Frets: 4065
    Danny1969 said:

    I can play in a Van Halen half legato, some fast picked stuff manner but in recent years I've got fed up of the sound of quite distorted guitar ... the kind people generally use for shredding and am now more of a fan of a cleanish tone and fast country or classical type stuff. 
    You can create the illusion of picked speed by doing half picked, half rolling legato like I'm doing at the beginning of this vid. This is also the kind of tone I prefer for fast playing now but it doesn't cover up as much of my poor technique as a heavier gain would but I think it sounds prettier 


    That was awesome.
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  • VibetronicVibetronic Frets: 1036
    I love playing fast - there's something about it that feels really, really satisfying to me. For me it's partly getting something mechanically right, applying it, and getting a perfect sequence of notes one after the other, and also getting my hands to be able to do exactly what I want them to do without any physical hindrance to it. I love the technical aspect of playing and I'm still obsessed with it; if I'm not teaching (working) then I'm practicing and I'm still getting quicker, which is cool. 

    That being said, the last few years I've worked loads on phrasing & vibrato as obviously that is massively important. The speed/tech stuff is really for my own enjoyment - my own music I record is just what I find fun, and if other people like it then that's great. I do some of the widdly stuff in our covers band as that's part of our thing really, but in the proggy-metal band I'm in it's much more about fitting the song, and it's not shredding away all the time. One of the solos I'm most pleased with in it is one I spent ages on working out nice, slow phrases with different tones and none of the fast stuff at all. 

    This one is working on getting the multi-finger stuff back up to speed. It's really just to crowbar the tapping run in, and getting used to it so I can fit it in (more tastefully & if it fits!) into solos: 



    And this is the stuff I record:



    Unfortunately I can't post much of prog band stuff as the album isn't out yet and I'll get a bollocking from the label if I do, but here's a trailer with a solo and unflattering photograph at 1:05:


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