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https://speakerimpedance.co.uk/?act=two_parallel&page=calculator
- Learn to tap you foot/nod your head/ move some part of your body with the beat. Practice to a metronome/beat and get this tapping to be second nature. Eventually you can internalise it to the point you don't have to move at all but you need to be locked to that pulse.
- Relax! Speed comes from relaxation and accuracy. And stamina. Tension just slows you down and tires you out.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
In the past my expectations have probably got in the way. I wasn't improving as quickly as I thought I should be and packed it in. At the moment I'm focussing on exercises to strengthen my little finger and it's taken a good few weeks to make any noticeable progress.
I'm still not "quick" by any means but I'm getting there any my playing is noticeably cleaner than it was.
Since starting to try and play bluegrass a few years back I've been trying hard to increase speed (mostly right hand pick speed as you pretty much have to pick every note to be heard in an acoustic context). After a long time of not getting very far by taking the "only add a few BPM once you can play it perfectly" approach, I discovered a player and teacher called Steve Kauffman who has a slightly different way of thinking. He says that speed is a forced issue and the only way you play faster is by, well, playing faster. Most of those real bluegrass pickers acquired their speed from trying to keep up as kids in jams where people where playing fast and that's where his approach comes from.
He starts from the same place - learn to play it perfectly slowiy first. But then you jack up the tempo straight away to 30-40% faster than your play-it-perfectly tempo. When you inevitably crash and burn go back to your play-it-perfectly tempo for a bit, then try again at 30-40% up. No inbetween tempos. The logic being that you're getting your fingers used to moving quickly even if you're not playing it perfectly. It gets easier each time you up the tempo because your muscles aren't shocked by having to move a lot faster.
It's the antithesis of a lot of conventional thinking about building speed but it's building up my speed more effectively than adding a few bpm a day which I was trying to do before.....
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
I remember being given the advice that you learn to play something at about 2/3 full tempo (perfectly) and then you bring it back up to full speed. That seems similar (though I can't be bothered to do the maths).