Shred Academy – Free Guitar Lesson by Orest Dziatyk

Practice
Habits

By
Orest Dziatyk (Hawk)

There are many approaches towards making efficient use of time
when practicing. The main objective is to focus on specific areas.
One of the biggest downfalls of musicians not reaching a certain
level of personal achievement is lack of focus or noodling. The
better your practice habits the more efficient and rewarding your
endeavors will become.

The
main objective is to focus on certain aspects of music. One area
an individual can focus on is technique. There are various techniques
involved such as: picking, legato, sweeping, string skipping,
tapping etc. It is important to decide which technique you would
like to master and apply your time toward that goal in a concentrated
fashion. Once you decide upon your technique then utilize your
practice time efficiently. The possible different aspects of practice
can be technique, site reading, transcribing solos and ear training.

One
important technique that many players take for granted is string
bending. When a player bends a note, the emotional quality of
the guitar comes to life, giving the note a some what animate
personality. There are various intervals which can be obtained
by bending. A good approach would be to start with small intervals
and gradually build finger strength to master bigger leaps,

The
smallest distance in Western Music that an interval could be divided
into is a half step which is equal to one fret on the guitar.
The reason I state Western Music is because other cultures have
instruments that could yield quarter step intervals i.e.: Hindu
and Indian classical music. (That’s another topic for discussion
possibly at another time).

When
starting with the half step bend I would suggest utilizing the
second, 2third or fourth fingers because you can use the first
finger for support. The best approach to achieve correct pitch
axis would be targeting a certain note; play the note you intend
to bend up to then from the previous note bend up to the pitch,
usually bending toward the ceiling which will not always be the
case if you are on the two lower strings (fifth and sixth strings).

Not
only is it important to utilize a visual reference, but also an
aural one. After getting comfortable with the half step bend you
can then gradually build up to a whole step bend, equaling 2 frets,
one and a half step bend, to whole step bends and possibly 5 fret
bends if your guitar will allow the tension. Once you master the
correct pitch axis, being right on target and not going sharp
or flat, you can try utilizing reverse bends. When working with
reverse bends accuracy is a bit trickier because you have to pre-bend
the note without actually hearing the pitch and release the bend
after picking it.

Different
inflections can be added to the reverse (whole step) bend i.e.
: 1) releasing the bend without pick attack, by just hammering
the note 2) Using a pick attack to start a reverse bend 3) or
a combination of hammering a pre-bent note then picking the resolve
note. The rate of speed also plays a role in the ambience of the
note. A slower release will produce greater emotional quality,
while a faster release will produce a more aggressive sound. By
combing various inflections and speeds one could produce a variety
of emotions with just 2 notes and by adding more notes the possibilities
only become greater.

Another
technique I would like to talk about is picking. This is another
somewhat tricky subject because there are many approaches as far
as thickness of pick, pick angle or even holding a pick. Normally
when beginners learn how to use a plectrum they hold the pick
between the thumb and first finger gripping the pick comfortably
without using excessive energy; so that the pick is not held to
loose or to tight. There are also players such as Eddie Van Halen
and Jimi Hendrix that hold their pick between their thumb and
middle finger instead of thumb and first finger. There really
is no right or wrong way to hold a pick. The important aspect
is that a player is comfortable with their approach.

After
getting comfortable with the grip of the pick, the motion of alternate
picking i.e.: Down up or up down consistently usually comes from
the wrist. There are however different aspects and combinations
that vary from player to player. Some players such as Kiko, Yngwie
and Rusty Cooley use the flicking of the thumb first finger combination
along with subtle wrist motion rather than predominantly wrist
driven motion. Other players utilize a small turning motion such
as turning a key in a very subtle fashion. Again other players
such as Vinnie Moore and John Petrucci use more of their forearms
in an up and down fashion rather than their wrists. Whatever approach
a player takes is irrelevant; what’s important is the ergonomics
involved in executing the technique. A player’s focus should
be on very small movement both in the right and the left hand.
In order to achieve greater speed, the player should keep the
motion confined to the smallest possible movements, because time
equals distance, period.

Great
focus and concentration should be applied to right and left hand
synchronization. Not only is it important to achieve a certain
level of speed, but it is vitally important to be clean also.
One could achieve this confidently by working with the metronome.
It is important to start out slow and build up to various speeds.
The main focus should be to always play clean so that there is
controlled picking and not uncontrolled doubled picking.

When
working with the metronome it is best to keep a log of your progress
and set goals. You should set your bpms (beats per minute) at
a slower speed and work up towards greater speeds gradually. You
should also work with various note values such as whole notes,
half notes, quarter notes, eighth and sixteenth notes etc. Along
with different note values you should also work with various meters
i.e.: 3’s, 4’s, 5’s, 6’s, 7’s etc.
Once you’ve reached a comfortable speed it is good to push
the envelope once in a while, but if your breaking point for certain
“bpm’s” gets sloppy, you should revert back
to slowing things down until you reach the next level of “bpm’s”
keeping it clean at all times. It is good to set long term and
short term goals, by keeping a log and monitoring your progress.

When
considering pick sizes and various gauges a player must first
of all feel comfortable with a particular pick. For instance some
jazz players utilize smaller picks with a sharper edge but that
is not necessarily the norm for all jazz guitar players. One should
check out a few different sizes and brands to see what is most
suitable for his particular style. If you want to get into shred
guitar, most players but not all utilize a standard size pick
that is usually gauged between 1 and 2 mm. in thickness; this
in turn yields a good attack that is needed because of the articulate
and aggressive nature of the style. Rapid – fire picking
and sweep picking require great detail to be clean. If a pick
is to flimsy, it will give way to the strings and the attack of
the strings just won’t have the same effect as a thicker
pick would.

Another
consideration for the rapid-fire picking technique would be to
angle the pick @ a 45% angle. This in turn produces less resistance
between the pick and strings. If a player wants more bite or a
more pronounced attack, it would be better to hold the pick perpendicular
to the strings producing more of an aggressive, percussive sound.
Either way is fine, it just all depends how a certain player wants
to articulate this technique. To add an even more percussive articulation
one could palm mute the strings near the bridge, With all the
various techniques considered the most important aspect is to
try to mute as a many open strings as possible with both the right
and left hands so that unwanted string noise will not hinder your
technique or cleanliness, in recording or performance. There is
one more picking technique that I will talk about at a later time
and that is economy picking. The main point of technique is to
keep things clean when trying to build speed, but take into consideration
that speed is not everything and that melody is important as well.

Everyone
has different time schedules, say you have 4 hours a day to practice,
break it down into segments. Try to spend an hour on each technique
specifically. Or if you have less time adjust the time accordingly,
For instance you can spend two hours in the morning and two hours
in the evening. During this time you could spend 1 hour on technique,
1 hour on site reading, 1 hour on transcribing solos and 1 hour
on ear training. Another option might be to practice different
techniques or different aspects of music on different days of
the week. The important thing is to be consistent.

When
working with scales, arpeggios or any method to harmony it is
important to learn to approach each from as many different angles
as possible such as: Sequences, diatonic, non-diatonic, cycle
of fourths, fifths, major thirds, minor thirds, chromatics or
any obvious intervals.

A
lot of players out there ignore important aspects that will provide
an avenue of immense value to a musician, who wishes to seriously
extend their overall musical knowledge. Therefore it is important
to concentrate not only on technique but also on sight reading,
ear training and transcribing music in general. Keep your mind
open to potential possibilities of information no matter how small.