building up fingerpicking speed.

[aljaxon]

i seem to have hit a brick wall. im trying to play the "8 notes on 3 strings then move bit" on bring on the night. its in the background while the verse is being sung.  top right window at 4mins 46.

 

straight after that he then explains how its played.  skop to 7 mins to see it in full at slow speed.

i can play that and move around the fret board ok but my plucking speed is stuck at 75% of normal speed courtesy of slowing it down on youtube.

actual song here and the verse bit comes in at 27 seconds.

its been a few weeks now and i cant get any faster. im trying to relax my fingers as ive noticed i often tense up which is counter productive.

so how can i build up speed? is there anything i can do whilst sat watching tv or on t break at work? any finger exercises?   i often play the guitar quietly whilst watching tv and have played that over and over sometimes for 20 minutes. does my wifes head in.

[ezbass]

The problem here is that you're stuck with the YT replay speeds. Now that you've got the notes under your fingers, use a metronome or drum machine set just a bit faster than the 75% playback speed. Get that down and then go a little faster. It'll come, but you can't expect to make that 33%(ish) jump in speed in one go, at least not accurately. It's annoying, but 'twas ever thus.

[Dad3353]

As above ^^; set your 'click' (metronome or drum beat, whatever...) to the speed at which you can currently play it faultlessly, whatever that speed is (no cheating; it must be comfortably faultless...). Then up the tempo, very gradually, and play at that tempo until it, too, becomes flawless (maybe a week or so..? If it's not coming, slow back down again.) Once it's comfortable, up the tempo a tiny notch, rinse and repeat. The key to success is the light-bulb moment when one finally twigs that the only way to play fast is to play slowly. The more time it takes to get up to speed, the faster one gets to the end goal. It never fails, but one must be armed with a Big Bucket of Patience. Once this is acquired (and constantly replenished...), it's all that's needed. Take all the time needed; it's not a race. Hope this helps. 

[aljaxon]

i havent been playing along to anything. just playing it as fast as i can on my own no background music. i only put the youtube video on to see what speed i was actually at. but when i practice i just play it endlessly as fast as i can over and over again for like 5 minutes. the crazy thing is im playing it faultlessly. no errors. i just cant go any faster.  sometimes i can pluck the 3 strings a lot quicker but then the next 3 string pluck is back down to my fastest speed. that only happens about once a minute. 

[aljaxon]

just checked with a metronome and im at 76bpm.

but ive identified my problem.  if i try to pick just 3 stings as quick as i can ,3 plucks  no more just strings 4 2 then 1,     i am very slow. 3 strings pause for 3 or 4 seconds. then the 3 strings again,  i cant get that faster. the thumb forefinger second finger.  pluck them like in the song continuous. im the same speed. i also pluck the 3 stings very slow and then slowly build up tempo but hit a wall.

 

[aljaxon]

think ive just found a technique that works. lol i know  im talking to myself here. i start plucking 3 strings nice and slow then get faster and faster until im at my max. then stop and start again. and in 2 minutes ive just got faster. ive been playing this for weeks trying to get faster and the start slow and build up speed has worked a treat,  thanks for putting that idea in my head dad3353!