Speed

GerBear

Hey Andreas,
I just wanted to ask you how I can develop my speed like you have! A lot of the runs on the play-along CD are just BLISTERING! :shock: I'm sure that speed was something you possessed long before you got into gypsy jazz; how did you "get it"? -and how can I?
Sincerely,
Garrett

AndreasOberg

Hi
I got a similar question in the technique section yesterday concerning my technique on electric guitar. I pasted my reply in this thread so you can read it.

When you're building a solid gypsy guitar technique, it's important to practice a few right hand patterns like D D U, D D U, etc. to get used
to the reststroke and the gypsy picking technique (downstrokes on
every time you change a string as a general rule).


Best Regards
Andreas

"The most important thing (if your going to play fast and clean) is to be just as relaxed as when you play something slow. When I started to focus on jazz, I mostly played along with cd's that I liked and tried to create long musical sentences over the chord changes and still keep a relaxed feeling both in my head and in my hands.

So, I would recommend you to play melodies instead of patterns, because practicing too much of patterns might make your playing a bit stiff.
My favourite players Benson and Lagrene, both play a lot of fast stuff but they do it in a relaxed way with swing, good technique, feeling and melody"