Any suggestions for building chops?

[RandomHero]

I finally got the discipline, metrical practice, and perserverance things down. FINALLY. I hope. ;D

Does anyone have any techniques or practices (or SONGS, even) for building chops? Like, speed-metal lead style chops?

Not that I want to play speed-metal, but-... well, yes I do. XD

[Trey]

Buy the Book Speed Metal Techniques for Lead Guitar. It will take you a good year to get thru(if you really focus on each exercise), but you'll have chops from hell to show for it.

I mostly play Blues, but someone recommended that book to me and it has help supremely. I ain't Guitar God fast now, but I am much faster than I was before and have better finger control/independence.

[bam]

I started it all by reading "The Total Classical Guitar Method™", although I'm not THAT fast.. (formerly a classic guitar player) But trust me, it works on electrics, too !

www.classic-guitar.com

[CurtMitchell]

Steve Morse said, if you can play anything slow 10 times, without mistakes, you can play it fast. Although how fast may be different from person to person. I'm glad you guys got this board back up. I like it.

[R]

the nesesities to playing speed metal according to michael angelo batio are
1)alternate picking cause any thing can be played faster with alternate picking
2)string skipping creates those freaky riffs
3)flat picking creates unbroken sequences
4)fretboard tapping of course for speedy melodic lines and solos
5)tremolo picking also keeps those notes running while helping build speed in the process

a technique ive seen batio and eddie van halen do is to bring the fret board up toward your face with the head stock pointing sky ward in an about a 45 degree angle it helps facilitates wide fret hand stretches so you can shred with taste ;D

[bam]

.. I think those techniques are rock music standards.. (mind you, metal is a part of rock, too) ;D

[R]

actually these are standards for any type of music it just depends on how you use them

[erikh]

There's a really good exercise that I do all the time. Picked it up from a printed Randy Rhoads lesson.

Starting at the first fret, low E string, alternate pick and finger each fret (1 2 3 4) upwards, across each string to the high E. Then go back to the low E, still alternate picking and fingering (1 2 3 4). Then move up 1 fret (2 3 4 5) across the fret board and back again. Do that all the way up and down the neck moving one fret at a time. Do the whole thing again only this time, the fingering would go in reverse, rather than 1 2 3 4, go 4 3 2 1.

[bam]

I read this somewhere in the Net..
This exercise is said to be from Steve Vai.
Do this in alternate picking from string #1,2,3,.. :

1---
----
----
----
----
----


12
1-
--
--
--
--


123-
12--
1---
----
----
----


1234
123-
12--
1---
----
----


and so on, moving 1 fret up each time.

[normus]

Try to find a copy of Super Chops by Howard Roberts. It's been out of print for some time but it's truly phenomenal. You'll need to be willing to work with a metronome and record your own backing tracks to improvise against. "20 weeks" is the claim for this book and it's absolutely true. Be prepared to pay for it. A used copy off ebay will run you $60+.

[darkcyde]

can be found here
www.amazon.com/gp/product/0899150101/ref=nosim/002-0468870-9010446?n=283155

[guitarmonkey]

use a metronome. if you want to build up speed, choose an exercise (some of the ones and books above would do great) and play it slow until you can play it flawlessly. then raise the tempo by ten bpm and do the same thing. repeat this until you reach the desired speed

[tacobobbo]

There was a studio musician in LA named Jack Marshall that came up with a system he called CAGED. Its the different chord forms and the scales that go with those forms. For instance the E form.....we all pretty much know how to use the major scale in an E form bar chord and probably the A form too. But, not too many of us know how to lay it out on the fretboard. His system puts it ALL together in a rather large BOX that covers the entire fretboard. If you can find someplace that shows how to it is layed out, practicing the scales (and arpeggios) in the different forms separate and linked together over the fretboard will build speed AND teach ya the entire fretboard. BTW, Jack Marshall was the guy that did the Munsters theme song.
Bob

[guitarmonkey]

speaking of scales, another good practice is scale switching(yes i just made that name up). start on the third fret on the low e string and play a Gmajor scale until the g on the d string, then shift up one fret(half step) to G# and go down to the G# on the e string using the same scale form only a halfstep higher. then a to a, Bb to Bb, b to b and so on always using the same scale form only half a step higher all the time. start slow until you can go as high as you want without stopping then speed up. you can also go down the same way. i myself go from the 3rd fret to the 15th and back(g-g-g) but it works anywhere. this method helps build speed, knowledge of the fretboard, and a lot of practice with scales.

hope this helps and good luck

[bjg]

What i find best is to play each scale from the open position all the way up to the 12th fret in each position. for instance start with c major, paly it in open position, then in first position and so on. it will help you out with soloing a lot if you do it enough. once your fingers know where to go without thinking about it you find your speed will go way up just naturally. plus all of the stretching and funny patters you will play going up the fret board will help to imporove your dexterity. plus you will know the fretboard and your scales. honestly my playing took huge leaps when i finally sat down and put the effort in to do this.

[prshott]

You must, must ,must, try www.guitarspeed.com you will love it.

[hammeroff]

I spend about an hour getting warmed up. Warming up really enhances what is already there as a guitar player. My warm up routine is also a great way to wake up!

Step #1-->Make coffee!

Step #2-->Let amp warm up

Step #3-->Stretch! This is essential, you should feel "loose" when you play, unless your really giving it the nuts.

Step #4-->Stetch your guitar! Have some fun, I usually do "feedback exercises" random notes, effects, whammy bar experiments, and tie it all up with the main riff from "Third Stone from the Sun"

Step #5-->Tune guitar.

Step #6-->Get some coffee, stretch some more, smoke if ya got em!

Step #7-->Play through some favorite songs with the CDs on.

There ya go! By now you should be pretty "into" it. It's hard for me to just sit down "cold" and start hammerin' away at exercises.

[gitpiddler]

I was thinking of starting a thread with this but it seemed to fit here. 8 weeks into this church gig replacing their guitarist/wannabe preacher, the mandolin player next to me is playing the house guitar, a Yamaha with the loudest preamp I've ever heard. My poor Ovation can't keep up, so I'm running it thru a little 8" Peavy transtube miked.
David is over here thrashing this guitar on the choruses, as if it needs to be louder. I told him about a classical teacher I had for a month who never could get my name right. He showed me how classical guitar is all about making the string vibrate perpendicular to the frets. When you hit the string, try to picture forcing the string towards the guitar, instead of sideways.
Think of a ball bouncing. You can throw it up and get a pretty good bounce-but throw it AT the ground-way better bounce.
Finger pick, or flatpick, the string towards the fretboard and you will get max. tone with less effort. His face lit up, he tried it and his tone immediately got louder without trying to dig in as hard.
Bam's reply about classic-guitar.com, which I haven't looked at yet, was what made me decide to add this relevation here. Enjoy, Git on the side and listening.