Playing it slow enough to hit every note perfectly works for me.Then i can happily play it at tempo.If you can’t play it perfectly when slow then you’re not going to manage to play it perfectly at tempo.Thats been my method for years and years and always works for me
He’s right! I hoop and play guitar but I learn it first slow and then practice it at the speed it’s supposed to be. You have to practice it at the speed because your muscles are going to adjust to the speed you practice at.
It’s totally the same in sports. Once you learn a skill slowly and master it you have to practice at the speed you would play in the competition or you will be a step behind.
This is so dead on right. Thank you for doing this interview. It is going to help me tremendously with the guitar players I do production for as well as myself.
Walking, jogging and running are different motions - you don't learn running by walking. Dead on. The fast & slow playing is a different touch entirely.
🤯oh my God, that’s so obvious: learning and practicing are obviously two different things! I passively know that but why haven’t I consciously thought of that or at least heard that before!?
It’s true I’ve tried learning things slower and felt good at around 75% then anything over 85-90%it comes undone! So I’ve started making sure I’m familiar with the speed
As a professional pianist who has won a classical competition, I know for a fact if you cannot play something absolutely perfectly slowly, you cannot play it perfectly quickly. Secondly, you cannot play perfectly slowly and then jump to a high tempo and play it perfectly. You need to practice playing something perfectly at all tempi, building up to a fast tempo eventually. Also, if you cannot play something at a particular tempo perfectly 10 times in a row without mistakes, you don’t have it “down”.
That works for piano but it is not enough for some styles of guitar playing. In particular, the eternally mystifying nature of the guitar pick. The aha moment that is finally being understood in videos like this is, with a pick beyond a certain speed the Technique completely Changes. You need to actually practice that high speed Technique to learn the feel of it and that aspect can only be done at speed.
@@RandomComments-s4e I am on board with you. Actually, it’s the same for Piano. There is a different sensation in the forearm and the hand when you’re playing at higher velocities. Your articulation is less pronounced because the speed you’re playing at does not give you time to articulate the fingers as high off of the keys. Same thing with Guitar playing. I’ve been working on my picking technique for 3 1/2 years now. And I’ve noticed exactly what you’re saying; there is a different technique at a higher tempo. However, that doesn’t negate what I was saying before. My simple point is, you really need to practice at all tempi to be able to play at all tempi. I think you and I are on the same page.
Exactly! Let’s see him switch to left handed guitar, learn a lick then play it as fast as he does right handed… it’s not going to work, it will sound like crap and the mistakes will be everywhere. At the end of the day, everyone learns differently- I’ve seen Tim Henson teach licks and he plays them slowly first to master the technique accurately, then increases the tempo; very few guitarists are able to accomplish this learning method that Andy has displayed. When you’re this good after playing for years I think you forget the true difficulty of playing accurately at tempo when you’re learning something new.
Okay so practicing on all tempos is the key then. I think Andy also says there's a realistic limit to the speed you should attempt until you're ready, so it's not just "go fast as possible even if you miss every note", that would be counterproductive. So to put it another way, the top players have some natural intuition where they know just how far to push themselves based on how well they know a lick or pattern, and they auto-adjust this through constant self-feedback to be at or close to the optimal speed, too slow or too fast and the practice session is largely wasted and/or bad habits creep in.
After further consideration it seems what is happening here is some top players like Andy Woods, Shawn Lane, Martin Miller.. they were always fast. They have some ability they aren't aware of that allows them to just "go fast and then work on cleaning it up". The general consensus seems to be that most people don't work like that. It is even possible this innate ability some players have is some physiological trait that has never been formally identified or studied.
This may work for some people. But I'm always sceptical about this kind of advice from musicians who never consciously struggled with speed development, the kind of musicians who started young or had an innate ability to play fast due to their particular physiology. For most people, slow deliberate practice and building up speed gradually is the most reliable way of developing speed and confidence.
Help me out here. That doesn't make sense to me. Am I missing something? This doesn't work for most complex sections. For e.g. there are tons of stuff you can practice at a slower speed, but practicing them straight up near the real tempo will cause you to make mistakes 99% of the time. Also I think that clarity of notes is important while playing anything. Even if you have learnt the whole section and have it in your memory and visualize what each section needs to be, some sections are just way too difficult, you just can't get through at the real speed at first. But ascending the tempo helps. What he is saying might be true for some sections (for e.g. chromatic or notes stacked up together equally) which you can't perform in the beginning cuz it's a finger fluidity issue, and will probably take 2-3 hours of constant playing for your fingers to get to that dexterity. But for e.g. take a section with lots of bends and staccatos mixed together. How do you practice something like that near the full speed?
Andy is one of the best alive right now...
I think so!
Thanks Zak, great interview! Andy Wood is so cool and such an amazing player!
Thanks for watching! Pumped you found this interview!
Playing it slow enough to hit every note perfectly works for me.Then i can happily play it at tempo.If you can’t play it perfectly when slow then you’re not going to manage to play it perfectly at tempo.Thats been my method for years and years and always works for me
So true thank you, works for me too. When he says learn it first he means memorize it at tempo or close to which is so difficult for beginners.
I think that’s Andy’s point. Learn it, then play it at tempo
He’s right! I hoop and play guitar but I learn it first slow and then practice it at the speed it’s supposed to be. You have to practice it at the speed because your muscles are going to adjust to the speed you practice at.
🙌🙌🙌 Keep rocking brother!
cool interview ... Andy is an inspiration for me since I saw him this year in Germany at the Guitar Summit ..
That’s awesome that you got to see him in Germany!
It’s totally the same in sports. Once you learn a skill slowly and master it you have to practice at the speed you would play in the competition or you will be a step behind.
Absolutely right!!
Great point!
Andy is a very intelligent and charming guy.
One of the best!
This is so dead on right. Thank you for doing this interview. It is going to help me tremendously with the guitar players I do production for as well as myself.
That’s awesome! Thanks for watching! I’m pumped that you found it!
Walking, jogging and running are different motions - you don't learn running by walking. Dead on. The fast & slow playing is a different touch entirely.
🙌
🤯oh my God, that’s so obvious: learning and practicing are obviously two different things! I passively know that but why haven’t I consciously thought of that or at least heard that before!?
🙌🙌
It’s true I’ve tried learning things slower and felt good at around 75% then anything over 85-90%it comes undone! So I’ve started making sure I’m familiar with the speed
That’s how you do it! Love it bro!
I agree. Once I know the notes go
🤘🤘🤘
As a professional pianist who has won a classical competition, I know for a fact if you cannot play something absolutely perfectly slowly, you cannot play it perfectly quickly. Secondly, you cannot play perfectly slowly and then jump to a high tempo and play it perfectly. You need to practice playing something perfectly at all tempi, building up to a fast tempo eventually. Also, if you cannot play something at a particular tempo perfectly 10 times in a row without mistakes, you don’t have it “down”.
That works for piano but it is not enough for some styles of guitar playing.
In particular, the eternally mystifying nature of the guitar pick.
The aha moment that is finally being understood in videos like this is, with a pick beyond a certain speed the Technique completely Changes. You need to actually practice that high speed Technique to learn the feel of it and that aspect can only be done at speed.
@@RandomComments-s4e I am on board with you. Actually, it’s the same for Piano. There is a different sensation in the forearm and the hand when you’re playing at higher velocities. Your articulation is less pronounced because the speed you’re playing at does not give you time to articulate the fingers as high off of the keys. Same thing with Guitar playing. I’ve been working on my picking technique for 3 1/2 years now. And I’ve noticed exactly what you’re saying; there is a different technique at a higher tempo. However, that doesn’t negate what I was saying before. My simple point is, you really need to practice at all tempi to be able to play at all tempi. I think you and I are on the same page.
Exactly! Let’s see him switch to left handed guitar, learn a lick then play it as fast as he does right handed… it’s not going to work, it will sound like crap and the mistakes will be everywhere. At the end of the day, everyone learns differently- I’ve seen Tim Henson teach licks and he plays them slowly first to master the technique accurately, then increases the tempo; very few guitarists are able to accomplish this learning method that Andy has displayed.
When you’re this good after playing for years I think you forget the true difficulty of playing accurately at tempo when you’re learning something new.
Facts! The 10x rule is a great indicator on whether something is truly learned.
Okay so practicing on all tempos is the key then. I think Andy also says there's a realistic limit to the speed you should attempt until you're ready, so it's not just "go fast as possible even if you miss every note", that would be counterproductive. So to put it another way, the top players have some natural intuition where they know just how far to push themselves based on how well they know a lick or pattern, and they auto-adjust this through constant self-feedback to be at or close to the optimal speed, too slow or too fast and the practice session is largely wasted and/or bad habits creep in.
Andy I noticed that you use different picking styles when playing slow vs fast. can you elaborate on that?
Ill ask him next time!
After further consideration it seems what is happening here is some top players like Andy Woods, Shawn Lane, Martin Miller.. they were always fast. They have some ability they aren't aware of that allows them to just "go fast and then work on cleaning it up". The general consensus seems to be that most people don't work like that.
It is even possible this innate ability some players have is some physiological trait that has never been formally identified or studied.
We should launch a formal study and figure that out!!!
Just commenting again to say - stunning player ….
One of the best ever!
This may work for some people. But I'm always sceptical about this kind of advice from musicians who never consciously struggled with speed development, the kind of musicians who started young or had an innate ability to play fast due to their particular physiology. For most people, slow deliberate practice and building up speed gradually is the most reliable way of developing speed and confidence.
Everyone has their own method. Whatever works.
At one stage the slow twitch fibers get taken over by fast twitch fibres.
Ha! Exactly!
Help me out here. That doesn't make sense to me. Am I missing something? This doesn't work for most complex sections. For e.g. there are tons of stuff you can practice at a slower speed, but practicing them straight up near the real tempo will cause you to make mistakes 99% of the time. Also I think that clarity of notes is important while playing anything. Even if you have learnt the whole section and have it in your memory and visualize what each section needs to be, some sections are just way too difficult, you just can't get through at the real speed at first. But ascending the tempo helps. What he is saying might be true for some sections (for e.g. chromatic or notes stacked up together equally) which you can't perform in the beginning cuz it's a finger fluidity issue, and will probably take 2-3 hours of constant playing for your fingers to get to that dexterity. But for e.g. take a section with lots of bends and staccatos mixed together. How do you practice something like that near the full speed?
I hear ya. I think everyone has their own method and this is what works for Andy. I can see all sides. I like hit take though
So much to learn here. Stop using a floppy pick. Control the energy you put on the string.
Thanks for watching!
I can play fast therefore I can play good.
💪
You're not going to get speed at the beginning of a song you're studying.
Exactly!
Interviewer, stop interrupting!
😂
NO! PRACTICE SLOW MOST OF THE TIME AND FAST SOME OF THE TIME.
Whatever works!
Once you get the mechanics down, go for it..
🔥🔥🔥
So Dominic Miller says practice as slow as humanly possible and Andy the exact opposite...
Take it all with a grain of salt. Try everything. Use what works for you!