Just something for fun.
Place your index finger at the 5th fret and assign one finger per frets 5-8. Play the two examples below as fast as you can without making mistakes. Then answer the questions below.
Example # 1
e-5--6--7--8--5--6--7—-8--5--6--7--8--5--6--7--8--
b-------------------------------------------------
g-------------------------------------------------
d-------------------------------------------------
a-------------------------------------------------
e-------------------------------------------------
1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a
Example #2
e-6--7--8--5--6--7--8—-5--6--7--8--5--6--7--8--5--
b-------------------------------------------------
g-------------------------------------------------
d-------------------------------------------------
a-------------------------------------------------
e-------------------------------------------------
1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a
Question: Which example was easier to play, #1 or #2? Could you play each example equally fast? If not, which example gave you the most difficulty and why??
Sorry, guess I'm bored. But this is a fun little test.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
Exactly the same, and arguably neither very fast. I practiced 'runs' like this for piano, with both hands independently, it really matters very little now what the order or pattern is. Before that the first one was way faster and easier which is silly when you think about it.
yep, both are the same
After stumbling once on the 2nd one, they both come just as fast. Though I'm the same, I've practiced runs like these until my fingers have been ready to fall off :smile:
-Jason
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To those about to rock, we salute you!
http://www.soundclick.com/jasonwittenbach
I admit that I can play the first one faster. Perhaps it comes from a lack of piano training?
"There won't be any money. But when you die, on your death bed, you will receive total conciousness. So, I got that going for me. Which is nice." - Bill Murray, Caddyshack ~~ Michigan Music Dojo - http://michiganmusicdojo.com ~~
The second one should be harder for those that haven't practiced it much. I wouldn't mind betting that for those that don't practice these kind of exercises they would lose the beat if they try to play the second one at the same speed on the metronome, after a few bars the pattern will shift and the index finger becomes the accented note and lines up with the beat. Keeping the accent on the middle finger consistently on the beat doesn't feel natural without a lot of practice IMO.
Lee
I can do both of those equally, but I can be thinking about anything during the first and have to stop my attention wandering too much for the second :)
Funnily enough, if you'd have given us the same formula for the two examples, but with groups of three notes instead of groups of four - I'd've failed miserably on the second. A friend of mine can do that better than I can, but totally goes to pot with a 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 pattern which I don't find a problem.
I've practiced my 'awkward' groups of three till the cows come home, and still not much progress. But, I've got a song where I need to do it (with a hammer from the first to the second note too, which seems to make it worse), and I ain't beat yet :evil:
This is actually something I do now and again for warmups, so I have no problem playing it about as fast as I can play anything else, and both are equally clean.
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Im struggling with both but then I am only learning this sort of stuff
First one is easier for me
This seems to be a good exercise
Thanks Wes
Trevor
Here is to you as good as you are
And here is to me as bad as I am
As good as you are and as bad as I am
I'm as good as you are as bad as I am
I can play both the same speed but honestly, the second one is easier for me if I am thinking of them as two different musical ideas. I perceive the end of the second (6785) exercise as 5 ending the phrase and starting the new measure would be on fret 6, which is easy to end one phrase and start the next. In the first (5678), the hand has to stop the motion of walking up the fret board in the end of the phrase. Does that make any sense?
It's not easy being green.... good thing I'm purple.
I can play both the same speed but honestly, the second one is easier for me if I am thinking of them as two different musical ideas. I perceive the end of the second (6785) exercise as 5 ending the phrase and starting the new measure would be on fret 6, which is easy to end one phrase and start the next. In the first (5678), the hand has to stop the motion of walking up the fret board in the end of the phrase. Does that make any sense?
Wow, that is pretty unusual Purple. I guess it is all in the mind after all.
This was just something for fun, but I think most players (including myself) have a little more difficulty starting on the middle finger. And most players also start alternate picking with a downstroke as well. So it just feels a little odd to play the middle finger with a downstroke and the index with an upstroke.
I practice these kinds of exercises all the time. But starting with the index is easier, hard to break years of habit.
Try starting this with the ring finger. :wink:
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
