Shreds/ Fast solos.

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Hello.
I wrote this to ask if anyone's got experience playing shreds/ solos. I can play some of the slower solos, but when I try to play the fast ones, my fingers are too slow, they clash etc.

If anyone's got any tips, please share.
Thanks.
 
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I can play fast on both keys and guitar (but to be fair, I've played keys for 30 years and Guitars for 20 years). I can safely say, playing fast on a keyboard is a lot easier and faster than playing fast on guitar but guitar has its advantages as there are several techniques such as alternate speed picking, legato, two-hand tapping, sweep picking, hybrid picking and economy picking which can get very fast results if executed efficiently and in time. To get a good fast soloing technique down on keyboards, you need to practice scales, not just over one octave but over two or three octaves so you get that fluid motion across many keys and not just small groups of keys. Practice with a drum beat or a groove (not a metronome as that is boring and will not teach note divisions), slowly at first and build up the tempo gradually, get to a point where you can play 8th notes accurately and in time at 120-160bpm and then try 16th notes at that speed and gradually challenge your fingers to go faster with faster tempos, drop the tempo if this gets too much and gradually build up again. In no time you will be playing faster than you previously did. try to practice over actual music, favourite songs etc rather than a click as you don't get much benefit from that. once you get some speed going, work on your pitch bending skills and you will be in the makings of having nice skills to shred, improvise on keyboards.
 
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Thanks mate, the only thing that counts when playing keys or any instrument is that you play in time and with presence and feel. Speed and pyrotechnics is very much a nice to have, but secondary when it comes to making music.
 
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I see technique as your "toolbox", and in order to execute what you want to have in a song (or a solo) it's never negative to fill the toolbox up with licks, runs, different scales, tempoes, subdivisions and what have you :)
 
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Well, yeah they can be good for inspiration, but you don't just turn into a fast player from watching youtube videos all day either ;)
 
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Do your scales, all the way up and down the keyboard (twice if you are playing on a 61 key keyboard) . It will take time, but I used to have very little speed and have been doing scales everyday for over a year and my speed has at least tripled. I do major, minor, chromatic, blues, and pentatonic scales every day plus major and minor arpeggios and 30 blues licks every day. Or you can go through the Hanon exercises. Its like an athlete--if a track star wants to get faster, they run a lot. Same with your fingers--if you want to get faster, do speed drills every day. Both hands at once. You don't want your right hand to be that much faster than your left. Yes, they have different roles, but you should try to make them as equal as possible. Take breaks in between drills though, otherwise you can hurt yourself. Yes, speed isn't everything, but you should have it and be able to whip it out. It gives you felicity on the keyboard and gives you more artistic control. Watching others won't really help you play fast as much as it will help you know WHAT TO PLAY. From my experience, the best way to get fast is patience, time and discipline. Scales sort of "unlocked" the keyboard for me. Sorry if that was jumbled and out of order. Those are just my thoughts, good luck!
 

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