Flatpicking Speed Secrets!-Break Through Plateaus And Reach New Levels In Your Playing

If you're frustrated with building flat picking speed and you have a plateau that you just can't seem to break through, today I'm going to show you something that you can practice that's going to have you busting through that plateau and reaching new heights in your playing. Alright, stick around. Hey there, it's Aaron Jackson coming to you. And what I want to do today is I want to share with you what I'm calling my flat picking propulsion system. Now I mostly just wanted to say that out loud on camera and it feels great. But what this system is going to have us doing is we're going to isolate a small chunk of a tune or a solo or a break that we're working on. We're going to increase the tempo and then what we're going to do is we're going to small chunk the small chunk and every time that we do that, we're going to increase the tempo just a little bit. And what this does is it gets us used to playing at tempo that are faster than we're used to playing at, but our playing stays clean in time and really solid while we're doing that. What happens with a lot of players when they're trying to build speed is they either try to tackle tempos that are just too fast for them or they try to push themselves. But as they do that, their clean picking and their timing really fall by the wayside. But what this is going to have you doing is pushing yourself, but it's also going to keep your playing clean, solid and in time. So. So I've done a few other lessons on this channel where I give you what I call speed building licks and we do a similar thing. We small chunk them and increase the tempo. And if you want, you can check those out right here and I will link to them down in the video description. But for today, I want to take some actual tunes and solos that a lot of people are working on and show you how to apply that into a musical context. As always with my lessons, you can get the tabs for this down in the video description and in the top pinned comment. Alright, so let's jump into it. So for this first example, let's take BlackBerry Blossom Classic flat pick and fiddle tune here. And what I want us to do is just take this part of the tune. So it's essentially the first half of the A part. Okay, so what you want to do with this tune is find what I call your floor tempo. This is the fastest tempo that you can play it at. Cleanly and in time. Now be honest with yourself about how cleanly and in time that you can play this. And I say this with love, but I just see this a lot of times with students is a lot of times people will think they can play a tune at like, you know, 120 beats per minute or something like that, and really they need to be playing it at, like, 80. So be honest with yourself. And a great way to do this is to record yourself, really listen to and make sure that you're solid, that you're clean, that you're in time. But what we want to do here with this first chunk that we did in BlackBerry Blossom, we want to increase the tempo on that from our first floor tempo about 5 to 10 beats per minute.

Okay?

So that should be faster than your floor tempo on whatever tune or solo that you're working on. Okay? But now what we want to do, we want to small chunk this part. So instead of going through that whole passage on BlackBerry Blossom, we're going to do.

Okay?

And what we want to do as we play that is, we want to kick up either the strum machine, a metronome, a drum track up five to 10 beats per minute.

Okay?

And then after that, we want to small chunk that even more. And we want to do.

Okay, okay.

And each time that we do that, we want to increase again our metronome, drum track, or strum machine five to ten beats per minute. So real quick, let me go ahead and play that. And what I'm going to do here, what I find with a lot of my students is they kind of get stuck around like 80 or 90 beats per minute when they're playing solos and tunes and they're trying to get up into, like the 120, 130 range, just because a lot of this music sounds really good at that tempo. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to take our first small chunk bit. I'm going to play it at 100, I'm going to take the second small chunk and play it at 110, and the third small chunk and play it at 120. And that'll sound like this.

Sam.

So now let's take another tune here that we all love playing. Let's take big mine, okay? And so what we're going to do for our first small chunk. And again, that's essentially just the first half of the A part.

Okay?

So there is that, the first half of the A part. And again, that should be. You should play that at about 5 to 10 beats per minute faster than your floor tempo. Okay, so now let's, let's. Let's take our second chunk here and we're going to do. Okay, let's do it again. Okay, and let's take our third chunk and we're just going to do this. We're going to do.

Okay, okay.

So same deal. I'm going to play that along with the metronome and we'll do the first chunk at 100 beats per minute, the second chunk at 110, and the third chunk at 120. It. Alright, one more here. And with this one, I wanted to do a classic bluegrass solo. So I'm going to be doing. Taking kind of the end of Dust in a baggie from the Mighty Billy Strings. We're going to take a passage that he plays and turn that into our three chunks that we're going to increase the tempo on. So the first a little bit will do. So again there. Okay, so remember, that needs to be about 5 to 10 beats per minute faster than your floor tempo. The tempo that you can play that whole thing all the way through cleanly and in time. But now once we've got that, that's our first chunk. Let's do our second chunk. And that's going to go like this. We'll do. Okay, we'll do that again. Alright, and then let's do our third chunk and that'll sound like this. Okay, so again with the metronome here, I'm going to play the first chunk at 100 beats per minute, the second one at 110, and the third one at 120.

Sam.

Okay, so I hope that you see what we're doing here. All we're doing is we're taking chunks of either the tune, the solo, the break that we're working on, and then we're just increasing the tempo, and then we're consecutively chunking it down even further and increasing the tempo. This gets us used to playing at tempos that are faster than we're used to playing at, but it also keeps our playing clean and in time. And that's why I call it my propulsion system. Now here is the thing with this magic is going to happen. And this is the part nobody likes to hear. When you stay consistent with this and stay consistent with it over time. And when I say time, I mean years, not months. But the good news is these little chunks are everywhere. They're in every tune, they're in every solo, they're in every break that you practice. So they're all over the place. They're all through all of the music that you're playing. So you can just take a little part of it there and then just kind of consecutively chunk it down even more, but increase the tempo. I promise you, if you practice this every single day for a year, you. You will blow yourself away, and you will blow through whatever speed plateau that you've been hitting for years and maybe even for decades. So this really is something that I practice every single day, and I wanted to share this with you, and I know it's going to help you as well. So, as always, thank you for hanging out, and I'll see you next time.