How to Play Fast Part 1 - A Lesson From John Petrucci

When John Petrucci starts learning to play fast he was emulating Steve Morse and Al de Meola. He picks every note when practicing like Steve and Al and then he switches gears into a legato mode. Legato means playing all the notes with only his left hand fingers and his right hand doing nothing. When he was younger he saw those guys playing and it looks like cheating but its not and it sounds really smooth and fast. Playing fast is not about cheating but it involves technique. When you have enough technique you can play fast at your desired speed and you can take your speed to the next level. To give you an example, try this pattern in figure 1 shown below in tablature form.

e---------------------------------------------------------
B---------------------------------------------------------
G-------7----4----5----7--------------------------------
D--------------------------------------------------------
A--------------------------------------------------------
E--------------------------------------------------------

Figure 1

Play it repeatedly with picking each note. Start slowly then gradually increase your speed. Now in figure 2, play it with legato by picking only the first note then pull off and hammer on the remaining notes.

e---------------------------------------------------------
B---------------------------------------------------------
G------7-----5----4----5-----7-------------------------
D--------------------------------------------------------
A--------------------------------------------------------
E--------------------------------------------------------

Figure 2

Then after that, try to play the combination of the two picking each note and then the legato.
Taking that licks further and makes more licks out of it. The next example in figure 3 below is picking the first note which is the G in D string in 5th fret instead of the G string. Picking the first four notes and pull off the next two notes which is the C# and D in G string. Then end up by picking the G note in D string in 5th fret.

e---------------------------------------------------------
B---------------------------------------------------------
G------------2----4----5-----4------2------------------
D-------5-------------------------------------5---------
A--------------------------------------------------------
E--------------------------------------------------------

Figure 3

In the case of this licks it uses fingers 1, 3 and 4 which is a bit difficult and you need dexterity between fingers 3 and 4 which is really difficult to do. But you can do exercises to practice your weak points. You can do hammer on and pull off exercises that you can thrill those two fingers. It might be easier to do that licks if you use fingers 1, 2 and 4 rather than 1, 3 and 4. You must try to concentrate on your weak points to do the combination of these licks. Start practicing and apply it.

Watch out for the second part of this lesson from John Petrucci.

Learn more about improving your guitar playing Visit GuitarMusicLessons. Reynato Basister is a guitarist in a band for more than 15 years and willing to help you to develop your own guitar playing.

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