Favorite exercises for building tech skills?

I despise Yngwie Malmsteen's playing - as well as that of Steve Vai. I couldn't care less. I'm so much more interested in musicians who communicate rather than show off, and yes, I know that's subjective. I also have enough depth of experience to feel at least informed in my opinionated tastes.

But really, I don't mind playing Bach. Though that would mean learning to sight read better, which is my bane.

Still, I know the music I want to play - I hear it in my head, and I know how to play it. I just want to do it with great skill.

I know how assholeish this all sounds. I do. I'm just ... at a certain age, and saw 10,000+ live sets, worked on dozens of high profile commercial releases, and know 'names' in the (alt/indie) ghetto of the Industry who give me a reality check and grounding.

Still, I want to play what I hear in my head. I'm almost there - I just need to fret cleaner/faster.
 
Here's something I did once.
You know the old 1-2-3-4 chromatic exercise you do on all of the strings when you learn how to play?
You know the the one when you sequence it in groups of 4 playing 16th notes?
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One day I decided to try sequencing it in groups of 3 playing triplets,
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sequencing it in groups of 5 playing quintuplets,
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sequencing it in groups of 6 playing sextuplets,
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sequencing it in groups of 7 playing septuplets,
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sequencing it in groups of 8 playing 32nds
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and sequencing it in groups of 9 playing nonuplets.
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Each of those challenges you in a different way. When playing sextuplets, while rhythmically much simpler than playing quintuplets, the 1st note in each group is fretted with the same finger that played the last note on the previous group, but on an adjacent string - finger rolls aplenty, and it's a bitch. When playing septuplets and upwards you'll have to do a lot of string skipping.
 
Having had a few days, I realized that I did not communicate well ... and that this thread actually touches on an enormously important question for me: why do I play? I think I should put that in another thread -- if it's too much navel-gazing, the thread can sink like a stone, and only my time is wasted.

I give huge thanks to the incredibly good responses -- I really value the minds of the posters on this board.

Highernoon, you might find this strange, but what you outlined is actually almost exactly like something I (tried / try) to do myself - runs of simply dexterity combined with tricky timing. I once took lessons from Rich Gilbert, who's a pretty amazing guitarist, and one of the things he said to me that I won't forget is "ALWAYS play like you're in front of 10,000 people." Allowing myself to be sloppy is a mistake that I'm now paying for.

And Flamencology, I will give the Bach a try -- I admit it intimidates me. But that's good - this isn't mountaineering, I won't die if I fuck up wildly.

Thanks again.
 
@Mark Wein , you must really enjoy committing to that one.
This question in general? The answer is almost always to master music that has the skill you're trying to improve on it. I actually started writing a book of picking etudes for just this reason. Never finished it but I still use the first four or five with my students. I haven't rebuilt that part of my site but the videos are still on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/premiermusic/search?query=etude



This might be the year where I do a second edition on Foundations and finish the etude book though.
 
This question in general? The answer is almost always to master music that has the skill you're trying to improve on it. I actually started writing a book of picking etudes for just this reason. Never finished it but I still use the first four or five with my students. I haven't rebuilt that part of my site but the videos are still on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/premiermusic/search?query=etude



This might be the year where I do a second edition on Foundations and finish the etude book though.


No, I was challenging you to try the Bach prelude I posted.
 
preludes
etudes
played by fat dudes
it's still rock and roll to me


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