Author Topic: TE-201 • The Spider (Read 42211 times)

justinguitar · « **on:** July 14, 2008, 04:22:42 pm »

Questions...

Lesson Link: http://www.justinguitar.com/en/TE-201-TheSpider.php

Guitarhead · « **Reply #1 on:** August 07, 2008, 09:27:12 am »

hiya justin, ur site's really awesome, really gets me in the groove to start practising, thnx a lot... ok, this spider thingy(i just began with it), what speed do u recommend i should be able to do with about 4 months of practice... i can do it at about 100 bpm, but i just can't seem to be able to go any faster and end up spoiling my carefully-constructed technique... am i being too ambitious because i actually put every free minute of my day into my guitaring.. thnx again

mickmetal · « **Reply #2 on:** September 24, 2008, 09:21:36 am »

I think the Spider's a very useful lesson when you dedicate your practicing to not necessarily playing it fast but being able to play each note clearly in your cross alternate picking. Guitarhead- What I found useful in developing my technique to a faster tempo is playing the Spider front and back at a much slower tempo than your ability's limit. (For me about 60 bpm) and only after you can play it perfectly several times, then move up slowly till you eventually reach your limits. This should be done slowly, don't practice on a tempo you can't do perfectly. When you can do the Spider perfectly on a faster tempo, 100 bpm or so then and only then should you increase your tempo.

p.s. When you do increase your speed it shouldn't be a big change, only like 4 bpm or so (60 bpm - 64 bpm for example) Perfecting something slow is the fastest way to perfecting something fast in my opinion, hope this helps.

Brenno71 · « **Reply #3 on:** October 10, 2008, 12:05:13 pm »

hey justin sites lookin madd umm this spider thingy been havin a hack at it for a few weeks now and just can't get the coordination down pack....ummm dunno if its just cause i'm retarded or what lol but yeh tis getting a little frustrating at time.....so if you had any tips or technique corrections that would be awsome dude

cheers man

Jaden_ph · « **Reply #4 on:** October 16, 2008, 02:39:37 am »

im having problem w/ alternative picking because i kept forgetting to up pick .. any ideas?

DeadlyChicken · « **Reply #5 on:** November 04, 2008, 11:23:39 pm »

set your metronome quite slow, and only pick on the beat using all down picks. make it so that its way slower than you can play.

Then using just one string and fretting just one note do a few downs on the beat and notice that each time you down pick you are having to come back up for the next down pick, now just make sure you hit the string on the up pick. Once you have that rhythm going, on that one note one string, keep it flowing and start the exercise again.

Think of your picking as beign like tiny strums .. keeping it moving and maybe even exaggerating how far your pick moves to start with so that you start to feel the constant rhythm and pace, maybe even say "down" each time you hear the metronome click too.

its tricky and you have to go a lot slower than you might normally, which is frustrating, but you quickly become used to it and will be able to speed up.

Adlai · « **Reply #6 on:** December 18, 2008, 04:23:02 pm »

I happened to get my hands on a copy of the "Ten Hour Workout" interview with Steve Vai, and interestingly enough he uses this exact pattern, but to practice economy picking rather than alternate picking.

I understand the difference between the two, but my question is: would it be bad to exercise two such radically different techniques with the same pattern?

My inclination would be that it would actually help to separate them mentally and physically (finger-ally), but I'd be interested to hear some other opinions.

stymye · « **Reply #7 on:** December 22, 2008, 06:52:39 am »

personally I would get really good at alternate picking first,, like you don't have to even think about it good. before thinking about economy picking
I see no benefit of practicing different picking techniques at the same time.I think it will slow someone down bigtime actually.

this same exercise is used to practice sweep picking.but thats annother whole level.

Dakota · « **Reply #8 on:** January 31, 2009, 09:11:46 pm »

Funny, but on day 1 when I tried it I was terrible at it. It wasnt really my alternate picking, it was just the way the left hand crawled up the fretboard. Now, a week later its really come natural.

justinguitar · « **Reply #9 on:** February 08, 2009, 05:33:07 pm »

@Jaden - try saying the down and up out loud. That usually fixes it!

@ Adlal - I would choose a different exercise, just to keep things clear in my mind, but I don't think it would matter.

@Brenno - it's just hard dude - stick at it!

@ Guitarhead - it's a slow process - don't rush it - just move the tempo up very slowly. It will help even at slow speeds!

scorpiomike79 · « **Reply #10 on:** February 28, 2009, 10:02:32 pm »

i spend many hours on this site and i donate and buy your products...but damn this a nasty little lesson justin, and i really struggle to get my head around it......if only i could quit my job and be payed vast amounts of money to practise all day, but i wanna thankyou again for your awesome site!!!!

GuitarMomentum · « **Reply #11 on:** April 06, 2009, 01:13:13 am »

@scorpiomike79: At first, it is a bit mind blowing. The right hand is simple - down, up, down, up, etc. etc. That's the exercise part. Getting it going quickly and without a lot of conscious effort. Really working in the movement of moving your pick around across strings while keeping the down, up sequence going.

To begin though, I needed to know the why of the left hand first. When I tried to attach images to my forum post, it wouldn't let me. So I posted this mini-tutorial at http://distractedgeek.blogspot.com/2009/04/spider-exercise.html. It specifically focuses on the left hand with respect to the Spider Exercise.

Good luck.

Alex

brett911 · « **Reply #12 on:** April 12, 2009, 06:39:53 am »

Hey Justin or someone lol

In the Advanced Exercise Tab in pdf form should not the bottom line start on the 2nd fret since you are moving up the fretboard?

It looks like a mirror image of the 1st several bars from the exercise?

DSX_Guitarist · « **Reply #13 on:** April 14, 2009, 02:44:48 am »

would it be a good idea to practice finger picking with the spider or is that unnecesary?

jimmynitcher · « **Reply #14 on:** May 08, 2009, 09:17:05 am »

How many notes do you people play per metronome beat? I guess it doesn't matter as long as one plays within one's own limits but I'm curious .

BTW it sounds a bit like something Robert Fripp might do.

jimmynitcher · « **Reply #15 on:** May 08, 2009, 09:30:06 am »

oh I've just seen the pdf - two per click then

ramxpride09 · « **Reply #16 on:** June 26, 2009, 11:07:02 pm »

Hi Justin,

You talk about how you should only do this exercise if you've been playing a while and are somewhat advanced. I've only been playing a couple of months now and was wondering if it would be beneficial to start doing this exercise but with right hand only. It probably will sound horrific, but I tend to be drawn towards songs with picking (like Wherever You Will Go thanks to you!) and want to better my right hand dexterity. In all the picking songs I've learned, I seem to get the left hand down far before I get the picking down.

Thanks for the time

kaleb42308 · « **Reply #17 on:** June 30, 2009, 03:23:12 am »

hi. im new to this site but already i can tell that this is a wonderful thing. but my question is when you get REALLY good and spendALOT of time practicing the spider, do you think it wud ever be possible to sweep pick it. it wud require weeks of endless practice, im sure. but do u think it cud ever be done. and also speaking of sweep picking. do you have a lesson on it.

With my thanks and regards

kaleb

PetefromFinland · « **Reply #18 on:** October 31, 2009, 05:43:36 pm »

Ok, I didn´t see anything about this here, so what´s Justin´s (or someone else´s who knows) take on worrying about muting string with the spider? Justin says one should only focus on one thing per excercise, in this being the picking I reckon, it makes it harder to think of muting the string at the same time... so would it happen that if your muting is not perfect yet and you practise it seperately at the same time, it would come later with the spider too so you first you wouldn´t have to worry ´bout it?

Fuzzel · « **Reply #19 on:** November 11, 2009, 09:51:40 pm »

Quote from: kaleb42308 on June 30, 2009, 03:23:12 am

hi. im new to this site but already i can tell that this is a wonderful thing. but my question is when you get REALLY good and spendALOT of time practicing the spider, do you think it wud ever be possible to sweep pick it. it wud require weeks of endless practice, im sure. but do u think it cud ever be done. and also speaking of sweep picking. do you have a lesson on it.

With my thanks and regards

kaleb

You'd have to economy pick to account for the string skipping/direction changing etc... and it's definatly possible, I think Steve Vai published it (or an excercise very similar to it) as paty of his 10 hour practice routine, the key difference being Vai economy pick it

. Needless to say, it's possible to do it at ridiculous speeds if you so desire

.

Filip · « **Reply #20 on:** January 08, 2010, 02:05:31 pm »

Hello!I need help with the picking.I always use alternate picking but sometimes i use twice down or twice up picking because its much easier and simple, is that bad habit or it is normal?Do i have to use alternate picking all the time in playing?I am really busted if i am wrong because it is hard to remove a bad habit...

Thank you!

LDuB · « **Reply #21 on:** March 06, 2010, 12:18:25 pm »

Just curious..who did you get this exercise from? I've seen Joe Satriani use it too

tanman · « **Reply #22 on:** March 30, 2010, 12:35:52 am »

Justin (or anyone for that matter), when you play, is the bottom part of your picking hand resting on the guitar or is it floating off of the guitar?

Davidox · « **Reply #23 on:** November 21, 2010, 08:31:23 pm »

Hi everyone,
It's just a question i have.. i'm doing this exercise for some weeks now, but when i'm playing songs and when i pick strings individually, sometimes I miss the string or play the wrong string.. this usually when i play like the A string and then go to the B string or something like that (string skipping?). i'm just wondering if you guys know any exercise that helps hitting the right strings. Do you think the spider is a good one?

Cheers

sophiehiker · « **Reply #24 on:** November 22, 2010, 01:56:54 pm »

Quote from: LDuB on March 06, 2010, 12:18:25 pm

Just curious..who did you get this exercise from? I've seen Joe Satriani use it too

Satriani got it from Vai who got it from someone else. (see Satriani, "Guitar Secrets") Lots of spiders out there.

Author Topic: TE-201 • The Spider (Read 42211 times)

Guitarhead

mickmetal

Brenno71

Jaden_ph

Adlai

stymye

Dakota

scorpiomike79

GuitarMomentum

brett911

DSX_Guitarist

jimmynitcher

jimmynitcher

ramxpride09

kaleb42308

Fuzzel

Filip

LDuB

tanman

Davidox