Guitar players wanna play fast.
So many guitarists and students ask me how they can play faster. The need to shred (play blisteringly fast guitar lines) seems to be embedded in the general guitar player DNA.
Of course not everyone wants to play fast, but most guitar players do.
A few can do it extremely well. Some can do it well. Some can sort of do it. And some often feel lost or stuck at certain tempos, feeling uncomfortable when faced with uptempo tunes.
I’m more of the last kind.
For many years, I felt really slow compared to my peers. Some of my friends play really fast lines seemingly effortless. Over the years, I’ve studied with various teachers that have helped me develop my playing skills more. It’s improved but I still feel not quite there yet.
Over time, I’ve also bought different guitar courses, videos, books and tutorials. Some of the best material so far has been from guitarists like Ben Higgins, Chris Brooks, German Schauss and of course Troy Grady’s Cracking The Code series.
The first time I heard of Roy Ziv’s course was when it first came out a year ago. It was interesting and I wanted to check it out then but somehow did not. Recently, Roy Ziv’s class appeared again on my radar and this time I decided to check out the course.
As I went through the entire course, I could see Roy Ziv’s enthusiasm and passion for teaching the topic. The material is well laid out with a lot of different things to study. The cool thing is the introductory section where he explains the core approach for practice which is one that I immediately adapted to my practice routine.
Some of the things he mentioned seem obvious but somehow clicked even more for me this time.
The material is top notch. You get clearly well notated transcriptions of each musical example in both standard notation and tablature. In addition to that, the picking indications are also clearly written out.
You also get the notation on screen while he plays and explains the examples.
I particularly like the additional graphics that are on screen such as the metronome markings and additional information. These are all very helpful.
The course is hosted on the Teachable platform and with that, you also get to click “Complete and Continue” after each section is completed. This helped me see how much of the course I’ve consumed. The gamification aspect that is built in course platforms like this is great.
In terms of the actual content, most videos were bite sized which helped me consume them. It also helps me find exact videos to work on again for a practice session. Indeed, everything is well laid out.
The only thing I would say is that even after going through the entire course, I’m not 100% sure of how to organize my personal practice session yet. The example 30 minute practice routine (where he actually practices for 30 minutes) is probably one that I will revisit to take notes from. I wish there was some kind of Cheat Sheet or Practice Guide PDF as a summary of the course materials.
In addition to the course materials, you also get access to the Facebook Group which is a place to ask questions and post videos from the course. I haven’t used this yet though from my initial survey of the group, there’s also some cool stuff there too.
Overall, the entire course was highly enlightening and made me appreciate Roy Ziv’s artistry and skill. I am already seeing results from my initial practice sessions using the course which is very exciting to say the least.
In conclusion, this course delivers on it’s promise with Roy Ziv’s personal approach to developing speed. The combination of looking at this systematically and in terms of athletically is practical. He also demystifies some common practice approaches that are not as effective. From my personal experience practicing with Roy’s approach, I’ve already started to see improvement in my playing speed. Roy’s course fills in the blanks for some key things that I have heard but haven’t seen organized quite this way.
Pros: A good info-packed course with practical guidelines on how to increase your playing speed.
Cons: None.
TLDR: If you’re interested to learn how to play faster & you’re willing to put in the work, check out this course.
You can buy this course here: https://www.royzivmusic.com/guitarspeedbuilder
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