1, 2, 3, 4. I declare a shredding war!

Yeah, inspired by the Petrucci thread here under, I hereby challenge all of us to practise your shredding and fast picking for 6 hours for the following month (March 2008).

The goal is to first of all, be a lame excuse of a motivator for me, as I'm trying to get back to using the el guitar, and secondly, to show off at our skills. And while were there, we'll see if the drug we call copying the best of the best in fact is the ultimate answer of just something they tell us they do to seem cool.

So if I can double up my speed, I'm going to write mr. Petrucci a letter with $5 in it for him to buy some new plectrums. And excluding this little action, I want you to follow my example. Our example if you like. Either way, show me, that you are men, not some sissies who claim they play the guitar just to get laid, even if it never works!

I need a reason to practice for more than I currently do, so at the moment,  there is a high probability that I'm also in. As for doubling my speed, well i can currently alternate pick at 220bpm in 16th notes (which is approximately 14.66 notes per second), so I doubt I'll be able to play at DOUBLE that speed. But hey, my sweep picking needs some serious attention, as it's my main weak area in technique.

For checking how fast you are, use a metronome (it sounds like you don't already use one). For your March shredfest, you should start using one, not just in march, but as soon as possible, so you can accurately record your progress.

I'm in..I don't know how long I practice a day but it is deffinitley not 6 hours. I just got John Petrucci's instructional book and cd "Wild Stringdom" so that should help ..also I'll be using Vai's 10 hour workout in guitar one that was recent disscusion in the practice thread....and Eric Johnson's instructional dvd "The Art of Electric Guitar"...good luck to everyone

Well now that I think of it, I'm not totally sure about this one. I'm in my final year of high school (in fact, I'm repeating after failing my final year last year), so I'm not so sure i've got 6 hours in a day to practice. I'd like to be in this, but March is actually around the time prior to our 2 week school holidays we have a few assessment tasks that count towards our final end of year score for school. At best, I may be able to do 4 hours a day from Monday to Thursday, 6 hours on Friday, and 8 hours a day on Saturday and Sunday, although that still only comes to 38 hours a week, 4 hours shy of the 6 hour a day regime. If I'm able to be exempted from the 42 hour practice week and use my 38 hour week, I'm willing to give up a significant chuck of social life  on weekends in March and i will give the challenge a definite yes.

Also here are some more specifics:

Damn it, I'm going to be getting more homework than I realised. I might call it a 34 hour week now (only 3 hours a day from Monday through to Thursday).

But hey Brandon even if you can't fit much into the weekdays, would you be up for joining me on the 8 hour Saturdays and Sundays to make up for what we missed during the weekdays?

Yay, it starts tommorow! I've been told my school term actually ends about a week before the end of March Which means for that week of school holidays, I can make up for the lost hours from doing homework, by playing 7 hours a day on all weekdays. Hopefully by the end of this, my sweep picking will be a quarter as good as Jason Becker's, instead of it's current 1/20th as good

HughesJB4 wrote: But hey Brandon even if you can't fit much into the weekdays, would you be up for joining me on the 8 hour Saturdays and Sundays to make up for what we missed during the weekdays?