Question about playin the guitar..?

Question:

Question about playin the guitar..?

I am 14, and i would call myself a pretty good guitar player, and i can play all the easy stuff, like Stairway to Heaven and Sweet Home Alabama. But i am now practicing songs by Steve Vai and yngwie malmsteen. I can play Eugene's Trick bag, but i am too slow at it and i can only pick out each note. Does anyone have any tips on how to pick that song with the sweeping motion?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Get yourself a sideman or good midi player (Vanbasco is freeware)

Download the song or plug in the chords. Now back the tempo down to where it's a little slower than you need. Play it at the slower tempo until you are so comfortable with it, you can play it while you are wtaching TV. Now, notch it up a couple of beats, and keep doing that until you can play it ten to twelve beats faster than you need to. Then, when you go back to the original tempo, it's a piece of cake.

Also, this is going to sound counterintuitive, but most of the fastest players sweep with the large muscles in the forearm, and not the small muscles in the wrist (which moves in the wrong direction anyway) Use the wrist for accents, but use the arm for the back and forth motion. Hope this helps.

(You are not going to feel comfortable with this right away - give it a couple of weeks to a month before you pass judgement on it!)