A guitar instructor let me run a photo copy of an out of print book by Howard Roberts that had a really great set of exercizes in it. The theory is quite sound I think and can be applied without the book. (Post note: the book has been out of print for ~30 years and cannot be had anymore except as a collector's item for about $150 if you can find one. I think there is one for sale at amazon. It originally cost $10 in 1974; the year I was born
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What you basically do is record 10 minutes of you playing a particular set of progressions. Preferably you have quite a few key changes in there to make you do some real work. Start slow 60-80 bpm. Increment your beats by two every day or so...but only when you can play allong with the backing at that speed without getting lost and making a bunch of mistakes...in fact you shouldn't make any.
One progression each week. So I set up a set of progressions I will play with and use that for the whole week. For the first few weeks you play 8th notes. No bends, no hammer ons, no pullofs, no holds, no phrasing in that way. You have to use the notes you are playing to create the phrasing...so you can play a note for several 8th notes, but you must always pluck 8th notes. Play legato and pay attention to right hand technique.
Do this 3 times each day, it takes about 50 minutes. Take a 2 minute break between sets. Do some stretching during this time, and not just your hands! Another suggested in break exercise was to stand with your back against the wall and try to make all of it touch. This is for posture.
For the 7th week use the progressions of the last 6; a different one each day. At the end of week 7 your target bpm is about 132. Next set of 7 weeks you will do triplet 8th notes so you drop down to 96 bpm, which is actually an increase in speed because of the triplets. Do the same thing. Week 14 is another review week and at the end your target bpm is 144.
Week 15, 16, and 17 are another "review week". You go over the past progressions in duple and tripple time at your max tempo or above. I will quote the author:
Quote:
Up to now, our goal has been to gradually rach (sp) a tempo of qt = 144 with clean execution but the end of the fourteenth week. Whether you have or have not attained this tempo, write down the present maximum metronome setting (the setting at which you can play throu the project lessons free of mistakes).
Now, using combinations of duple and triple time (see Ex. 14), go back and review Project Lessons 1-A through 6-B (note by noah: this is the first 12 progression sets of the book). Do not allow your tempo to become slower than your present maximum metronome setting, but if your tempo increases during this perioud, it is just fine.
Following is a 21 day "gestation" period aimed toward affixing your present maximum technique as a permanent reflex capability, a point at which one may go without playing for long periods of time, but with about two to three weeks of practice, regain the full technique
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The next three weeks you spend on the same materials and with the same 8th and triplets but now you add hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides. Week 20's target bpm is 192. That is the end of the set. It is a 20 week program.
If anyone is interested in this program I might be able to scan the progression sheets and provide them. They are pretty confusing and not always correct notation though. You might do better just comming up with your own, or maybe we could work together to come up with some good ones that are challenging and not too stale.
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