Originally Posted by
Satch12879
Yep, exactly right. Chugging along at quarter or eighth notes and then a beat of sixteenths then back down, all the while with the same pulse. You work your way to larger bursts of more notes.
The second bit was to yes simply abandon the metronome and just try to play some kind of repetitive pattern fast without a set tempo target. The next step is to try and string those fast patterns together as your brain finds the most efficient way to play them at high speeds.
As for the old adage about small movements equals fast playing turns out not to be true. When filmed and the video slowed down, very fast players when playing fast did not exhibit very small movements. In fact, the pick motions in particular were bigger than you’d expect. The motions were, however, precise and efficient, but not small. Steve Morse comes to mind. Joscho Stephane is another.
I like Troy Grady’s website. He’s done a ton of work on this.