Tensing up arm when shredding, bad?

What I am about to say may seem hard to belief but it is very true:

The key to playing fast has nothing to do with the physical body. It is all mental. Speed = precision. You have to slow down, relax, and develop an extremely soft touch in order to ride the lightning. That is why all the pros tell people to play things slow in order to get fast. You have to develop a synch between both hands and between your mind and your hands. You do this through repeition. It's sort of like when you learn to drive. You grip the wheel too tight, you press the brakes too hard, etc. You have to learn to loosen up and play light, to sound heavy!!!!!!

I think accuracy is the most improtant thing yes, but its also not good to tense up.
Another tip I got from Michael Angelo:
Tremelo pick on one note. Thats when your picking technique is at its best.
Then try an keep that same motion/technique at all speeds, all the time.

Rollin: I'm not in anyway a shredder, but when you say shredding on power chords, you're not talking about picking the individual notes like a real fast arpeggio, right? It sounds like you're talking about that really fast sort of speed metal rhythm playing.

Anyhow, all the previous suggestions were great I think. I'd add that sometimes when playing really fast repititions of a certain figure, the muscles sort of lock up after awhile, and I've noticed that, in the case of chordal strums, it might be good to look into playing with a motion which uses less of the arm and more of the wrist. You might also experiment with holding the pick a little different, maybe angling it 'up' instead of down so the back edge of the pick hits the strings first. Which edge hits first isn't really the issue, it's more the hand position that's different.

The motion could be more like the Ramone's guitarist for example.

As far as muscles go, I *think* bodybuilders usually go for bulk and thick muscles, whereas sprinters and runners usually go for the more slender type muscles. One comes from lifting or working heavier weights with less reps, and the thinner muslces come from lighter weights at higher reps. That's what I heard anyhow, and so I think a bodybuilder with bulky thick muscles wouldn't do as good at speed-metal rhythms :)

Funny this comes up, there's a new article about it on the main page.

https://www.guitarnoise.com/author/jamieandreas/

it should naturally, if your going to play fast and your hand is going to be moving at fast speeds, it has to tense, the only way it wont tense is if you move your hand/arm as you pick, if your hand is 'still' on the guitar, and its your fingers moving (im talking about picking arm) then your shredding speed cant be reached by relaxation, tense your arm up and do it, it'll be about 5 times faster.

Try it.

No, it doesn't have to tense. You can accelerate your picking by tensing your upper arm and picking from the elbow (I think that's what you're suggesting, Alex. I don't even want to think about what trying to play with a tense forearm will do to your wrist.), but it's not cost free. If you've got tension in your arm, it will spread to your shoulder, side, and back. Then you're tense all over and wondering why you're sore after playing. You'll also wear out faster, since you're doing a bunch of work with no effect. Making your muscles fight each other is not the way to speed up.

The most obvious objection is this: If you're not using the muscles on both sides of your arm a lot, then how can you get the pick to reverse direction fast enough? The answer is that you need to apply force to pluck for a shorter period of time. The plucking force stops immediately when it's not needed, and the force for the return pluck is applied. Fast playing is all in coordination, between the muscles in the picking hand, and between the picking and fretting hands. It's not about strength.

First of all, you want to pick from the wrist. Don't keep your elbow stiff, it can move a little, but don't use it to produce picking motion. When you go from the wrist, you have to move only your hand, rather than your whole forearm. You want to use a combination of axial wrist rotation and side-to-side wrist movement, for minimum strain.

Speed gains come from minimizing motion. The smaller the arc your pick travels from top to bottom, the faster you'll be able to pick (think about it - if you pick a note 100 times with a 1/4" pick motion, your hand will move TWICE as far as if you do it with a 1/8" pick motion)

If you've already got the motion as short as you can, tensing the forearm will help, as Paul notes. It's also something of a natural event if you're picking rapidly for a long time... in the solo for 'La Bamba', you start out with tremolo picking one one note for six counts, then go into the runs in thirds. When I play that, yes, my arm tightens up. I also have to fight it - struggle to be relaxed. If I don't, my accuracy will start to suffer after the second tremolo part of the solo... you simply wear out the muscles if they're tense all the time.

If you're talking about tremolo picking a chord, the motion comes from the forearm, but coupled with a relaxed wrist. It's a lot like a bullwhip - keeping a relaxed wrist at the end of the arm allows it to whip back and forth.

When I started playing, I really admired the rapid-fire strumming of some guys (Pete Townshend, Richie Havens, etc.) and I tried a lot of things to develop that speed. Lighter picks helped, but they shatter (even the nylon ones like Dunlops) when you play that way, and I didn't like the sound of light picks. Too 'scratchy' for me. I ended up working my way back to heavy picks for the sound, and I found that when I no longer stressed out about developing speed - when I just stayed relaxed and had fun - the speed eventually came.

So overall, tension WILL help speed, but as Paul said, there's a big cost. Staying relaxed will get you the same speed if you're patient about it.

Another case of YMMV. I have a lot of success with locking my wrist and pivoting from the elbow for my highest speed tremolo picking. This tensing is confined to (mostly) the wrist and (to some extent) the forearm and does not extend significantly to the upper arm or shoulder -- at least no more so than during "normal" picking. At first it required a conscious effort simulataneously to tense and relax various part of the arm, but it is possible. AFA getting tired -- well eventually, sure. Sore -- not at all. As for all muscles, conditioning will increase stamina, so the best exercise simply practicing tremolo picking lines. But again, YMMV, as we do not all have exactly the same bone-muscle build or arm-hand geometry.

Something that I feel is a definite for good tremolo picking is a stiff pick. The reason is simple: for best control, one wants the pick to move the string -- not the other way around, and only move it the minimum distance as Noteboat suggests. A flexing pick introduces positional "slop" leading to uncertainties in control that weaken the link from fingers to strings. Those who insist that rapid picking can be done with a thin pick, will undoubtedly find themselves "choking up" on that thin pick to stiffen it for tremolo picking. I've found it far better to learn to use a stiff (thick) pick 99% of the time and regulate picking and strumming compliance through wrist and finger control. I can make a heavy pick "slip" or slide across the strings by holding it more loosely and changing its angle of attack, but it's tough to make a thin (reliably) act more rigid when needed for trem picking and powerfully accented, but tightly controlled picking/strumming.

You willl NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER!! be able to play fast if you don't relax. find comfort, began to play, speed it up. SHRED! and stay relaxed, DO NOT..DO NOT. tense up, you'll just start sounding like crap. I leanred this from many teachers and from hands-on experience.

your not gonna get much speed with relaxed muscles.

when your tensed up you feel the music, your 'into' it, do you see a singer slouching, not bothered, all relax just singing, or do you see the energy, the passion, jumping around, veins in the neck going.

when you see a guitarist, is it someone shredding with a calm, bored face? or are they into it, can you see their effort and energy? they arent relaxing.

btw, i think "tensing" means too much a broad term for everyone here, my way of using it might be only a fraction of what someone else thinks.

I wonder if some of the people that have commented on this thread are actually able to shred.

For what it's worth, the concert footage of the G3 Tour shows relaxed fluid, intense playin.

I think Alex nailed it when he said tension might mean different things to different people. When I do tense for tremolo picking, I don't think it's a visible thing - I keep my wrist loose, but I can sense the forearm muscles tightening if I have to maintain a tremolo for a fair amount of time.

I've never been hung up on how fast I play. I find I can play quickly enough to express whatever thought pops into my mind... it rarely seems 'fast' to me, but sometimes I'll hear comments about how quick my picking was. It's a subjective thing, I guess.

your not gonna get much speed with relaxed muscles.

when your tensed up you feel the music, your 'into' it, do you see a singer slouching, not bothered, all relax just singing, or do you see the energy, the passion, jumping around, veins in the neck going.

when you see a guitarist, is it someone shredding with a calm, bored face? or are they into it, can you see their effort and energy? they arent relaxing.

btw, i think "tensing" means too much a broad term for everyone here, my way of using it might be only a fraction of what someone else thinks.

I think you're right; you and I mean different things by tension. When I think tension, I think of muscles locked, fighting each other. That's bad. I don't quite know what you mean by it. I agree about the importance of feeling the music. I can't sit still when I get into it. The thing we all need to do is let the muscles that need to move work seperately from the others nearby. When you go fast, you'll feel your muscles working, and that's not bad. The hazard is that your other muscles might tense up in response to that. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. It takes some practice. It can also take practice to seperate the grimace on your face for tension in the rest of your body.

Thanks guys for all the responses, I must say I am rather confused about what to do tho, it seems some of you do and don't think tensing is gonna help you shred faster. Let me make this clear tho, When I play single note solos alternate picking, I try to stay as relaxed as possible so I don't get tired. When I try shreding (on a power chord) with a relaxed arm, not tensed, its so slow, but when I tense my arm, I can hit that chord over and over must faster. I saw the G3 tour too, and yes they are all relaxed, but their playing arpeggious and all those crazy scale lines, not shreding on power chords like in rhythm speed metal. When I do shred, I lock my wrist and move up and down with my elbow, is there a better way of doing it? Thanks again.