NGD!

If you have to ask, this is probably not the blog for you. Ok, ok, the fact that you are actually reading this means you're the other person who reads my blog and for that I'll make an exception. NGD is New Gear Day, my friend. Yes, it's capitalized since it's essentially a national holiday (so why the hell am I at work?). I shipped out my two most recent Ebay sales (Charvel San Dimas and Line 6 Variax Acoustic) yesterday, and their sale essentially netted me a new James Tyler Variax (with the newest generation of L6 variax modeling hardware) and about $100 cash. I technically lost money on the guitars themselves, but I don't mind depreciation in a guitar that's not being used anymore since it allows me to replace it with something I will use. I didn't lose too much on either guitar, and I actually exceeded the most recent average auction prices for both guitars which made me very happy. I actually lucked out because I thought I had put a Buy It Now price on both, but I forgot to do that and I ended up getting more than the Buy It Now amount I would have set.

The Charvel was a good guitar but with the Suhr Modern, I really wasn't going to use it anymore. The intent with all my instruments is for them to fulfill a role sonically, and if they're redundant, I'll probably replace them or sell them. With the addition of the JT variax, my arsenal is going to be pretty stable until I add a PRS SE Angelus acoustic when they hit the market later this year. After that, it will probably be several years before the next new guitar (famous last words). It's a good thing my wife doesn't read this blog, or she would use it as evidence against me.

The L6 acoustic was good for what it did in its time, but I have grown more picky when it comes to acoustic tone, and I was just rarely using it at all. It would have been good as a swiss army knife guitar live, but once I saw the newer capabilities of 2nd? generation variaxes and found out that they were actually James Tyler designed guitars that were regular electrics in addition to being variaxes, it was an easy decision to replace the L6 acoustic.

One of the great things about the JT is that it has four times the processing power of the previous generation and they have used that power to make the most common alternate tunings as well as improved models of a variety of electric and acoustic guitars available at the flip of a switch. These guitars can be played like straight electrics, straight models, or a mix. In a way, this will give me capabilities that I haven't had since I sold the Brian Moore several years ago. To wit: dual guitar tones concurrently. I'm not sure how easy it will be (pretty easy I think), but it will be nice to be able to alternate quickly between electric and acoustic during the same song.

It's on the Fedexcellent express right now, hopefully it will be there when I get home tonight.

The Ides of March

and my guitar resumption anniversary. I started playing guitar (again) 8 years ago today after about a 15 year lapse since my early twenties. I've posted on the topic several times in previous blog entries. Suffice to say, it was one of the most important decisions I've ever made in my life. Probably only outranked by marrying Aeyong, joining the Army, and pursing college/PA school. Becoming a musician again (I've always remained a fan) filled a void in my life that I wasn't aware existed. Aeyong would say it created a void in our bank account, but ahem, that's another bag of picks.

It's strange how certain things can validate you internally moreso than other events that have more significance for the world at large. Of all my accomplishments in life, finally getting close to playing songs like Eruption or any number of Tommy Emmanuel pieces means more to me than just about anything. Maybe it's easy to say when I'm on the inside looking out, at least as far as my military and academic achievements. I don't know. But I feel like it wouldn't matter. I had such an early connection with music and I still vividly remember many musical events through my life. It's probably pathetic in the eyes of others (not that I care) that I'm still pursuing musical goals that were born 30+ years ago. But this is what charges my batteries and makes me happy.

In retrospect of the last 8 years, I've made significant progress and also gone through a large volume of gear changes. When I resumed playing, I could still play basic chords and I sort of remembered the blues/major scales. It seemed like I progressed very rapidly at first, and after a few months I started playing primarily acoustic. I made an important decision at the time to start learning songs that were several years of practice beyond my current ability. What I have learned over the years is that progress on guitar, or any instrument, is based on plateaus. Or at least it seems that way. Regular, focused practice of the correct things (usually that means your weaker points) will be rewarded with improvement, although it may not be apparent for a long time.

Before I started playing guitar again, I spent my leisure time playing golf, video games, watching tv, reading books. I still have those hobbies (not so much golf) but they have decreased in relation to the amount of time I spend playing. What I discovered with guitar, and later all the instruments I play (keys, bass) is that you get back what you put into it. If you work hard at improving, you will. It may be hard to measure progress at times, but if you're spending regular time with your instrument (in an effort to improve) you will get better. That's not really the case with video games, tv, movies, books. Yes, you can learn and grow from these types of media, but I mostly read and watch to escape, not to grow. I do read non fiction and classics fairly often, but I mostly just want to be entertained.

For me, the big picture improvements (learning to play Eruption, being able to improvise over chord changes effectively, writing, etc) are the more long term goals you have for playing, but I have discovered that the incremental improvements are a big part of ongoing satisfaction as well. In the course of learning more difficult songs, little sequences within the songs are often points of challenge. It can be a fast run, or a difficult chord stretch, etc. When you finally get to the point where you can just play a sequence like that smoothly without having to stop (even if it's not up to tempo yet) it's an amazing feeling.

I've discovered that after about 3000 hours of practice (that's my highly accurate scientific estimate) I actually enjoy the busy work of being a musician. I stole that phrase from Brandon Sanderson's description of why he chose writing over chemistry. He's a popular fantasy writer with several best sellers but he went to college as a chemistry major. He said he enjoyed the big picture concepts of chemistry, but he really got bogged down with the tedium of lab work. However, he never minded the busy work of writing which can be hours and hours of daily writing and rewriting for months or years before a publishable novel is finished.

I feel the same way about music and being a musician. The real payoff is when you learn a song the whole way through and can just play it from an emotional standpoint without focusing on the physical task. This is quickly possible for simple songs (3 chord Dylan tunes for example), but takes years of work for others. However, along the way you see incremental improvements in the parts that make up the whole, and I derive pleasure and fulfillment from that as well. If I didn't, I would have given up long ago.

I think the only important quality that separates an accomplished musician from a "failed" musician, is that they wanted it more so they never quit working at it. Obviously that probably applies to any hard task that takes a long time to complete. There are several books and other published works out there about innate talent in relation to hard work. I'm firmly in the hard work camp. The generally accepted amount of time required for one to become a virtuoso musician is about 10,000 hours. This was based on various longitudinal studies of professional musicians and the common separation between the university musicians who would go on to become renowned and/or highly successful musicians was that they practiced more often for a longer period of time than their peers.

The simplest way for me to describe the long lasting appeal of music and being a musician is that it's like a never ending well for me. I always find something new to enjoy, whether it's totally new or just a new realization or discovery about something I already was playing. I also have discovered that I kind of like that music is so hard at times. I think that's one of the reasons why it's so much more satisfying to accomplish things in music. For me to be able to play Eruption represents 30+ years of wishing I could play it, combined with several years of practice (not consistently and consecutively for Eruption in particular) to get to the point where it's achievable. Even if I never played it for anyone, it's still a very significant milestone for me as a player and fan. And there's no other way to get that feeling. I've gone to hundreds of concerts over the years, and we still go (we have 6 upcoming between April-August 2012) on a regular basis because we (mostly me) still experience a high at concerts that nothing else can replicate. But the feeling I get at a concert is different than the feeling of being able to play a song by my idols or one I've written myself. Not necessarily a superior feeling, but a different one that can't be replicated by any other means.

Demo Reel

For lack of a better term, a future project for me is assembling a guitar video to demonstrate my playing for bandmix and equivalent sites. There's a brilliant guitarist in Europe (Sweden or Norway I think) named Ketil Strand who has become somewhat of an Internet sensation, at least among guitar players. He posted a series of videos as a tribute to the history of guitar called "Evolution of Guitar" a few years back. He updated them after the release of the AxeFx and I think that's when I first saw the videos. Essentially he goes through the history of modern guitar starting with the earliest influences (modern era) like Charlie Christian, Django Rheinhardt, Chuck Berry, etc. He goes on through most of the influential rock guitarists like Jimmy Page, Ritchie Blackmore, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Eddie Van Halen, Eric Johnson, SRV, and many others. He picks some of the more recognizable riffs/songs and breaks them down to small excerpts and runs them together. It's a brilliant highlight reel (mainly because he nails the tones and playing) that not only honors the guitar greats, but demonstrates his mastery of many different styles and tones.

I'm not as skilled or as comprehensive in my current repertoire (there's always the future) to pursue something of that magnitude, but I think the framework is a great way to demonstrate my ability and tastes to other musicians. Plus, I think it will be a good learning project for me as well as adding a few more tunes to the repertoire (word du jour).

I'm thinking I will at least include some Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, Alex Lifeson, Steve Howe, Tommy Emmanuel, Andy Summers, and a few others. I'm thinking I'll approach the tunes in a similar manner to Ketil's in that I'll pick 3 or 4 signature tunes (that I can play) for a medley of each player. Jimmy Page - Rock & Roll, Whole Lotta Love, Black Dog, Ten Years Gone; Eddie Van Halen - Eruption, You Really Got Me, Panama; Jimi Hendrix - Little Wing, Wind Cries Mary (need another); Alex Lifeson - Limelight, Spirit of Radio, (need to decide on a third); Steve Howe - Mood for a Day, Roundabout, Heart of the Sunrise (have to learn that); Tommy Emmanuel - Endless Road, Amazing Grace, Over the Rainbow; Andy Summers - Message in a Bottle, Roxanne, Every Breath You Take. There are several other bands/guitarists I want to add to that list, but I know that this is already going to be a massive undertaking and the truth is that I hesitate to actually post these excerpts until I can actually play the whole song at full speed. That caveat may add a year or more to the process. I'll probably start working on this soon, starting with the songs I can essentially nail right now.

My biggest challenge for this project, and for my playing in general is that last 5-10% of mastering a tune (which is actually closer to 90% of tune mastery, but that's another discussion) which takes the song from being recognizably close to the original (I'm not going for note for note accuracy, but an equivalent level of proficiency) to being as smooth and effortless as it was for the original artist. That's why Eruption has been taking so long for me. That, and the fact that I haven't ever really totally focused on only one song until I mastered it. That's probably what I should be doing, but at any given time I'm working on about 20 different songs on acoustic and electric as well as playing piano and now bass.

RPM

It's safe to predict that I won't complete the challenge this time around. I really have only completed (recorded) one song in the last month. That sounds really pathetic, but I must note that I have come up with riffs and chords for at least 10 if not more songs in this timeframe. The primary task for me now is to learn how to take a riff or idea and make a complete song with it. Probably like saying all you have to do to become a doctor is study hard and go to medical school. I had divided some of my time in learning my new bass and trying to prepare for the scheduled jam session with Chris by working on the songs we had agreed to play. I also realized that I just didn't know enough about Logic so I got back into watching the tutorial videos on macprovideo and so far I think I've watched about half of the level one videos (100+ out of 210) and in that process I've definitely learned a lot about the program.

I'm going to try and stick with my original 2012 goal of a new composition per month and a new song learnt by ear every month as well. I did okay for January, but February is coming to a close and I don't have either of these completed. I'll have to ensure I complete two of each by the end of March. Technically you could say I learned two new songs for the jam sessions (Hotel California and Slither) but I cheated and used tab because of the short time frame. I did okay with the Black Country Communion song "The Great Divide". I think I essentially know the whole song, I just have to develop my chops to be able to play the solo, and that will take several months to nail down since it's a pretty fast solo in parts. I'll pick a couple of more tunes to learn by ear, most likely something I know I can't get a good tab for. A Tommy Emmanuel song would be a good challenge, or for that matter I could try Eleanor Rigby by Pete Huttlinger (have to learn tremolo picking for that one, a completely new technique for me) or Harry Connick's version of Stardust for piano. Now that I think about it, those are probably the two songs I have jones'd the most for that don't have sheet music or tablature available. I won't necessarily nail those in a month either, but if I can get close to at least learning the actual music for both then I can practice the playing.

Musical developments

I've been practicing with the bass and I'm slowly adapting my fingers to it, the right hand being the bigger challenge. I could have made it much easier on myself by just using a pick, but my favorite players (not counting Chris Squire) primarily use fingers and I think it ultimately gives you more options. I've also noticed that it has given the added bonus of increased strength and dexterity for my piano playing. And I need all the help I can get.

I was supposed to jam with Chris yesterday but he had to postpone due to illness. Hopefully we can make our jam sessions a regular thing in the future. I've also gotten several contacts on Bandmix and I'm trying to decide whether to pursue those opportunities in the short term or to practice my stagecraft and gigging ability a bit longer. I'm leaning toward the latter since I haven't really focused on getting individual songs completely gig ready, as in I can play these songs standing up all the way through including solos as if I was playing a gig.

My goal is to go into any band or gigging situation fully prepared and in control of my playing and stagecraft. I know that's probably the musical equivalent of combat operation orders, since they are valid until first contact with the enemy. I'm not calling the audience the enemy, mind you, I just mean that I won't truly be prepared for live gigging until I actually do it and get that experience. That being said, I know the typical songs I want to be prepared to play will need some more work before I really throw my name out there as available to play.

Assessing Deficits

I find it important to occasionally take stock in my life. I do this by asking myself the question, "What's most important to me? What are the things I value the most and get the most long term satisfaction and fulfillment from?"

I feel very fortunate that the overall most important things in my life are well established, stable, loyal and unlikely to change. Those would be my wife Aeyoung and our dogs, Bridget, April and Arya. They are there every day for me and we'll always be there for each other. Hence, I don't have to really sweat the small stuff when it comes to them. I do make it a point to regularly remind them how important they are to me, but that's not the context of this post.

Once you get to the personal fulfillment level of Maslow's hierarchy, you probably need to attempt a look at yourself with a little wider lens and with consideration to the long term. Often we are so caught up in the little details of life that we lose focus on the future. Missing the forest for the trees to coin a phrase. I feel very lucky that I had two years during my Army career to pursue additional education in my field. While the knowledge was a bonus and has reaped rewards, the most important and longest lasting benefit was the amount of free time I suddenly had on my hands.

My only responsibility was to attend school for two years, so I found myself with considerable more free time that I initially filled up with just my typical recreational activities of golf, movies, reading, computer games and the equivalent. After a few months of this I had mentally reached a point where most of the static noise that tends to build up with day to day frustrations and issues that we all experience had essentially melted away.

I started to think more reflectively and internally and the one great epiphany I experienced was that I had given up one of the great loves of my life when I stopped playing guitar regularly nearly fifteen years before. It wasn't a conscious decision. I just gradually quit playing regularly, mostly because my time was more occupied and because I wasn't really making progress.

Truthfully, I had never really learned the importance and value of dedicated practice and study on an instrument. When I was a kid I think I just dreamed of being a rock star (always a guitarist) and didn't really appreciate how much work it would take to become a good if not great musician. I had friends who were very accomplished in their own rights, were members of bands, but I didn't make the connection of how much time they had dedicated to their instruments & art to reach the level of mastery they had achieved.

I took a few lessons here and there as well as buying some song books and once they became popular, tablature magazines. I learned enough guitar to be able to play three chord punk songs and albeit poorly, some basic scale patterns like the blues. I also learned very basic and sloppy versions of a few fingerstyle parts like Blackbird or the opening to Stairway. In one part of my mind I thought I was doing pretty well, and I would even have people tell me I was good. In retrospect, I think these people were just nice, positive people who wanted to say something uplifting.

I did benefit from developing a modicum of muscle memory for chords and basic scales, but I otherwise never really learned to play the guitar. I knew (and people had repeatedly told me) that I would only get better with practice, but I was either not mature enough or just had too many other areas of concern in my life that my rational mind and will never got together and agreed that work needed to be done. So, I put my guitar down.

I had owned an Ibanez strat style electric, an Ovation acoustic and a Peavey Bandit 65 solid state amp. I also had two pedals (Boss Super Overdrive and Stereo Chorus). When Aeyoung and I moved to Kentucky, we were tight on funds and I ended up pawning the Ibanez and the Amp/pedals for a little extra cash. I don't remember what we got for it, but it wasn't much. For some reason, I held on to the Ovation. I think somewhere inside I knew that letting that guitar go would be completely cutting off ties with the musician I had dreamed of becoming. So the Ovation sat in the closet. It followed us around the globe, occasionally (every few years) getting brought out of its case for a few nostalgic attempts at "Tangerine" or "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You". These attempts would add up to probably less than one hour of playing time over a 15 year period.

The ironic thing, is that I never stopped thinking like a guitar player. I would hear a song playing and immediately focus on the guitar part. I would mentally air guitar solos in my head while listening. While I was always a music fan and listened whenever I got the chance, the amount really increased with the advent of digital music players in the 2001 timeframe. It was probably partially a result of getting my first Ipod in 2003 and the subsequent increase in music listening that influenced my renewed desire to play music.

As 2003 drew to a close, I increasingly thought about guitars and music. I started to get back into buying guitar magazines and listening more to guitar oriented music and with the increase in the number and depth of websites, I was able to do more research and reading into the subject as well. I didn't realize what I was going to do overnight. Gradually as I read more (and had so much more information readily available compared to my teenage years) I started to feel the old spark of joy that I remembered from certain sentinel musical events from my childhood.

I still remember the first time I heard live music. They were the opening act for Donny & Marie at the Ohio State Fair and I was probably around 7 or 8 years old. We weren't there to see the band, my parents had just taken us to the fair that day. They were otherwise forgettable, but it was live amplified guitar, and it froze me in my tracks. I had always loved music from a young age. When I was 3 or 4, I used to insist that my parents play "Bye Bye, American Pie" anytime we got in the car. This was back in the days of analog AM/FM radios. I remember loving that song because it told a long story to music, and I just remember wanting it to go own forever. I would have killed to have my own ipod back then.

I remember the first time I heard a neighborhood kid playing an electric guitar (It was the Reidlingers a couple streets over. There were playing a really crappy version of I think, "Rock & Roll All Nite"). I remember the first time I saw Pat Metheny, and Rush, and standing against the stage while Jimmy Page played the solo to Stairway at the British Invasion show in Dallas. I remember the first time I heard/saw Eric Johnson on his 1989 Austin City Limits appearance. These were touchstones in my life. Music has always had a special power in my life in that it reaches me on a deeper and much more direct level than almost anything else I can describe. Music can communicate on many levels, often on higher intellectual, spiritual, political, and other more esoteric contexts. But Music has always had a unique quality in its ability to reach me emotionally.

I'm not an overtly emotional person. I didn't cry at my Father's funeral. I didn't feel like I was holding anything back, I just didn't feel the urge. I didn't feel any strong emotions about his death at all for several months. But one morning I woke up with a song in my head. It was very simple, just a few chord changes and some vague ideas of lyrics, but I knew it was a song about my father, and about his passing. I spent a few hours trying to work out the chord changes and jotted down some lyrics, but I couldn't continue. I was just finding myself overcome with emotion as I would hear the song and attempt to attach lyrics. I'll get back to it someday. As powerful and cathartic as this experience was, it wasn't a unique experience with music for me.

I've heard someone describe how they don't automatically get emotional when watching movies. It doesn't matter if the movie is supposed to be moving or not, they just don't have that empathetic experience while watching the drama unfold. Until the music starts playing. It doesn't matter how cheesy or nostalgic the show is, when they cue the music at the right time, it's like flipping a switch.

I don't know how else to describe it. For me, music has an immediate and powerful pathway for me. In internet parlance, it has an ultra high speed broadband connection to my emotional side. In my life I don't show or express a great deal of emotion, especially to outsiders. Even within my immediate family unit, I don't regularly show or express sadness and anger. I'm a generally stable, happy and fun loving person. I love to laugh and enjoy the simple pleasures in life, but I don't really experience a great deal of sadness. That's partly because I live a very fortunate life, but it's also because I'm just not inclined to feel sadness. It's generally not a healthy emotion in my opinion. If there's something in your life that makes you sad and you can change it, you have no business being sad. If it's something you can't change, then you should focus on something that doesn't make you sad.

But with music it's a different thing. It's truly like a switch. I can be listening to a song and feel an overwhelming wave of sadness or melancholy wash over me as I listen. And when my Iphone shuffles to the next tune which is usually something that's polar opposite to the last song, my mood can immediately reset itself to the current tune. And it doesn't feel unnatural to go from sad melancholy to high energy, angry heavy metal. It feels perfectly normal.

Music is as fundamental to my life as eating and drinking. I'm fortunate in that I'm able to listen to music all day, even at work. Wow, this is really a rambling, circular way to get to my original point.

To whit, taking stock. Music, while being a persistent and powerful force in my entire life, returned to its rightful center when I decided to resume my life as a musician. It feels weird calling myself a musician because I don't perform for others (unless you count Aeyoung and our four legged children), and I don't earn income or otherwise engage in any activity that would identify me as such that others would know. Nevertheless, getting a new electric guitar, amp, and starting to practice again felt like coming home after being gone a long, long time. My love for music had never changed, I still had that same spark of excitement when learning a new passage, finding a new sound, feeling the calluses starting to return to my fingertips. But I had changed.

Although I still had that young teenager with Rush and Zeppelin posters on his walls and dreams of knocking audiences out with my playing prowess inside me, I was a very different person by then. I had spent 17 years in the Army. I had served overseas on long tours and deployments. I had experienced Combat firsthand, done my job well, and come out relatively unscathed. I understood the value of life. I understood the value of work. I knew that the truly valuable things in life are hard won. I knew that becoming a great musician wasn't about the endpoint. These sorts of endeavors are not about the destination, to coin another old phrase. I had faced many challenges that seemed insurmountable in the past and overcome them. I knew that almost nothing is impossible (I would say nothing, but I don't care how hard I work at it, I'm not going to get a roster spot on the Cowboys) if you want it bad enough.

Oh yes, taking stock. I learned a really valuable lesson about my life in general when I got back into playing music. You have to identify what's really important to you. Take away all the superfluous bullshit that clutters up your life and leave only the things you truly can't live without. I don't mean what you would take in case of fire, we can be a little more generous than that. First and foremost it was always be my wife and dogs. After that, the most important things in my life that I can't and/or don't want to live without are essentially the same as they were when I was about 8 or 9 years old. Music, books, movies, and later video games. There's a lot more to my life and experience than that, but those are the things that truly make me happy.

I don't discount the importance or value of medicine. It's my career and it's been very rewarding to me and my family on multiple levels. But if I'm being completely honest, I could leave medicine today and never look back. I actually like my job. I like the work. It's usually interesting, low stress, and it's good compensation. But I don't have to practice medicine. If I found a similarly lucrative and low stress predictable occupation in an area I was better suited to work, I would probably consider a career change.

Not so with music, movies, books and video games. These are what makes me truly happy and will always be a part of my life. Sad to say, if I'm still alive to see my 80s and beyond, I'll still probably be looking forward to the latest version of a fantasy RPG like Warcraft when it comes out. I'll probably still be listening to my hard rock and metal, and I'll probably still be trying to attend concerts if Aeyoung and I are physically capable and have enough hearing remaining to enjoy the show.

So, what has taking stock go to do with this? I try to make a point of taking stock at least once a year or so. I ask myself where I'm at in my life, and where do I want to go? What are my weak areas and will improving them enrich my life? If so, why aren't I working on them right now?

That's the simplest way I can describe taking stock. Where are you at in your life? Where do you want to be? What do you need to do to get there? Why aren't you walking that way right now?

My current "take stock" list has been pretty stable since I got back into music. I've passed a few milestones like retiring from the Army, moving back to my hometown, getting a good stable federal job. My short/long term goals are fairly simple. We need to sell our house in Killeen and then focus on the next house we will buy which will hopefully be our last. We want to get it right this time so that we're completely content with our decision and can happily stay in that home for the rest of our lives. That's the goal anyways.

After that, my list of priorities is fairly predictable. Continue improving in music: (acoustic/electric guitar, piano, theory, ear, songwriting, production, performing) and possibly add drums and bass to my instruments, learn to read/write/speak Korean (finally after nearly 22 years of marriage), train/complete a marathon and continue running as a way of life.

The satisfying thing for me is that none of my great passions are about reaching an endpoint. As my technical ability in music improves, I'll eventually get to the point where I feel less compelled to work on technique and more on songwriting, improvising, performing. Regardless, I'll never run out of things to learn or practice. And I'll never lose my love for the process. I would have lost it by now if it was going to happen.

Also, I'll never run short of new music to listen to, new movies to watch, new books to read, or new video games to play. Life is truly wonderful. By taking stock I can see where I want my life to go and I'm thrilled to be making the journey. And if I die tomorrow, I know I've lived my life to the fullest that I could with the time given to me.

Thanks, Yngwie.

Leave it to Yngwie to say one thing in an interview that actually solves a problem I've been struggling with for a long time. There was a question about speed (with Yngwie of all people) and he said "If you don't have your left and right hands synchronized, you'll never play fast."  Now, this seems like common sense, but it's one of those fundamentals that seems so simple you don't think about it. The most effective way to synchronize your left and right hands is to play with a metronome (or equivalent) only at a speed that you can play the material perfectly. I've heard this over and over, but sadly I had gotten away from metronome playing for a long time. Since I started incorporating 5 minutes of steady metronome scale playing a few weeks ago I've already started to notice improvement in my fast scale playing. Yeah, I'm kind of a genius. Or an Idiot Savant with heavy emphasis on the former.