1-Practice-It’s obvious but many people claim they want to learn how to play fast guitar but don’t put the time in. You get out what you put in! Even if you don’t have much time to spare, half an hour a day is enough to help you improve.
2-Focus your practice-You can increase the benefits of your guitar practice exponentially by practicing the same stuff each time. A good way to start this is to choose 4 licks or scales or parts of scales (anything except chords will work just fine), and play through each lick in a loop for 15 minutes. By the end of the FIRST WEEK you’ll be two or three times as fast as you were with those licks to begin with.
3-Think long term. Focused practice everyday is great, but it’s even better to have a goal in mind. for example if you want to learn a particular piece, gear your practice toward licks and techniques used in the piece and then dedicate the last 15-20 minutes(depending on how much time you have) to practicing the actual piece. Nothing helps you learn how to play fast guitar and stay motivated more than being able to see your daily progress.
4-Work on legato-Legato actually means smooth, or flowing, but in guitar circles it is the term given to fretting notes with your left hand and making them sound without actually picking anything with your right hand. It could also be called the art of hammering on and pulling off. Excellent practice as it will strengthen your left hand, not only making you faster and smooth, but will improve your vibrato and chord changes too. It just makes your hand fitter! A great way to practice this is to run up and down some scales, but only pick the first note on each string, so you will be hammering on going up and pulling off on the way down. It’s tough at first but persevere and you will get rewards!
5-Use a metronome. Other musicians seem to use metronomes with no trouble, but guitarists are allergic to them, or at least seem to be! I’ll spell it out - An hour with a metronome does A LOT more good than an hour without. It’s simply the best tool for highlighting the weak areas and inefficiencies in your technique. There is a learning curve but stick with it-your playing will change for the better, permanently! Buy one!
6-Use a hard pick. Controversial? I know that people should use whatever pick they want to, but a softer pick WILL slow you down, and a harder one won’t. It’s simple physics. Most picks have a degree of flexibility, so after picking a note we have to wait for it to return to its proper shape before we pick again, or the note is not picked cleanly. Put it this way-trying to learn how to play fast guitar while using soft picks is like putting bicycle wheels on a Ferrari and then trying to drive fast. Not going to happen!
7- Start slow-Work on something until you can play it with no mistakes at all before you crank up the speed. This will do more for your all round musical skills than just pushing the metronome up a few beats every few minutes. If you move forward before your skills are ready your playing will be very very sloppy, and that will be a real hard habit to get out of!
Hopefully those tips will help you break out of a rut and get your fretboard burning!
Steve Higgins is an accomplished guitarist who enjoys seeing others improve their skill. To check out more tips visit his blog.
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