In my post “Thoughts on Practice from a Wise, Old Guitarist,” I asked Bill, a well-aged retired, professional guitar player how to increase my guitar speed after hearing how fast he played on his old recordings. He just told me to “practice, practice, and practice.” But how do we practice when we want to learn how to play guitar fast?
1. Start slow, Speedy
This couldn’t be more important. Practice playing guitar scales slow at first with proper fingering, posture, and technique. Set a metronome at a slow speed then practice at faster speeds. It’s really boring at first (I won’t lie to you), but it’ll be harder to play guitar faster if you don’t have good technique. You must walk before you run.
2. Alternate Picking
As you pluck the individual strings with your pick, pluck each string alternately with a down pluck and an up pluck with the pick. When you play a guitar scale or lead line, don’t pluck every single note with a downwards pluck. You’re losing speed. Alternate your picking.
3. Relax
Any tension in your arms, wrists, hands, or fingers will hinder your speed. When you’re playing guitar fast everything should be relaxed. If you notice yourself getting tense when you get faster, slow it down, eliminate the tension, and then gradually speed back up.
4. Develop a Nervous Twitch
Okay, so I’m referring back to my previous post here about Bill. Bill not only told me to practice but to develop a bit of “nervous twitch” in my picking hand. I don’t have any ideas on how to do this. Do you?
5. ”Patience, young skywalker, patience.”
Eat Yoda’s words. While you should notice results if you try these things, don’t expect that your guitar speed will jump to that of Van Halen overnight. Be faithful in your practice and keep these things in mind and you’ll progress.
These are just some things that have helped me learn how to play guitar fast. What are things that have helped you pick up your guitar speed?
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The tips given by you is very helpful to the beginners. I am feeling great to know all these from you.
I’ve been wanting to increase my speed. One thing I’ve done that I believe has helped, is in the way I pick. I use do hold my pick between my thumb and index finger with the my other 3 fingers in a relaxed but some what straight position (kind of like Slash) and I would use my wrist in conjunction with my thumb and index finger to move the pick up and down. What I do now is curl and tuck my fingers into my hand, stacked against my thumb, and I strictly use my wrist to make the up and down pick strokes. I think Randy Rhoads picked this way…
I started playin guitar since 13 and ‘m 20 now. And i feel i should be mini pro but my speed is not all developing, sometimes it gets faster and sumtyms it gets slower than the tortoise. Why???
So please give me some effective tips
The best way to learn to play good is start with the basics. Play normal songs. one you have learnd the basic chords (E,A,D,C,) you can go to the powerchords. And learn the technique right. If you learn it sloppy, its harder to get it perfect again.
The tip about relaxing your hand and the one about the curling your fingers into your hand,
stacked against your thumb, and using only your wrist really helped me!
Thanks
I found that the relationship between the force at which the strings are plucked (which varies with different players) and the guage of pick used can make a great difference in speed.
ie. A player that hits the string hard and uses a light guage pick (thin) can be slowed down by the flexing of the pick itself. I’d say try some different pick guages & find one that is a match to your string “attack”.
I used Fender mediums for decades, & could not play with a thin pick because they slowed me down & was like playing with a noodle. A few years ago I was given some Dunlop 2mm (very thick) picks, and within minutes I was surprised at how much faster I could play.
Their thickness also made me strike the strings lighter (partially in fear of breaking a string),
which in turn made my right hand (picking hand) more relaxed, which helped even more.
Also, “mind to hand” exersizes, like various patterns of tapping fingers on a table,
video games that require fast reflexes (brain exersize), and keeping the left hand fingers stretched & limber. Vitamins that promote blood flow & nerve function are good too.
Another thing I noticed is that a lot of guitar players (in particular heavy rock players)
tend to wear their guitar slung very low (re. strap adjustment). While it looks pretty cool that way, take a look at the angle this puts your left wrist at & it also puts the right hand at an odd angle.
Most important, make sure your fingers are stretched & warmed up before atempting any prolonged full speed playing
If you pluck the “A” string several times, using downstrokes & upstrokes, and then have to move to the “D” string, the last pluck of the “A” string should be a downstroke (if possible).
If it’s an upstroke, it will take much longer (in milliseconds) to strike the “D” because you
have to lift the pick OVER the “A” in order to take it to the “D”.
Watch your right hand try this in very slow motion. Figure out how you can end up on a downstroke before striking the next string in the most “fluid” way. A lot will determine if
the first pluck is a down, or up pluck. You’ll find, in most cases, it depends where you start.
All this would be reversed if going from strings “A” to “E”.
Next, add more strings. Hit each string 3 times before moving to the next, then 4, 5, etc.
Next, add in left hand.
You can cut the work of your picking hand by more than half.