Why Developing Faster Guitar Speed Doesn’t Require Strength Exercises (& What To Do Instead)
It’s a common myth that becoming a faster guitar player requires using strength training tools to give you better grip, making it easier to fret notes.
This couldn’t be further from reality.
Gripping the frets with extra pressure actually slows you down!
You want to use just enough pressure while fretting in order to produce the sound of the note – and no more.
So, what should you work on instead of strength exercises in order to get faster guitar speed?
Train Yourself To Get Both Hands In Perfect Sync
When your picking hand and fretting hand are in perfect sync, incredibly fast and clean playing is sure to follow.
Fact is, there are many ways to practice to get your hands in sync.
Use the following approaches to do it and get smoother
guitar speed than ever:
Double picking:
This simply means picking the notes of any guitar exercise, pattern or lick twice instead of just once. For example, see the A minor scale below:
Power picking:
Picking with more power naturally forces you to play with both hands in sync. When you miss notes while picking harder, you eventually start to correct your hand synchronization naturally to make the notes sound better.
Accenting first note of each string:
Accenting the first note of a string (while playing patterns across multiple strings) using heavy picking power helps you keep both hands locked together more easily. Practice this with scales or any other patterns that use multiple strings.
Make Your Movement As Efficient As Possible
Picking efficiently on guitar creates greater potential for speed.
Most guitarists use alternate picking to play everything, and soon find that although they can play fast, their playing isn’t as consistent as they’d like.
Solution: Use efficient picking movement.
This video shows you how to make your picking technique as efficient as possible for fast and effortless speed:Cut Down On Wasted Practice Time
It’s easy to sit down with your guitar and play fun, easy guitar licks that sound cool and make your feel good.
Nothing wrong with this, except you are not likely to make a ton of progress in your playing by constantly doing what comes easiest.
This is a very common approach for many guitarists.
People also waste tons of time by noodling around (when they
should be practicing) or practicing the same thing over and over for a long
period of time with no goal in mind.
Here are some ways to make your guitar practice more efficient, so you get better faster:
1. Practice things on guitar that help you improve multiple skills at once, as explained in this video:2. Practice guitar in short bursts of time rather than long, drawn-out sessions.
Why?
Because it’s easier to stay focused when practicing for short bursts. This leads to better results and keeps practice from becoming boring, repetitive and inefficient.
3. Practice things you know you need to work on, not just the things you’ve already mastered. This includes entire practice items AND notes within specific practice items.
For example, if you are struggling with just a couple of notes within a guitar lick, don’t play the entire lick over and over to work on just those notes! Isolate the problem notes, fix them, then integrate them back into the lick.
Set Specific Musical Goals And Re-Visit Them Every Month
Don’t have any musical goals for your practice?
Don’t expect a lot of/fast results.
1. The best way to develop faster guitar speed in no time is to set clear goals and design a practice schedule based on achieving them. Then check in on your progress each month to determine if you need to adjust your current practice approaches or not.
2. The best way to set your musical goals is to work together with an expert guitar teacher who can help you understand how to make your goals tangible, while helping you to understand exactly what you must do to reach them.
Here is a great article that helps you understand how to reach guitar goals more effectively on your own.