5 Drills To Help You Get Faster When Your Guitar Speed Is Not Improving
It feels very frustrating when you practice guitar consistently, but your guitar speed is still not improving. Using effective guitar speed drills helps you focus on the specific problems that hold you back. This leads to fast progress and increased playing speed in no time.
Use the speed drills below to start improving fast. Integrate these drills together and practice them each week as needed to strengthen your weaknesses and play guitar faster than ever:
Guitar Speed Drill #1: Develop Intense Mental Focus Using Creative 2-Note Picking
It’s easy to let your mind go on auto-pilot while playing guitar… this leads to a weak picking attack and notes that are not played with conviction!
The more you focus on the subtle movements you are making, the better your brain can process notes at faster speeds.
A great way to program yourself to play guitar with better, cleaner speed is to practice using a simple 2-note picking drill:
1.
Choose a guitar lick you want to get faster
with.
2.
Pick the first note of the lick using a quick down/up alternate picking motion
with heavy picking power.
3.
Wait for a moment.
4.
Pick the next note using a quick down/up alternate picking motion with heavy picking power.
5.
Wait for a moment.
6. Repeat this process for a total of 3 notes, then start back from the first one. Do this for 1 minute, then start from the second note in the lick and repeat.
This drill isolates the movements of your picking attack
like looking at it through a microscope. This helps you pick with greater
focus, leading to more precise playing and both hands lining up together in
sync – more on this below:
Guitar Speed Drill #2: Connect Both Hands Together Using Single String Scales
Single string scales are great for challenging your ability to keep both hands in sync while playing. Keeping both hands in sync is critical for playing guitar with speed and accuracy.
Good news is, practicing single string scales is fun, helpful for your speed and helpful for improving your overall fretboard visualization.
Here is one way to practice single string scales for better guitar speed:
Find the first octave of the E minor scale on the high E string:
Open string – E
Fret 2 – F#
Fret 3 – G
Fret 5 – A
Fret 7 – B
Fret 8 – C
Fret 10 – D
Fret 12 – E
1.
Play the first four notes (E F# G A) of the
single string scale in ascending order for 10 repetitions.
2.
Next, add the fifth and sixth notes (B C).
This requires you to make a jump in
position to play using your index and middle fingers. Playing this cleanly
takes precision to fret the notes at the exact moment you pick them.
Perform this jump at a moderate speed at
first to get used to the motion. Note: Continue playing only in ascending order
for now (E F# G A B C).
3.
Next, add fret 10 (D) as you begin to get used
to the skip in position. This enables you to play the first and second half of
the pattern with 3 fingers.
Slow down for the position change as
needed, and gradually push yourself to play it faster.
4.
Now play the 7 notes both ascending and
descending, challenging yourself to play them cleanly at a faster speed.
5.
Finally, make one more position shift to play
the high E note on the twelfth fret with your index finger.
6. Continue adding notes to the pattern until you’ve covered the entire scale across two octaves up to the twenty fourth fret.
After practicing single string scales, go back and play normal scale patterns the cross multiple strings. Result: You improve your guitar speed and play cleaner than ever!Guitar Speed Drill #3: Play Fast And Clean Arpeggios By Picking Creatively
Arpeggios are usually played using sweep picking technique. However, you give yourself an incredible workout by picking them using non-sweeping approaches. This gives you a big speed boost when you go to pick other things (or sweep pick like normal).
Here is a drill to practice this idea:
Practice alternate picking arpeggios that you normally play using sweep picking for 5-10 minutes daily. This creative practice approach challenges you and takes your speed picking technique to a whole new level.
This video helps you build speed with your arpeggios:
Guitar Speed Drill #4:
Improve Your Picking Hand Consistency Using All Upstrokes
Most guitar players struggle to pick with speed because their picking attack has a weak upstroke compared to their downstroke. Focusing only on improving your upstroke balances out your pick attack, making speed come effortlessly.
Practice for just a few minutes each day using only upstrokes on every guitar lick, scale, riff or arpeggio you can think of. After just a few weeks, your picking attack becomes more balanced enabling you to play guitar with consistent speed that is faster than ever.
Guitar Speed Drill #5: Process Notes Faster And Play More Creatively Using Just One FingerAnother reason many people struggle to play guitar with more
speed is: they are trying to do too much at once while soloing.
Meaning: They play too many notes and run out of ideas too fast. The solution here is to focus on being more creative, rather than playing as many new notes as possible.
Become a more creative guitarist
while improvising by practicing using only your index finger for 5 minutes.
Then improvise normally for 5 minutes.
This forces you to make every note choice count because it takes away your
ability to rely on speed or technique. While improvising normally, you become
more aware of this and start to use speed as a tool to connect one idea to the
next rather than just a flashy gimmick.