Unique Guitar Tips To Get Speed And Cleanliness Like Never Before
Tired of unsuccessfully trying to increase guitar speed using conventional practice approaches like “start slow and build up to speed over time.”
Good news is, there are many effective ways to play guitar with more speed and better accuracy.
…and some of them are not at all common in the general pool of guitar player knowledge.
But they should be!
Why?
Because they help you master the subtle skills needed to play guitar with effortless and clean speed.
Want some example?
Use these unique guitar speed tips to get faster in no time:
Guitar Speed Tip #1: Use A Building Number Of Notes To Improve The Notes Of A Lick One At A Time
To make progress with anything, you have to be able to think clearly and focus without becoming overwhelmed by too much information.
What does this mean in guitar playing?
It means you don’t always have to practice guitar licks or exercises by trying to play the entire idea at once, every time you practice it.
Instead, break things up into short, bite-sized groupings of notes to increase your focus so you can easily correct mistakes as they occur (and get better faster).
Here is an example of how to do this:
Take any guitar lick, scale or pattern and break it down into just the first few notes.
Practice playing these notes at a fast speed for many repetitions.
After you are comfortable playing with the current number of notes, add one more to the pattern and begin practicing with this added note.
Adding just one note at a time in this manner makes anything easier to master because you prevent yourself from becoming overwhelmed or bogged down with mistakes.
Any mistake you make becomes quickly apparent, and you are able to isolate it and work on it before moving on.
Guitar Speed Tip #2: Double, Triple And Quadruple Pick Each Note In A Lick With A Powerful Pick Stroke
What causes fast guitar playing to become sloppy super-quick?
Answer:
Your hands get out of sync with each other.
You know when your hands are out of sync when you are able to play a lick really fast, but then there are notes within it that you still struggle with, miss or that throw your timing off a little bit.
How are we going to fix this problem?
Easy!
Help your picking hand catch up to the fast movements your fretting hand is making.
Do this by double, triple and quadruple picking every note within a given guitar lick.
This locks your hands together and makes playing the lick like normal feel like a breeze.Apply double, triple and quadruple picking to any guitar lick or pattern giving you problems. After practicing in this manner for a bit, return to playing it like normal and it becomes much easier.
Guitar Speed Tip #3: Make Sweep Picking Arpeggio Patterns Easier By Practicing The Ones That Don’t Use Pull-Offs
Making things a little more difficult for yourself is often key for making a huge breakthrough.
This same concept applies to sweep picking.
If you aren’t familiar with basic sweep picking technique, don’t worry, check out this guitar arpeggios resource.
Most common sweep picking patterns use pull-offs on the highest and lowest notes.
This gives you a little time to think before re-initiating the picking attack.
Removing these pull-offs gives you less time, making it a little more difficult, but focusing on refining your picking technique timing.
Result: Regular sweep picking patterns become much easier.
Here is an example: On the left is a conventional C major arpeggio pattern, while the pattern on the right is a more unique arpeggio that contains one note per string with no legato.Applying the guitar speed tips in this article quickly help you overcome plateaus in your playing.
However, these are just a few tips of many.
For more comprehensive help to clean up your fast guitar playing, check out this free resource on how to play guitar clean.