How To Best Use Guitar Exercises & Tabs For Speed Development
Fact: Getting faster guitar speed isn’t just about the exercises you practice or the tabs you use to play new licks.
What is it about then?
It’s about using these resources as tools to get faster on guitar by practicing them with a purpose.
Knowing the underlying skills you need to train to get more guitar speed and use it to play better on guitar is how you go from being an average player to an incredible player.
There are several key points to focus on while practicing guitar exercises and tabs for speed in order to get the most out of them.
Learn about them below:Get Faster By Focusing On Efficient Movement, Not Fast Movement
It’s commonly thought that moving your hands faster results in faster guitar playing.
This is only half true…
It results in fast, sloppy guitar playing.
Not what you want!
Getting faster guitar speed that is accurate, clean and effortless is about making your hand movement more efficient.
Specifically speaking, you want both hands to be locked together in sync.
What is a huge factor for this?
Answer: Efficient movement in your pick attack.
Make sure you don’t “waste” movement in your picking hand by using a picking technique that trains you to move your pick in the direction of the string you are moving to whenever you switch from one string to the next.
This video shows you how to do it using a concept called directional picking technique:Apply this picking style into all areas of your playing, including any exercises you are working on.
Improve In All Areas Of Your Guitar Playing Faster Using Skill Integration
Practicing a single guitar speed exercise in isolation from everything else in your playing may help you become great at THAT exercise…
…but it might not help you improve your overall guitar playing, so you can really use what you learned.
For example:
Practicing a scale pattern over and over might help you play that pattern fast, but it doesn’t help you learn how to play guitar solos, which requires creative thinking and concentration on how you use the notes you play.
One way to use your guitar speed exercises to enhance your playing is to integrate them together with other skills, exercises or musical concepts.
This video shows you how to combine scales and arpeggios together:Doing this consistently improves your overall guitar playing. You don’t become out of balance, and you are able to better use what you know in a musical and expressive manner.
Make Your Speed Musical By Increasing Your “Usable” Speed
It’s one thing to be able to shred up and down while playing scales, arpeggios, licks or exercises.
It’s another to be able to actually use that speed while soloing or playing music.
This opens up the discussion on potential speed versus usable speed.
Ideally, you want to practice guitar speed exercises to increase your usable speed and bring it closer to your potential maximum speed.
How do you close the gap between your potential and usable guitar speed?
Watch this video to find out:Play Guitar With Effortless Speed By Minimizing Tension
The amount of tension you have in your body while playing guitar massively affects your ability to play fast and clean.
Most guitarists overlook this and their playing suffers as a results.
The less tension in your body, the more results you get for the least amount of effort possible.
This video shows you how to get rid of excess tension in your body while playing guitar:
Now you know several critically important concepts to focus on while practicing guitar speed exercises in order to get the most benefit from them.
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