Guitar Speed Building Exercises That Give You Lightning-Fast Shred Technique

Looking for the best guitar speed building exercises?

Don’t make the mistake most guitarists make of simply playing scales/arpeggios over and over and hoping you will magically get a lot faster.

This approach is inefficient and only gives you very slow gains at best.

The best exercises cause you to focus closely on the precise movements you are making with your fingers instead of mindlessly playing through memorized patterns.

The purpose of this is to give you tons of accurate speed.

Sound good?

Alright! Time to get to work.

The following three exercises help you get killer guitar speed that is cleaner and faster than ever:

Exercise #1: Increase Your Guitar Speed Using More Picking Power

What is one subtle mistake guitarists make that keeps them from playing faster?

Answer: Picking too lightly.

Picking strings with a lot of power causes the pick to slice through the string (less time contacting the string = less chance for mistakes to occur).

It also forces you to keep your hands in sync, making your playing both more articulate/clear and accurate.

One way to play guitar faster and cleaner is to use more picking power by starting with medium power and gradually adding more and more.

Here’s how to do it:

Step One – Use this video demonstration to learn how to pick harder on guitar with no effort:

Step Two – Choose any guitar lick you want to practice.

Step Three – Break the lick into any number of 3-4 note sections.

Step Four – Practice each section by itself by repeating the notes several times. As you do this, pick the notes softly and increase the power of your pick attack gradually over each repetition.

Step Five – Play through each section using this approach.

This helps you get a feel for the effectiveness of picking with power. It’s clear that using more power helps you play notes more clearly and articulately.

Use a heavy pick attack frequently until it becomes natural for you and your guitar playing will massively improve.

Exercise #2: Process Notes Faster With Multi-Note Picking Repetition

It’s easy to make a lot of mistakes while playing guitar fast when your brain can’t process what your hands are playing.

Solution: Give yourself more time to process notes!

Playing guitar faster is easier when you simply pick a specific note in any given exercise two, three or more times while playing the other notes normally.

There are many powerful practice approaches that use this concept.

Below is one to try right now.

Play through this guitar lick several times:

Break down the lick as explained in the previous exercise.

Double-pick each note of the lick (seen on the left below).

Triple-pick each note (seen on the right).

Using this approach massively improves your ability to keep both hands together in sync while also improving the consistency of your pick attack.

Practice this not just by repeating notes two or three times, but four, five, six or more.

Exercise #3: Make Any Guitar Lick Easier To Play Fast By Starting Small

One of the biggest causes of mistakes and frustration on guitar is feeling overwhelmed.

Good news:

You don’t need to practice slowly when working with just a small number of notes.

Here is unique way to break down your licks to make them easier to master and feel less overwhelming:

·         Begin with just one note and play it perfectly.

·         Then, add the next note in the lick and play both notes perfectly. While doing this, play as fast as you can.

·         Add another note for a total of three.

·         Continue this way until you have added all the notes of the lick.

This one note at a time approach makes any guitar lick feel much easier to digest, limiting the amount of frustration you feel and making the practice process much more enjoyable.

Note: It’s possible to double the speed at which you play anything when you know the right approach. Learn the right approach now by getting this free guitar speed training resource.