How To Build Guitar Speed By Mastering A Lesser-Known & Highly Effective Practice Approach

Playing guitar with speed isn’t just about being able to play fast while making sloppy mistakes… yet so many guitarists are satisfied with this. Building guitar speed and becoming a better player means learning to play consistently clean while playing fast.

Here’s the mistake that keeps you from playing guitar clean with speed in a consistent manner:

It’s common for guitarists to practice fast licks until they are able to play them pretty good once or twice. This leads you to repeat the same process next time, leading to slow progress over a long period of time (you can do much better than this!)…

Here is what to do instead to build speed and play consistently without mistakes:

Don’t play to “get it right” once or twice, play to “never get it wrong”.

This means focusing on the most difficult aspect of a given lick by repeating it many times. This helps you fix the problems that slow you down so you build guitar speed quickly and become a cleaner player in no time.

Use these exercises to develop consistency while playing guitar fast:

Fix Mistakes That Keep You From Building Guitar Speed Faster Using A Practice Technique That Focuses In On Them Like Putting Them Under A Microscope

One of the biggest problems with common approaches to guitar practice is wasting too much time on things you’ve already mastered. Break down guitar licks or exercises into the problem notes that hold you back and focus exclusively on fixing them.

Instead of repeating an entire lick over and over, do this:

When you come to problem notes, repeat them 2 times in a row, then continue on with the rest of lick.

This does two main things:

1. First, you narrow your focus on correcting the notes that need it most. This is critical for building speed on guitar quickly, rather than slowly over many months or years. You save tons of wasted time that would have spent otherwise playing the notes you’re already good at.

2. You work to correct problems, while re-integrating them into the original context of the lick. So you gain the benefits of practicing something in isolation (increased focus and results), without it becoming disconnected from the musical context it came from.

This means it helps you smoothly transition from problem notes to the ones you’ve already mastered much more effectively than simply isolating the notes out of context.

In addition to doubling the amount of times you play the problem notes, alternate tripling them as well.

So, first time through you play the notes twice. Then the second time through, you play them three times.

Enhance This Powerful Guitar Practice Method Using Tremolo Picking

Tremolo picking requires extremely precise movement in your picking hand. This movement forces you to focus closely on what your are playing. Adding this to the approach described above enhances your ability to identify and correct inefficiencies that cause mistakes.

This video shows you how to tremolo pick with excellent precision so you play with fast and clean guitar speed:

While alternating doubling and tripling the problem notes of a given exercise, add one more variation to your practice: play the problem notes using tremolo picking for each one.

Note: Don’t worry about playing the exact note rhythms if you are playing a guitar lick or solo excerpt.

Correct Hard To Spot Mistakes Using One-Note Focus

Sometimes you may not be able to immediately identify what is causing your playing to break down at fast speeds. You don’t need to slow down to find these mistakes.

Instead, pick a specific note (of the notes you struggle with) and listen closely for how it sounds as you practice using the method in this article. Play your guitar lick over and over at your normal speed in order to hear mistakes that only occur at this speed (and wouldn’t occur at slower tempos).

For example:

Sweep picking is one of the coolest tools to add to your toolbox of speed guitar playing techniques. Practicing it using a unique one-note focus approach helps you build guitar speed in a way that helps you quickly fix mistakes that lead to inconsistency.

This video shows you how to start playing perfectly consistent sweep picking licks one note at a time by isolating individual notes within an arpeggio:

Apply the guitar practice approach in this article together with your normal practicing methods as a supplement. This creates variation that takes you outside of your comfort zone and pushes you to improve in less time.

This practice approach is only one of many powerful ways to quickly build speed on guitar and become a better player. Learn more about playing guitar faster while practicing more effectively using the ideas in this guitar speed guide.