Shred Guitar Speed Exercise: Perform These 5 Challenges To Master Any Guitar Lick

Gaining shred guitar speed through exercises isn’t about just playing mindlessly in front of the TV until you finally get faster!

Getting more speed means challenging yourself in ways that most guitarists never really think of.

Good news is, none of this is really complicated.

It just gives you a different perspective that forces you to get better in subtle, but important ways.

Result:

Faster and cleaner guitar speed + better overall musicianship.

Sound good?

Thought so!

Let’s get started.

Shred Guitar Speed Exercise: Train Yourself To Master 5 Critical Skills

What is a good way to know you’ve really mastered a guitar lick? You are able to do the following things:

Play The Guitar Lick 10 Times In A Row Without Mistakes

Once you can play something ten times in a row without making a single mistake, you know you have mastered it.

Problem is, most guitar players only practice to get something right once or twice!

Practicing to get something right 10 times in a row sets you apart from everyone else and gives you much better consistency.

Here is a quick exercise to try with this concept:

Play this short lick as many times as you can without making a mistake:

You may have made mistakes, this is ok. The point is that you are going to make mistakes while practicing like this, but practicing for consistency in this manner helps you understand how far away you are from mastering something.

Cool thing is, once you are able to play something 10 times in a row with mistakes, you can add more repetitions or increase the speed then practice more to make it even better!

Master The Ability To Play Without Sight

Remember when you first began playing guitar and had to look at both hands constantly to make sure you both picked the string and fretted the right note?

Of course, now you don’t have to do that so much.

However, you probably still watch your fretting hand a lot to make sure you are playing the right notes.

Being able to play something on guitar without watching your hands shows that you have a mental map of it in your head.

This is an excellent skill to work on to remove the limitations from your playing that require you to look at your hands constantly.

Make time to practice your normal exercises or licks for at least a few minutes without looking at your guitar. Over time, this becomes much easier as you develop a better mental map of the fretboard.

 

Get Up And Walk Around As You Play

Sitting down all the time to play guitar puts you into the habit of only playing one way. Standing up and walking around while playing adds a new challenge to any lick.

Practice things you normally play by walking around with your guitar and playing.

Being able to do this instantly takes your guitar playing to a higher level than that of the majority of guitar players.

 

Turn Off The Distortion And See How Your Playing Holds Up

Using distortion all the time to play guitar often masks inconsistencies in the synchronization between your hands.

Setting your amp to clean settings reveals your mistakes and gives you the opportunity to make a lot of progress.

Invest just a bit of time during each practice session into playing on clean settings.

Having trouble?

Try these things out to improve your ability to play something without distortion:

·         Double pick the notes

·         Play with heavy picking power

·         Break down whatever you are playing into groups of 3-4 notes at a time (and try the previous two approaches)

 

Put Your Skills To The Test By Performing For Others

Performing is the ultimate test of your guitar playing skills. This goes beyond simply playing the notes correctly.

While performing, you not only play the notes but express them by moving around, making gestures and expressing yourself. All this while overcoming any anxiety or nervousness.

You don’t have to perform with a band on stage to get better at this (although this really helps of course). If you aren’t in a band or don’t have this opportunity, simply ask friends or family to watch you play and look for ways to perform for others.

Practice walking with your guitar and making performing gestures during your normal practice time, then apply this while others are watching you play.

Worried about making mistakes?

No problem.

Combine everything else you learned in this article together with the info in this free guide for playing guitar perfectly.