Why Building Guitar Playing Speed Isn't As Hard As You Think & The 5 Ways To Quickly Become A Faster Player

Playing guitar with speed feels hard when you:

·         Don’t know what to practice to get faster

·         Don’t get results from speed practice

·         Don’t see yourself getting faster consistently

·         Feel frustrated by mistakes whenever you play guitar with speed

·         Become overwhelmed by all the practice you see yourself needing to do to reach your guitar speed goals

It doesn’t matter what specific guitar lick, guitar technique or solo you are playing… These are the fundamental factors for what makes something feel “difficult”. Overcoming each one of these factors makes building guitar playing speed feel like a breeze regardless of what it is that you want to learn.

Here is how to start building guitar speed like you want by overcoming the fundamental problems that prevent you from doing it:

Problem #1: Not Knowing What To Practice To Get Faster

Not knowing what to practice to build guitar speed leaves you practicing random items that may or may not actually help you get better.

The solution to this is determining your specific guitar speed goals and putting together a practice schedule to help you reach them fast.

Take the time to sit down and write out 5-10 guitar speed goals.

Then focus and look for ways to make each goal as tangible as possible. For example: Instead of just trying to play something faster, make a goal to play it X times in a row at a certain tempo without making mistakes.

Then arrange these goals into short/long term ones and begin creating a guitar practice schedule centered around the specific practice items to help you reach them.

Problem #2: Not Getting Results When Practicing For Speed

Simply having a guitar practice schedule with all the right items isn’t enough to give you the guitar speed you want. You also need to know how to practice as effectively as possible. Without effective practice, you get better very slowly or not at all!

The solution here is to find an experienced guitar teacher who can tell exactly how to practice in order to make the fastest progress in the least amount of time. A great guitar teacher also has the power to show you subtle flaws in your technique you never would have seen on your own and is able to motivate you to do whatever it takes to improve.

Problem #3: Not Getting Faster On Guitar Consistently

Sometimes you create the right musical goals, find the right practice items and learn how to practice effectively… but your guitar speed eventually runs into a wall! This is a sign that you’ve achieved all you can with your current routine need to change something in order to advance to the next level.

Most guitar players get stuck at this point and stop progressing on guitar for years at a time or make very inconsistent progress.

The solution here is to track yourself closely while practicing to determine exactly what is and isn’t working in your practice schedule.

Track the practice items you work on by checking for things such as consistency (how many times you can play something perfect before messing up), top clean speed, top overall speed or top speed at which you can play something while standing/walking.

There are many things to track here, so find a guitar teacher who can show you more skills to track to get better results.

Problem #4: Making Frustrating Mistakes Whenever Practicing For Guitar Speed

It’s easy to become frustrated when you keep trying and failing to play something on guitar. If you don’t watch out, this frustration can grow and consume you as a guitarist! Many guitar players allow themselves to become controlled by frustration and end up avoiding challenging themselves (so they never get better).

The solution is to re-interpret your mistakes. All the best guitar players view mistakes differently than mediocre or poor guitar players. Here is the perspective to have:

Any guitar playing mistake is actually a valuable insight in disguise.

This is because your mistakes tell you exactly what it is that you need to improve to get better! Pay close attention to this and use your mistakes as a source of inspiration rather than frustration.

Problem #5: Feeling Overwhelmed

Feeling overwhelmed is the #1 cause of guitar players giving up and letting their instrument sit in its case to never see the light of day. This often happens when someone isn’t at the level they want to be at, then starts imagining worst-case-scenarios of all the time it will take for them to finally reach their musical goals.

Don’t go down this same road!

The solution to feeling overwhelmed is a bit of a combination of the previous points… but also to not over-practice as many people do.

You don’t need to practice 5 hours per day to build guitar speed and become a great player. Getting better is much more about practicing smart than practicing as much as possible.

Here are a few ways to do it:

·         Focus on breaking down your longer guitar practice sessions into short, 15-minute sessions to ensure maximum focus.

·         Focus on achieving at least one short-term goal every practice session.

·         Always track your practice efficiency by testing your skills at the end of the week and adjusting your practice schedule when something isn’t working.

These simple solutions make a world of difference for your guitar speed and overall playing skill. Using them helps you get better faster and become the guitarist you always wanted to be with much less frustration.

Now apply the principles of this article to double your speed. Play guitar two times as fast while practicing smart and efficient using the ideas in this guitar speed resource.