How To Get Faster At Lead Guitar In Less Time Than You Ever Thought Possible

Myth: Getting faster at lead guitar always takes years of practicing for many hours per day.

Sound like a frustrating process?


It is for most people.


But it doesn’t have to be for you!


Reality is, you achieve faster guitar speed for soloing quickly by focusing on several key principles that make you a faster, cleaner player in no time.


Here are 3 key principles to apply into your guitar playing to get faster and become a better overall guitarist in no time:

Principle #1: Setting Clear & Tangible Goals Is Paramount


So many guitar players wander aimlessly for years in their playing because they have no clear goals or path to achieving them.


For example – Which guitar player is more likely to achieve his goal?:


Guitarist A – Wants to become faster and get better.


Guitarist B – Wants to play a specific guitar exercise at 180 BPM, 10 times in a row with no mistakes.


Answer: Guitarist B.


This player has a clear goal which can be tracked and measured over time so he knows how close he is to achieving it.


Now, apply this to all your guitar speed goals and it becomes clear how much easier it is to reach them with this in place.


This is like turning the light on in a dark room so you can see where the door is versus blindly stumbling around and never knowing for sure how to get where you want to go.


Action To Take Now:


Determine your highest musical goals. What exactly do you want to be able to do on guitar? Then break down your goals as specifically as possible using factors like:


·         How fast you can play something

·         How many time you can play something without mistakes

·         Overall number of mistakes playing something (by a certain date)

·         Being able perform something while making only a certain number of mistakes

·         Creating a certain number of solos or songs by a specific date

·         Etc.


Determine what your most important goals are and assign practice time to your goals based on priority.


Then make sure to keep track of your goals by measuring your progress each week. Take just 30 minutes to track mistakes, tempo or other descriptive factors to see how close or far you are from your goals.

 

Principle #2: Make Everything As Efficient As Possible


Playing guitar faster isn’t just about moving your hands quickly. It’s about making your movement as efficient as possible.

For example: Making your guitar picking technique more efficient means you minimize how far away your pick moves from the string between strokes.


Result: your pick strikes the string more quickly and more often for faster tremolo.


Or…

Sweep picking the notes of an arpeggio rather than trying to alternate pick each one at a fast speed.


This transforms an extremely difficult and inefficient movement into a smooth one that enables you to play infinitely faster.


Watch this video to see how to massively improve your picking technique by making it efficient:



Try out what you just learned using this scale:

Practice slowly at first to get used to the basic movement of your picking hand (most guitarists have trained themselves to alternate pick and have to get used to this).


Give this time and your playing will not only get much faster, but much more clean and precise.

 

Principle #3: Avoid Unnecessary Practice To Focus On Fixing Mistakes Quickly


Here is one thing you need to stop doing while practicing guitar to get faster:


Repeating the same notes you’ve already mastered over and over while trying to correct the notes you haven’t mastered.


This wastes time and energy, making your practice less efficient.


Making your guitar practice more efficient helps you get faster in way less time than you would otherwise.


Try this:


Find the note or notes in a given guitar exercise that are challenging for you.


Isolate these notes from everything else in the exercise and focus on only improving these notes. Look specifically for any root cause of your struggle. Are your hands out of sync? Are you missing notes during a position shift in the fretting hand? Find the answer and laser-focus on improving the problem.


Then combine the notes back into the original exercise for context and to ensure that everything flows smoothly.


Another effective practice principle to keep in mind is the concept of “practicing multiple things at once.” This gives you more results for less time spent.


Watch this video to learn more about the concept and how to use it to get more results out of your practice:

The next step is to learn how to get faster on guitar by actually practicing 50% less.


Sound impossible?


It’s not! Learn how to become a faster guitar player while practicing less using this guitar speed guide.