How To Master Tough Shred Guitar Solos Using Fast Repetitive Guitar Licks

One of the most frustrating aspects about learning fast guitar solos is getting stuck on difficult parts and never fully mastering the entire thing. This means you perpetually play the parts that sound good and avoid the difficult parts that you haven’t mastered. Good news is, there are many effective ways to practice guitar solos to finally play them they way you want to.


Here are some of the keys to mastering any guitar solo:


·         Isolating difficult notes to master the technique needed to play them correctly

·         Not overwhelming yourself with too much to practice at once

·         Practicing effectively and efficiently

·         Tracking your progress so you know exactly how close you are to mastery


Most guitarists simply practice guitar solos in a mindless manner by playing the easy parts whenever they pick up their guitar. Then they attempt to play difficult parts a few times, but usually end up stopping out of frustration.


Don’t end up like them. Learn how to play any guitar solo you want by practicing smart and making the best use of your time.

Use this simple exercise to play fast guitar solos using a creative practice approach:


Break Down Guitar Solos & Master Them Through Focused Repetition


Step One: Break The Guitar Solo Into Smaller Sections


Attempting to learn an entire guitar solo in one sitting quickly becomes overwhelming.


Breaking a solo down into smaller sections to practice it makes the whole process easier, more organized and less frustrating.

There are many different ways to break down a guitar solo depending on your specific goals, strengths and weaknesses as a player.

Here are 4 ways to do it:


1.   Break it down by phrases

2.   Break it down by location on the fretboard (high or low)

3.   Break it down by technique

4.   Break it down by difficulty


After you’ve broken the solo down, you should have many separate parts to work on and master.

Step Two: Break Down Each Section Into Smaller Parts


After dividing your solo into smaller sections, choose one of the sections to begin practicing. However, instead of working on the entire section, break this down as well into groupings of 2-3 notes each.


So, now you’ve made the solo easier to process mentally and the smaller sections of the solo easier to process. This makes it much more fun, because you feel accomplished when you see yourself making progress by mastering even just a small section of a section!


Practice the 2-3 notes in the section at a fast speed continuously. Then process any mistakes in the moment and correct them before repeating the notes again.

Step Three: Add Notes Back Into Each Section


Continue perfecting each note of the segment you chose by adding one more note and repeating the previous step. Do this until you are able to play the entire section of the solo perfectly. Then repeat this process for each other section.

Step Four: Add Different Segments Together


Integrating different segments together helps you begin playing guitar solos smoothly and helps you see your hard work pay off.


Practice adding adjacent sections of the guitar solo together to connect them smoothly. Do this by first using the previous steps to master the last notes of the first section and the first notes of the next section. Then bring them both together by slowly adding more notes.


To really test your mastery of a given guitar solo, challenge yourself to play different sections at random to a metronome. Assign a number to each section, then put them in a random order. Play one section then the next in time without missing a beat!

Supercharge The Guitar Solo Learning Process Through Effective Practice Scheduling


Scheduling your guitar solo practice helps you get the most benefit from your practice time. This is because you are less likely to practice mindlessly/without focus when you know exactly what to work on.


Here is a good way to do it:


Schedule different parts of the guitar solo to practice throughout the week. This gives you the opportunity to master a different section each day and watch yourself gradually mastering the entire solo.


Track your progress at the end of the week to see exactly how close you are. Take note of exactly how many mistakes you make with each solo section by tracking this at the end of each practice session. Then test yourself at the end of the week to see how many mistakes you made overall.


This way you can see a real % increase each week to let you know you are making progress.


Want to take your lead guitar technique to a higher level fast? Use the awesome, free resources on this guitar soloing mastery page.