Tips For Playing Guitar Faster Within A Single Practice Session

Ideal situation:


You pick your guitar with the goal of playing faster.


You start to practice.


30 minutes to 1 hour later you’ve leveled up your guitar speed and are ready to do it again the next day.


Sound like a fantasy?


Good news:


It’s not.


This is totally possible, when you know what to practice and do so effectively.


In fact, there are many ways to do this, and today you are going to learn a quick practice routine to help you do it.


(Note: use this to supplement your current guitar practice routine. If you don’t have one, work together with a guitar teacher to create one)

Let’s get to it!

First Get Started By Warming Up For Maximum Results


An excellent warmup leads to bigger and better results in your guitar practice.


However, there are good ways to warm up and not so good ways…


The not so good ways involve using generic licks that have nothing to do with whatever you are about to practice.


Don’t make this mistake!


Warm up using similar exercises to the ones you are about to practice to prepare your hands for them!


Remember, warming up IS practice too.


With this in mind, warm up both hands separately as shown in this guitar warmup video:

This includes:


·         Lightly touching the frets for any warmup exercise (without actually fretting them)

·         Using legato only

·         Picking only while not fretting any notes


While warming up, focus on using fragments of exercises relevant to your musical goals/practice. This way you are better prepared to practice them and get results.

 

Turn The Metronome Way Up And Forget About Mistakes


The way you make progress in anything is to push yourself beyond your current limit. Most guitarists avoid this because it means making mistakes (which sometimes feels frustrating).


Well, it’s time to forget about that and step outside your comfort zone to make big progress!


Take any guitar lick you are working on, and do the following:


1.   Determine the tempo at which it is played.

2.   Using a metronome, turn up the tempo by 10 beats per minute and play the lick for a couple of minutes. You will make mistakes, but don’t worry about this.


         ….Embrace it!

3.   Now, take a minute to identify the mistakes you made.

4.   Turn the metronome down by 5 beats per minute and repeat the process.

5.   Then turn it down to the regular tempo and practice it.

 

Break Guitar Licks Into Smaller Sections And Play Them Super-Fast


Breaking licks down into short groups of (2-3) notes at a time makes them easier to process mentally.


Another great effect of practicing this way is you can play at much faster speeds.


Why?


Trying to play many notes in rapid succession at fast speed can be difficult. Playing only a few is MUCH easier to process.


This gives you a way to transition from not being able to play a fast lick to eventually being able to play it.


Here is an example of this practice method being used:

Practice Double Picking Notes With Extra Picking Power


Two things make keeping your hands in perfect timing together feel easy.


1. Picking with extra power in your attack.


This power forces you to play with good timing otherwise you will miss a note. Eventually, this becomes second nature and your accuracy goes way up.

 

2. Picking the notes of a given pattern twice.


This helps your brain catch up to what your fretting hand is doing by bringing your picking hand up to speed.


For example, here is an A minor scale with every note played twice:

After practicing this for a while, your hands become locked together and playing guitar faster feels effortless.


Want to learn more ways to play guitar faster with less effort?


Learn (for free) how to do it by studying this guide to playing guitar perfectly.