3 Exercises For Playing Guitar Faster & More Creatively

Common Guitar Soloing Problem: Your fast guitar licks and soloing ideas start to become boring because they always sound the same.

This happens when you get too comfortable with the normal guitar licks you play and aren’t trying new things in your playing frequently enough.

 

Solution: Your guitar soloing becomes much more creative when you think outside the box and challenge yourself in new ways. This also helps you become a better overall guitarist, so your technique becomes refined and your guitar playing gets faster.

 

One cool approach for thinking more creatively is looking for unconventional ways to play common guitar patterns.

 

Use the 3 unique exercises below to play guitar faster and more creatively. Each one helps you become a better guitarist by challenging you to play in unconventional ways that you aren’t used to:

Exercise #1: Speed Up Your Guitar Runs Using An Opposite Approach To Your Usual Play Style

 

Guitar scale runs are frequently played in these two ways:

 

  • While ascending from thicker to thinner strings, notes are played in ascending pitch (ex: A B C D E F G)
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  • While ascending from thinner to thicker strings, notes are played in descending pitch (ex: G F E D C B A)
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Reversing the way you usually pay scale runs challenges you to think differently and grow as a guitarist. For example, instead of playing notes in ascending pitch while moving from thicker to thinner strings, play them in descending order.

 

For example:

Guitar-Exercise-Opposite-Approach

Here is the same concept while moving from thinner to thicker strings:

Guitar-Exercise-Opposite-Approach-Part-Two

Use these tips to play guitar scales faster and smoother while improving various aspects of your technique:

 

  • Practice this together with the conventional approach. Add hammer-ons and pull-offs to the tabs above for an added challenge that massively improves your legato technique.
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Use the most efficient picking technique possible, as shown in this video:

  • This challenges your picking technique in a very unique way to take your speed to the next level.

Use this approach while improvising to give yourself an interesting and creative alternative to the conventional way scales are played.

Exercise #2: Get Easy Speed By Locking Your Hands In Sync With String Skipping Octaves

 

String skipping is great for strengthening the synchronization between both hands. Here is one way to use this technique to play guitar faster and lock your hands in sync for easy speed:

 

Combine single string scale patterns with string skipping in octaves.

 

This exercise is a great one to use when you have limited time for guitar practice. You improve sync between both hands, general picking technique and string skipping all at once.

 

For example: Here are the first 5 notes in an E minor scale using string skipping octaves.

Use this exercise to play one octave of any scale. After playing in this manner, it feels much easier to play guitar fast while playing the scale like normal.

 

Get more results from this exercise by:

 

Tremolo picking each note to improve your technique even more and increase the challenge. Then improvise using the string skipping/octaves concept to create interesting melodies that are melodic, but still have a touch of speed.

Exercise #3: Develop Lightning Fast Dexterity With Arpeggios That Jump Across The Fretboard

 

You give your guitar speed a massive boost by using sweep picking. Instead of playing arpeggios in the same position over and over, use this creative approach:

 

Play an arpeggio like normal, then quickly move the pattern up 12 frets (one octave).

 

For example:

Guitar-Arpeggio-With-Octaves

Not only does this sound really cool, but it helps you improve your ability to quickly change fretboard positions without making mistakes.

Practice this to a metronome and try to make the transition from one octave to the next seamless.

 

This idea also works to create cool phrases for your guitar solos. Try playing short progressions to hear the intensity this kind of phrasing brings to your lead guitar playing. For example: Play an A major arpeggio followed by a B major arpeggio and a C# minor arpeggio.

 

Now that you’ve learned some cool exercises for playing guitar faster and more creative, learn how to increase your speed in less time. Double your guitar speed while practicing less using this free shred guitar guide.