How To Get Faster On Electric Guitar & Develop Impeccable Accuracy

Playing fast on guitar is great, but not when everything sounds sloppy due to missed notes and unwanted string noise.

So, how do you get the best of both worlds?

Answer: Practice for guitar speed in a way that identifies and puts laser-focus on the areas where your accuracy normally falls apart.

Sound like a good plan?

Awesome.

Let’s get started gaining insanely fast and clean electric guitar technique!

These are 5 ways to practice that help you gain speed while cleaning up your playing for impeccable accuracy:

1. Perfect Any Guitar Technique Using “Clean” Practice

Practicing guitar on clean settings for 5-15 minutes per practice session is a great way to:

·      
Make your picking attack more articulate

·       Pick with unbreakable rhythm and consistency

·       Hear mistakes that occur when your picking and fretting hands are not in sync

Here is one way to practice guitar on clean settings and get the most benefit from it to improve your technique:

Take any guitar practice item and work on picking all the notes twice. This forces you to pick with precise accuracy and synchronization between your hands.

If you can do this perfectly using clean settings, your (non-double picking) sounds amazingly smooth with distortion.

Note: Don’t overdo clean practice. If you play mostly with distortion, distortion practice should take up the majority of your practice in general. Think of clean practice as a supplement.

2. Fix Frustrating Mistakes During String Changes By Isolating Them

Unwanted guitar string noise frequently finds its way into one’s playing while moving from one string to the next.

Why?

This motion has the potential to allow noise because notes from different strings bleed together, hands aren’t in sync or proper muting isn’t done.

How can you check your technique for all three of these things to keep string transitions clean?

I’ll tell you.

1. Keep everything in sync by making your picking as efficient as possible. More on this in “4. Play Fast And Easy Scales Using Efficient Picking Technique” in this article.

2. Keep unwanted string noise muted by muting any strings above (in pitch) the one you are on using the side of your fretting hand index finger. Mute the ones below it using the left-inside of your picking hand thumb.

3. Practice eliminating bleeding between notes of the transition by practicing the last note of the first string and the first note of the second string back and forth. Focus on releasing the first note just before you fret the second one. Then go back and add these notes into the rest of the pattern.

3. Fix Frustrating Mistakes During Position Shifts By Isolating Them

Position shifts are another major cause of frustration for many guitar players.

You potential for making a mistake increases during a position shift due to the large amount of movement used (compared to staying in one position).

Fortunately, this is easy to isolate and improve, removing tons of frustration from your practice as you become a faster and cleaner guitarist.

Practice this using the same approach from point #3 in the previous section:

“3. Practice eliminating bleeding between notes of the transition by practicing the last note of the first string and the first note of the second string back and forth. Focus on releasing the first note just before you fret the second one. Then go back and add these notes into the rest of the pattern.”

This isolation approach is not only great for keeping notes from bleeding together, but helping you to make position shifts easier.

4. Play Fast And Easy Scales Using Efficient Picking Technique

Common problem: Guitar players struggle to play super-fast and effortless scale runs.

They think it’s because they don’t move their hands fast enough.

What really causes problems here?

Answer: Inefficient guitar picking technique.

When you use picking technique that is inefficient, it adds tons of extra time between notes that throws off your synchronization between hands.

This makes playing guitar fast and clean nearly impossible.

5. Make Fast Speed More Effortless Than Ever Using Single String Licks

Efficient picking technique is critical for keeping your hands in sync. But practicing this (like in the previous point) is not the only way to lock your hands together.

Single string licks are extremely powerful tools for locking both hands together – making non-single string licks feel easier and more effortless than ever before.

Now you know 5 different ways to make your guitar playing fast and accurate like never before. Add these ideas into your practice schedule based on your specific musical goals to make tons of progress in no time.