Learn To Play Guitar Fast And Free With Little Effort By Perfecting Your Fundamental Technique With Slow Practice

There are many great ways to practice guitar for speed. Practicing at faster speeds helps you fix mistakes that occur only at those speeds. Practicing at slower speeds helps you fix fundamental flaws in your technique to make fast guitar playing feel free and easy.

Note: Don’t make the mistake most guitarists make with slow practice by simply practicing slowly and increasing the metronome speed over a long period of time. The purpose of slow practice is to focus on making your technique as efficient and flawless as possible.

Once this is the case, you SHOULD practice at faster speeds as well to train yourself to process notes more quickly. This is how you avoid getting stuck at plateaus.

While practicing guitar slowly, make your playing as efficient as possible in the areas below. This is the key to playing guitar fast without a struggle.

Pick With Lightning Fast Speed By Developing Efficient Picking Hand Efficiency

Having inconsistent and/or inefficient motion in your picking attack causes mistakes and puts a limit on your max speed.

Think of inefficient picking motion like trying to win a 50-yard dash while running at a slight angle towards the goal instead of a straight line. Most guitar players do this in their technique without even realizing it!

Here is what to do to make your picking technique efficient:

1. Pay close attention to the movement of your pick as you play.

Do this by simply playing a guitar lick you already know while watching your picking hand. Does the pick move straight through the string without unnecessary movement?

If not, try this:

· Pick from your arm while transferring strings.

· Pick from your wrist while playing on a single string.

This helps you move in a straight line as you move from one string to the next (making your picking more economical).

2. Minimize the amount of picking strokes you use when possible.

Do this by using the directional picking approach discussed in the following video:

Make Fast Guitar Playing Effortless By Minimizing Movement & Energy Use In The Fretting Hand

Using too much energy to fret notes causes you to become tired, make mistakes and struggle while playing guitar at fast speeds. Most people use way too much pressure to fret notes than they really need to. Once you reduce this in your playing, fast speed comes much more easily.

Here is what to do to play guitar fast and clean by conserving energy in your fretting hand:

1. Only have your fingers fretting notes that are actually being played. Fretting notes in advance wastes energy and encourages you to play with sloppy timing.

Look for the most efficient way to fret anything you play. You’d be surprised at how often changing the way you fret something can make things feel much easier. See an example of this in this video:

1. Take the time to practice using only as much pressure as needed to fret notes. For example: Fret a note, then gradually play with less and less pressure as you pick until you find the minimal amount of pressure needed to produce sound.

Put An End To Sloppy Playing Using Proper Muting Technique To Eliminate Annoying String Noise

Even if you have efficient fretting hand and picking hand technique, poor muting ruins any fast guitar lick. Mastering muting technique cleans up unwanted guitar string noise and gives your playing the sound of a professional that everyone wants to have.

Do this by:

Using your thumb to mute the strings below the one you are playing on, like seen in this video:

Using the side of your fretting hand index finger to mute the strings above the one you are playing on.

Pay close attention to which one of these aspects of muting technique are off when you make sloppy mistakes while practicing guitar at fast speeds. Investing just a few minutes into intensely focused practice for each hand can improve your muting technique and overall cleanliness of playing massively.

Now that you know what to look for while practicing for better technique, use the following to put your technique to the test so you know what to work on to get faster:

Improve Your Playing Speed While Testing Your Technique

Use a metronome to find the max playing speed at which you can play something while making very few mistakes.

Next, practice at a speed that is 10 beats per minute slower while paying close attention to using perfect fundamental technique as described above.

Then play at a speed that is 10 beats above your max speed and take notes of how your technique is effected and where it begins to break down.

Continue this approach by gradually adjusting the speed close and close to your max speed similar to how you would adjust your tuner higher and lower to narrow into the perfect pitch.

· Play 5 beats per minute below your max speed.

· Play 5 beats per minute above your max speed.

· Play 3 beats per minute below your max speed.

· Play 3 beats per minute above your max speed.

· Play right at your max speed.

This approach helps you fine tune your technique by alternating between making things easier (so it’s easier to adjust) and harder (so you are forced to improve).

There are many ways to practice improving guitar speed within this practice concept.

Here are just a few examples:

· Use a set number of repetitions every time you play at a new speed.

· Focus on playing only weak sections of a lick in isolation.

· Practice something continuously for 15 seconds for every tempo change.

Perfecting the fundamental techniques described in this article and using the exercise included make playing guitar fast feel free and easy like never before!

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