How To Play Guitar Fast
Know Thyself
The first step to increasing your knowledge in guitar playing (specifically in the speed department) is knowing what you don’t know yet. So, awareness is another crucial step to finding out what your sticking points are and WORK on them.
The muscles in your arms – and in your brain – need to go through a musical bootcamp to get them in top playing condition (like I said earlier, it’s about being synchronized). This especially applies to your “weak” areas; how can you play fast if your head and hands can’t keep up with a song?
From here, you’ll figure out a practice regimen that you can break up into sub-sections that focus on key aspects of your playing. Also, remember that you have to factor in a chunk of your time to just mess around and discover new things a straightforward practice session might not reveal.
Just because you want to have machine-like speed and precision as a guitarist, it doesn’t mean you should act like a machine and let your creative juices go dry. Even out the “boring” and “fun” stuff – life’s more interesting that way.
On another note, taking a step and doing a post-practice review can help you find out what isn’t working and which parts of your playing can be improved. This way, you’ll pinpoint your weaknesses so you can work on them and balance your technique.
YouTube has tons of videos of people playing their guitar at home and doing covers of their favorite songs. Some of them specifically ask viewers for feedback to improve their playing.
You don’t have to follow this strictly, but recording yourself can give you a third-person perspective and spot your problem areas. It’s also a handy way to track your progress and see how fast you’ve become with each new video you record.
Keep it Loose and Chill Out
The secret is to start off slowly and don’t tighten up your hands, then turn it up a notch little by little. You’ll get more and more used to a higher speed until it becomes second nature to you.
Signs of tension include making that “scrunchy” face while playing or holding your breath. If this happens, do your best to relax and slow down a bit (set your metronome to a lower speed); after a few minutes, you can go back to the original speed you were playing at.
Another good way to stay chill while playing is to multi-task. I know some guys who read a book, watch TV or sing while playing in order to really lock it in.
By the way, doing warm-ups and stretching is helpful in loosening up. Most guitar players spend about 10 minutes on this before getting into their actual practice routine. This simple habit will help develop the parts of your body needed for fast playing.
Mix it Up!
As I said earlier, you won’t improve by just concentrating on one element of playing fast. But here’s the thing: even if you’ve practiced the different elements that constitute fast playing, you need to combine them into your practice sessions later on.
In other words, you also need to learn how to move from one technique to the next, such as going from alternate to sweep picking, then to legato and tapping. Part of being fast is about flowing from one riff to another so you’ll sound natural rather than machine-like.
Don’t Wait to be Perfect
Obviously, you’re going to make mistakes along the way, but it’s all part of the learning process. That being said, don’t hold back on putting the stuff you’ve learned into use.
Your speed playing isn’t going to come our perfect at the first try – no surprise there. But keep applying those licks anyway because being good at guitar has a lot to do with knowing what DOESN’T work.
And you can’t do that by forcing yourself to be perfect all the time.
In the big picture, learning to play fast is really a matter of wanting it enough badly to make it happen. When you have the genuine desire to crank up your playing speed, practicing won’t be a drag to you.
In the end, the effort you invest in this skill is equal to the results you’ll enjoy later on.
Comments
Related Posts
You must be logged in to post a comment Login