Learn To Play Faster Using Guitar Speed Exercises
One thing is very likely. It is very likely that you will not get any faster on the guitar than you are right now unless you practice. You will need to practice a lot. It will not come to you in your sleep. There is little to no chance that you will ever wake up one day and be a better, faster guitar player. Only with practice will you get faster, and with enough practice you well become greased lightning. Still, you will want to make good use of the following guitar speed exercises. They should become the cornerstone of your daily practice routine.
As you begin to develop a practice routine, consider the equipment you use. One central piece of equipment you should own is a metronome. These are devices that help you keep a steady beat and various beats per minute. A metronome should be owned by you, so if you do not own on take the time to get one. They are truly invaluable as you effort to learn the guitar.
You will use the double-click picking style in the first lesson, playing the first four notes on the first string, up and down, then moving on to the next string and so on. Do this all the way down and back up again at a speed you are comfortable with. Next increase the speed on the metronome a little and perform the exercise again. Work until you are going as fast as you can, then finish by slowing the metronome and making one last pass through the strings. Finishing slowly will help you ease the burn in your hand and will promote accuracy as well.
Next, play triplets in your favorite scale. It does not matter which scale you choose. Begin each set of triplets with the second note from the previous one. Increase your speed using your metronome, and then decrease as you finish the exercise for the sake of pain and accuracy.
Another helpful exercise is actually quite simple. Find a note on any string, and then find that same note, either one octave higher or lower. This will not only help with speed, but also with strength and accuracy. An added benefit is that you will learn more about the notes and their locations on the different strings.
To help develop speed with your strumming hand, return to the first exercise presented here and, rather than double-picking up and down, try the same exercise using only the down stroke going one way and the up stroke coming back the other way. The will help your coordination and thus your overall picking speed will increase.
Not every exercise will work for everyone, and of course some of these exercises will work better for some than for others. What is as important as the exercise is a regular practice routine. Even the guitar gods keep their chops up to speed by practicing each and every day, and while you may or may not become the next jukebox hero, to become a better guitar player you will need to practice.
So there are some exercises you can try and some advice you may find useful. The guitar is probably one of the world’s most popular instruments, and it is not as hard to learn as you may think. Mastering it, however, requires some natural talent, hard work, a near spiritual devotion to practice and paying some serious attention to the guitar speed exercises that you determine work best for you.
The author is a guitarist who is always trying to improve his playing with new guitar speed exercises. If you’d like to learn to play the guitar, see the wealth of info over at eliteguitarlessons.com
