I get a lot of questions about what it takes to become a faster guitar player. My answer is always the same, practice. Of course that answer doesn’t always go over well with beginners it’s the truth. In order to get great at anything you must first be able to do it slowly, then add speed.

In this article I cover three practice exercises you can start doing now to improve both your accuracy and your speed. If you consistently do them you should start to see results after the first week.

NOTE: If you’re currently taking guitar lessons you may want to discuss these exercises with your teacher. Likewise if you’re teaching yourself using a learn guitar dvd or other home study program take a look ahead in your lessons to see if there are similar exercises coming later on. The course developer or your instructor may prefer you follow different methods to play faster

Exercise 1 – Practise your Scales

Understanding the important major and minor scales, along with notes on the neck is something you should learn. If this is something you haven’t yet learned don’t panic. Do a quick search online for pentatonic shapes, or visit a gutiar lesson tips website and search for pentatonic scales. What you’re looking for is an image of the first pentatonic position.

You’re going to take that first pentatonic position and memorize it. You do not need to understand which scale is what or memorize all 5 positions of the pentatonic scales, just start with the first one and memorize it for now

Start playing that first shape on the 6th string all the way down to the 1st string Now play it backwards. Next slide up to the second fret and do it all again, then the third fret, fourth fret and so on.

The key here is to learn accuracy with hitting the frets and the notes as you move up and down the neck forwards and backwards through the scale position.

Exercise 2 – Playing Faster

Now we want to do exercise 1 again, but this time move things a little quicker. Using a metronome find a pace that is comfortable for you to play the first pentatonic shape. This will vary from person to person, the key is that it’s comfortable for you.

Start your metronome and once again on the first fret play the scale position forwards and backwards. You’re going to next slide up to fret two again but this time increase the tempo on your metronome by one beat per minute and continue to do this each fret all the way up the neck of your guitar.

Do this starts you off at a pace you’re comfortable with and then builds on it. Once you make it all the way up the neck you’ll have increased your speed by 12-16 beats per minute and hopefully maintained your accuracy and technique Ideally do this exercise for a few weeks maintaining the same starting tempo for at least a few days to ensure you’ve mastered it, then increase your starting tempo.

Exercise 3 – Down & Up Picking

When you first start out learning to play guitar you only pluck the string on the way down. As you advance in your speed exercises you’ll probably find that hitting the string on the way down isn’t enough to play as quickly as you’d like. You need to hit it down and up so you get two plucks of the string in the same time you used to only get one. This can feel uncomfortable at first but we’ll work into it slowly.

First on the open low E string pluck up and down with your pick. Do this for a couple of minutes to get comfortable with it. Next do the same but hit the low E string twice, next go to the 5th string, then the 4th and so on right down to the first string. Now do it in reverse from the 1st string to the 6th string. This exercise will help you feel comfortable picking up and down on all the strings and changing strings.

Finally add in the same pentatonic shape we’ve been using in the first and second exercises. This might feel strange at first, down pick for note one then up pick for note two and switch strings. Moving your fretting fingers and remembering to double pick up and down at the same time takes some getting used to.

If you consistently do these 3 exercises for a period of four weeks you will get faster. I’d urge you to also ensure you’re practicing the other new material and concepts you’re learning as well. You must maintain pace with your guitar lesson dvd or private lesson itinerary. Learning guitar is fun but to be good it takes practice and work. Rest assured how ever if you put the work in you will become a better guitar player.

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