How To Master Guitar Technique And Play Guitar Fast And Clean

How To Master Guitar Technique And Play Guitar Fast And Clean

By Tom Hess

What do you need to do in order to completely master guitar technique and increase speed? Here’s a hint: you don’t need to practice for 8 hours a day. Instead, you need to practice the right things, at the right time and in the right way. This makes the whole process very easy. Practicing guitar in any other way only slows down your progress and makes the entire process much more difficult than it needs to be.

This video demonstrates how to find the things that prevent you from making progress with your guitar technique:

https://youtu.be/3OsdidE8t0Q

Master the following guitar playing elements and you’ll be able to play with more speed and accuracy:

Guitar Playing Element #1: Using Efficiency In Your Fretting Hand- You need to train your fingers to play notes using your fingertips, while remaining very close to the frets. This limits the effort needed to play a note and keeps your fingers next to the strings.

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Guitar Playing Element #2: Fretting Hand Finger Independence – Reduce the motions of fingers not being used to play notes. For instance: when using the index finger to play a note, your ring finger should not be flailing up away from the strings. This is critical for playing guitar fast without making errors.

Guitar Playing Element #3: Playing Efficiently With Your Picking Hand - Your pick needs to stop between strings after playing each note, and shouldn’t use additional motions causing it to leave the string trench (the space between the strings). This makes faster playing easier and forces you to play more efficiently.

This video shows you how to develop efficiency of motion in your picking technique:

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Guitar Playing Element #4: Picking Hand Articulation – Whenever you attack the strings with your pick, you must do so with force. Both your upstrokes and downstrokes must be played with equal power and articulation.

Important: Focus on how much tension is occurring in your arms/hands whenever you practice picking hand articulation.

Guitar Playing Element #5: Two-hand Synchronization – Both hands must be in exact synchronization whenever you pick a note.

Your hands always need to move quickly together in order to fret and pick notes, regardless of whether you are playing slow or fast. There will be different durations in the notes you play, but your hands must always move quickly. This is critical for becoming excellent at 2-hand synchronization on guitar.

This guide to increasing guitar speed helps you master 2-hand synchronization and improve your guitar speed.

Guitar Playing Element #6: Playing Cleanly – Your guitar playing cannot contain any excess string noise or have strings unintentionally blending together. Unwanted string noise is:

*Noise that comes from the strings below the one(s) you are playing. Eliminate this using muting with your picking hand’s thumb.

* Noise that comes from the strings below the one(s) you are playing. Get rid of this noise by muting with the ring and pinkie fingers of your picking hand.

*Notes blending together when you don’t want them to. This noise is created by the sloppy release of a string after a note is played. Fix this by using distortion and paying close attention to how you release every note.

Tip Setting a higher string action on your guitar is helpful for avoiding notes unintentionally blending together.

Guitar Playing Element #7: Consistency - You must develop the ability to play at your very best every time you pick up your instrument. This means being able to play consistently in any situation, not just playing something correctly once or twice. Developing guitar playing consistency helps you become great at playing in front of other people. This article will show you how to practice guitar to play at your best very consistently.

Guitar Playing Element #8: Solid Metronome Practicing Strategies - The metronome is a tool used to apply fundamental technique and muscle memory into everything you play. It shows you how well you have mastered a particular guitar technique and helps you understand the weak areas that hold back your overall progress.

Guitar Playing Element #9: Tension Control - To minimize tension in your guitar playing, you need to:

1. Get rid of tension being used in parts of your body that aren’t working to play notes on guitar. This means things like your face, your upper shoulders, your upper back, your legs and your chest.

2. Avoid unnecessary fatigue by relaxing your hands in between notes.

These two actions make your guitar playing feel effortless even while playing fast.

Guitar Playing Element #10: Using Your Brain At Fast Speeds - Your brain has to be able to hear notes just as fast as your fingers play them. This helps you:

1. Hear which notes in your playing are unclean.

2. Analyze the results you get through your guitar practice. You need to understand what it sounds like when your playing becomes more clean as a result of practice. This helps you understand whether you on the road to mastering guitar technique or if your guitar practice is inefficient.

Question: “What does it mean to practice the correct things “at the right time”? Do I need to master each element in on its own before moving onto another one?”

Answer: “Right time” does NOT refer to moving along in a linear fashion. The order in which you need to learn new elements in depends on:

*Your personal guitar playing level

*Your specific guitar playing goals

*Your personality and how you learn most effectively

An experienced guitar teacher knows how to analyze your guitar technique and show you exactly what you must practice to master any element in your guitar playing.

This free guide to increasing guitar speed helps you quickly become a faster player.