Tuesday 16 April 2013

Improving Your Speed

As I said in one of my previous articles, speed isn't everything. You can be a very good guitarist without playing fast, but it is a very useful skill. If you're a beginner, don't move on to speed exercises. Focus on your technique and accuracy for now.

The first step to playing fast is working on your accuracy. You simply wont be able to play fast and sound good if your technique is bad. The simplest thing you can do to get accurate is practice scales. The thing that help me the most was probably the starting riff from ''Thunderstruck'' by AC DC, because it synchronises your hands. 

Another thing you can do to sounding more accurate is improving your timing. This isn't hard and doesn't require you to make any special effort. All you have to do is to play with a metronome. Seriously, every time you sit down to play, play with a metronome. All the great guitarists have great timing. You don't even have to pay any real attention to it, as long as you know it's there and you can hear it your timing is improving. 

Don't rush it. Take your time with scales, riffs and exercises. If you try to play fast too soon and without really knowing the riff you will sound very messy.

This is a very basic exercise, but quite a good one. Start slowly and gradually speed up when you feel confident enough. This is just a patter and you can play it on any frets and strings. You can practice this when you're watching TV. It gets your fingers used to it.


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This is a bit like Thunderstruck. Synchronises your hands.


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