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Well, I’m working on chords and my pentatonic scales right now. Everything seems to be going well so far but I have no speed at all. I can’t go any fast than eighth notes with the metronome set at 94 bpm. Any time I try everything just falls apart. I end up fretting wrong notes my two hands go out of sync and I lose all musicality in the sound. What kind of exercises can i do to solve this issue. I can’t seem to find any lessons that cover this. TIA
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Brian teaches how to improvise on the guitar, not how to play the guitar, so you won’t find much technique-oriented stuff on Active Melody.
Repeatedly running up and down some scales will not help you develop virtuosity because finger movements are way too predictable when playing scales. You need specific exercises to develop timing (control) and finger strength and those exercises will be different if you are playing with a pick or finger style.
You’ll find many such exercises on the internet if you look for “guitar hand synchronization exercises” for example. But be careful: all those exercises can quickly result in tendonitis, particularly if you’re older. So don’t overdo them.Learning to play reasonably fast takes time: at least several months and possibly several years depending on your goals.
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Practice slowly and then when the piece is fully absorbed at a low speed just notch the metronome up a small amount and get that comfortable and so on using very small increments speed will accrue over time and use as is stated speed will build naturally sadly it’s not an instant gain.
Time playing scales precisely is never wasted and may indeed help your dexterity. There is an exercise called the spider walk which I can testify works really well. I run through 12 frets worth of it up and then down most times I pick up a guitar. There are various versions of it but avoid those that don’t use the pinky in my view. The essential thing is to keep the fingers in place until all four notes have been played play islowly with a view to precision will be the way to go. By going relatively slowly you stretch the finger tendons etc and yo will find that that then permits greater dexterity a month of that twice a day will likely help you see a considerable difference. If starting at the first fret is too much of a stretch move up to say the fifth fret or where is comfortable and the say run up to the 12th fret and then come back down..obviously you now have to take your fingers off as the note is played.do that for a while and then move the start point back a fret until you can run from the first fret to the twelfth and back with fluent precision. It’s actually good fun in my mind so I hope that helps. Don’t strain your fingers doing this as you can cause injury if you over do it.
JohnStrat
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Hi Jeff,
You are not alone, I always wish I could play faster.
Tom Hess is one of the YouTube teachers dedicated to increasing speed among guitarists.
In this video he explains factors that limit speed. He emphasizes hand positioning, efficiency of movement and relaxation. These are points that could be used in conjuction with the Spider Walk above or other exercises that involve different finger fretting combinations and string skipping. You could do all the exercises in the world but if you don’t achieve efficiency and relaxation you will be limited.
John-
Charjo You nailed it on the head. Relaxation is a huge problem for me. my hands seem to take every fretting of a note as an individual action. instead of a smooth flowing of the fingers like I see in most guitarist I admire. It even goes to my left hand with picking. I had the same issue 30 years ago when I played. Its was one of the main reasons i lost interest and moved on to other things. I really dont want to be a blazing fast blitzkreig of notes. Just fast enough to get through a semi tough lead or rhythm segment. Right now I working on From The Beginning by ELP. Its still just a tad out of my range speed wise.
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@JohnStrat:
I fully agree with you. When I said “simply walking up and down some scales” I did mean “simply”, i.e. ascending and descending a scale in regular sequence.! The spiderwalk is very different. It’s one of those exercises that really help strengthen the fingers (and get you a very severe tendonitis as well!! Speaking from experience…). It also helps with synchronization.
@charjo
Every now and then I seem to agree with Tom Hess 😉
The point about relaxation is a very valid one. -
Jeff
Speed is relative. It depends on how you want to use it. It shouldn’t be used as an ends in itself. Melodic and tasteful solo passages should be the goal. Fast notes have to fit into the context of the song your are trying to play. Somebody once said “You are playing a lot of notes but not saying anything.” Are you trying to play Freeboard fast, or metal shredding fast or bluegrass fast? They are all different types of fast and require different positions on the neck and use of licks.Slow down what you are trying to play; listen carefully to it. Break it down into sections (Chunking)
Practice it slowly (Use Soundslice moving tablature). Like Brian uses or YouTube
Use backing track mp3 in your digital audio work station (GarageBand) and loop the trouble spots-play along; drill; repeat… your hands might hurt
Be patient, for most of us this doesn’t come overnight
Repetiton-perfect practice makes perfectRemember its a lot of hard work. Speed is enhanced by knowing licks, hammer-ons, pull offs, arpeggios and where you are on the neck… there are so many variable to developing speed. I hope this helps.
JH
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Hi John,
I wouldn’t want to improve my picking speed just for speed’s sake. I would want to improve my technical ability to make all playing less near the limit of my ability for ease of learning, reproducability and less apprehension of playing live.
So many of the classic rock songs have tempos of 130 bpm or higher and tend to drag if you don’t get the tempo up there.
John-
John-
I get it. I didn’t mean to poopoo on the thread. One thing I learned from Brian is speed isn’t everything. But I have to admit, I have dabbled in trying to improve my technical abilities so I could play tunes like Freebird, Jessica, the outros to Sweet Home Alabama and a few other classic rock solos. I agree, building speed is more about adopting the technical skills necessary for playing passages in rapid fashion.
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Hmmm….it seems to me that doing a deep dive into the lesson for this month’s Monthly Challenge – EP549 – might go a long way toward improving speed and accuracy. Are you planning to participate in the January Challenge? If not, you should give it a try. It will force you to work on speed.
Sunjamr Steve
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