Increase speed?

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d8md8m Frets: 2431
Ever since I began playing guitar I've always struggled with playing faster  sections like solos etc.

I just seem to confuse my fingers and wrap them around each other every time I try playing something with a good amount of speed to it.

Any advice on how to get past this?



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Comments

  • RolandRoland Frets: 8591
    edited January 2014
    Try playing the fast section very slowly, even as slow as one note per second, so that your fingers get used to the movements which they need to make.  Think about which strings and fingers sound best for each note, and make for the appropriate changes between notes.  I say "appropriate" rather than "easiest" because sometimes the easiest way of fingering something doesn't give the best sound or feel.

    Once you've worked out the fingering for a section then play it through ten times as slow speed.  This builds "muscle memory". OK, you can speed up a bit, but not so fast that you start to make mistakes.

    After that stop.  Sleep on it.  Overnight your brain will digest what you've learned. When you come back to it the next day you will be able to play it a little faster. Over several days you can increase your playing speed, but not to the point where you get it wrong.  Your fingers need to remember the correct way to play it.  If you play so fast that you make mistakes then you are training your fingers to remember the mistakes.
    Tree recycler, and guitarist with  https://www.undercoversband.com/.
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  • nickpnickp Frets: 183
    wot roland says.  I have always thought I've got a rubbish muscle memory but hey this is what i do

    for specific songs - slow it down as much as poss and get one or two bar sections sorted and then as Roland says gradually speed up.  do i for bleeding hours.  next day you'll have to start slower than you finished previous day and keep going.  It might take weeks before you can just rip through it at will.

    certainly for the trickier stuff that I play with the band, proper settling down with it can take quite a while, until I'm comfortable doing it in front of a pub full of punters.

    re general speed stuff then it goes back to what a lot of guys do here - daily practice with scales and sequencing patterns with a metronome.  over the course of 6 months you should see an appreciable improvement.


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  • CatthanCatthan Frets: 355
    Good advice all.

    One thing to keep in mind is that speedy stuff needs maintenance; iow it's one of the things that go away if you don't keep at it even after you've reached the desired speed. Up to the point that your technique is built and your speed won't drop below a certain point. But even then you'll have to maintain it. You'll also gain speed simply by playing. Focused exercises help to sync the hands and focus on things like accuracy, pitch, relaxation. 

    the most important bit in your struggle to get faster is not to injure yourself. So if you're starting now, start slow, stay relaxed and watch your form.
    Sleeping on what you've practiced, visualizing it in your mind and imagining yourself playing it as it should be played helps a lot!
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  • fretmeisterfretmeister Frets: 23964
    I like a slightly more long-winded approach.

    Pick a speed where you can play it PERFECTLY. And I do mean perfectly.

    Then on day 2, increase the speed by, say 4 bpm. Play it PERFECTLY.

    Then on day 3 - REDUCE the speed by 2 bpm. You are still 2 bpm faster than day 1, but today should be easier than the 4 bpm day.

    Then day 4 - up 4bpm (now at 6), then day 5 down 2 again to 4 bpm.

    This basically builds in a lower pressure rest day that should be easier and lets your brain catch up.


    Practice only makes permanent. Only Perfect Practice makes Perfect.
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  • monquixotemonquixote Frets: 17485
    tFB Trader
    "Speed is a product of accuracy" is a guitarist cliche because it is true. 

    Many people approach playing fast bits by learning to play them fast badly, but you need to learn how to play them well slowly and then get faster. 

    Also play with a drum machine or metronome. Nothing sounds more amateurish than slowing down on the tricky bits.
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  • As all the above plus
     - Learn to tap you foot/nod your head/ move some part of your body with the beat. Practice to a metronome/beat and get this tapping to be second nature. Eventually you can internalise it to the point you don't have to move at all but you need to be locked to that pulse.
     - Relax! Speed comes from relaxation and accuracy. And stamina. Tension just slows you down and tires you out.
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  • vizviz Frets: 10647
    Practise long runs with dotted rhythms, both ways - birdie birdie, and giraffe giraffe (I just made those up) - and also picked both ways (up-down up-down, and down-up down-up).
    Roland said: Scales are primarily a tool for categorising knowledge, not a rule for what can or cannot be played.
    Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
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  • Metronome!

    Buy one.  Use it, every day.  

    Using a metronome slowed me down.  For the first few days.

    Then I started improving at an amazing rate compared to beforehand, and it serves to remind me at how hard it is to keep an internal rhythm.  

    Practice a lick, be it picked or legato or sweep or whatever, at a speed that lets you get it PERFECT.  Then repeat it a few times at that speed.  Then increase metronome by 5bpm and repeat.  If it's too quick, go back a couple.  

    It takes ages, and I'm not a shred god, but I'm a lot better than I was, and it's helped with my rhythm playing greatly, too.
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  • RedRabbitRedRabbit Frets: 483
    The best progress I've made on this front is following Troy Stetina's Speed Mechanics book.  It's pretty metal focused which isn't really my thing but the exercises are structured well and the approach seems to work for me.

    In the past my expectations have probably got in the way.  I wasn't improving as quickly as I thought I should be and packed it in.  At the moment I'm focussing on exercises to strengthen my little finger and it's taken a good few weeks to make any noticeable progress.

    I'm still not "quick" by any means but I'm getting there any my playing is noticeably cleaner than it was.
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  • BarneyBarney Frets: 614
    Work on the sections you are struggling with...or iff its most of it work on a couple of bars at a time then link them ...then pracictice accross the links..and of course everything that's been said above ..
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  • LewyLewy Frets: 4126

    Since starting to try and play bluegrass a few years back I've been trying hard to increase speed (mostly right hand pick speed as you pretty much have to pick every note to be heard in an acoustic context). After a long time of not getting very far by taking the "only add a few BPM once you can play it perfectly" approach, I discovered a player and teacher called Steve Kauffman who has a slightly different way of thinking. He says that speed is a forced issue and the only way you play faster is by, well, playing faster. Most of those real bluegrass pickers acquired their speed from trying to keep up as kids in jams where people where playing fast and that's where his approach comes from.

    He starts from the same place - learn to play it perfectly slowiy first. But then you jack up the tempo straight away to 30-40% faster than your play-it-perfectly tempo. When you inevitably crash and burn go back to your play-it-perfectly tempo for a bit, then try again at 30-40% up. No inbetween tempos. The logic being that you're getting your fingers used to moving quickly even if you're not playing it perfectly. It gets easier each time you up the tempo because your muscles aren't shocked by having to move a lot faster.

    It's the antithesis of a lot of conventional thinking about building speed but it's building up my speed more effectively than adding a few bpm a day which I was trying to do before.....

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  • vizviz Frets: 10647
    edited February 2014
    I think the only risk with that approach is that you can't help but pick up habits and tricks and shortcuts like hammer ons and pull offs which become ingrained. If you really absolutely want to avoid that, i think the incremental approach is the safest.
    Roland said: Scales are primarily a tool for categorising knowledge, not a rule for what can or cannot be played.
    Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
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  • steamabacussteamabacus Frets: 1258
    edited February 2014

    Lewy said:

    Since starting to try and play bluegrass a few years back I've been trying hard to increase speed (mostly right hand pick speed as you pretty much have to pick every note to be heard in an acoustic context). After a long time of not getting very far by taking the "only add a few BPM once you can play it perfectly" approach, I discovered a player and teacher called Steve Kauffman who has a slightly different way of thinking. He says that speed is a forced issue and the only way you play faster is by, well, playing faster. Most of those real bluegrass pickers acquired their speed from trying to keep up as kids in jams where people where playing fast and that's where his approach comes from.

    He starts from the same place - learn to play it perfectly slowiy first. But then you jack up the tempo straight away to 30-40% faster than your play-it-perfectly tempo. When you inevitably crash and burn go back to your play-it-perfectly tempo for a bit, then try again at 30-40% up. No inbetween tempos. The logic being that you're getting your fingers used to moving quickly even if you're not playing it perfectly. It gets easier each time you up the tempo because your muscles aren't shocked by having to move a lot faster.

    It's the antithesis of a lot of conventional thinking about building speed but it's building up my speed more effectively than adding a few bpm a day which I was trying to do before.....

    I remember being given the advice that you learn to play something at about 2/3 full tempo (perfectly) and then you bring it back up to full speed. That seems similar (though I can't be bothered to do the maths).
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  • I'ce recently written a fast tapping line that sits on top of a few chords.  It starts with a tapped 3 string arpeggio with a constant 2 note right hand tap drone, then has a melody to outline the next two chords in the progression.  

    It's 180bpm, which is pretty quick.  

    I learnt the part at 90bpm, just to make sure I got my hands heading to the right places, then built speed incrementally to about 130bpm.  

    From there, if I increased incrementally, I'd struggle to stay in time - my fingers naturally wanted to go quicker. So I raise the tempo to 170bpm and it's nailed.  From here, I'll build up 1bpm at a time until it's flawless.  
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