3 Tips For Scary Speed on the Guitar

There is absolutely no doubt that when approaching speed building you need to realise that accuracy comes first. The synchronisation of the right and left hand when learning the lick, exercise or rhythm part is essential to have a great platform to build speed. If the accuracy is there in those first stages, the speed will come. If it's not, the speed will not either… it's simple like that!

So, with that said, let's dive into my top 3 speed-building tips that will start to unlock this part of your playing for you.

Tip 1 - Consistency is king.

I believe this has to be point number 1 on this list. There is no amount of quick tips here, a small adjustment there, that will get you to lighting fast, scary speeds! Speed training is like any other kind of training where you are building a muscle, it requires time and consistency.

Let's compare speed building to muscle building for one second. If any of you have tried to build some muscle up by going to the gym you will know full well that you don't see much happening in a few weeks… It's only after a solid 6 months or so of regular training, with good eating that you see the differences. This is the type of timescale that is involved with speed building as well.

I would therefore take some time in the early phase of this new habit you're about to build to jot out a practice plan. This can simply start with when you will practice, and where. For example, you might say "I'm going to practice after work, at around 7 pm every night in the weekdays for around 30 minutes". Fantastic! That's a pretty rock-solid plan, and it's flexible enough to work.

On top of that, you might also want to clarify where you'll practice, as having a guitar plugged into an amp or headphones ready to go is a great idea. This will save you time and help you get started easier when you come to sit down.

Without consistency and having regular practice time, no other tip will make much difference, which is why I wanted to put this one first! Let's now jump into tip number two…

Tip 2 - Use a drum beat/metronome

Now you have your daily practice time and space set up and planned out, let's make sure you have an integral tool that will become your best speed-building friend (even if at first it will feel like your enemy!)...The metronome or drum beat.

Whether you use a metronome or a drum loop is very up to you, but let me try and outline the difference between the two, and why you might choose one over the other.

Metronome vs Drum loop

A metronome is that lovely little "click click click" sound that you often hear musicians practising with, and it's classic. In many ways it's the simplest and the best - It plays you the BPM you require, but doesn't complicate anything with different beat patterns. However, it can be hard to listen to and focus on at first, as the sound is quite subtle. The drum loop, however, is far less subtle and this can be a good thing in the early days while you're still trying to find the beat.

A way to measure progress…

The other cool function of using a beat in your practice is to easily have a measuring post. As I mentioned in the course I just finished, our general goal is 150BPM, 16th notes. However, this is a long way off for many of us. With that in mind, starting at around 70BPM, for example, gives us our stick in the sand initially, and we can slowly, gradually, drip by drip, build on that. Every 10BPM can be a new milestone as you gradually work up towards that 150BPM speed!

So, we have our time set out for practice, we have our BPM tools to work with, now for tip number three…

Tip 3 - Practice licks above exercises!

This is a big one for me, especially if you have a limited amount of practice time. There are so many reasons to practice musical phrases and licks rather than non-musical "guitar gym" exercises when you're looking to build speed, and I want to talk about all of them.

So, this is my first main point as to why you may be better off using licks to develop speed; It's just more useable! You've spent hours and hours trying to get a pentatonic lick up to 120BPM+, and you wanna see the fruits of that work. Well, nothing is more fruitful than using it in your improvisation to blow the audience's minds when you fire through it after playing some more delicate tasteful phrases.

That immediate usage of the phrase will improve your improvisation and help you understand subdivisions even more. Talking about subdivisions…

Subdivisions within the phrase

That's another great reason to use a lick rather than an exercise. The lick will likely have 8th notes, 4th notes, triplets, 16th notes and more! This combination of subdivisions will help make the lick sound more authentic, and allow you to move in and out of the really fast lines, balanced with the more melodic parts.

If you can also go that one step further and recognise what those subdivisions are, you have even more control over your playing and improvisation.

Conclusion

I hope you have enjoyed this little speed-building blog post, and I hope it inspires you to apply these three tips in your journey. Remember, the tips are in order of importance. It doesn't matter that you're working with musical phrases if you don't use a beat to measure progress, and it doesn't matter if you use a beat and a phrase if you're not showing up most days to practice it! Simple as that, and that's the harsh truth of the day from me 😂 All the best guys, and speak soon!