One of the biggest challenges we face learning guitar is getting music up to speed.
There’s a saying in the military special-forces community that “Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.” This means that precision and reliability come first, and speed naturally follows. Just think of tying your shoes – we do it quickly because we have each step perfected.
So for reliable speed, we first need good general guitar right hand technique, and left hand technique. Once we are well under way here, we can focus on speed specifically.
Below you’ll find practice methods you can use to speed up your playing, as well as articles on speed in practice.
- A Wicked Left-Hand Exercise: Extended Slurs
- Classical Guitar Speed Bursts
- Guitar Finger Exercises for Strength, Flexibility, and Independence
- How to Create Guitar Exercises from Pieces of Music
- How to Play Guitar with Less Left-Hand Tension
- Keep the Left Hand Fingers Low for More Guitar Speed and Fluidity
- Quick-Prepping Technique for Scales, Speed, and Solidity
- Scale Fragments, for Fluid Scales and Melodic Mastery
- Smooth Shifts and Leaps on the Classic Guitar
- Speed and Precision Exercises for Classical Guitar
- Speed Up Your Guitar Playing, Using Dotted Rhythms
- The Dangers of Speed in Classical Guitar Practice
- The Play-Prepare Double-Movement: The Two Actions of Every Note