How To Play Guitar Fast!
Playing fast guitar became famous around the 1980s when most guitarists wanted to play fast like Steve Vai and others. The need for speed has never really gone away, and today guitarists like Satriani still give shredders the taste of what is possible. But its not as easy as it looks, how do you play guitar really fast, because a lot of teachers can’t do it themselves.
There are some basics that can help you build up your speed, and focusing on each of these will reap rewards. You need to work on right hand technique, left hand technique, and know how to practise to build speed rather than just play for fun or to learn new songs. You won’t increase speed and accuracy by developing just one of these areas, and speed without accuracy won’t sound good! Left hand technique takes a while to build up. You need to develop good finger and thumb positions, and good finger movement and accuracy. The two basic thumb positions used by guitarists are over the top of the neck, and resting behind the neck. Behind the neck will give you greater reach on the fret board and better control and stability. If you practice scales and exercises fast in this thumb position, you will maximise your speed over time.
Finger position on the fret board as you play is critical for speed. Your four fingers should hover above the first 4 frets until needed. Again, keeping fingers here will optimise speed when playing scales and exercises. Finger movement is more tricky. Players can either keep a finger down when used until you need to raise it (finger anchoring), or lift each finger as the next one comes down (finger movement). For speed, finger movement is best. Finger accuracy involves consistently fretting a note right behind its fret bar and not just anywhere within the fret. This will give accuracy. Also, always ply with finger tips and not sides. The more consistent you are, the faster and more accurate you will be.
Left hand technique is just as important as the right. How you pick the strings, how you hold the pick and your motion will all have a bearing on speed. Picking can be alternating, sweeping or circular picking, and should probably be acquired in that order as they increase in complexity as well as speed. Alternate picking can still be very fast, and is used by Vai so don’t underestimate it.
How you hold the pick is a matter of taste, but for speed the pick needs to be almost perpendicular to the strings and only using the very tip of the pick to strike the string, in order to decrease resistance. The motion that you use is as important, and you want the motion to come entirely from the wrist for speed, although some people use wrist and elbow effectively. Always avoid using finger and thumb muscles.
All of this will take discipline and practise. You will have to make time everyday to get better, a big splurge at the beginning of the week then nothing for the rest of the week is no good. Remember to practise with a drum machine, start at slow speeds and then increase tempo gradually.
These simple techniques will, with a lot of practise and dedication, get you playing guitar really fast!
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