Many guitar players, especially younger ones, tend to focus more on how fast they play. They don’t focus on their actual guitar technique. I want to focus on why playing guitar fast is not what you should be focusing on when you are learning.
Play it Slow before You play it Fast
You will never play something fast and accurate if you are not playing it at a slow tempo. If you can’t play it at a slow tempo, you will never play it at a fast tempo. You should slow the music down before you start to attempt a faster speed.
When you play music at a slow pace, your fingers learn the location of the notes, and you will gain more muscle memory. you won’t be fumbling over the notes trying to play them at a pace you might not be ready for.
Easy to Make Mistakes
When you focus on playing the guitar as fast as possible, you often make a lot of mistakes. Your fingers may not be ready to play guitar fast. Many guitar players that play fast think they are accurate, but they are making a lot of mistakes. You tend to be quite sloppy when you try to play as fast as you can. It’s often better to slow down and concentrate on each note. Once you can play the notes without mistakes, you can begin at this speed the music up.
Use a Metronome
Using a metronome can help you with your guitar technique. This helps you focus on the passage of music you want to learn. you can also use it to help speed up your guitar playing. You can set the tempo at a slow pace on the metronome. Once you can play the music at a slow pace, you can add a little bit more tempo via the metronome.
Once you can play it at that tempo, you can turn it up even more. The metronome helps teach you proper guitar technique. It helps avoid mistakes that you make when you try to play too fast all at once.
Play Scales
Knowing all the scales and how to play them is the foundation of developing good guitar speed. You need to understand all the positions of the scales and how to connect them.
If you don’t know your scale positions, it’s difficult to develop any sort of guitar speed.
I would focus on the pentatonic minor scale. This is the building block of most guitar solos. By learning this scale, you are well on your way to playing guitar at a fast pace. Get your guitar teacher to show you which scales are best suited for your guitar playing style to help you.
You need to know these scales backward and forwards. You should practice them several times per day. You don’t want to play them as fast as possible. You want to play them without mistakes. Once you can play them that way, you can speed up how fast you play the scale. This is where you can use the metronome.
Focus on Making Music
Everyone likes a fast guitar passage. The problem with playing fast all the time is your music has no dynamics. There are no breaks in the music, no place for the music to breathe, and not a lot of variety. This is why playing fast all the time is not always the best option. You should focus more on making quality music, not how fast you can make that music.
Another problem with playing as fast as possible is that your music starts to sound like one giant scale. If there are no breaks in the music, it starts to be tiring for someone that is listening to it.
Speed Develops Over Time
Once you’ve played guitar for several years, you will get faster at playing the instrument. It’s quite difficult to push this process since you won’t be ready. it takes time for your fingers and your hand to develop the dexterity necessary to play guitar at a fast pace. If you try to rush the process, you will develop a lot of bad habits.
Music is not a speed competition. Music is about creating something that comes from your soul. Your ability to play guitar fast develops with proper technique. Focus on that technique and not the fact that you can’t play at a certain speed.
Conclusion
Don’t judge yourself by how fast you can learn to play the guitar. Your speed will develop over time. it’s not something that you can rush. Concentrate more on your guitar technique and using a metronome. Allow the speed to develop and focus on making good music, not playing as fast as you can.
