3 Myths About Building Guitar Speed That Slow Down Your Progress

Believing in the common guitar speed myths out there makes it hard to get any faster. When you avoid them, you are able to fulfill your potential and reach a new level in your playing speed.

The following are three false myths about how to increase guitar speed and what makes them incorrect:

Myth #1: “It takes 5+ hours of practice every day for many years per day to increase your playing speed.”

Becoming better on guitar relies on quality practice not how much you practice. A lot of guitarists practice many hours every day only to end up with little to no results. These guitarists practice a lot, but don’t know how to practice effectively. When you practice ineffectively, you waste your time and reinforce bad playing habits. Practicing guitar for many hours every day also makes it difficult to focus, making your practice time very ineffective.

To quickly become a faster guitar player, forget about practicing as many hours as possible. Focus on learning what you need to practice and how to practice it effectively.

Myth #2: “Building speed on guitar takes a long time.”

Building speed does not take long when you practice the right things, in the right order and in the right way. The “right things” refers to practicing things that help you improve the areas of your guitar playing that cause you problems. The “right order” refers to practicing these things by prioritizing them by what skills are more urgent to master than others. The “right way” means practicing with focus and attention to make sure you practice as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Myth #3: “Becoming a faster guitarist requires using special exercises.”

You don’t need special exercises in order to get faster at guitar. Speed comes from the development of solid fundamental technique. You become a faster guitar player when you eliminate the mistakes that occur in your technique. An effective way to do this is to isolate them and work on them before integrating your technique together again with other aspects of your playing.

Now that you understand 3 big myths that hold you back from increasing your playing speed, learn how to identify the areas of your playing/technique that are holding you back.

Study this article to find out how to identify mistakes that keep you from being able to play guitar fast and clean.

About The Author:
Tom Hess is a successful professional guitar player, composer and guitar teacher to thousands of guitarists worldwide. With his online guitar lessons, he has helped guitarists drastically improve their guitar skills. To become a better guitar player, go to his website about guitar instruction and see guitar playing video lessons, read guitar practice advice, and check out a free guitar soloing lesson.