It’s a fact:
Guitar speed plateaus are extremely frustrating!
It sucks to stay stuck at the same speed for so long.
And the very worst part about it…
… how you start to feel like you’ll never get better.
It’s always in the back of your mind, and it won’t leave you alone.
You begin to think you’ll never get anywhere and maybe you should just quit.
Hit close to home?
You’re about to learn how to burst through your guitar speed road blocks. (It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been stuck.)
First thing: Check out the video below to get started.
You’re about to see how I stepped my students through a practice approach that got him results in just under ten minutes:
Now, you must be wondering: “How do I use this in my guitar playing?”
Easy.
Complete the following steps:
Step 1. Ground Yourself.
What do I mean exactly by the idea of “grounding”?
This means to:
- set an initial baseline for the level of tension you have in your hands as you play (see how to do it in the video).
- practice the precise motions of each hand in isolation from the other to focus more closely on what they feel like.
Watch this free video to see what I mean:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iacQvKMSx6A&feature=emb_title
Step 2. Work On Your “Hand Independence”
Now that you are grounded, what is the next action to take?
I’ll tell you: you have to work on keeping your hands independent of each other as you play.
Here’s what it means:
You’re fretting hand needs to stay relaxed, no matter what your picking hand is doing.
There are tons of ways to develop this in your playing. The video towards the top of this article shows what to do.
Move back and forth between using varying levels of tension as you saw demonstrated.
Question: “Tom Hess, what if I have a hard time with hand independence?”
Answer: Begin with baby steps. Develop hand independence with one note (using speed picking technique). Keep adding more notes until your hands are completely independent.
Step 3. Prepare Your Guitar Technique For Top Speed
What is the critical element for guitar speed?
Wrong answer: “Moving your hands faster.”
Another wrong answer: “Practicing 5 hours per day.”
The actual answer is:
…becoming efficient.
Playing efficient makes playing with speed feel easier and more effortless than ever before.
Check out this video to see what I mean:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjmlFtQ2V8A
(To get even more tips for mastering guitar technique efficiency, check out these guitar playing videos.)
Another Great Concept: Improve your overall usable guitar speed.
This may be a revelation for you if you never heard about it before:
There are actually different types of speed when it comes to guitar playing.
The two most common speed types are:
Potential speed and usable speed.
Potential speed is how fast you are able to move your hands while playing.
Usable speed means the speed where your hands are aligned in perfect sync and everything is totally clean and precise.
Another way to put it is:
Usable speed is the fastest speed you ever people to hear you play at during solos, licks or improvising.
How do you get faster usable guitar speed?
Use these helpful tips right now:
You now understand an easy way to smash through your guitar speed road blocks.
Do there exist more powerful ways to take your speed to the next level?
For sure!
The next action to take to develop blazing guitar speed is studying a powerful guitar practice approach that raises your speed by up to ten percent in less than a day.
Want to get it for free?
Get this free guitar speed training eGuide and discover guitar speed secrets most guitarists never know.
About The Author:
Tom Hess is a guitar teacher online, progressive rock guitarist/composer and a touring musician. He teaches guitar players in his rock guitar lessons online. Go to tomhess.net to get more guitar playing resources and follow him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.
