Need For Speed

It's a common dream amongst the guitar player community: standing on stage in front of an audience and watching as they go crazy while your fingers fly across the fretboard during your mind-numbingly awesome solo! While this vision is absolutely attainable, it does take time, discipline and the right frame of mind.

First and foremost, the most important thing you need if you plan on building up speed is a metronome. I cannot stress this enough! Using a metronome while you practice will allow you to develop the proper timing that is necessary to play quick riffs and licks. You see, speed really isn't about playing fast at all. It's about the timing.

By timing I mean being able to play a note at exactly the right time. If a note is even a little bit too early or too late it can make the passage being played sound too rushed or too slow. This is why practicing with a metronome is so very important. When practicing a speed building exercise you have to start off slow, making sure that every note is perfectly in time with the beats of the metronome. Once you master an exercise at a certain speed, then you can make it a little bit faster. Once you've mastered the exercise at the new speed, you can make it a bit faster than that, and so on. Yes it does take time, but it is well worth the effort.

Here's an exercise that's great not only for helping to develop proper timing, but is also a great way you work on your alternate (up/down) picking.

(4/4 time) With alternate picking
E ----------------------------------------------------
B ----------------------------------------------------
G ----------------------------------------1--2--3--4--
D ----------------------------1--2--3--4--------------
A --------------1--2--3--4----------------------------
E --1--2--3--4----------------------------------------

E --------------1--2--3--4----4--3--2--1--------------
B --1--2--3--4----------------------------4--3--2--1--
G ----------------------------------------------------
D ----------------------------------------------------
A ----------------------------------------------------
E ----------------------------------------------------

E ----------------------------------------------------
B ----------------------------------------------------
G --4--3--2--1----------------------------------------
D --------------4--3--2--1----------------------------
A ----------------------------4--3--2--1--------------
E ----------------------------------------4--3--2--1--

This exercise can be played using any rhythm you want, but I suggest you start out with either quarter notes (1 note per beat) or eighth notes (2 notes per beat). Once you feel comfortable with the rhythm you start with, then you can move on to sixteenth notes (4 notes per beat), triplets (3 notes per beat), sixteenth note triplets (6 notes per beat), etc.
Once you find yourself getting good at that, you can shake things up a bit by skipping strings.

(4/4 time) With alternate picking
E ----------------------------------------------------
B ----------------------------------------------------
G ----------------------------------------1--2--3--4--
D ---------------1--2--3--4---------------------------
A ----------------------------1--2--3--4--------------
E --1--2--3--4----------------------------------------

E ----------------------------------------1--2--3--4--
B --------------1--2--3--4----------------------------
G ----------------------------1--2--3--4--------------
D --1--2--3--4----------------------------------------
A ----------------------------------------------------
E ----------------------------------------------------

E --4--3--2--1----------------------------------------
B ----------------------------4--3--2--1--------------
G --------------4--3--2--1----------------------------
D ----------------------------------------4--3--2--1--
A ----------------------------------------------------
E ----------------------------------------------------

E ----------------------------------------------------
B ----------------------------------------------------
G --4--3--2--1----------------------------------------
D ----------------------------4--3--2--1--------------
A --------------4--3--2--1----------------------------
E ----------------------------------------4--3--2--1--

You can also do this exercise with different finger combinations.

2314-4132
1324-4231
2413-3142
1423-3241

These are just a few of the possible combinations out there. See if you can find your own.

One last thing before I'm done. Remember that playing fast isn't everything. For most beginning guitar players it's easy to get wrapped up in the idea that being a great guitarist is equated with being able to play really fast. This however is not the case. It takes a lot to be a great guitar player, and while speed most definitely contributes to that, it really isn't the most important thing a guitarist should be able to do. Often times the most beautiful sounding songs are ones where the guitarist was able to exercise restraint and only play those notes that best fit the song. It's all about context and the quality of the notes you play, not how fast you play them.

Stay tuned for my next blog!

Until then, take care!

Michelle