How to fix guitar errors that occur when playing at faster speeds
What is the best way to clean your guitar while playing fast? Many guitarists think it’s better to practice things slowly until mistakes are corrected… and then pick up speed over time. This may seem like a good idea on the surface, but you’ll need to do a lot more than this to master guitar playing technique.
Many of your guitar playing problems start to appear when you play fast. When gaming at slower speeds, these same issues seem to go away and are difficult to fix.
Actions to take now to correct errors when playing the guitar at faster speeds:
Choose an exercise to practice that involves some type of repeating pattern, then follow these steps:
Step 1: Find out the exact tempo where your mistakes occur (using a metronome). Keep track of this. As you improve, this rate will increase over time.
Step 2: Set the clicks of the metronome to 5 to 10 ticks below the tempo of Step 1.
Step 3 – Select a single note to focus intensely on, as shown in the video. Allow yourself to play all the other notes in the exercise on autopilot. For now, it’s okay if you make mistakes. Instead of focusing on those errors, just focus on the note you selected.
Step 4: Play your exercise several times until the note you are focusing on is perfect (make sure you can do this at least 8 times out of 10). Work to refine your technique each time you repeat the exercise.
Step 5: Now start concentrating on the next note in the pattern. Let the previous note you were concentrating on go into autopilot mode. Put your full attention on the new note. Make sure your technique is impeccable by analyzing each movement.
Step 6: Repeat steps four and five until all notes in the pattern are perfect.
Step 7: Increase the speed of your metronome to 5 to 10 beats per minute and repeat the entire process.
Tip: Try to practice this process without distortion. This helps you improve your timing with both hands and forces you to pay more attention to each note.
This process is excellent for improving scales, arpeggios, licks, and difficult parts of songs. It also works well when you want to improve any guitar technique (such as sweep picking, string skipping, or trailing hand timing).
What to do if you have a hard time concentrating on a note while practicing
Briefly reduce the notes being played
Pick just a few notes from the exercise you are practicing and repeat them over and over again. Pick a note to focus on and locate it. When you reduce the number of notes you are focusing on, this process becomes easier.
Slowly increase the number of notes you play (one note at a time) until you are playing the entire exercise. By doing this, you will eventually be able to focus on each note and listen to it as you play it. This is crucial to play fast and fair.
Emphasize the note you are focusing on
Play the note you want to focus on using more power. This ensures that you hear it. Then, each time you start to focus on a new note in the exercise, play that note harder.
Critical: make sure you play to the same beat every time! Do not hold the accented note longer than any other note.
Use speed bursts
Using velocity bursts makes it much easier to focus on a single note in any pattern. Play a fast burst of notes, stop for a moment, repeat the burst of speed, and continue this process.
The absence of notes between each burst of velocity is very critical. Helps your mind focus on the notes being played (making it easier to catch mistakes). As you repeat this burst of speed, make any necessary adjustments to clean and articulate each note.
Practicing with bursts of speed develops other areas of your guitar playing. That’s how:
*You can practice at speeds much faster than the tempo at which you usually play. This makes playing fast feel much easier.
*Bursts of speed also help prevent tension buildup in your body. The temporary rest between notes helps you identify when tension is building so you can relax. This helps you play the guitar more consistently and makes playing the guitar feel easier.
Use these practice tips to correct constant guitar playing errors that occur when playing at higher speeds. This makes your guitar playing more precise and consistent, as well as helping you enjoy playing music.
