Learn How To Play Fast & Clean On Guitar Using Efficient Guitar Picking Technique

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Why There Is No Secret To Developing Fast And Clean Guitar Playing

It’s commonly thought that becoming a faster and cleaner guitarist requires discovering some kind of secret. Wrong... there are no secrets when it comes to improving speed and accuracy.

Here’s the reality: you become a fast and clean guitarist by having solid guitar playing technique. When you focus on detail, speed and accuracy develop. When you don’t, your playing becomes sloppy when you try to play at faster speeds.

Here are a few ways to spot flaws in your guitar playing technique:

Your Picking Is Ineffective

A lot of guitarists use ineffective picking that wastes movement and makes their playing sloppy at fast speeds.

This commonly occurs from using alternate picking exclusively (while neglecting directional or sweep picking where appropriate). This is noticeable in your guitar playing when you miss notes as you begin to play faster.

You Aren’t Muting Unplayed Strings Properly

A common sign of sloppy guitar playing is having tons of unwanted string noise ring out.

Getting rid of this noise takes the use of both hands.

To get rid of string noise using your picking hand, use your thumb to mute the strings below the one you’re playing. To get rid of noise using your fretting hand, use the edge of your pointer finger to mute strings above the one you’re playing.

For the very best result, use any available fingers on your picking hand to lightly mute strings above the one you are currently playing. When you do all of this correctly, it makes it impossible for unwanted string noise to ring out.

Your Hands Are Out Of Sync

To play a note perfectly, you must strike the string at the exact moment your finger frets it. When one hand is out of sync with the other, the note does not sound clearly and sounds sloppy.

One way to strengthen your two hand synchronization is to practice the item you are working on by double picking each note. This strengthens your technique by forcing you to articulate every note you play.

Don't Make This False Assumption As A Guitar Player

It’s hard to get better on guitar when you focus on what to do instead of what not to do.

This issue is what sends you down the wrong road and can slow your progress for many years.

When you question your premises as a guitarist you open the door to becoming a better player. The following scenario proves this point:

It’s common for guitar players to use alternate picking as their only picking technique. This works for them in some cases, but eventually causes problems when they try to play at faster speeds.

For example, using strict alternate picking to play a basic 5 note per string scale requires unnecessary and inefficient movement that makes fast with accuracy very difficult.

When faced with the mistakes and sloppy playing that come from this, most guitarists begin looking for ways to improve their alternate picking (looking for what to do). This results in never really fixing their issues and not understanding why they have become stuck in their playing.

To make progress in this situation, you need to look for what NOT to do. In this case, alternate picking is causing the problems that need to be fixed. This means the premise of “I need to improve my alternate picking” is false to begin with.

Identifying this helps you understand what not to do. This opens the door to learning new ways to solve your problems. The solution is to use directional picking. Directional picking is the most efficient picking technique in guitar playing.

This eliminates excess motion in your picking movement by finding the shortest path from one note to the next (whether it’s by using alternate picking or sweep picking). Using this technique makes fast guitar playing feel easy and effortless.

There are tons of situations like the one above where you might take the wrong premise and slow down your progress. Avoid this by working together with a great guitar teacher who helps you see when you are on the wrong path and steers you in the right direction.

What Stops You From Getting Better While Learning Guitar On Your Own

Guitarists who learn on their own often don’t know what they need to focus on to get better. This problem keeps you from making fast progress because you are more likely to focus on the wrong things.

Below are just a few examples of ways self-taught players focus on the wrong things.

Make sure you aren’t making the same mistakes:

Looking For New Exercises When You Don’t Get Results From Your Practice

Many guitar players look for exercises instead of making sure their guitar practice strategies are effective. This causes them to become overwhelmed when they pile on as many exercises, tabs or licks they can find... and still don’t get any results.

You save tons of time and reach your musical goals faster by using effective guitar practice strategies. Working with an experienced guitar teacher is the best way to create an effective guitar practice strategy.

This helps you understand exactly what, when and how to practice to get the best results.

Not Consistently Tracking Guitar Playing Progress

It’s a commonly thought that learning new things means making progress.

However, there is much more to it than this. Making significant progress in your guitar playing requires correcting your mistakes and strengthening your weaknesses. This keeps weak areas of your playing from holding you back.

Tracking your progress on guitar each week helps you do this as effectively as possible. When you track and measure every aspect of your guitar playing, you find many things to improve that you never noticed before.

Correcting these things helps you make much more progress than simply playing a new lick, scale or technique.

Thinking That Getting Better Requires Practicing A Lot More

Many guitar players think that they can’t become great unless they spend a lot of time practicing. This leads them to practice for many hours every day.

Some guitarists even feel like there is no point in practicing at all if they can’t practice many hours each day. However, this entire premise is flawed to begin with. Getting better at guitar is based on using high quality practice approaches, not simply practicing more.

You can make infinitely more progress on guitar practicing effectively for half an hour a day than someone who practices ineffectively for 5 hours a day.
 

Exactly like these guitar students of mine did: