3 Steps For Breaking Through Your Guitar Speed Plateau In 1 Day

By Tom Hess

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Let’s face it:

Having to deal with a guitar speed plateau sucks!

Who wants to feel like they have to play guitar at the same speeds for months and years?

And the worst part is…

… the self-doubt.

It’s always there, like a splinter in your mind – driving you mad.

You start wondering if you really have what it takes to play guitar as fast as you want.

Sound familiar?

Today, I show you a simple way to shatter any guitar speed plateau you come across.

(It works even if you’ve been stuck for years and don’t have a lot of time to practice.)

To begin, check out the video demonstration below.

Watch, as I walk one of my students through a practice method that made him overcome his guitar speed plateau in just 9 minutes:

How can you apply this to your guitar playing? Simple. Follow these steps to play guitar faster than ever:

Step 1. Ground Yourself.

What is “grounding”? It means to:

- set a baseline for how much tension you use when you play (the video shows how to do it).

- practice the motions of each hand in isolation to learn what they feel like.

Check out this video to see what I mean:
 

Step 2. Develop “Hand Independence”

After you ground yourself, what is your next step?

Answer: to keep your hands independent of each other. To put it simply:

Keep your fretting hand relaxed, even if you pick really hard. There are many ways to train this skill. Watch the video at the top of this page to see how.

Alternate between different levels of tension like you saw in the video as my student overcame his guitar speed plateau.
 

Question: “Tom Hess, what if I struggle to play guitar with solid hand independence?”

Answer: Start small. Practice hand independence on one note (using tremolo picking). Add more notes as your hands become more independent of each other.
 

Step 3. “Lubricate” Your Guitar Technique For Maximum Speed

What’s the #1 key to guitar speed?

It’s not “moving your hands faster”.

It’s also not “practicing for hours per day”.

The answer is:

…efficiency.

It’s like a lubricant for your guitar technique that  helps you play guitar effortlessly and smoothly.

Watch this video to see what I mean:
 

(To see even more tips on how to play guitar with efficient technique, check out these guitar practice videos.)
 

Bonus tip: Maximize your usable guitar speed.

This may come as a surprise, but: There are different types of guitar speed.

The 2 most common ones are:

Potential speed and usable speed.

Potential speed is how fast you can move your hands. Usable speed is the speed where your hands are in sync and you play guitar accurate and clean.

In other words:

Usable speed is the fastest you ever want anyone to hear you play :) How do you play guitar with more usable speed?

Check out these 7 super actionable tips that are great for breaking through any guitar speed plateau:
 

You now know a simple way to break through your a guitar speed plateau.

Are there more easy guitar speed tips to help you play guitar faster?

You bet!

The next step to use a breakthrough guitar practice method to help you play guitar with double the speed and cuts your practice time in half.

Want to learn it for free?

Download this free guitar speed eGuide & overcome your guitar speed plateau today.

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About Tom Hess: Tom Hess is a guitar teacher, music career mentor and guitar teacher trainer. He teaches rock guitar lessons online to students from all over the world and conducts instructional live guitar training events attended by musicians from over 50 countries.

Transform your guitar playing with rock & metal guitar lessons.