How to Play Guitar Fast: A Simple Set of Guidelines pt 2

Hello fellow axe-slingers. Welcome back, as promised here is the continuation of the previous article How to Play Guitar Fast: A Simple Set of Guidelines pt1. First and foremost, I hope you already have established your comfortable setting and positioning. Otherwise, don’t worry and carry on figuring these things out. You’ll get it in no time.


Pick Gauge

Use the appropriate thickness of plectrum. Most of us have been used to thin picks in strumming chords early on when we were just beginning to play guitar. But at this point we are trying to learn how to play fast guitar solos which is played almost always by picking one string at a time and not 2 or more as when we play chords. The reason for this is for a better accuracy in terms of timing. If your pick is thin and floppy, more often than not your pick yields and bends a little bit before it actually plucks the string and play a note. Now think of the time it would have spent for that to occur. Not much really but the thing is you would have played out of time for a single note. Let alone if we played tens or hundreds of notes within a guitar solo section. It’s going to be a struggle! So always opt for the heavy pick gauge. Also, you might have heard about the V-pick, it’s a new product on the market. It’s made of acrylic glass and looks very nice. And the thickness is something guitar players all over the world have never seen, it’s crazy! But it’s definitely the best pick you could ever have. Search it on Google, eBay, and YouTube.


Note Divisions

This is simply determining how many notes per beat is being played, steady 16th notes (4 notes per beat), 8th note triplets (3 notes per beat), 16th note triplets or sextuplets (6 notes per beat) are the commonly used ones for fast guitar solos. To practise this, you can use the scales mentioned in the previous articles on major and minor scales and play them over a slow tempo on the metronome or drum machine. And as you get comfortable, gradually increase the tempo to a maximum 5bpm each time and repeat the process.

Now as for the feel of these divisions, 16th notes sounds like saying “ALLIGATOR” repeatedly in a steady rhythm and the 8th and 16th notes sound like “CROCODILE” repeatedly in a steady rhythm. For a good resource on this topic of note divisions, watch John Petrucci’s Rock Discipline DVD. You can find excerpts on YouTube too but watch out for the funny overdubs, there are so many bored and naughty up-loaders there!

String Action

This refers to the distance of the strings from the fret board. It would help a lot and increase your guitar’s playability if the action is lowered as far as possible without the risk of fret buzz each time you fret and bend a string. It is always a good idea to take your guitar to a nearest luthier (guitar tech) and have it set up.


Maintain your Guitar


Take good care of your guitar, treat it as though it were your best friend or even a lover and it will be obedient to you! Always use string cleaner before and after every use and polish it often. This is nothing mythical or fairy tale. Just do it and see what I mean.


For best practising results review How to Practise Guitar