3 Myths About Increasing Guitar Speed That Slow Down Your Progress

It’s nearly impossible to become a faster guitar player when you believe common guitar speed building myths. Avoiding these myths opens the door for you to make fast progress.

Here are 3 big myths about building guitar speed and why they are wrong:

Myth #1: “It takes 8 hours of practice over many years per day to build speed.”

Getting results from guitar practice is about quality over quantity. Many guitar players who practice excessive hours per day get poor results. This is because they often don’t know how to practice effectively. Doing this not only wastes your time, but reinforces poor playing habits that keep you from becoming a better guitarist. Additionally, practicing guitar for many hours in a row causes you to lose focus, leading to less efficient practicing.

To quickly become a faster guitar player, forget about practicing as many hours as possible. Focus on learning what you need to practice and how to practice it effectively.

Myth #2: “Building speed on guitar takes a long time.”

Building speed does not take long when you practice the right things, in the right order and in the right way. The “right things” refers to practicing things that help you improve the areas of your guitar playing that cause you problems. The “right order” refers to practicing these things by prioritizing them by what skills are more urgent to master than others. The “right way” means practicing with focus and attention to make sure you practice as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Myth #3: “Becoming a faster guitar player requires special exercises.”

Increasing your speed on guitar does not require finding special exercises. Speed occurs as a byproduct of developing excellent fundamental guitar technique. You increase playing speed by effectively identifying where mistakes occur in your technique, isolating them and fixing them.

Now you know the main myths that prevent you from becoming a faster guitar player. The next step is to learn how to identify the areas of your guitar playing that hold you back from playing fast.

Read this article to learn how to identify mistakes that keep you from playing guitar fast and clean.