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4 Tips To Make Playing Guitar Fast A Lot Easier

Tennyson WilliamsTennyson is author of The Essential Guide to Guitar Virtuosity, which is an excellent ebook we recommend and can be downloaded from guitarspeedsecret.com. He’s just sent us this brand new lesson on playing faster, if you like this lesson make sure you visit his site!

Though these tips won’t bless you with the power of the shredding Miyagi, or help you to channel the late and great Shawn Lane, they may certainly help to take the work load off a bit. I mean, playing guitar fast can be difficult enough. right? Basically, these 4 tips are little ways that you may be able to “cheat” at playing fast guitar, but I wouldn’t put all my money on them, even though a lot of well established guitar shredders do these things as well. In other words, these following 4 tips for guitar shredom can make up a small part of the equation, but are by far NOT the equation.

1. Tune it all out!

The standard tuning for the guitar has always been E Standard, and its a very shred-worthy tuning, but it does tend to make for some really taught strings. If you are absolutely sick of the insane tension in your guitar strings, consider tuning down a half step to D flat, or even to a complete whole D tuning. Hell, you may even want to take it a step further and tune down to something like C, A-la Corrosion of Conformity, or C.O.C. I personally tend to stick with the old standard E, or drop D, but I am starting to consider playing in full D tuning, but mainly because I like the sound better. In fact a lot of famous axe men play in full D, which is becoming the new standard.

2. Action-Jackson!

No, no, I’m not talking about Jackson guitars or that stupid thing that Jon Stewart said, I’m talking about adjusting the action of your strings. To me, this is not a trick nor cheating – this is an absolute must! I had this incredible Ibanez when I was a kid, but I could do anything on it because the action was aweful. We’re talkin’ strings like a half inch off of the fretboard, but I didn’t know any better till I got a newer guitar that had proper action. Getting the action lower to the fretboard means that your fretting hand fingers can travel better, and it may do wonders for string tension problems.

Be careful. If you don’t feel up to the task, have a profession do it instead. Resetting the action can be tedious and frustrating, and you can really mess things up if you aren’t careful. However, if you suspect that your strings may be a little on the high side, then you’d be amazed at how this little tweak can drastically improve your guitar performance. Just make sure that you don’t get it solo that you get any buzz – like that? so-lo? eh? eh?

3. Its SOOOO THICK!!!!

Ok, that’s just plain old creepy, but using a thicker pick is preferred by most professional shredders, because using a thicker pick can give those pesky strings and areas of string tension a run for their money. As always, I recommend that you switch it up every now and again. Doing so is very good for the picking hand, and learning to pick with other in-animate objects is always helpful training (a quarter, poker card, poker chip, washer).

4. Get your strap on!

I hate to tell ya if you’re one of those guys, but the days of Nirvana and low slung guitars are over (for now). Anyways, point is, its never been cool to have your guitar gracing the stage, and everyone knows it, but I want to take this thing a step further. I’m sure that if and when you play standing up that you have your strap set at a reasonable length, but there is nothing wrong with a little refinement.

Test different lengths, because the slightest lowering or raising of even a quarter of an inch can do wonders for your wrists, and your hand’s response time.

In Conclusion

In conclusion, some of if not all of these techniques may be greatly beneficial to your playing, and if you have never thought about doing any of these things before, I highly recommend that you try at least one, if not all! However, it would probably be best just to start with one and see if it helps your playing, that way you can know for sure exactly which tip helped improve your picking and fretting performance.

Guide to Guitar Virtuosity

None of these articles can truly do for your playing what The Essential Guide To Guitar Virtuosity can – get your copy today!

Copyright © 2009 Tennyson Williams. All rights reserved.


Tennyson Williams is an accomplished guitar instructor and author of The Essential Guide To Guitar Virtuosity. To find out more visit his main site at: http://www.guitarspeedsecret.com

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