How to play guitar faster: Expert tips, tricks and hacks for faster guitar playing

Playing guitar fast might feel like a dream if you’re a beginner or intermediate, but with a few simple tips and tricks, your guitar might just turn red from you playing so fast 🙂

I felt like I was using the snail method to play guitar initially, OMG.

It was incredibly frustrating because I was motivated to learn to play guitar faster, but my mind and fingers were so slow and clumsy.

Once I had these 10 tricks and exercises, I knew how to get better at guitar much faster and my speed increased by around 20% within a week.

Let me show you how you can too…

What are the 4 cornerstones of speeding up your guitar playing? 

Every guitar learner wants the keys to the Ferrari, but first, you need to know how to drive the family minivan. 

It ultimately comes down to moving across the fretboard and strings by feeling as comfortable and relaxed as possible.

Knowing how to get faster on guitar means understanding the four cornerstones of speed.

1. Picking mechanics
2. Maintaining musicality
3. Using the right gear
4. Slow practice

To some, these can initially seem like speed bumps that slow you down – but stick with me and I’ll show you why the cornerstones win in the long run.

What gear to play guitar fast?

Now, it’s wayyy more about the player than the gear, but you and I both know that guitarists are a little obsessed with buying new toys.

Here are some things you can buy if you want to optimize your guitar-playing speed.

Get pick smart!

Your tools are essential if you want to learn how to play guitar fast. 

How you hold the pick is just as important as how you move it.

• Spend some time thinking about the most comfortable position to hold the pick in – you might prefer to use the edge or the flat side of the pick.  
• The pick impacts your tone, as does the picking technique you employ (economy, hybrid, or sweep picking).

• The type of pick that you use can be very influential – try out different shapes and textures to find what works for you.

Shape, texture, size, and comfort can all be factors in helping you find a pick that’s best suited to your hands and style of playing.

Lots of jazz guitarists use a Jim Dunlop Jazz III pick because of their size and sharp point, making it easy to cross the strings and continue alternate picking when playing very chromatic melodies with the fretting hand.

Different types of guitar pick

Here are a few popular shapes of guitar pick.

Take a more in-depth look at picking tips with our Isaiah Sharkey interview:

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What are the best guitar strings for speed?

Strings are the connection point between you and the guitar, so it’s good to know what’s on offer.

If you are an electric guitar player who dreams of shredding like Van Halen, you might look into 0.09 gauge strings – they can make tapping and legato feel easier.

I recommend you try out a few different types until you find the perfect set of strings.

Here are some tips for finding the right strings for you:

• Lowering the gauge of your strings can feel much more forgiving on your hands when playing chords and require less effort to press down on the strings.
• Consider getting a professional set up by a local guitar shop.
• Set-ups can radically reduce the action and string height of your guitar and make it far easier to practice picking and fretting techniques.

Strings come in all kinds of materials and can heavily influence your tone as well as the ease of playing.

Check out our fantastic article on guitar strings if you want to know more.

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What are the fastest guitars?

When it comes to speed, certain guitars are designed to make playing fast and smooth a lot easier. 

The fastest guitars typically feature slim necks, lightweight bodies, and low-action setups, which allow players to move across the fretboard with minimal resistance. 

If you’re in the market for a guitar that makes it easier to play fast, here are my recommendations.

Superstrat Guitars

Superstrats, like the Ibanez RG or Jackson Dinky, are iconic for their thin neck profiles, flat fretboards, and deep cutaways. 

These features allow for easy access to the upper frets and facilitate fast alternate picking, tapping, and legato playing.

Floyd Rose Tremolo Systems

Many of the fastest guitars come equipped with a Floyd Rose tremolo system, which lets players dive bomb and bend notes without going out of tune. 

Although this isn’t directly connected to speed, most of the fastest shredders opt for a floating bridge like this.

It allows you to execute shredtacular whammy bar tricks.

Ergonomic Designs

Guitars like the Strandberg Boden are designed with ergonomic shapes and headless designs, reducing the overall weight of the guitar while optimizing playability. 

The lighter feel allows for quicker movement, especially during long practice or performance sessions.

For players focused on speed, it's important to choose a guitar that complements their technique and style, offering both comfort and the ability to handle intricate, fast passages.

The speed devil is in the details  

As you look deeper into the abyss of technical guitar playing, it can feel like an endless wormhole of tips, tricks, and exercises – micro adjustments are the key to unlocking it all.

Develop your ability to play guitar faster by paying attention to the small details in your technique. 

Sometimes perfecting one exercise is better than trying to learn twenty new ones.

Ask yourself these helpful questions while you practice:

• How much of the pick is hitting the strings? – Reducing the surface area of the pick as it hits the strings can be a minor detail with a major upside.
• How far is your pick moving away from the strings when picking?
• Are your fretting fingers moving too far away from the fretboard?

Guitar speed exercise

Learning how to improve guitar speed and accuracy while at the beginner level will accelerate your playing at the intermediate level and advanced level.

The best way to build speed is through targeted exercises that develop both your picking and fretting hand techniques.

Here are my best guitar exercises for speed – and remember – always use a metronome.

Exercise 1: Chromatic scale practice

Play a simple chromatic scale (1st fret, 2nd fret, 3rd fret, etc.) across all six strings using alternate picking. 

Start slowly with a metronome and gradually increase the tempo. This helps with finger independence and picking synchronization.

Focus on keeping each note clean and precise as speed is nothing without clarity.

Exercise 2: 3-note-per-string scales

Play three notes per string in a scale (e.g., major scale). This promotes fluid movement across strings and builds finger dexterity.

You can also try using alternate picking and legato (hammer-ons and pull-offs) for variation. This combination of techniques will give you more control and flexibility as you increase speed.

Exercise 3: Speed bursts

Play a short sequence of notes at a faster speed (e.g., 4 to 6 notes), followed by a slower tempo. This will help your hands get used to higher speeds in short bursts.

Practicing these kinds of bursts is great for developing speed without overwhelming your hands and can help avoid injury early on.

Exercise 4: String skipping

Play scales or arpeggios while skipping strings. This will challenge your picking hand accuracy and control while training your fretting hand to move across the fretboard.

Pay attention to your pick angles to ensure clean string crossings.

This exercise also helps you build fluidity when navigating across large intervals.

Improve guitar speed with familiarity

At one point in life, you couldn’t speak your mother tongue fluently, but now you can say whatever springs to mind. 

One of the hallmarks of playing fast is that sense of fluency with the instrument.

As you practice your scales and picking technique, it’s crucial that you do it as slowly as possible, this will:

• Help create positive muscle memory.
• Improve comfort level and relaxation when learning something new.
• Give you ample time to focus on the details of your technique.

Whatever your speed goals are in getting better at guitar, it’s important to make sure that you’re playing clean phrases while keeping mentally and physically relaxed.

Bonus tips for utilizing familiarity in your speed practice

#1 – Use familiar finger patterns such as the major scale, the pentatonic scale, or particular arpeggios.

This will allow your muscle memory to do half of the work for you so you can focus solely on technique.

#2 – Train slowly to embed good technique and teach your hands the most economical movements.

It might seem rather ironic, but your guitar speed training should be slow at first. 

This will also promote good hand health by being aware of the tension in your fingers, arms, and wrists.

#3 – Create consistency in your picking movements and fretting hand.

It’s more than having a faster guitar neck, it’s about building a picking technique that consists of strict “up-down” picking movements is one way to create trust and familiarity in your picking hand. 

The same is true for your fretting hand. 

Pay close attention to the specific finger that you use for each note of a scale or arpeggio.