Learning the guitar properly takes lots and lots of practice – this is also valid for all the sub-parts involved in learning the instrument, and if you want to really get good at it, you will have to invest some time in the whole ordeal. The good news is that with persistence and practice you can only get better and better as time goes on.
Anything becomes easier when it’s broken down into separate tasks though – even the often daunting idea of training your fingers to achieve faster speed in playing the guitar, something which is often problematic for aspiring players. Here are a few tips to get you started on the right track:
- Learn the major scales/minor scales and the pentatonic scales– you should do your best to memorize as many scales as you can, especially major and minor ones, which will allow you to play tunes and solos as time goes by. If you know every note required in the tune without having to think about it, and if you’re able to turn the different notes into mechanical habits, this will greatly speed up your play and everything will come together by itself. If you’re able to remember all the notes in the scales you’ll be able to play solos far more fluidly and quickly. Make sure to practice those scales every day so that you don’t forget them, and you’ll be all set on your way to training your fingers to be faster.
- Practice hammer-ons and pull-offs. After you’ve learned the major/minor scales and the pentatonic scales, try playing them by hammering on when you’re moving up the scale, and pulling off when you’re going down. When learning how to improve your finger speed for the guitar, you’ll find that these techniques can give you a lot more fluidity and speed. Hammer-ons occur when you pluck a single note and you bring your finger down on the next one in the scale without plucking the string again. Likewise, a pull-off occurs when you pluck a note and bring one finger off the guitar string letting the note behind it ring without being plucked.
- Set some goals and follow them – a common technique when you’re learning any sort of skill, you should define some clear goals which you’ll be following and try to stick to those as best as possible. After you’ve mastered the basic concepts, start applying them to your own playing and you’ll soon enough see a noticeable improvement in your overall playing quality!
