Learning How To Play Fast

When you're learning how to play the guitar, let's admit one thing. Secretly, deep inside, you're hoping you can pull of those great sounding guitar licks. Rock, blues, even country style guitar playing is always better with guitar licks. But how do you go about learning to play really fast rock guitar licks? Here are a few tips.

1. Learn your scales.

Sure, it sounds tedious, but all good musicians have to put in that grunt-work behind the scenes when they practice those difficult moves. It doesn't matter whether you're playing the cello in an orchestra or pulling off wailing blues guitar licks, learning an instrument involves some repetition. Getting familiar with scales, keys, and even some note reading will make your guitar playing sizzle. Learn all you can about music.

2. Little by little does it.

This principle goes by other names, such as "baby steps" or "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!" If you will commit to practicing your scales and tabs of your favorite songs even just for 15 minutes a day, your fast guitar licks will improve before you know it. Persistence is the key. No one ever accomplished anything they gave up on, but it doesn't require hours of practice a day.

3. Get some help.

A private teacher can be a real help for learning to play fast rock or slide guitar licks. The downside to a live teacher is that private lessons can get costly. In addition, the teacher may not want to answer your questions when you are hammering out your technique at 3:00 a.m.! There's a great solution to these dilemmas, though. Get your guitar instruction via your computer, either through downloadable guitar instruction software or guitar websites.

4. Download guitar software to your computer.

When learning to play fast rock guitar licks, software provides several benefits. For one thing, you can see the lick visually, both as written music and as the more down to earth tabulature form. But the best part is that you can hear the lick, too. Look for software that has infinite looping so that you can hear it several times and then jump in and play with it. If the recording doesn't loop, you're sure to get frustrated, because you'll just be getting ready when you'll have to click your mouse again. Variable speeds are beneficial, too, so you can learn the guitar licks slow and increase your speed until you move like lightening!