How do I play faster?

[sbhikes]

Just as an update:

The metronome thing works really well. It's helping me a lot. Crank the tune up another notch or two until I crash and burn.

Holding the pick better has helped.

Getting up early to practice outside in the garage helps. It's my only time/space I can be alone so I've never really "practiced" before.

Thank you for these simple suggestions.

[Mark Wilson]

Gaining speed is an enigma to me. I'll hit a wall - even fall back some - struggle and bam the speed I was stuggling at now seems slow. And I don't know what made the difference except that I didn't stop trying.

Metronome is a great tool. So are backing tracks if you can find them. Many are too fast tho. I use a slow down - maintain the same pitch software that allows me to play the backing track at the exact speed I want.

[bigskygirl]

Gaining speed is an enigma to me. I'll hit a wall - even fall back some - struggle and bam the speed I was stuggling at now seems slow. And I don't know what made the difference except that I didn't stop trying.

Metronome is a great tool. So are backing tracks if you can find them. Many are too fast tho. I use a slow down - maintain the same pitch software that allows me to play the backing track at the exact speed I want.

Same here and while it doesn't always seem so I am getting better.

I have an app called iRelPro that has backing chord charts already made from it's forum members or if it's a tune not done it's easy to make up the chart. It's easy to change keys and speed, even has a feature where each repeat can be set to go faster.

[Explorer]

The metronome thing works really well. It's helping me a lot. Crank the tune up another notch or two until I crash and burn.

Just as a reminder, although I'm sure you remember...

You don't want to "crash and burn."

You want to practice at a tempo, click up a notch, and repeat until you start making mistakes. Then, you immediately claick back and practice with no mistakes at the tempo where that is possible.

You want to spend no time on internalizing mistakes and bad habits.

And you definitely shouldn't have a mistake be the last thing your fingers and nerves stew on when you end your practice session.

[3step]

I'm not sure how much this has been touched on, but one of the most important factors that has had an influence on many areas of playing for me, especially speed, is practicing and learning the upstroke of the pick well. The downward motion of the pick comes naturally for most people, but the upstroke takes more time and focus to get ease of motion. I couldn’t count how many times it has been the determining factor in that tricky part of some song I’d been learning. It may seem obvious because its such a natural part of playing, but for that reason I think it can sometimes not get focused on.

[sbhikes]

Gaining speed is an enigma to me. I'll hit a wall - even fall back some - struggle and bam the speed I was stuggling at now seems slow. And I don't know what made the difference except that I didn't stop trying.

I think this is similar to lifting heavy weights, which is something I do. You can't lift them every day or else instead of getting better you will get worse or even injured. You have to give yourself time to recover. Since playing an instrument is physical I'm betting it works similar, but instead of big muscles that you are building, it's more like tiny little fine ones and the neural pathways that control them.

[Gelsenbury]

I don't necessarily WANT to play louder but people complain I'm too quiet.

I recognise that complaint. I'm still not a hard player, but I play with more volume now than a couple of years ago. Probably, both confidence and skill have made a difference. With tunes that I know well, where my fingers are doing much of the work automatically by now, I can choose to vary the volume. That wasn't possible before, when all my focus was on finding the right notes.