Guitar Speed Training: Why You're Not Getting Faster (And How to Fix It)

You've been practicing the same lick for three weeks. It still doesn't feel faster.

Here's what's probably going wrong.

You're practicing at one speed

Most guitarists find a comfortable tempo and stay there. It feels productive. It sounds decent. Nothing is improving.

Speed comes from pushing past your current limit — briefly, carefully, then consolidating.

The cycle: practice at 80% → push to 90% → consolidate at 85% → push again.

You're not measuring progress

"I think I'm getting faster" is not data.

Without logging your BPM, you have no baseline, no trend, and no way to know if what you're doing is working.

Athletes track every rep. Musicians should too.

You're tensing up

Speed and tension are enemies.

When you push past your comfortable tempo, your hands tense. Tense hands slow down, make mistakes, and risk injury.

Signs of tension:

• Picking gets smaller
• Fretting hand collapses
• You hold your breath

When you notice tension, drop 10 BPM. Play until relaxed. Then push again.

You're skipping the slow work

There's no shortcut past slow practice.

Playing at 60 BPM perfectly builds the neural pathways that make 160 BPM possible. Players who skip slow practice hit a ceiling and wonder why.

Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.

A simple system

• Pick one fragment (16 bars max)
• Set a target BPM
• Find your current clean max
• Practice in 5 BPM increments
• Log your BPM after every session
• Review weekly

That's it. No secrets. Just consistency and data.

Crank. was built to make this system effortless — log your BPM, track your progress, and know exactly where you stand.