How to improve speed?

[SaddlerDav1d]

I agree with all that's been said. I teach another discipline outside the realm of guitar where speed is a factor, and we have two sayings:

"Slow is fast / fast is sloppy"

Which is to say if you learn it perfectly at a slow speed until you have it down, you will be able to perform it at a faster speed... which leads to the second saying:

"Practice doesn't make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect"

If you do it at a slow speed perfectly, you'll learn it perfectly. If you do it fast, with all the mistakes, all you're doing is reinforcing the mistakes.

And a word on patience:

"Everywhere is walking distance, if you have the time"

Practice, be patient, be methodical... speed will come  [smiley=beer.gif]

I've just joined the forum and was reading this post
and I've got to say, this is the best advise I've read so far
on speed. Things like this inspire me to pick
up my guitar and practice.
Thanks blues dudes   [smiley=beer.gif]

 

[Rick23]

Being a newbie to both playing(about a year), and BBG, I try to use as many resources as I can. The call and response in the blues is a little challenging for me, switching from a lick to a chord. I am finding that practicing chord changes by themselves also helps speed with call and response. A practice technique I found on another lesson site is to take three chords that are commonly used in a progression. There are three combinations of two chords, For example, (A-D, A-E, D-E). Set a timer to 1 minute, start with A-D, one strum, change, one strum, change, etc. for a full minute. Make sure your chords are clean. Count how many changes you get, go to the next combination, and repeat, then do the third combination. It amazed me how this 3 minute exercise helps improve speed and clarity of chords. I am doing this with different chord groups to match the chords in Griff's lessons, and when the chord changes come faster and cleaner,  the entire thing sounds better. I know this is real basic beginner stuff, hope it helps somebody.