How Fast Should I Practice? / Using a Metronome

by: Ysrafel

As with any unfamiliar technique, you should start off playing patterns slowly until your muscles memorize the movements you need to make in order to play cleanly. As you become accustomed to new patterns, begin to push yourself to play faster by practicing outside of your comfort zone. By playing things faster than you can currently play (in an accurate manner), you will begin to set new limits on your playing which will help to break through any barriers.

A good way to measure and increase your speed is to use a metronome. The following is a quick reference to know approximately how fast you should set your metronome at when practicing various guitar techniques or patterns (in 4/4 time):

Just starting:

You have never played this pattern or technique before (or anything similar to it). Right now, your muscles are learning and memorizing the proper motions required to play accurately. The entire foundation of your technique is built from this level, so it is very important to play as cleanly as possible and to not rush through this process. One of the main reasons that guitarists give up on a certain technique or pattern is that they become discouraged. This is commonly because they start off by playing too fast, and never really become used to the motions necessary for having clean technique. Remember, playing sloppy and fast will never serve as a good substitute to playing slowly and cleanly. The transition from slow to fast will come with a combination of time and focused practice.

Beginner:

You have little experience with this pattern or technique and are progressing at memorizing the motions for this pattern. Most likely, you are not quite ready to implement this into your regular playing routine.

Intermediate:

You have a good feel for the motions of this pattern. At this point you are beginning to use this in your regular playing and improvising. Reaching higher bpm's is beginning to become more difficult.

Advanced:

You have nearly mastered the motions required to play this pattern. This level is where most players will experience much difficulty as it becomes increasingly difficult to progress up to higher bpm's.

Mastery Level:

This is the level at which master players play certain patterns or techniques. Moving to higher bpm's requires a very large amount of concentration, and may take several practice sessions in order to progress only a few bpm's.

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