Aaron Jaxon breaks down five steps to build flatpicking speed on acoustic guitar. Start with clean, in-time playing, then do daily technical exercises like cross-picking. Practice specific licks 50-200 times daily, push your metronome tempo above comfort level, and repeat everything consistently every day.
Alright, 5 steps to build speed in your flatpicking. Number 1: make sure whatever you want to be able to play fast, you can first play cleanly and in time. Number 2: have a technical exercise that you practice every day. Something like crosspicking, like, is a great thing to practice. Number 3: take a couple of licks that you'd like to be able to play fast, something like, and I want you to commit to doing lots of repetition on them, like in between 50 to 200 a day. This is the repetition is the mother of skill part of this equation that I don't think gets talked about enough these days. Number 4: push yourself. If you have a tune that you can comfortably play at 100 beats a minute just a few times a day, kick that metronome up to 130 or 140 and just stumble through it. Even if it feels awkward, you're forcing yourself to get out of your comfort zone. And number 5, and this is the most important, do steps 1 through 4 every single day because consistency is key.
