Top 5 Guitar Exercises for Speed And Accuracy

In this guitar lesson you’ll learn 5 guitar exercises for speed and accuracy that will help you develop techniques like:

• Tapping
• Alternate picking
• Sweep picking

In my 10 years of teaching guitar, I’ve taught these exercises to a plethora of students.

Now let’s practice some exercises!

Guitar Exercises for Speed And Accuracy Tab & Notation

Exercise 1: Chromatic Spider

The spider exercise uses all 4 fret-hand fingers, spans 4 adjacent frets on each string, and is usually played using alternate picking or hammer-ons.

My example uses the chromatic scale, which means you’ll use all 12 musical tones.

Exercise 2: Tapping Lick in The Key of E Minor

This tapping exercise has a fusion sound and uses tapping, pull-off, and hammer-on techniques.

The exercise can be played on the key of E minor or G major and is symmetrical, meaning you play the same fret numbers on each string, making it easy to memorize.

Exercise 3: Finger Twister

The 3rd exercise uses 2 “staircase” shapes moving in opposite directions. Pick the notes with alternate picking or downstrokes.

Exercise 4: String Skipping A Minor Pentatonic

The 4th exercise uses the A minor pentatonic scale. You’ll use the string skipping technique to play it, and you’ll pick downward and hammer-on for each string.

Exercise 5: Sweep Picking Practice

The 5th exercise is great for practicing sweep picking and uses an E minor (Emin) to E minor 7 (Emin7) arpeggio sequence.

Here’s the picking pattern:

1. Down
2. Down
3. Down
4. Up
5. Pull-off
6. Up

You can also abbreviate the picking pattern as: D-D-D-U-PO-U

Guitar Exercises for Speed And Accuracy PDF

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