The Secret To Staying Relaxed When You Play Guitar Fast

This video shows an overlooked way the great Michael Romeo, Paul Gilbert and Guthrie Govan are able to play guitar fast and stay incredibly relaxed.

[tommyrocker]

This is gold! Please follow Mike's advice here people, it's so important and so well explained. Thanks Mike, you're doing the guitar community a great service 👍

[jaykelley]

It's funny that I got recommended this. I've been doing this thing when I practice where I stop every once and a while to check the tension in my body to make sure I'm keeping it loose. Its already made a huge difference in my consistency.

[dmind]

I can simplify this - just play. Just play passionately, like a maniac. But also, quanta is important, as this video points out. I still work on this all the time, but also, most of my gains happen in my subconscious. Don't over think it. Let it flow within you, like the force. (And vary tempo when you play - your mind will figure it out on the fly, but not if not given a chance)

[harpsdesire]

Thanks for uploading this on my birthday!

[alancosens]

This has been the main bug for me over 30 years... maintaining a relaxed body. I found that using lighter strings helps to force one to focus on this because if you're using 0.008s you just can't put much pressure on the string without making it go sharp. It gives you a constant remind to relax... relax... light touch.

[sharpermirror]

Thanks for the lessons as always.

Also, Michael Romeo is so freaking good. His lead works is obviously outstanding but his rhythm playing is killer too. Listening to Iconoclast again it’s just epic how many super tight riffs he’s banging out.

[juancarlos-dxor]

Crucial advice is to practice things using a metronome, theres nothing worse than sloppy out of time shredding . Said that a tip i can give is to try practicing things in an acoustic / classical guitar, once you go back to the electric things seem much easier.

[elvisrios]

Brilliant class. Well taught and explained. Technique and mechanics are a whole world 🙏🏻

[zyxwfish]

There are videos of Dimebag Darrel playing his solos very slowly with the same feel as well.

[chinmaysguitarclass]

My hopes are crushed after seeing Guthrie Govan's crazy legato runs... 😵
I wish to get to that level of effortlessness..😄
Anyways, great video Mike..👍

[electrica_]

You are a very good teacher thank u so much ❤

[JoaoFerreira-lkrt]

holy shit this is golden. i was upset cause i couldnt play any faster and I thought to myself 'shit I'm way too tense'. put my strap on and started playing relaxed, speed unlocked :)

[twoputt]

I've been trying to play clean & perfect for years and getting a little faster only to hit a wall every time. If you never try to go fast you never will. When I try to play at a speed thats way out of my league. Then the tempo I couldn't get past is easy then I move up & do it again.

[metalrockgaming]

should do a video on Megadeth Dave Mustaine plying technique please

[LegatoStacatp]

The great Guthrie Govan as he crushes peoples hope with just one hand . Lol. Great line

[Tvaroh]

Again, very nice piece of guitar wisdom, thanks.

[Bricklinsv]

You vs Troy Grady guitar battle! Nice little jab you took at him lol!

[bobach]

Posture is everything folks. Just changing that can allow you to relax. Using incorrect posture makes it impossible to relax. Especially when your wrist is bent so much.

[alesegdia]

Hey! First of all, your videos are in fact awesome. I've learnt a lot of psychology tricks to practice better. That said, I'm a bit confused. In some videos you suggest to practice faster, in others you suggest to practice slower. This is what I understand from you suggesting both approaches for different purposes: you can use the practice slow approach to ensure you're playing without tension, but to calibrate your speed you might need to go much faster to guess which is the real controlled speed you have without issues. Then I guess it's of no use to play slow mindlessly or play fast mindlessly, but actually try to know what you're doing and why you're doing it. Maybe in my level for a specific thing I want to fasten up, going 40 bpm is way to slow and it doesn't even make sense to bother, but this depends on the very specific cases.

[beastofthepriest]

I have great difficulty staying relaxed while bending in-between legatos. For example, the Adrian Smith stuff. Without bends, I'm totally fast, clean and relaxed. When the bends come in, I have a hard to switching back and forth. How do I keep the bended notes relaxed without slipping?