The World's Fastest Guitar Player

Just who is the best guitar player in the world? Who is the fastest guitar player in the world? Are they the same thing? How do I get to be the world's best guitar shredder? Can you tell me how to play REALLY fast?

Whether you take acoustic guitar lessons or electric guitar lessons you have probably asked your teacher who is the fastest guitar player. Perhaps you would like to know how to play guitar really fast and a more important question if you got here deliberately might be "How Do I Become The Fastest Guitar Player In The World...."



You made the first step when you decided to learn guitar, not everyone who wants to learn how to play guitar necessarily wants to be the fastest guitar shredder but perhaps your dream is to be the best guitar player you can be. Your first step might be to buyone of those cheap Beginner guitars






And why does Dragonforce suck? The simple anser is, they DON'T but the whole Guitar Hero thing does. Guitar Hero is a game, not a musical learning tool and if you only set your goals to be able to play THAT solo (which is so easy on Guitar Hero) you are cheating yourself of the musicial study that will make you as good or even better than Dragonforce. It is NOT all about speed, but it IS about the musical USE of speed....

Becoming the fastest guitarist is not about playing Dragonforce on Guitar Hero, or daydreaming about stardom, it is about dedicating yourself to that goal in a safe and sensible way. Here I will give you a few tips but you should be just as interested in sound quality and songwriting.

There are many established guitarists who claim to be the world's fastest guitar player, or whose fans claim they are. These lists are often more skewed by fame and popularity than actual technical wizardry on the guitar, but I will let you judge for yourselves. Read the wisdom, listen and watch the videos I have linked for you here, but above all have fun and enjoy the fastest guitar playing in the world!

Jennifer Batten - Flight of the Bumblebee - amazing tapfest!

Jennifer Batten TAB

Michael Angelo Batio - Full Force

Paco de Lucia - Fastest Fingerstyle player?

Paco de Lucia - Rio Ancho TAB

The Late Great Shawn Lane.... This page also contains his instruction videos. Really great!

Shawn Lane TABS

Albert Lee - Country Boy

Free Country Boy Intro TAB

Albert Lee - Country Boy - Sheet Music (Digital Download)

Uli Jon Roth - Sails of Charon - Scorpions sting!

Scorpions - Sails Of Charon - Sheet Music (Digital Download)

Al Di Meola - Fastest Jazz Picker on the Planet?

Al Di Meola, John Mclaughlin and Paco Delucia - Friday Night In San Francisco - Music Book

Randy Rhoades - Crazy Train solo - live

Troy Stetina - The Very Best of Ozzy Osbourne - Music Book

Allan Holsworth - Fred - IMAC 2006

Timo Tolkii - Speed of Light - live

Speed of Light TAB

Joe Satriani - Satch Boogie - live

Joe Satriani - Satch Boogie - Guitar Guru File

Joe Satriani - Joe Satriani - Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock - Music Book

Frank Gambale - Yang

Frank Gambale - Frank Gambale: Chop Builder - DVD

Frank Gambale - Frank Gambale: Monster Licks & Speed Picking - DVD

Trey Azagthoth - Morbid Angel

Rapture - Guitar Pro TAB

Steve Vai - Building The Church

Steve Vai - Steve Vai - Live At the Astoria London - DVD

Jason Becker - Perpetual Burn - the story of his fight against ALS

Jason Becker Albums

Mick Barr - avant garde guitarist - Information

Mick Barr - Shred Earthship MP3

R.I.P. Dimebag Darrell

The Great Kat - Metal Messiah

Bloody Vivaldi by The Great Kat

Cowboys From Hell - Sheet Music (Digital Download)

Marty Friedman plays Elixir

Megadeth - A Tout Le Monde - Guitar Guru File

50 Fastest Guitarists of all time

So do you want to learn to play guitar in this elegant style and become the fastest guitar player in the world? This is the important part of my lens. If you choose to go for speed as your goal, you need to do so safely. It is no good being the second fastest ex-guitarist and faulty technique might cause severe and permanent injury. If you are trying this without a teacher, then please read these tips CAREFULLY.

Firstly, never attempt to play fast without warming up your hands. Some players recommend soaking them in warm water first. This could lead to softening the skin and cuts, so warm up by playing in a warm room. Play easy things, relax, don't go immediately into advanced exercises. Start simple, get in the groove.



Secondly, you will see that BOTH players started slowly (for them!) they didn't leap straight in to maximum speed. Randall Padilla started each speed burst with a short single note lead in. This helped him find his way into the beat before playing his six string speed lick.

Thirdly, if you watched carefully you will see that the pick hand position of each player was near perfect, they played a mixture of down and up strokes alternately in a tremolo picked style. Tremolo picking is the first skill you will need to master for speed playing. To make this easier, use a heavy guage plectrum, hold it lightly very close to the tip to avoid it catching between strings and to avoid "leverage" making you grip too tightly . Gripping too tightly will lock your wrist and lead to pain and injury.

Fourthly, pick lightly, small and light helps speed. Most beginners pick too hard when they try for speed. It is like running a marathon in diving boots. Small and light is the rule for picking.

Fifthly, small and light also applies to the left hand. If you want to shred you must learn to keep your hand IN POSITION, each fret has it's own finger, there are NO stretches in either example here. The players move their left hand fingers up and down the neck maintaining PERFECT positional playing. Try this sort of thing with macho metal fingerings and you will cripple yourself. Speed and large movements are NOT compatible. You hardly see any movement in Della Vega's left hand. Cultivate playing like this, and you will make an excellent player in any style, whether or not you ever join the ranks of guitarthletes!

Relax, let your left arm be totally flexible and follow where your hand leads, don't force a thing. Breathe regularly and with the flow of the music, but don't hold your breath - you will get tense and lose oxygen. To play this fast, your brain needs to be engaged too!

Finally, if it hurts STOP. It is too hard, you are doing something wrong, or you are simply not ready. These guys have practised many hours each day for years to get here. It is not beginners territory and the only gain you make from pain is disability!

Good luck!

One of the reasons I have more interest in expressiveness than speed can be shown by watching the two videos here.

Della Vega chooses to play a very well known tune, Padilla chooses a technical exercise. For me, speed is something best expressed in a musical context, but more easily achieved in a technical one. To be meaningful, an official contest must stipulate a set piece or lick which is musical and which is sustained. Limiting it to notes per second is an unmusical goal. Here we see Randall Padilla practising what is basically a speed burst. It has little musical content and cannot be compared with an actual piece which is not optimized for speed playing and which shows sustained concentration. I would like to see both players execute similar speed burst and similar pieces of music for fair comparison.

There is one word I want to finish with, because all roads lead back to it and that one word is MUSIC. It is much harder to be musical than fast, it is supremely difficult to be both. Some achieve it, examples might be Malmsteen, Steve Vai, Jason Becker, Joe Satriani, Michael Angelo, Jennifer Batten.... There are many others. There are also superb players like B.B.King, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Dave Gilmour who took the line that speed wasn't their goal. Ultimately it is up to you, but live, have fun, practise SAFELY, and make MUSIC....

If this page inspired you to pick up a guitar you might want to begin playing with some rock songs and chords. Here are some songs and easy tutorials to get you started.

20th Century Boy
Band In A Jam Project
Best Songs To Learn On Guitar
Best Way To Use A Guitar Pick
Born To Be Wild
Hallelujah
Harley Davidson Guitar Stuff
Hey Joe
Highway to Hell
House of the Rising Sun
Johnny B Goode
Improvise on guitar - first lesson
One
Perfect Day
Satisfaction
Smoke On The Water
Stairway to Heaven
Summer of 69