Is the upper limit on your ability to fret faster hereditary? [closed]

Question

I'm curious what are the other drawbacks to playing guitar faster other than "Practice more". Here is the example: I can play Cliffs of Dover at about 55% speed on the fastest run's. Physically, I'm pretty strong, I lift weights most days and heavy ones at that. But ever since I was a child I could not throw a baseball as far as other people. Which means, at least for my arm, I have strength, but not speed muscles. (The slow twitch, fast twitch ratio). Also since I'm older (60's), maybe that speed cant even be developed even in my fingers past a certain point. Players like Satriani have been doing this since they were children. And have put in much more time than me. I'm not interested in playing shred or even long fast runs, but it would be nice to get a 5 or 6 note fast phrase in once in a while.

Is there a genetic limit for some of us ?

Answer 1

Your physical limitations might be hereditary, but I don’t think they’re a good reason to give up on a goal.

If you want to play faster and feel like you’ve hit a wall, physically, then I think it best to stop, slow everything down, and focus on technique.

Lifting a weight requires a certain amount of strength, but use of proper technique will require less of it. Playing a fast run of notes requires speed, but use of proper technique requires less of it.

Finger positions, arm/wrist/hand angles, and the distance of movements and leverage of force they enable or impede are at least as big an influence on how fast you play as actual speed of your fingers and hand. Work on efficiencies rather than raw speed.

So yeah, you need to practice, but not necessarily more, just better.

Answer 2

Is the upper limit on your ability to fret faster hereditary?

No idea. Probably it is partially. But I guess the question you really want to ask is how to improve your speed.

Practicing more is an obvious direction, but you also need to focus on building speed. Effective practice strategies include:

1. Identifying difficult spots. What's easy at medium tempo may require you to change your technique at fast tempo.

2. Practicing very short fragments of music (even down to two notes), and extending them gradually.

3. Speeding up in bursts and slowing down.

4. Trying to playing at a very fast tempo, even faster than the "goal" tempo while ignoring mistakes.

5. Playing extremely slowly so that you can stay relaxed and focus on proper technique (of course first you need to figure out what is proper technique first).

You may look for more advice in instructional materials, video schools, especially from guitarists known for their prime playing technique.

Another good idea is to see a teacher. Perhaps your speed is limited by a very specific technical issue you need to work on, be it string skipping, fretting hand position or something else. You might be unaware of that.