Any guitarist who's tried to play faster has run into the idea of hand synchronisation: the left and right hands not quite lining up. So you work on "sync", and it doesn't really get better.
I think a lot of guitarists fall for a bit of a myth here. What if synchronisation was never the problem in the first place? Before you can lock the hands together, you need to check the foundations of what each hand is doing on its own.
Diagnose before you prescribe ▶ 0:42
If you've got a health problem and you go to the doctor, you wouldn't just tell them what's wrong with you and ask for a prescription. You'd ask them to diagnose you, because you don't necessarily know what's wrong. You might have a pain somewhere, but you don't know where it's coming from.
Hand synchronisation is similar. People assume their sticking point is linking the left and right hands together. But a lot of the time they haven't properly checked whether each hand can play in time on its own at that tempo. If one hand can't, putting them together was never going to work.
The test pattern: a three-notes-per-string run ▶ 1:13
Take a basic scale run. I used a three-notes-per-string pattern, so it's 1 2 3, 1 2 3, 1 2 3 across three strings.
- Left hand: first, second and fourth finger, then first, second and fourth again, then first, third and fourth.
- Right hand: if you're economy picking, it's down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up, down. If you're alternate picking, it's just down, up, down, up all the way through.
I don't alternate pick, so I went with economy picking. Use whichever you normally use. Any run you're struggling to get up to speed will do.
Test each hand on its own, to a metronome ▶ 1:40
Set a metronome at the tempo you're aiming for. I started at 156 BPM. Then isolate each hand.
Left hand only: tap the notes in time without picking. This isn't legato, where you hammer on and let one note flow into the next. You're just tapping each note in rhythm, as if your right hand were picking it.
Right hand only: mute the strings and play the picking pattern on its own, in time, crossing the strings in the right order.
If both hands can do their job on their own, then put them together and see how it sounds.
Keep pushing the tempo until something breaks ▶ 2:19
If it all sounds fine, go faster and repeat the same three steps: left hand on its own, right hand on its own, then both together. Keep going until you start to mess things up.
When I did this, both hands were fine for a few rounds. Then the right hand started taking me a couple of goes to play cleanly. One step faster, the left hand needed a few goes as well, and the right hand was clearly struggling.
What the test usually shows ▶ 4:33
Here's the ironic bit. At the fastest tempo, putting both hands together actually felt smoother than either hand on its own. It was still a little messy in places, but it was okay. Where I struggled was playing the left or right hand in isolation.
That tells you synchronisation wasn't the problem. It's often that one hand or the other is suffering. In my case the left hand was probably better than the right, so the thing I ought to work on is my right hand accuracy, not getting the hands to line up.
I'd be willing to bet most people find the same: the right hand is the weaker one. It might not be for you, but you won't know until you test it.
Synchronisation was actually the opposite of the problem.
Go and try it
Pick a run you can't quite get up to speed. Set the metronome to your target tempo, play the left hand on its own, then the right hand on its own, then both together. Push the tempo up until one of them breaks, and whichever hand goes first is the one to practise. Have a go and see what results you get.
