As a beginning guitarist, you may have thought to yourself as soon as you picked up your instrument that you wanted to get fast guitar fingers. It almost seems like anybody who's anybody on the guitar plays fast and their fingers are almost a blur.

So what's the big deal? If that's a common goal, why isn't everyone playing fast? Well, there might be a few things that are getting in the way of your progress.

Here are 3 things that can prevent your fingers from playing faster on your guitar:

1. Your guitar strings are grimy and greasy.

Constant upkeep on your guitar is so important, but it gets neglected often because it seems like quite a hassle. At the very least however, you should be changing your strings regularly so your fingers have something nice and fresh to create those tones.

If anything, just wash your hands before you play and you won't get those strings so greasy as quickly.

2. Your fingers are freezing and practically numb.

I know that when my hands and fingers are cold, there really isn't a chance of my fast guitar fingers coming out. Instead of stumbling around the fret board, warm up your hands, try to practice in a warm place, and keep your instrument in a room temperature area to prevent any damage.

3. You haven't done enough chord and single note transition work.

This is really the killer. The best way to really nail a riff or lick is to sit down and just hash it out over and over again until you feel comfortable.

With time your fingers will loosen up and conform to the piece with less reluctance. Focus on these ideas when you're attempting to go faster on some material:

* Know the starting and ending form.

Know how your fingers are going to begin the lick or set of chords and know where you want them to end up. Line up your fingers in comfortable areas, because you can't get fast guitar fingers if your starting position is uncomfortable to begin with.

* Plan the path your fingers will take.

You might be stumbling all over yourself as you go through a progression because your fingers just don't know where to go without a collision. Work on moving your fingers through a lick or progression without creating awkward paths that could potentially slow you down.

* Practice between notes or chords over and over.

Once you pinpoint a couple notes or chords that are giving you trouble, it's easy to fix, but it's not fun. Simply play back and forth between those two over and over again until you're sick of it.

Increase the speed as you go and you'll be saying, "Interesting, this got a whole lot easier all of a sudden."

If you want to get those fast guitar fingers, you have to be willing to do the work. Try to fix these problems that are slowing your fingers down and start tearing through riffs like they're butter.