one word..metronome..its a bad word for some guitar players. People try to say it makes your playing sound mechanical or something. Trust me and get a metronome or go to metronomeonline.com if you practice by your computer. Anything new you learn on guitar, start by timing it very slowly to the metronome. It seems kinda boring at first cause you dont feel like your doig much, but you will get the most from your practice time. Dude I did that when i was practicing alternate picking and scales. In a month I was fuckin blazing around the fretboard like I never had in the past 4 years to that point. I use it with difficult chord changes now to. Its a thing of beauty.