If you listen to guitar players like Eddie van Halen, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani or Yngwie Malmsteen, you can often hear these guys playing very fast. Some of you will have wondered how they do that. The answer is very easy: they just practiced for years.
1. Warm Up
If you want to become as fast as the "Speed Kings", you should start with warmup exercises. Here are a few.
I. Position
E-----------------------------------------1-2-3-4-I
B---------------------------------1-2-3-4---------I
G-------------------------1-2-3-4-----------------I
D-----------------1-2-3-4-------------------------I
A---------1-2-3-4---------------------------------I
E-1-2-3-4-----------------------------------------I
E-----------------------------------------1-3-4-2-I
B---------------------------------1-3-4-2---------I
G-------------------------1-3-4-2-----------------I
D-----------------1-3-4-2-------------------------I
A---------1-3-4-2---------------------------------I
E-1-3-4-2-----------------------------------------I
Important: Use alternate picking here (Down-Up-Down-Up). Try other variations.
Practice backwards, too. (4321)
2. Synchronisation
Synchronisation means improving the coorperation of your picking and fretting hand. This is very important if you want to be fast at picking licks. Here are some synchronisation excercises:
n=downstroke v=upstroke
n v n v n v n v n v n v n v n v n v n v n v n v n v n v n v n v
E-----------------------------------------------------------------I
B-----------------------------------------------------------------I
G-----------------------------------------------------------------I
D-----------------------------------------------1-----1-2---1-2-3-I
A---------------1-----1-2-------1-1-2-3-4-2-3-4---3-4-----4-------I
E-1-2-3-4-2-3-4---3-4-----2-3-4-----------------------------------I
n v n v n v n v n v n v n v n v n v n v n v n v n v n v n v n v
E-4-3-2-1-3-2-1---2-1-----1---------------------------------------I
B---------------4-----4-3---4-3-2-4-3-2-1-3-2-1---2-1-----1-------I
G-----------------------------------------------4-----4-3---4-3-2-I
D-----------------------------------------------------------------I
A-----------------------------------------------------------------I
E-----------------------------------------------------------------I
Practice these excercises up and down over all six strings. Also try them in different positions. Here's another good exercise. It's from the Deep Purple song "Into the fire". At the end of the guitar solo, Ritchie Blackmore plays this.
e=8th note er=8th rest
e e e e e e e e er e e e e e e e
E-----------------I------------------I Use alternate picking.
B-----------------I------------------I
G-------------3-4-I------------------I
D-----3-4---------I--------------0-1-I
A-1-2-----1-2-----I----0-1-2-3-4-----I
E-----------------I------------------I
I. Position
I hope this lesson was helpful. The next lesson is about easy single string phrases. Goodbye.
For some really annoying/odd reason, when i try diong figure 1, when I go to put my pinkie on the fourth fret, my pinkie "jolts". I don't really know how to describe it though. 
anyways, great job beatrocker, keep it up
this lesson helped me warm up my fingering for songs such as "welcome to bucketheadland" by buckethead and a misc. traditional song called "spanish romance"
thx again ^_^
Jooles