How do you speed up the left hand?

[onassis]

This is a great point, Jeff. I run into this a lot when trying to figure out Grisman breaks. The riffs can seem crazy and awkward (how does he make that sound so easy?) until you slide up to 2nd or 3rd position. Then it's suddenly a piece of cake.

[Phil Goodson]

Another technique I use for practicing speed is to break up the music into 3-4 note phrases and just practice a phrase until it becomes a single 'thought' that I can then plug in or join to other phrases as I develop the entire tune.

Sometimes the phrase gets fast within a few minutes; other times it may take weeks.