Exercises for playing faster?

Learn the five major scale patterns, and the five minor scale patterns, and practice them relentlessly.  Once your left hand is straightened out, work on your right.   Play those scales using all kinds of different picking techniques.

06sc500, when I read your post I can see myself in every word. I started playing 2 1/2 to 3 years ago and spent most of the 1st year trying to learn the open chords, chord progressions, strum patterns, Major scales, minor penatonic scales, notes of the fretboard, etc. I try to play rythem guitar and spend 99% of my time working on learning songs. I am mostly self-taught and am getting along well in transposing new songs into a key my wife can sing. I am getting ( my opinion ) good and picking out the strum patterns and timing of songs as I listen to them. Once I learn that and figure out the chords I can play the song. I get to set into some weekend "jam sessions" with several others 2 to 4 times a month and even get some "mike" time on stage as my wife sings. Open chords, e-shaped barre chords, a-shaped barre chords, 7th chords are all chords I use in playing. I know some sus and dim chords but do not use the. When it comes to scales I am completely lost. I know the finger patterns for the major scale and the minor penatonic and other than the root note of the 6th or 5th strings I can't tell what the note is without doing me a little thinking. At my age (soon to be 58) I don't think i will ever be a guitar master but I do want to learn everything I can and be a goodplayer. I do want to learn the secrets of scales, riffs and licks but I do intend to spend the majority of my time with rythem guitar. To me, rythem is the heart of any song, and everything else is built around that.
This is a post thast holds a lotta interest for me so as the guitar guru's add their expert comments I will pick up valuable info, as well.

Nela

Well, if the goal is speed, then I wouldn't focus on the pentatonic, I'd focus on the full major and minors.  Pentatonic will fall out of them, but you'll exercise your hand more if you play the full scales in position.

Major scale patterns.

http://chrisjuergensen.com.hosting.doma … tterns.htm

All seven modes are available there.

Nope.  It's not your imagination at all.   It's a good observation, in fact.    If you begin playing any major scale on the 6th note, and just run it all the way through to whatever that octave is, you just played the natural minor scale.   That is "Aeolian" mode.   All of the "modal scales" are derived that way.

The major scale is also called the "Ionian" mode.      It's a good trick to learn if you're asked to solo over a song in a major key, as you can just select the associated minor scale, and play that pentatonic.   Example, someone is playing a song in the key of A.  If you run the A major scale, that's one thing.  The sixth note of the A major scale is F#, so you can play F# minor pentatonic over A all day long.   Likewise, if someone is playing a song in C major, you can play that A minor pentatonic over the top of it and you're fine.

The rest of the modes.

I  Ionian
II Dorian - This has a nice minor sound to it.
III Phrygian - A sort of eastern sounding "gypsy" scale.
IV Lydian - Major sound.  Good for country and pop
V Myxolidan - The perfect scale to play over dominant 7 chords
VI Aolian -   The aforementioned natural minor scale
VII Locrian - Only freaked out jazz guys play in this mode.

Every single one of those modes is played using the same Major scale pattern described above.  The only difference is where you start the scale.