The verb is speed up. As in If you find this shape uncomfortable (or if you’re still working on your pinky strength), there are other ways to speed up this common chord change and use the no-pinky fingering. (Source)
But what is the corresponding noun? Is it speed-up?
As in (perhaps somewhat contrived):
In a matter of weeks I achieved a 30 percent speed-up for common chord changes.
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Peter Mortensen
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The noun is speedup.
The contrived sentence is then:
In a matter of weeks I achieved a 30 percent speedup for common chord changes.
Speedup is definitely “a dictionary word,” but it is not at all commonly used. Having been coined only very recently (1921 by Merriam-Webster’s count and 1923 by the OED), it is probably best avoided except in contexts where it has become established jargon. So, I say your answer is correct and that you are also correct in that the usage would strike most ears as contrived. …an interesting case.
@Donald Remero: is speed-up better? For a similar word, writeup, the word without the hyphen is the primary: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/writeup. I am going to create an entry on Wiktionary for speed-up. One of the two words or none of the two words would be marked as “alternative spelling”.
@Donald Remero: is speed-up better? For a similar word, write-up, the word with the hyphen is the primary on Wiktionary: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/write-up. I am going to create an entry on Wiktionary for speed-up. One of the two words or none of the two words would be marked as “alternative spelling”.
Both Merriam-Webster and American Heritage dictionaries include speedup as a non-hyphenated word. Both secondary definitions are related to the jargon of industrialized labor, in which case “speedup” refers to an increase in productivity requirements without any corresponding increase in pay. OED says this meaning is “chiefly U.S.” OED lists the word as hyphenated, but I would be interested to see what a more up-to-date ‘concise version’ lists (I don’t have one of those, however). “Write-up” is hyphenated in all three dictionaries. I’d probably use non-hyphenated speedup as the main entry.