While modelling, there are a number of quick way to select vertices, edges or faces. This is a short tutorial which covers some of the most practical methods.

1) Edge selection

Instead of selecting each individual edge, it's much quicker to select an edge loop (edges which form a closed ring). Press tab to enter edit mode, and choose edge select (see arrow, or the 2 key).

Simply hold alt and select anywhere on the edge loop.

1.1) Multiple edge selection

If needed, it's possible to select multiple edge loops. Select the first with alt + left click.

Hold alt + shift and left click on the second loop. This can be repeated as often as needed.

**2) Parallel Edge Selection.

In this case, we want to select the vertical edges. Hold alt and left click one edge. We can see it selects the whole edge.

To select all edges that are parallel to the first, hold alt + ctrl and left click the edge. Here we can see all the parallel edges are selected, up to the edge loop in the middle.

Similar to the first step, we can make group selections here as well. To select the parallel edges on the bottom half, hold alt + ctrl + shift and left click an edge.