Tips To Improve Your Guitar Playing
The combination of practicing guitar and consistent learning is the only way you can improve your guitar playing. However, there are two ways to reach the improved level – the straight hard work or the strategic smart way. In these tips and techniques, I would be discussing how you can get the best out of your practice time and also improve your guitar playing by getting to a higher level.
First of all, you need to understand that dedication is required for improvement, regardless the way you choose. So, do not shy away from putting in some extra effort to see those remarkable improvement results.
Make Up Your Mind
The first step towards improving anything, let alone playing guitar is making up your mind, Once you know that you have to do it, you will be determined to get the improved results which keeps you going. Yes, there will be times that you would want to give up as you will not be getting it right in the very first time but here is the thing, determination and dedication will get you through because no one, not even the veteran guitarists got it right the first time.
Confidence
You can do it and all you need to do is believe in yourself. If you lack the confidence, you wouldn’t last much in practice sessions. Be confidence and know that even the toughest of lessons and guitar parts can be easily played if you practice well and do not give up on yourself. Be confident and keep trying till you can play the part nice and easy.
The Technical Part
Let’s come to how you can improve your guitar playing in the technical area. These practices might not be suitable for some genres but in general playing, these have been recommended by the top performing guitarists of the world. Adding these to your practice regime can result into significant improvement in your guitar skills.
Always Go With Metronome
Many guitar players tend to give the metronome a miss- which is one of the biggest mistakes. If you are a beginner, metronome is almost like a God for you, the bringer of light in nothingness. Use a metronome and practice all your lessons along with it. This way, you can keep a check on your rhythm, speed as well as efficiency at the same time. No matter what you’re planning to practice- lead or chord strumming, make sure that you use a metronome as it will give you the sense of rhythm for the long run, which can help you master off-beat skills.
Choose The Right Pick
Picking the pick is very important and irrespective of what others might tell you, if you choose the right pick and use it in the appropriate manner, you can enhance your guitar playing skills much faster. Imagine playing metal solo with a soft nylon pick that bends every time you need to hit a triplet. How about worse, breaking strings and getting the chords wrong while strumming with a thick gauge pick. Thus, you should change picks for different genres or even lead and chords whenever possible to facilitate better guitar playing and you will notice the big difference soon enough.
Correcting That Hand Position
Improving guitar skills is not just about knowing what to play, it is also about knowing how to play. Your hands are your means to conquer the world with your melodious strumming and picking and if they aren’t position right, you are in trouble mate.
Make sure for your fretting hand is positioned correctly- the thumb behind the guitar neck while fingers stretch over the fret board. Another mistake people make in the beginning is not using their little finger which can be very useful in mastering major guitar techniques way ahead. Apart from paying attention to your fretting hand, also see that your strumming hand does not touch the strings which could block out the notes. Try to fix your fretting arm like a movable machine so that you get easy access to pluck strings or strum chords with greater speed and accuracy.
Go For Inversions
That’s right, can you play more than 10 versions of A chord? No? Increasing chord vocabulary is a secondary but you should be able to play chords as well as play with them because that is what the real guitarists really do. Learning all chords might get you a job of music teacher or may be a music director. But to improve your guitar playing skills, you need to be a smart player and figure pout a way to play chord versions for better switching, better sound and better feel.
The General Tips
Hard work is the key to success and that’s true with guitar playing as well. But by practicing smart instead of practicing hard, you can make significant improvements in less time.
Quality Instead Of Quality
Try to get quality practice time instead of quantity. It is better to practice 30 minutes with full dedication rather than sitting for hours without full concentration.
Practice The Tough
Never give attention to the parts you know. Be honest to yourself and pay special attention to the parts where you tend to stumble upon or make mistakes. This is how you can really make improvement in your guitar playing.
Take Breaks And Carry On
All work and no rest will certainly make you a dull guitarist if not Jack. So yes, taking rest and proper breaks is equally important. You can try occasional break times where you can switch the genre or parts to freshen the things up.
Almost There
Practice makes a guitarist perfect so whether you’re a smart player or the beginner, try to practice as much as you can with complete dedication and visualize how the part should pan out. If it is done in the mind, it is pretty much like half the battle won. Get set pluck!
