How to Become a Better Guitar Player

Want to be a better guitar player, improve your guitar-play and become a more skillful, talented guitar player, but don’t know how to do it?

The following set of tips should be immensely helpful:

1. Understand that you’re in it for the long-haul: Learning to play the guitar is not easy by any means, but excellent at it is a real test of one’s will, perseverance, dedication and motivation. It requires a lot of hard work, and of course, time. Learning to play can take months, and being really good at it takes years. – years of practice and sweat. Make sure that you understand this (I know, it is easier said than done!). Results will never be instantaneous, and it will, at times, be a frustrating journey. Just keep the big picture in mind when the frustration kicks in.

2. Practice, Practice, Practice: As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, dedicating proper time to practicing is essential. This means trying new stuff, and going where you’ve never gone before with your guitar-play. Try doing something different and something new with your guitar-playing every week, like playing the same licks you’re familiar with in a different position on the fretboard. In the golden words of Satriani, ‘make your fingers go to new places, playing the same stuff will only take you so far’. Work on your technique and areas where you feel you’re weak.

3. Quality, not Quantity: The number of hours you put into practice is irrelevant, what really matters is the quality of your practice and playing sessions. Use the time that you have at your disposal – even if its as less as 20-30 minutes every day – to get somewhere? Are you using that time to improve yourself as a guitar player, instead of simply jamming or playing your favorite solos again? As short as your practice-time might be, try making it as productive as you possibly can.

4. Go for a Good Guitar Course: Learning the guitar with a teacher, as opposed to learning it on your own, has many advantages. Sure, a lot of people take the self-taught route and are fairly successful doing so. However if this were true, just about everyone out there would be a great guitar player. As Tom Hess puts it, ‘It will take far too long to reach your goals without a good guitar teacher. A good teacher can/should save you years of aimless guitar practicing, by teaching you HOW to reach your goals faster and better.’ Also remember that lessons are not just for beginners, many online guitar courses offer a ton of pro-level lessons as well, designed specifically for guitarists with different proficiency levels.

5. Use Metronomes: Metronomes are awesome. If you’re not using one already, I highly recommend getting one as soon as you can. Playing and practicing with a metronome will allow you to measure and gauge your guitar play, and allow you to play in a more accurately and evenly by allowing you to work on one of the fundamental aspects of your guitar-play: timing. Start off slow, and try working your way up. And if you can’t buy/don’t want to buy one, use one of the widely available ‘virtual’ metronomes available online (such as this one). Pro-tip: speed isn’t all that there is to guitar-play, slowing down every once in a while might be immensely beneficial for you! For instance take something that you’re very familiar with, and try playing it much more slowly, using the metronome.

6.  Record and Review: one of the best advice anyone will ever give you, is to record yourself while playing, and use it to review certain aspects of your guitar play later on. Use a webcam, a camcorder, a digital camera, or a phone cam to record all your practice sessions. Watch it, and more importantly, listen to yourself playing. Watch how (or if at all) you improve over a series of recordings, and identify specific areas where you might need more work. Put the videos up on your blog or Facebook page as well!

7. Aural Skills – Try working on your aural skills, with the aim to try learning the songs by ear. It’s not an easy skills to acquire by any means, which is why tabs sheets and notes are so important in the music biz. Try ‘listening’ to your favorite guitar players playing (such as when delivering a solo), try to figure out what they’re doing, note by note, try to dissect their technique and listen to any and all of the small details in their guitar play. Try emulating it exactly how they played it now, WITHOUT looking at any tabs sheets. Try incorporating what they do and how they play in your practice. Try replicating a song the exact same way as they played it. The ability to ‘listen’ is probably one of the biggest assets any guitar player can have.

8. Avoid Procrastinating: When it comes to guitar practice and becoming a better guitar-player, procrastination is, by far, your biggest enemy! Tom Hess puts procrastination only second to fear as a guitarist’s worst enemy to ‘move forward and getting the results you want’. Avoid, at all costs!

9. Play and Practice with Others: Seek out guitar players in your neighborhood or in your vicinity, and jam with them. Regardless of their skills level, watch and play the guitar with these people and try doing it as often as possible. After just a few productive sessions, you’ll be amazed at how much you can pick up by simply watching others play. Share notes, experiences, tips and tricks with each other. Take it one step further and try starting a band. It will surely be a great learning experience for you. In the golden words of Gary Moore, ‘a lot of people can play great in their bedroom, but you’ll make more progress playing with other people. You don’t develop a sense of rhythm playing solo’.

10. Find the Ideal ‘Practice Space’: Try finding the perfect space to practice the guitar – somewhere quiet, away from distractions, where you can ideally put in a few hours of quality practice time. And a place where the loudness of the amp and the sound wouldn’t be a problem for anyone else. Perhaps you could look into converting that extra room in your apartment into a studio? Also look into equipping your room – comfortable seating, a place to put your notes and laptop on (a stand for the tabs), speakers, wiring (with enough electrical outlets)… the whole deal.

11. Get a Better Guitar: Last but certainly not the least by any means, make sure that you use a guitar that you’re totally, one-hundred-percent comfortable with. Maybe it’s time to change that cheap axe you’ve been using since you started off, or maybe it’s time to upgrade to something better. Do your research before buying a new instrument. There’s a ton to choose from, make sure you make an informed decision. Getting a better instrument could instantly translate to a marked (and noticeable) improvement in your guitar-playing. More importantly, make sure that you take good care of your instrument – change the strings regularly, keep it in-tune at all times, and clean and maintain your instrument on a regular basis.