Many times when you are learning guitar, there will be points in time that you feel like you are getting stuck. Practice day after day feels quite the same and you aren’t noticing any improvement. Even with guitar teacher’s a common complaint is that you aren’t getting better or feel like you are going too slow in your progress.
Getting better at your playing is going to take practice, but doing effective practice by doing exercises.
Chord Exercises
You have probably got to the point that playing chords isn’t a problem. You can still continue to learn more chords, but that’s just memorization. One way of expanding your musical mind is to learn music theory and start constructing your own chords based on your knowledge. Even if you don’t make full chords over all six strings there are many great sounds that can be made with just a few strings.
Picking Exercises
Whether you are playing scales, riffs, licks, songs you know, or things that you just make up. You need to do picking exercises. Start out slow and accurate and increase your speed. This will help you in virtually all areas of playing the guitar. It is a bit boring but helps in the long run.
Ear Exercises
Training your ear is one of the best things you can do to get better at guitar or any instrument. Ear exercises would include figuring out songs or riffs by ear. This is difficult especially at first, but once your ear is trained well you feel like you can do anything on the guitar. If you need help, use music or tablature at first.
Improv Exercises
Make something up. Play along with a song while playing a scale in that key and see what you can come up with. Play with friends in a certain key and just play and see what happens. Improv is a skill that needs to be practiced to get better at it. You may believe that you aren’t that creative, but it’s not true. Give yourself a chance and practice.
Books and courses
Don’t be afraid of purchasing books or course material. Most are only the cost of a few guitar lessons but offer hundreds of insights. It’s best to find ones that come with audio and video so that you can see and hear the new exercises and techniques. Invest into getting better at the guitar.
well, well … time for my bass-guitar now – I’m surprising myself these days about my constant daily exercises oO – I realy must love it!^^
T’night I’ll practice my guitar skillz some, We have a show in late November so I better get good!
In his usual sad, depressing self has decided to challenge another equally decent Guitar playing friend to a game of i’m better than you.
but you prolly play guitar better than me, so maybe we should form a band. just tambourine and guitar?
Gosh, I don’t feel good. Hopefully I will feel better soon. Guitar lessons at 4:30.
Yeah EC 50 is good. But I should have bought an Ibanez. Its always better buying a guitar with a whammy bar!
*looks at them and grins* one of these days Imma be better at J-Dad on drums and T-Dad on guitar
Chut up! wireless blutooth is so much better! an smarter! an what kind of loser play guitar hero on a mac? :p
not to forget crap keyboard. Full size is soo much better. Especially when it comes to play guitar hero :p
Ah
Well, still better than me. All my guitar has ever done is gather dust alas :/
walking up this morning to him playing guitar was amazing! i couldnt ask for a better boyfriend. <3
After that horrible display of not being able to play guitar at all, im having a drum to make myself feel better.
Practicing guitar, I don’t think I’m getting much better Bobbie_Foster