Listening to great music is one thing, being able to play music is another. If you play the guitar, you´ve learnt how to read music, how to play the notes and how to stay in rhythm. That means you have all the right tools to play. But in order to make progress, it’s important to adapt your practice. Try these seven tips to improve your skills and to become a real pro at playing the guitar.
Dedicate Your Time
If you want to become a better guitar player, it’s crucial for you to take your craft seriously. Practice isn’t something to postpone and to work around your schedule – in fact, it should be one of your priorities. Visit the Chordify website in order to create chords guitar players can use. Simply upload your favorite songs from Youtube or Deezer and have the platform generate the chords and turn your song into sheet music. Practicing is a whole lot more fun, if you can play songs you love.
Of course, it’s not about fun. Technically, improving your skills is about struggle. But you´ll realize that struggling in order to work on your deficiencies will be a lot easier if you play songs that you love and that match your favorite genre.
Master a Song
There’s always room for improvement, no matter how well you may already play. It´s cool, if you´re able to casually play a song remembering the chords and the beat by heart. But with casualness comes carelessness. So instead of simply playing your favorite and allegedly perfected songs over and over again, try to work on the quality each time to play. Focus and accuracy are the key to mastering your guitar play.
Mix It Up
Earlier in this article, it was mentioned that you should practice songs that match your personal taste in music. It keeps you interested and motivates you to work even harder. But when it comes to genres, they all have their typical attributes. If you want to try something new – and you definitely should in order to improve your own range -, choose new songs from a different genre every once in a while. You´ll see that keeping it fresh doesn’t just help you with your range, but also is a lot of fun.
Scales Are Key
Practicing scales is for beginners, right? Wrong – scales are the base of any good guitar playing. So, whenever you sit down to practice, make sure to dedicate some time to scales. Doing so, make sure to not focus on the ones you´re already good at. Instead, pick scales that give you a hard time and try mastering those. Practicing scales helps you with your dexterity and with your focus. At the same time, it trains your hearing.
Work on Chord Changes
Bumpy chord changes can lower the quality of your guitar playing. In order to become really good, you should take your time and practice changes while strumming. There are many guitar players, who are naturals and who master any chord change in a short amount of time. But to most players, they´re a really tough challenge, which shouldn’t be underestimated or even avoided.
Timing
There are musicians, who play well when it comes to theory, but who lose when it comes to timing. As a good guitar player, you´ll need to stay in the rhythm. That’s not always easy, especially with up-beat music and some good heavy metal. It´s a plus, if you already have a good feeling for timing, but in order to perfect it, use auxiliaries like a metronome, a click-clack or a drum beat.
Consistency
It’s okay to take your guitar every now and then in order to play some music. But if you really thrive to improve your playing, there are no excuses: You need to play every day. It’s the regular repetition of chord changes, scales and mastering that really helps you with your playing – take it seriously.