by Tom Hess
Wish you could get better on guitar faster?
Developing good guitar practice habits is key.
Good news is:
There is nothing complicated about learning how to practice guitar more effectively – anyone can do it. Once you know what to, you start making faster progress and get better on guitar in no time.
Here are 5 things you need to do to practice guitar and get better results from your efforts:
Look for the underlying issues that are causing problems in your guitar playing.
For example:
If you are struggling to play something fast and clean, you could ask things like:
You prevent yourself from developing poor playing habits when you focus on doing things the right way from the beginning.
If you are used to playing guitar a certain way, but discover a more efficient way to do it which will take time and effort to change – begin making this change.
You don't have to start over from zero though.
Simply practice a little more to develop new better playing habits and a little less with the old habits. Over time this will help you right the ship and improve your guitar playing.
It’s easy to sometimes operate on “autopilot” while practicing. However, paying attention to detail can often make all the difference when it comes to making a breakthrough in your guitar playing.
For example, many guitarists try to get better at playing guitar solos by learning more techniques, scale patterns or playing faster.
This things are important, but overlook critical aspects of guitar soloing such as learning how to integrate your skills together and improve guitar phrasing (how you play notes versus which notes you play with).
Sometimes we make things too hard on ourselves when an easier solution takes less time and makes everything less frustrating.
For instance: Playing an entire guitar scale over and over to get it perfect when you are really only struggling with a few notes in the pattern. In this case, it’d be much easier to simply isolate and perfect those notes before integrating them back into the overall pattern.
This saves you tons of time and energy while helping you improve more effectively.
Don't make the mistake of practicing guitar mindlessly or without any clear goals.
Every practice session needs to bring you a step closer to achieving your main guitar playing goals.
Set aside short, medium and long term goals for yourself (and use every practice session to complete micro-goals that bring you closer to your bigger goals). Then check your progress weekly to make sure you are on the right track and make changes as needed.
Want to learn more about practicing effectively for faster progress on guitar? Learn how to train yourself to get results using this guitar practice integration method.