An extremely important character trait to develop when improving your guitar playing is brutal honesty. What I mean by this is being totally honest with yourself about the results that you are currently getting from your guitar practice. In other words…is your current method of practicing guitar producing the results that you want? And if you're not getting the results you want…why not?
Click Here To Continue Reading: Guitar Practice Lesson - How Brutal Honesty Can Help You Progress Faster…
Let's imagine for a minute that you are feeling really sick. In fact…you feel downright dreadful. You can't remember the last time you felt this bad.
Because you feel so sick, you decide to visit your local doctor. After the usual annoying wait, you go into the doctor's office. Before you say anything your doctor writes out a prescription for you…even though they haven't even tried to diagnose what the problem might be.
You then leave and stop by a pharmacy on the way home to get the medicine that was prescribed. You take the medicine for a couple of weeks. But it doesn't help…you still feel sick.
Click Here To Continue Reading: Overcome Your Guitar Playing Problems With Speed Testing…
I've noticed from my guitar teaching experience that many guitarists often feel immense frustration when it comes to their guitar playing. And while there are many potential reasons for this frustration, a very common one is having a short-term mindset. What I mean by this is that they are putting too much pressure on themselves to progress quickly. They want to get good, and they want to get good yesterday!
On the surface wanting to progress faster and faster may seem like a positive thing. (And there is certainly nothing wrong with being ambitious!). But unfortunately for many guitarists this all-consuming focus on their speed of progress can cause quite a few problems such as…
Click Here To Continue Reading: Guitar Practice Tips - Obliterate Your Frustration By Thinking Long-Term…
One of the cool things about working on your guitar technique really hard is that you start to gain new insights. And these insights, although they may appear insignificant at times can actually make a huge difference to your playing. In fact, they often can make such a massive difference that you'll kick yourself that you didn't notice them sooner!
One insight in the realm of alternate picking is this…
Click Here To Continue Reading: Is Your Pick Motion Speed Slowing Down Your Alternate Picking?…
Have you ever noticed how guitarists who can alternate pick fast often make it look really easy? For Example: I remember watching a video of Tiago Della Vega setting the Guinness World Record for World's Fastest Guitarist. It was incredible to watch his picking hand as he played Flight Of The Bumblebee at a frightening 320bpm. Considering that song makes large use of sixteenth note rhythms, I think the tempo he played that song was otherworldly. (And it certainly inspired me enough to do lots of alternate picking practice for the rest of the day!).
Click Here To Continue Reading: Alternate Picking Lesson - Increase Your Speed By Understanding Economy Of Motion…
If you've been playing guitar for a while then you've probably come across the dreaded speed barrier. This is something that occurs anytime you can't reach a particular speed goal. And it can be a really frustrating experience. You want to be able to play something at a certain speed…but you can't. No matter how much you practice it, you can't get it faster.
For Example: Let's say that you want to learn a guitar lick by one of your favorite guitarists. So you practice it…and then you practice it some more. But what happens? Yep…you guessed it. You manage to build it up to 96 bpm. But unfortunately, the lick is supposed to be played at 144 bpm. You've hit the dreaded speed barrier!
Click Here To Continue Reading: Guitar Technique Lesson - Strategies For Busting Through Speed Barriers…
A common goal that crops up all the time when I'm teaching guitar is the goal of joining the band. And let's face it…it's a great goal. Being in a band will help you learn many musical skills that you just can't learn by yourself. Not to mention it's a fantastic way to stay motivated with your own guitar practice.
But here's the thing. Often guitarists are waiting to get "good enough" before they join a band. They want to get to a certain level of playing before they take the steps needed to be part of a band. Can you see some a problem with that?
Click Here To Continue Reading: Electric Guitar Lesson - Are You Good Enough To Be In A Band?…
Sometimes the best thing you can do to improve your guitar playing is to stop focusing so much on your guitar playing. Yep…that's right. You'll get better by focusing on it less.
Right now you might be thinking that I'm crazy for saying such an outrageous thing. But before you stop reading, let me explain myself quickly. I promise it will make sense soon.
Click Here To Continue Reading: Learn Electric Guitar - Unleashing Your Musicianship…
If you're relatively new to electric guitar then you might be curious to find out exactly how long it will take you to get good. And I think it's a valid concern. You've been putting all this time into practice, and I think it's only natural to wonder when you're going to see the fruits of your labor!
But you probably already realize that it's a very difficult thing to answer. (I know that I can't really give a clear-cut answer anytime a student asks me this question). The truth is that it depends on a lot of different factors. Let's take a look at a few of the most important now…
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I think we've all done it at some point. We've looked at some incredible guitarist play and wonder just how they got so good. Maybe we've even asked ourselves questions like…
- Are they just naturally talented?
- Do they have something that I don't?
- Will I ever be able to play like them?
If you can relate to these questions, then you can feel better by knowing that you're not alone. I definitely asked myself those questions when I started learning lead guitar. And I know that many of my students have asked themselves similar questions. It can definitely be quite intimidating watching someone play with incredible skill…especially if you're new to lead guitar!
So how do you think these amazing players got so good? Well, clearly there is no simple one-size-fits-all answer. With that said, the tips that I'm about to share will definitely help you to start moving in the right direction. So let's take a look at them now…
Click Here To Continue Reading: Lead Guitar Lesson - Tips To Help You Become A Monster Guitarist…
