Introduction: From the moment we start learning the guitar, we always want to be a better player. From playing blues to playing hard-hitting metal riffs, evolving as a better player is something that every guitarist wants. We often tell ourselves that “I wish I could play that fast” or “I wish I could express myself in the way David Gilmore does.” So what can we do in order to reach our goals? Here is how you can do it :
Practice makes everything perfect, including your skill as a guitarist.
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Playing the guitar or any other musical instrument is a great way to reduce stress and anxiety. The saying that practice makes a man perfect is applicable to everything we do. Without practice, we will never reach our goals. Even if it is for 2 hours a day, we should practice every day. Keeping aside playing what we can already play, we should focus on learning new things every day. Be it scales or melody lines or new guitar techniques, we should always keep on learning new things and evolve.
Practicing the guitar on a slow tempo.
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Everyone wants to play fast. Looking at a player like Jason Richardson or John Petrucci shred feels amazing. How do we reach that speed? By practising slowly. In order to play something fast, we must learn to play it slow and then gradually increase the speed.
Using a metronome (because timing and rhythm are absolutely essential in guitar playing)
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A lot of players often don’t consider the metronome to be important. Practising using a metronome not only helps us keep in time, but also slowly increasing the speed helps us increase our speed gradually. The best way to practice the guitar is by using a metronome. For example, playing a scale at 60 bpm, mastering it at 60 bpm and then gradually increasing to 70, 80, 90 and so on.
Practicing the right guitar technique
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You can practice how much you want to. Unless you use the right guitar techniques, you will never be able to play better. Techniques like sweep picking, alternate picking or economy picking, if not practiced properly, will become very problematic in the long run.
Getting to know guitar and music theory
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You don’t need to be the master of theory in order to play better. But totally ignoring theory will cause a lot of problems in the future. In order to make solos or even simple riffs, without knowing theory it will be very difficult. Knowing time signatures become very handy when composing complex riffs. 7/8 or 15/16 aren’t just numbers then. They will start making sense once you get hold of time signatures. When learning classical guitar, learning the staff notation will be very helpful in order to master your craft.
Covering songs on guitar.
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One of the best ways to become a better player is by covering songs. Heard something very interesting? Cover it. Even if it is a full song or just a part of a particular sound, covering helps you learn how the professional players play such immaculate things and also help you develop the techniques used in these pieces.
Learning guitar parts by ears
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With the huge availability of tabs online, we often neglect the fact that learning a song by our ears make us better musicians. It helps us know the guitar better. Ignoring learning songs by ear is a very bad guitar habit. Learning by ear is a very important aspect of ear training. If we master this art, we are already up to date with 80% of our theory!
Listening to better guitarists and musicians
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This point is often not stressed upon much. Listening to better players make you a better player. Even jamming with better players help you increase your level of playing. Watching others play can inspire you in a lot of different ways. From note selections to finding out new techniques, watching others play to make us grow in ways unimaginable. Listening to good guitarists like Plini, Joe Satriani, Yngwie Malmsteen and many others not only increases our musical knowledge but also inspire us to be better.
Getting a guitar teacher
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In the initial stages of learning the guitar, having a professional guitar teacher helps a lot. It answers your question of “how to learn guitar?” In order to master the basics like chords, scales and even the parts of a guitar, having a guide or a mentor is of great help. A proper teacher can easily spot if his student has the potentiality to become a good player and can them push beyond their limit.
Showcase your originality with the guitar
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One of the most important steps in being a better player is having your own identity. Especially in a world filled with thousands of good guitarists, you need to be different in order to be recognized by the masses. For example, there are a lot of players who consider John Petrucci to be their God. In order to match his guitar techniques, people even go to the extent of buying the same guitars and paddles. Even his playing style is copied by a majority of people. Although this makes one a better player, their own sound and identity are lost. It is better to get inspired by someone than to be identical to him.
thanks for the information