50 ways to Improve Your Playing.

I want to start a thread that would include all musicians. I want to see if we can get more then 50 ways to improve your playing. Everyone’s got little Indian tricks that they learned along the way that has helped them improve in their musicianship and playing. Please only give tips that you know will virtually guarantee success if incorporated into a routine exercise.

I’ll Start it off…

1.) Tune Up – Now matter how bad-ass you are at playing your instrument, people will think you suck if your instrument is out of tune. For stringed instruments - If the tuner says you’re dead on and you still are a little off, maybe a new set of strings are in order. If the strings look corroded and are dented up above the metal fret wire, they are way past over due for some nice and shiny new ones. Make sure your instrument is properly intonated.

Now… someone goes next…. :rolleyes:

2.) Play with No-effects whatsoever for three months. This will force you to clean up your technique (and if you think you have good technique already...make it better.

~Incidents

3). Listen to something you don't like for a little while. Blues guys listen to classical, country to rock and anyone to rap :p after a while you could walk a way with a lot of new musical ideas ( I did after listening to some classical myself)

4) to 50) Practice

ya practice is really important, lil tip about practicing
when practicing try to push yourself to your limit every time you practice it will case you to improve really fast if you push yourself, cus you just practice you will just be pretty natural but if you push yourself you can be natural and have a great style at it to :)
peace

5) (I think)
Jam, Jam,Jam.. i think getting more experienced with music, will bring some good talent with the guitar, find a bunch of friends and just play

try playing other instruments from time to time. Each instrument has his own tricks, but some of them can be applied to guitar too.

SAVE URSELFS the trouble....This article was published in the new guitar one magazine....lets be realistic guys....do we really count up to 50??? lol

Originally Posted by: schmange4) to 50) Practice

thanks for bursting my bubble...

I agree with the above post, the most important think you can do to get better is to practice. Start a very fast solo at a very slow speed. When you have the acuracy down, make it a little faster. It will take a long time to play perfect, so dont get discouraged. When you practice, dont just play songs, do exercises, even if you find them boring, they will help you where you need i the most, your speed and your accuracy.

9) Record your practice

10 ) When practicing: know the right/correct thing to do, and make sure you are doing it.

11) Shredding is one thing but you should also be able to knock out a backing groove and stay in the pocket (tempo). A good guitarist does both. When practicing, break up your routine and don't just concentrate on solos.

33) Spend more time playing guitar than on the internet.

Originally Posted by: cayotic7273). Listen to something you don't like for a little while. Blues guys listen to classical, country to rock and anyone to rap :p after a while you could walk a way with a lot of new musical ideas ( I did after listening to some classical myself)

Yup, i agree....but not everyone is as openminded as you though....

break up really hard solos into tiny sections.

Originally Posted by: SpeckledJimbreak up really hard solos into tiny sections.

yeah that is a good thing to do. when im figurin out songs thas all i do. play like 15 secs figure out how to play it then move on. it takes awile but its a bit easyer. :cool:

dont pay attention to what you are playing. if you are practicing, do something else too, like watch tv. when you are watching just do scales and such, or just little b.s. lead work. its like you are playing subconciously. and when you do this, magic can happen. you'll start doing things you didnt know you could do, you could come up with some catchy little riffs as well.

7] guitar playing can be improved by learning how to play the sax. The sax is easy to learn. After only a little practice with the horn you wil find your lead lines on guitar will take on a quality that will surprise you and your bandmates.

6,234,604,304) Play with your guitar hung so low, it almost touches the ground.

6,234,604,305) Tune your guitar as low as you can so you only have to play with one finger.


Just kidding. Practice, practice, practice is the key to improve your playing. There's no shortcuts around it.