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Have you picked up a guitar and want to get as good at it as you possibly can? Are you worried that you’re not progressing as far as you should be in the time that you’ve spent practicing? It is true that beating your head against the wall will eventually lead to improvement, but there are ways to speed up that improvement, as well. You can take steps to enhance your guitar practice sessions and we’re going to look at a few of the ways you can do just that.
Schedule your time to practice
Discipline and consistency are needed to manage continuous improvement in just about any field. You’re not going to get better if you just pick up a guitar whenever the mood takes you. In fact, you should be trying to practice at least five times a week, for at least 30 minutes each session. Schedule a specific time of your day to practice and make sure that you have the right environment, as well. You want somewhere that you’re not going to be distracted, either by other people or by things like a TV in the room. Getting the right mindset about practicing can help you stick to it and make those improvements all the more easily.
Don’t go it alone
As mentioned, you can beat your head against your guitar, and eventually, you will start to get better at it. There are a lot of great self-taught guitarists out there. However, you can get a lot more out of your sessions if you’re willing to take pointers from those in the know. The most direct way to do this is, of course, to work with a guitar tutor. However, you needn’t necessarily work with another person live and in person (or even online.) There are plenty of great guitar tutorials that can lay out lessons for you to follow, as well. The internet has made it significantly easier to find the tutelage you need in just about any field, and the guitar is a very popular instrument to learn so you should be able to find the learning method that works best for you with no problem.
Play with some backing
A lot of people find it surprising that keeping up with a rhythm can be a lot more difficult than it looks. You might be able to sing or hum to the rhythm easily enough, but your hands don’t move as fast as your mind or mouth does. It takes practice to learn rhythm and, to that end, the right equipment can make a big difference. A metronome is going to be one of the simplest types of backing to help you learn rhythm, but drum machines can help you get much more thorough with it. You can play a range of drum beats for you to practice along to, helping you keep up with the rhythm of various types of songs.
Listen back to yourself
You want to make sure that you know exactly how good you are at playing guitar, right? You might feel like you have mastered a certain chord, technique, or song at the moment, but is that really the truth? Recording yourself and listening back to yourself can help you better hear the mistakes that you might be making, the problems with your technique, and where you can improve. It’s a good idea to get some quality headphones when you’re listening back to yourself, as well, as you want to be able to pick out even the smallest improvements in your sound as you go on. Try not to get caught up in an endless loop of tweaking to small errors, however. Keep moving on as you practice.
Have goals that you want to aim at
It’s a good idea to know why, exactly, you are practicing. Not just that you want to improve at guitar. What do you want to accomplish within your practice sessions? Learning chords, learning new techniques, being able to play certain songs, being able to write songs, and being able to improvise on guitar are all great goals that are worth following. When you know specifically the goal that you want to reach, you can more easily focus on the types of practice that will help get you closer to those goals, too.
Every guitarist improves at their own pace. Don’t be too concerned if you’re not showing fast improvement even with the tips above. They will help you get better. You just to stay disciplined and committed to your passions.
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