Learn Game Changing Strategies For Better Guitar Progress

In today's lesson, we will learn game-changing strategies for making better progress on the guitar. Improving your guitar skills is an ongoing journey. It requires dedication and perseverance, no matter if you're a beginner or an intermediate player looking to reach the next level.

Working on the right strategies can make all the difference. It can be the difference between you struggling to get there and possibly giving up beforehand, or traveling along your journey with confidence and enjoyment in the process. Let's take a look at a few game-changing strategies.

#1.) Master The Basics

Before you go diving into complex pieces, it is best that you take time to master the basics. This will ensure that you have a solid foundation developed in such things as chords, scales, and finger exercises.

• Chords: Learn and practice forming the fundamental chords C, Am, G, Em, D, etc, daily. Then work at switching between them smoothly, as many songs are made up of them.

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• Scales: Start with the major scale (Do-Re-Me) and move on to the minor pentatonic scale. The major is the most familiar, and the minor pentatonic is the most widely used.

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• Finger exercises: Daily finger exercises allow you to build strength and dexterity. The better you keep your wrists and fingers in shape, the easier it will be to form chords and play scales.

#2.) Develop A Consistent Practice Routine

Improvement in anything you choose to do is consistency. Especially if you want to improve at your guitar playing. By establishing a practice routine that suits your schedule, time frame interests, and sticking to it regularly, you will develop habits of productivity that will help you to excel.

• Set guitar goals: Determine what you want to achieve each week, such as mastering a certain technique or playing a song all the way through.
• Have a balanced practice: Divide your practice session bewtween learning technical skills, theory, and practical application. You must apply what you learn. Very important.
• Use a metronome: Practicing daily with a metronome develops your timing and rhythm. These are essential to any musician. Especially if you'd like to play wth others.

#3.) Focus On Technique

Having proper technique is vital to playing efficiently and avoiding injury. Especially as you begin to progress to more complex elements of playing the guitar. The more you master the basics and take time to develop proper technique, the better you'll sound at higher levels of learning.

Consider such things as:

• Posture and hand positioning: Always maintain a relaxed posture and correct hand positioning to prevent strain and fatigue.

• Picking and strumming: Practice down picking, then move to alternate picking. As you get better at that, work with strumming patterns to establish rhythm.

• Fingerstyle techniques: These will enable you to develop your picking hand and enhance your rhythm playing. This, along with hybrid picking, will broaden your skill set.

#4.) Expand Your Musical Horizons

When you listen to and play a variety of music genres, you greatly enhance your guitar playing skills. The reason for this is because of the approach that each guitarist and genre has toward the instrument.

• Diverse genres: Experiment with jazz, blues, rock, and classical for a variety of different techniques and tonal qualities.
• Learn new songs: Challenge yourself by learning songs within and outside your comfort zone. This will allow you to push your limits both mentally and physically.
• Analyze different artists: Study guitar players of different styles and backgrounds. This will give you insight into their approach to the instrument and ideas for compositions of your own.

#5.) Work On Ear Training

This is where you don't depend on sheet music. This can be a valuable asset to your guitar playing as it will allow you to play any song, just by listening to it. Developing an understanding of note intervals.

• Play with recordings: Pick your favorite song (start with one that's simple) and play along to it. This will help develop your listening skills.
• Figure out the chords: These are the essence of most songs, so knowing these will give you insight into the key of the song.
• Determine the key: All songs are written in a certain key. The chords can give you insight into what key the song is in.

#6.) Study Music Theory

This is something that will help you develop a better understanding of how everything works in music. The relationship bewtween the scales and chords.

• Study scales: This will let you know what notes are in both major and minor scales. This will help you identify what key a song is in.
• Learn about chords: Chords come out of scales. So, the more you know about scales, the better you'll understand chords.
• Identify key signatures: Learning about these will allow you to easily see what key a song is in when looking at sheet music.
• Read sheet music: This will allow you to expand your song repertoire as well as learn songs quickly, as all the information needed is written out.

#7.) Record & Evaluate Your Playing

Recording yourself is always a good idea. The reason for this is that it allows you to gain insight into your playing from an outside point of view. Don't overlook this simple concept. It can work wonders for your guitar playing progress.

• Self-recording: Use a smartphone or any popular recording device to record your practice sessions and performances for enhanced insight into your playing.
• Practice critical listening: Evaluate your playing. Look for areas of improvement, and track your progress daily.
• Get feedback from others: Get feedback from teachers or people further along the journey. This can help you to avoid mistakes and make sure you're where you should be.

#8.) Stay Motivated & Have Fun

• Set achievable milestones: Celebrate when you have small victories, as this will help to keep you motivated and progressing forward daily.
• Join a community: Participating in online forums, jam sessions with friends, or local music groups. This will help you to bounce ideas off each other.
• Enjoy the process: Embrace the journey of learning. This will help you to remind yourself of why you're going through all the work, and enjoy it better.

By incorporating these strategies into your daily practice, you will not only become a better guitarist, but you will do so in a more comprehensive manner. This will allow you to enjoy the process of learning and have more fun while doing it.

Dive Deeper To Learn More

If you'd like to dive deeper into improving your guitar skills, I recommend you check out one or more of the guitar method books that I have authored. These cover many topics. Getting started. Rhythm Guitar, Lead Guitar, and Guitar Theory. Both acoustic and electric.

These are all designed step-by-step, with each lesson leading into the next. With easy-to-read notation, diagrams for easy understanding, interactive exercises, and learning assessments. By learning in this method, you will learn efficiently in a logical order.

With a structured progressive learning path, you can be assured that you are learning what is needed at the correct time it is needed. With self-study, you learn to learn when it's best for your schedule, manage your time, and build self-discipline, which can benefit you in other areas of your life.

Method books are great for introducing fundamental principles in such a way that anyone can learn them. Even if you have no prior musical knowledge. Completing sections and moving to the next can be very satisfying and give you motivation to progress forward.

All this and more can be accomplished through my method books. These are available in paperback, as well as digital, for your convenience. Available on Amazon and wherever books are sold. Be sure to grab one today and start having fun learning to play the guitar.

Thanks for your time today.

Good luck and take care.

Sincerely, Dwayne Jenkins