If all you do is copy other successful guitarists, you will hit a ceiling and won’t understand why. And if all you do is studying instructional products and guitar lessons, you may become a proficient guitarist, but you might be an innovator or develop unique styles.
So, what sets a great guitarist apart from the rest?
Everyone has a taste and reason for pursuing things that they love the most, but they don’t take the time to dig deeper into what is different and unique about their perspectives and passions. It all narrows to the questions you ask yourself – how and when to ask them.
Understanding the Art of Guitar Playing
Most beginners can’t believe they play songs within a few days of learning. The key is a 50/50 approach. This is where learners don’t have to spend their first few weeks learning technical skills. Instead, they focus on learning actual playing and the basics of balancing technical skills.
Why Become a Guitarist
Being a guitarist comes with many benefits. You can relieve stress as well as connect with other people with the same passion as yours.
Playing guitar also shows improvement in cognitive and memory skills. Playing guitar requires you to remember lyrics, melodies, and chords. This, in turn, helps you improve your cognitive and memory skills.
In addition, guitar playing is a creative outlet. Once Archer K Music pedals are at your fingertips, you can create unique tones and write your own music. This will be an amazing way of expressing yourself and can make a fun hobby.
Skills a Guitarist Needs
Things like mumbo-jumbo crotchets dividing into quavers and dividing further into semi-quavers with dots and ties are important. Understanding rhythmic notation is easy if you learn steps and is helpful for various reasons. First, it will enable you to read rhythmic notation. Second, it organizes different subdivisions of beats in your mind. This, in turn equips you with knowing when to play your guitar. Apart from understanding rhythmic notation, you will also need other skills that makes a great guitarist. Some of the skills include the following:
- Conflict resolution skills
- Dedication
- Patience
- Curiosity and creativity
- Great communication
- Good dexterity
- Great memory
Top 6 Pro Tips to Be a Great Guitarist
A guitarist’s life is based on constant self-improvement. Regardless of your skill level, you will always have something to learn. Whether you are an expert or a beginner, a few tips can help. Some of the tips that can help you become a great guitarist may include the following:
-
Find a Perfect Instrument
Finding a good instrument is essential for playing electric or acoustic guitars. Buying your first guitar, especially as a beginner, will be an exciting experience. While you can be tempted to choose a guitar depending on its appearance, weighing a couple of factors would be best.
-
Experiment with Various Practice Techniques
There are several ways of practicing guitar, and what will work for you may not for another person. Among the popular techniques of practicing include repetition and isolation.
Repetition involves repeating a passage or section over time until it becomes your second nature. On the other hand, isolation consists of concentrating on specific aspects of playing, like fingerpicking or strumming and practicing them separately from other songs.
You can also practice through scales & exercises. In this, you will improve your finger skills and technique. The key goal here is to make guitar playing fun.
-
Learn New Things Daily
Always find something related to playing music or guitar daily, and learn something new. It could be a strum pattern, altered tuning, chord, or new riff.
Being disciplined to learn, seek out, and internalize new musical knowledge or guitars every day can feed your instructors in music.
Learning can also add more concepts to your memory in music and help you express yourself as you perform. By doing this, you will realize that learning one new thing eventually becomes two, three, four, and so on.
-
Use Several Media Sources
Whenever you want to learn something new, put it down, repeat, play, and sing. Memory often works best in visual and auditory formats.
Studies show that this is a powerful way of recalling and retaining information. For us professional guitarists, writing, repeating, playing, and singing it aloud can make it sink in.
For instance, if you are currently learning a new song and know how to play it but cannot remember the chord sequence, take a notebook, write the song’s title, and then write by copying chords in the correct order. This way, you will remember quickly.
-
Make the Practice Fun
Your guitar playing and practicing can become more fun if you practice geometrically instead of linearly. A lot of skills go into achieving your goals in the music. You need to identify those skills and focus on each every week.
Don’t master one skill at a time. Try mastering them at a go – this will make you a better guitarist faster and ensure you aren’t bored.
-
Learn from Other Guitarists
This might seem contradictory to what I said earlier, but no one becomes a successful musician without learning from others. If you hear one saying they never studied other guitarists, they could lie.
Everyone gets inspiration somewhere or from something. Perhaps David Gilmour and Floyd inspire you. Or maybe a mood, a certain feeling, a walk in the park, music, arts, or anything that inspires you.
Also, the guitarists and musicians you admire perhaps got inspiration from other old blues legends. If you look at the likes of Rhoads, Slash, Page, Van Halen, and Hendrix, you will realize they learned a lot from their mentors.
The Takeaway
Every now and then, you will face the challenges of guitar playing. But don’t worry – listen to what your heart tells you. If guitar playing makes you happy, go for it. Don’t just believe in yourself. Believe in your goals and progress, too.
