Guitar tips?

[toasterwater]

Simple thread: If you are good at the guitar, I would like to hear some of the exercises, or habits, etc. that you use to sharpen your skill or make you good, etc.

I took my first lesson this week and have a couple of exercises that I work on, but I'm sure there's a lot out there.

Thanks!

[echo]

Ah, first lessons eh?

For a while, trying to do almost anything will feel akward and out of your area of familiarity. Fret not though...

There are many types of exercises which will include stretching your fingers, navigating the fingerboard, and plucking strings the proper way.

When I began playing the guitar, I learned one-string versions of cover songs which helped me navigate the fretboard. (Master of Puppets by Metallica for instance, starting at the 12th fret on the top string and going down the board).

Afterward, it was simply instinct to do various things to get my fingers stretched. For instance, putting the index finger at the first fret, plucking the note, and then without taking my finger off that fret, applying middle finger to the 2nd fret, ring finger on third fret, and pinky on the fourth fret - the move to the next string and repeat.

For plucking, learning something like Metallica's Nothing Else Matters is known for being pretty useful for getting use to navigating from string to string. With no fingers on the board, pluck the top string, fourth string, fifth string, bottom string - (going back up) fifth string, fourth string, first string, (back down) fourth string... etc (repeating this pattern).

I'm curious. Are you learning on an acoustic by any chance?

[toasterwater]

Hmm... I should clarify something... This is my first guitar lesson, but I have prior experience with the guitar. About 6-7 years ago I played some... I could play and sing somewhere between 10 and 20 songs all the way through.

Now that I have decided to get back into it, I decided to take lessons. My first lesson was great... Believe it or not, I never even knew anything about scales or key or anything... I had a few chords I knew, and I had figured out where the natural notes land and how to tell where they are on each string... but other than that, I only learned songs by memorizing tablature.

I got a few rules from my guitar teacher like always keep my fingers close to the strings (which has proven quite difficult to do with my pinky... it likes to move away from the strings on its own!), only use finger tips ( i guess in any application other than barring...), depress the middle of the fret (which is interesting cuz i had previously heard it was best to keep my finger up toward the front of the fret...), hold the neck "like a baseball"... i think this mainly has to do with not wrapping my thumb up and over the top of the neck, and stay relaxed (keep good posture). He also stressed that I should be alternating up and down strokes while picking, instead of just a down stroke over and over.

He taught me the G scale, and a chord for each of the 7 notes, showed me "the chromatic exercise" which is just picking an open followed by the first 4 frets of each string as quickly as I can accurately. He also showed me the E scale... which i guess is the "relative minor" to the g? something like that i guess.

Also, I own both an electric and an acoustic. I recently (within the past month) restrung both of them. I've decided to practice more often on the acoustic since it takes more finger strength.

Ok. So now you have more background on me. =)

[echo]

Ahh, I see now.

So apparently, you have some intermediate experience in rhythm technique from the sounds of it.

What are your goals? Are you wanting to reach for learning more lead method? (scales and the such)? Are you wanting to improve your ability to alternate pick (or "double pick")?

Some tips as far as tendancies go.... whatever you do, don't make the mistake of neglecting your pinky. Work it out just as much as all other fingers. The more your exercise it, the easier it will be to train it to stay close to the strings.

Depressing the middle of the fret is just as good (and smoother in performance) as the front from what I've observed. Not a big deal really.

As far as how you hold the neck, alot of it depends on your style of play (more rhythm? more lead?) Rhythm players tend to grip the neck around more and this is fine with most rhythm playing in my opinion. But if you want faster more precise navigation (such as how more lead-ish players approach it), you want your wrist bent forward more to attack the notes more precisely.

Alternate picking is important. I made the mistake of getting way behind on it for most of my self-taught past. However, as far as rhythm playing went, not alternate picking certainly didnt slow me down. It acually instilled the instinct and ability to down-pick with much faster precision. People always pointed it out in a positive manner when watching me when I was younger with it. However, if you want more speed and flexibility, you will definitely want to keep your alternate picking healthy and strong.

[sidsavara]

I play guitar. The most important thing is to make sure you learn good technique up front. I was self taught for a while, found a guitar teacher and it has been very difficult unlearning bad habits like the way I hold the next of the guitar, the way I strum (pausing for beats versus a constant pattern where I just hit the strings on beat)

I love it though Highly recommend playing guitar

[FazK]

Practice 6 days a week for two hours - never skip this no matter what - do it for six months and you'll never skip it ever again

break this time up into small chunks of 5-10-15 minutes for each chunk practice something like scales, exercises a piece of music etc.
doing this is very efficient and makes the session rush by

play constantly for these two hours try to stop as little as possible don't get up off the chair. This will put you into a flow state and will make you a far better guitarist

play to a metronome from day one - it will be hard at first but perservere

warm up for 20 minutes before you practice - play scales and finger exercises and warm up your fingers

learn only one piece at a time - take one bar of music, set your metronome at 50 "loop" the round and round until you can play it perfectly. Work through the music in this way. Then move on to the next until you're done. Then play the whole piece at 50 and increase the speed by 5bmp every week

the more you can concentrate the better you'll get your mind must be empty and clear while playing. You must have intense concentration on what your fingers are doing so that you don't make mistakes.

make friends with as many guitarists as you can they can help you and their experience will provide insights you cannot come up with on your own

play everything as close to perfect as possible. do not gloss over mistakes if you do they will become ingrained and you will become a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ guitarist

don't use free tabs from the net to learn songs. they are all incorrect and do not have the timing of the notes which is the most important. Invest in guitar books and magazines and LEARN EVERY SONG before buying another one

in the end it is your discipline and perseverance that determines your guitar skill. talent have very little or nothing to do with it

take these tips seriously. after 10 years i am still a mediocre guitarist and these are the things i have just come to realize after many 1000's of hours of playing

[echo]

Originally Posted by FazK

Practice 6 days a week for two hours - never skip this no matter what - do it for six months and you'll never skip it ever again

Good tip for building discipline.

break this time up into small chunks of 5-10-15 minutes for each chunk practice something like scales, exercises a piece of music etc.
doing this is very efficient and makes the session rush by

play constantly for these two hours try to stop as little as possible don't get up off the chair. This will put you into a flow state and will make you a far better guitarist

From my blog: "The best guitar student I ever had developed one of the most dedicated routines I’ve ever seen in anyone I’ve taught. He spent at least half of every day to practice. Every morning he would open his eyes, stretch, get out of bed and go strait to his guitar to warm up his fingers before even eating breakfast. After 30 minutes of warming up his fingers, he would put the guitar down, eat breakfast, come back, and begin reviewing every single cover song he’d learned since he began playing. Afterward he would practice scales and chord changes he had learned both from me and from the cover songs he had reviewed. Finally, he would pick out one or more new cover songs to learn, get out his tablature books and CD’s, and spend the next hour or more learning them. This went on for an entire summer (since he was out of school and playing the guitar interested him more than sitting around with friends most of the time). The great thing about it was it never had one interruption in it."

play to a metronome from day one - it will be hard at first but perservere

And if you don't have one, or can't get one, an alternative to playing with a metronome is playing along with cover songs. This is what I did all the years I never owned a metronome.

warm up for 20 minutes before you practice - play scales and finger exercises and warm up your fingers

Something I always emphasize to all my students.

learn only one piece at a time - take one bar of music, set your metronome at 50 "loop" the round and round until you can play it perfectly. Work through the music in this way. Then move on to the next until you're done. Then play the whole piece at 50 and increase the speed by 5bmp every week

Or every day depending on how well you are mastering the current speed.

the more you can concentrate the better you'll get your mind must be empty and clear while playing. You must have intense concentration on what your fingers are doing so that you don't make mistakes.

This is mostly in the case that your fingers are getting used to doing a different style of set of movements than its used to.

make friends with as many guitarists as you can they can help you and their experience will provide insights you cannot come up with on your own

This is extremely important. I keep running into people who try to claim they do things better by themselves. They're pretty close minded.

play everything as close to perfect as possible. do not gloss over mistakes if you do they will become ingrained and you will become a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ guitarist

This is a mistake my brother makes. For one, he doesn't accurately learn cover songs. He semi-learns them, and when he plays them back by himself, the version that is in his head is very loose, off on timing, and missing a bunch of things, but in his head, he thinks he is playing right. This has a big effect on the rest of his music writing which has become bland and without dimension of root notes and rhythm structure.

don't use free tabs from the net to learn songs. they are all incorrect and do not have the timing of the notes which is the most important. Invest in guitar books and magazines and LEARN EVERY SONG before buying another one

Years ago, I discovered that many tablature books aren't even written by the band. They are written by people who listen to them by ear. I hardly ever use tablature. I naturally learn all things by ear and then clean it up with a few different sources of tablature to the point that it is as accurate as possible. Else, if I can't quite grasp a basic rhythm by ear, I will use a source of tablature to get the idea of how it might go, using it as a guide, and then tightening up any details I feel are off.

in the end it is your discipline and perseverance that determines your guitar skill. talent have very little or nothing to do with it

Exactly.

take these tips seriously. after 10 years i am still a mediocre guitarist and these are the things i have just come to realize after many 1000's of hours of playing

Sounds like a similar boat I was on for years of my own playing.