How to improve in playing..

[Hei]

hi guys.
right now i'm at a stage whereby i am still not good at guitar playing, and don't know how to improve either, i'm pretty sure you guys have come across that too.

so anyway, what are some of the ways to improve yourself?
for me i think one thing i can't improve is speed. i can't play fast at all, but i don't know how to improve at speed playing. so hopefully somebody here can help me out?

 

[keithtan]

Haha practise alternate pickings and try to do hammer ins and pull offs,
so instead of one note: one pick, you get two notes: one pick

 

[zaidi534]

I usually modify the traditional licks and add my own twist with pull offs and hammer ons when I'm stuck with my playing. I too can't play fast, but this is because I've had an accident when I was young, hence had poor coordination in my left arm. I was actually a lefty. I bet if you practise and practise, you could play fast. My guitar playing has gotten a little bit faster, but not shredding-fast recently. Whenever I'm not playing the guitar, I do exercises with my left hand(moving the fingers according to the pentatonic scale) and I go through the pentatonic when I'm watching the TV, not really playing the guitar, I just focus on tv while moving up and down the scale and neck. And recently I learned to use my pinky and most probably helped me to play faster.

 

[csds92]

any bands that you like?

i feel that maybe you could look for the scores of those songs from bands that you like, and master it to the point where you can play at the same speed as the original song, then move on to another song

this is an easy way to practice if you dont know what you should practice on~

 

[Hei]

guess the best way is to really practise on things i can't play... thats good advice. thanks!
might be boring though... =/

 

[Likui]

Tell yourself that your fingers are bloody fast and u're the fastest guitarist in the world

 

[simplecomplexity]

practice. that's all... and play what you like

 

[Hei]

Tell yourself that your fingers are bloody fast and u're the fastest guitarist in the world

i'd like to think that too...

 

[SotAnLite]

Hi,

Here are some my suggestions (in no particular sequence of importance).

1) Practice a lot in the best manner you know how as regularly as possible. (Here, time is really the ket factor.) Spend at least an hour or two per day. The more, the merrier.
2) Find an instructor to mentor and coach you at a personal level. (How to find a good teacher is another story.)
3) Seek other sources of learning resources, e.g. books, videos
4) Use a metronome in your practice. (This is one of the MOST IMPORTANT habit you should adopt if you haven't.)
5) Learn to understand and apply theory and techniques in accordance of the genre and style you're studying at the moment.

Note: The list is not exhaustive.

Okay, I hope this helps.

I am a private guitar instructor, so if you think I might be of service to you, just contact me!

Cheers,
Peter

 

[SotAnLite]

Hi Hei,


When it comes to speed, I always share to my students:

Accuracy before speed

You might want to consider (actually, I strongly suggest!) using a metronome as part of your practice regime.
If you're using a Windows Media Player, you can actually make use of the function to slow down the speed of the audio you're listening to. I use another program on my MacBook to achieve the same function.

For example, if you're learning a solo at time duration 2 min 22 second to 2 min 32 second, you can slow the audio to 50% of its original speed, and then you listen to every single note of how the solo is being played. You'll be able to train your hearing (aural) ability to differentiate the mini details, such as when the note is being used with various articulations (e.g. slide / bend / hammer / pull-off).

The idea is to make sure you can play the specific phrase accurately before you increase the speed (BPM - beat per minute) of the audio. This way, you can condition (muscle memory) your fingers to play accurately and on time (syncopation of left and right hand). My suggestion is increase only about 2 to 4 BPM per increase in speed; do so only when you can play the phrase / solo 5 times totally correctly consecutively.

This method takes patience, but the rewards is humungous.

I hope this reply is useful to you. Feel free to contact me.

Cheers,
Peter

www.lowhanyew.com

hi guys.
right now i'm at a stage whereby i am still not good at guitar playing, and don't know how to improve either, i'm pretty sure you guys have come across that too.

so anyway, what are some of the ways to improve yourself?
for me i think one thing i can't improve is speed. i can't play fast at all, but i don't know how to improve at speed playing. so hopefully somebody here can help me out?

 

[omnomnomben]

I agree with the accuracy over speed thing. One thing that can help more than a metronome is having a backing track that you can slow down/speed up.

I always practice with tabs from canary.fm because it lets me control the tempo and nail it before slowly bringing it up to full speed.

and of course there are some songs that we may never be able to play at full tempo in our lifetimes... so swallow your pride, and be damned goo at playing it at 80% speed with feeling

 

[SotAnLite]

Thanks, omnomnomben!

You have a point! I agree that there are just some songs that I feel like I'm going to take very long to match up to speed.

Anyway, I checked out canary.fm. Seems interesting!

I agree with the accuracy over speed thing. One thing that can help more than a metronome is having a backing track that you can slow down/speed up.

I always practice with tabs from canary.fm because it lets me control the tempo and nail it before slowly bringing it up to full speed.

and of course there are some songs that we may never be able to play at full tempo in our lifetimes... so swallow your pride, and be damned goo at playing it at 80% speed with feeling