In this comprehensive blog post, you will find five proven tips to help you quickly improve your guitar playing, so jump in and get practicing!
Are you a guitarist trying to take your playing to the next level? Whether you're just looking to buy your first guitar (click here for the best guitar buying guide), learning the most common guitar terminology (click here for our glossary of terms), or you're an experienced player, there's always something that you can work on to improve your skills. At Greater Toronto Music School, we are here to guide our students along their musical journey on a path towards excellence and mastery. Now that you're ready, let's dive in and check out 5 proven guitar tips from our expert guitar teachers to improve your playing right away.
5 Proven Tips To Improve Your Guitar Playing: Quick Menu
1. Practice Consistently and Efficiently
Like with any other skill, consistency is extremely important for those looking to master the guitar (or any other instrument for that matter!). Make time every single day for practice, even if you can only manage 15-20 minutes on some days. You will find that it's more beneficial to practice daily for small intervals than it is to cram in several hour long practice sessions sporadically. Practicing consistently will be crucial for you to retain information and build muscle memory.
It's also important to make sure that you're approaching your practice sessions with a plan to ensure that you're using your time efficiently. First, write down a list of realistic goals, both short term and long term. You should think about goals that pertain to each individual practice session as well as bigger picture goals. For example, a great short term goal would be to play bars 12 - 24 of a piece that you're working on perfectly 8 times in a row, while a good long term goal may be to transcribe and learn your favourite guitar solo. Think about specific areas where you can improve, such as scales, chord progressions, or a particular song. If you're working on a challenging piece, remember to break it down into smaller sections and focus on the tricky parts instead of playing through the entire piece, repeating the same mistakes. Consider using a timer to manage each session. This way you will ensure that you are spending sufficient time on each exercise without losing track of time and leaving out some important elements of your session.
If you're still not quite sure how to build a perfect practice routine, you can take a look at our post about Creating A Positive Practice Routine. You might also consider investing in a practice journal to help you track your progress and set new goals. We've found that students who document their practice typically improve and meet their goals much more quickly than those who are less organized. Click here to check out our favourite practice journal.
2. Focus on Proper Technique
Always focus on your technique. Playing with proper technique will not only allow you to play better, it will also help you to avoid injury while playing the guitar. Be aware of your hand positioning, posture, and finger movements. Learning to play with incorrect technique will slow your progress and lead to the development of negative habits that will be difficult to unlearn!
Here are a few things that you can consider: make sure that you play with a relaxed wrist, ensure that your fingers are positioned properly on the fretboard and that your picking hand is moving smoothly. Pay attention to how your body feels and avoid any unnecessary tension. Playing with tension not only makes it harder to execute difficult passages, it can also lead to discomfort or injury. There is a wealth of resources available for free on the internet. Take some time to watch instructional videos or, if you're really dedicated, enroll in private lessons from a top guitar teacher online or in person. Nothing helps you take your playing up a notch like advice from a qualified expert.
Frequently check your posture, ensuring that you are sitting up straight and keeping both feet flat on the ground. Try to play in front of a mirror or take video of yourself playing in order to observe your technique. Nothing will show you the adjustments that you need to make like watching yourself play. You can check out a great book, Thirteen Week Guitar Technique Bootcamp, by clicking here. Our expert guitar instructors in Toronto recommend this program to help you step up your technique in a short amount of time.
3. Practice With A Metronome
A metronome is a tool that musicians can work with to strengthen their sense of timing and rhythm skills. A strong sense of time is an essential skills for all musicians, especially those who are looking to collaborate with other players. The metronome should be used as a tool to polish and perfect a piece. Once you've learned a passage, or the piece in its entirety, you can begin practicing along with the metronome. Start at a slower tempo and gradually increase the speed as you become more comfortable with the piece you're practicing. Remember to be patient, playing along with a metronome is a skill that takes time and practice to develop and perfect.
Metronome practice will help musicians to develop a strong internal sense of timing, therefore making them more solid and reliable players. Make sure to incorporate metronome practice into many aspects of your playing. Our top guitar teachers advise working with a metronome while practicing scales, arpeggios, chord changes, and even entire songs. There are many ways that you can get creative with the metronome, for example, instead of the click falling on every beats, you can try setting it so that the metronome sounds on only beats 2 and 4, or so that it sounds on the off beat instead of the on beat. Looking to strengthen your sense of time and learn about all the ways you can apply a metronome to your practice sessions? Contact us today to enroll in private guitar lessons in Toronto or online guitar lessons with Toronto's best guitar teachers.
In the meantime, if you're looking to get started with metronome practice on your own, you can download a free app such as Pro Metronome, available in the Play Store and App Store. While these apps are great, we always recommend a standalone, hardware metronome. Click here to check out our favourite metronome, the BOSS DB-90, which comes loaded with many amazing features such as subdividing capabilities, odd time signatures and more. While in our opinion, it's the best metronome on the market, it does cost nearly $200CAD. If you're looking for another great option that's more affordable, we suggest clicking here to check out the Sondery digital metronome.
4. Learn Songs You Love
There's no doubt that gaining proficiency on an instrument takes hard work, but it should be a labour of love! The best way to enjoy playing and make your practice sessions fun is to focus on learning how to play the music that you love. Make a list of your favourite songs and go through them, trying to select ones that are at an appropriate skill level. Begin with simple songs that use basic chords and progressions. As your skills grow and you become more comfortable, choose some more challenging repertoire that incorporates more advanced techniques. Look for songs that use fingerpicking, barre chords, slides, bends, hammer-ons, and pull-offs. Learning songs you love keeps you motivated and excited to pick up your guitar and play. You may find that some songs are out of reach in the beginner stages, but keep working and little by little, increase the difficulty as you improve. You'll find that each song you learn leaves you with a little bit of vocabulary that you can use to write or during jam sessions.
Additionally, playing along with your favourite recordings will help you develop your ear and, just like metronome practice, will help to strengthen your sense of time. While playing along with recordings, you will have to match your phrasing and dynamics to the recording, thus learning to play like the greats. You'll find that playing along with recordings is a fantastic way to increase your overall musicality.
How can I learn my favourite songs on the guitar?
There are many ways that you can approach learning your favourite songs on the guitar. Some of us are gifted with an innate ability to learn by ear. If this sounds like you, you can listen to your favourite songs and explore the guitar to figure out how to play them. For most of us, this is a daunting and nearly impossible task. Some other great methods to learn your favourite songs include:
1. Consult a qualified guitar teacher for in-person or online music lessons:
Studying with a professional guitar teacher will fast track your playing and allow you to learn your favourite music in no time. A qualified guitar teacher will be able to help you perfect your technique and show you exactly what you need to do to be playing your favourite music right away. At Greater Toronto Music School, our top guitar teachers are available for online instruction and in-person music lessons in Toronto. Contact us now to enroll.
2. Search for tutorial videos on the internet:
The internet is filled with many free resources that can help you learn to play your favourite music. Search on websites like YouTube, or Vimeo, or on social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok. You will find many free and informative videos that will help point you in the right direction. If you find a creator that you really love, make sure to follow them for more helpful videos.
3. Learn to read guitar TAB:
Unlike standard guitar notation, most people can learn to read TAB fairly quickly. TAB is a visual representation of the guitar neck, with one line for each string. On these lines, there are numbers that represent which fret to play. It's easy to get the hang of and there are many free TAB websites on the internet that you can explore. Sometimes these tabs can be inaccurate as they are uploaded by amateur players. If you're looking for the best guitar tab books from your favourite artists, click here.
5. Take Professional Guitar Lessons
Enrolling in personalized guitar lessons will provide you with guidance and structured learning according to your goals, interests and learning style. At Greater Toronto Music School, we offer guitar lessons in Toronto and online that are tailored to the individual needs of each student. Our top music teachers ensure that you get the most out of your practice by helping you create efficient and engaging practice routines that guarantee results.
A top guitar teacher will identify your strengths and point out areas where you need improvement. With this in mind, they will provide targeted exercises to help you improve. A great guitar teacher will provide immediate feedback and help you correct any mistakes before they become bad habits, which are difficult to correct! Moreover, a focused lesson plan will make sure that you progress at a steady pace and understand all aspects of playing the guitar.
A top guitar teacher will also help to keep you accountable. Many students find that taking regular lessons help them to feel a sense of commitment and responsibility, enhancing their motivation to practice daily. Lessons will help students to stay focused on their goals. Our experienced teachers at Greater Toronto Music School are dedicated to helping you achieve your musical aspirations. Click here to contact us and enroll today.
Bonus Tips for Beginners
Understand Music Theory
Those who have even a basic understanding of music theory are often much better guitar players than those who know nothing. Try to learn about and understand scales and chords and their relationship with creating music. Some knowledge of music theory will provide you with a foundation for improvisation and composing, therefore making it easier to collaborate and play with other musicians. As with anything, start with the basics. Learn the major scale and minor scale, as well as how chords are constructed. Get to know a few common chord progressions and be able to play them in several different keys. As you become more well versed with these basic concepts, you may begin to explore more advanced topics like modes, arpeggios, and chord substitutions. Essentially, learning about music theory will allow you to communicate with other musicians and better understand the music that you play and listen to.
Click here to pick up a copy of our absolute favourite music theory crash course.
Play with Others
Collaborating and playing with other musicians will expose you to new styles and techniques and keep you motivated. It will also help you tap into the music community, which can be a constant source of inspiration and you will make many new like-minded friends. Join a local band, show up at local jams or open mic nights and attend local concerts. These are all great ways to network with other musicians.
Playing with others will greatly improve you to listening skills and musicality. You'll need to have a strong sense of timing timing and play with dynamics and sensibility. Collaborating with other musicians will also inspire creativity and provide new perspectives on your playing. Playing music in a group is extremely enriching and it's an invaluable experience that will drastically accelerate your learning process.
If you are looking to get started in a band but haven't connected with the right people, contact us today to join our band program. You'll join a group of like minded musicians who will choose a name, design a logo and get together for weekly rehearsals, leading up to an exciting performance. You'll also get a cool t-shirt with your band's logo. Click here to join today.
Conclusion
Mastering the guitar playing is a long journey that requires patience, dedication and passion. By employing these tips, you'll find that your playing will drastically improve. Remember to stay consistent, be patient with yourself, focus on playing with proper technique, and consult resources and professional guidance available to support your learning.
If you're looking to get started taking professional guitar lessons in Toronto or online guitar classes, Greater Toronto Music School offers comprehensive programs tailored to your needs. Contact us today to schedule your first lesson and take the first step towards improving your guitar playing. Happy strumming!
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