Mark Cormican Music

Guitar Practice Techniques and Tips for Success

Do you ever wonder how some people come to be great at playing the guitar? Do you wonder if you could ever be that great?
Well, what if I told you that you could? I’m here to give you some tips on how to become so great at the guitar. There are quite a few principles and guitar practice techniques that you need to learn in order to get to a high level of playing. Some principles aren’t just for guitar players, either. They can be applied toward any aspect of life.
1.    DEDICATION – You MUST devote yourself wholly to the task. This may be difficult, especially if you don’t “have the time” for practicing or playing. You may have to sacrifice some things in your daily life in order to make time for your practicing.  If you have to, cut down on the time you go out with your friends so that you can dedicate yourself to practicing the guitar.
2.     PRACTICE – Once you’ve set aside some time for playing, make sure that it is precisely what you do! After all, you don’t want to sacrifice something for nothing. If you’re home and free to practice the guitar, make sure that you DO SO! Write out a routine or practice schedule if you must.
Example:
7:00 – 7:15 Practice on changing from Dm to C7.
7:15-7:30 Practice G Ionian scale at various tempos.
7:30 – 7:45 Practice some right hand tapping.
7:45 – 8:00 Work on practicing 2nd inversion “Em” arpeggio at various tempos.
Did you know you can play a G major scale many times in 15 minutes? In fact, you can probably play it around 90 times! You could even break the hour long lesson into six, ten minute lessons if you want.
3.     PERSERVERENCE- Now that you have some dedicated time, STICK WITH IT! If Saturdays at 7 PM is your time to practice, then do not let anything else interfere with that time. Now, as well all know, “Life Happens.” If something happens and you can’t practice, make sure you make up for it Sunday or Monday. Try not to skip again.
4.    FOCUS – Now that you’re devoting some time to your guitar practice routine, you need to totally focus on everything that you do. For instance, if you are learning to sweep pick the Em arpeggio, you may notice that at a certain point, you have problems with moving your fingers. Isolate your “problem” and just repeat that spot over and over again. Pay attention to all the moves your hands are making. While you’re at it, watch out for your nerves! Try to stay as relaxed as possible.
5.    PATIENCE – This is a MUST! No, you can’t become a guitar hero overnight, no matter how much you practice. Still, you can become one someday, but you have to have patience and practice as much as you can.
Some people like to brag that they became a guitar expert after just a short amount of practice guitar lessons.

·    Are they able to compose a good tune?
·    Can they improvise?
·    Do they understand how to bridal speed and mix it up with beautiful slow playing as well?
·    Do they even have a sense of melody?
·    Can they harmonize leads?

Your playing will mature with time. Sometimes, even the pros take extra lessons and practice because there’s always something to new to learn.

6.    BELIEVE IN WHAT YOU ARE DOING – Always stay positive, and never let anyone else tell you that something can’t be done or that “your playing doesn’t sound right”. In order to become a player, you’re going to have to learn how to play. Whether you want to play electric guitar, bass, or acoustic, you can’t ever give up. Even if you end up writing a bunch of lousy songs, there is always room to learn more!

Copyright Liam Gibson (Stage Guitarist)

Guitar Practice Tips You Really Need to Know

What are some of the most important aspects of a successful guitarist? Successful guitarists all have goals in what they wish to achieve, and remain disciplined and persistent with their guitar practice. The biggest pitfall that is seen in many beginners is that they give up after awhile as they think they can’t achieve the results they want. Keep in mind that becoming a great guitarist won’t happen overnight. Learning can be a lifelong process as you must continuously improve your skills from one level to the next.

First things first: you should ask yourself what you hope to achieve from guitar playing. Is your goal to learn just a few, simple songs and impress your family and friends, or do you dream of being on stage someday? What about the genre of music you wish to play? It’s important to identify your goals so that you can get the best guitar practice possible.

To really speed up the learning process, you need to set yourself a practice plan, stick with it and review it periodically. Now, you should set aside some time and commit yourself wholly. You need to be realistic about the practice time. Eight hours a day is probably not the best idea, especially if you’re a student or working adult. 45 minutes or so a day should be sufficient and reasonable.

Sometimes students try to make up for lost practice time by playing during really long practice sessions. They weren’t disciplined enough to maintain a routine and try to make up for it later with extra-long session. Would a world class athlete train for 16 hours in one day and then take the next few days off? The idea behind constant practicing is that the human brain takes time to learn and absorb new info. A guitar practice schedule of twenty minutes a day is a lot more effective than eight hours in one day a week.

So, do you need an example of a practice plan? It’s probably not possible for you to spend hours a day practicing, but you can still make full use of an extra 45-60 minutes or so a day.

Here’s an example of an hour long practice session:

1st part: ten minute warm ups
2nd part: practicing scales and chords for fifteen minutes
3rd part: ear training for ten minutes
4th part: various guitar techniques, such as alternate picking and tapping for fifteen minutes
5th part: learning songs for fifteen minutes
6th part: improvisation for ten minutes

If something comes up and you can’t spend a full hour on the aforementioned session, then you can still try spending five minutes or so looking over guitar practice tips and practicing warm ups to keep your fingers in shape.

The practice plan isn’t necessarily casted into stone. Each individual is different, so you can customize your own plan. One important point to take note of is that there is a difference between practicing and playing the guitar. Practicing involves an organized method of working on your weaknesses and trying to overcome them. To make your practicing more fun, part of your plan should include new things that you’ve never learned before while the majority of your plan should be all about “perfecting” the older stuff.

As you begin to learn the new stuff, it’s very easy to become frustrated because you don’t see the results that you desire, or because some aspects are too difficult. If this happens, take a short break before coming back to it at a later time. Don’t force yourself through difficult guitar practice techniques, as they will only kill your motivation and thus hinder your progress.

Remember this: if you fail to plan, you plan to fail!

Copyright Liam Gibson (Guitar Master)