Are you practicing or just "noodling around" on your guitar?
To make continual progress, you need to be working on something. While it's fun for a beginning guitar player to perform songs he or she already plays well, it doesn't do a lot for moving forward. I'm not saying playing guitar should be all work and no play, but if you're looking to play better it's necessary to work at it. Each serious practice session should at least have a couple of goals, things you're working on.
Scales and alternate picking.
One way to move along is to improve your playing techniques. Scales help with muscle memory as well as developing your ear. Most people seem to think that playing by ear is a mysterious skill that can only be learned by talented, gifted students of music. However, once you know a little theory and you get used to the sound of scales and chords you'll find that it is a skill that most people can learn. Using alternate picking, (picking down and up), is a good technique to develop while practicing scales. It helps you find the strings and maneuver the pick. You'll find that many songs have passages that are simply scales or parts of scales.
Songs that are a challenge.
You don't have to choose a song that's way over your head, but your playing will improve with songs that are at least a little more difficult than what you're used to. Most beginning guitar books and most teachers will provide you with songs and exercises that get progressively harder. I don't encourage my students to gloss over songs, but I do try to keep them moving forward. Once you've got a song to a level where you just need to polish it up, see if your guitar teacher thinks you're ready to tackle another.
Keep on keepin' on.
The last bit of advice for today is to not get discouraged, don't be in too big a hurry, and remember that playing guitar is a long term commitment. Too many times the student will "pull the plug" when things get more difficult, and then years later pick up the guitar again, wishing they hadn't stopped!
To make continual progress, you need to be working on something. While it's fun for a beginning guitar player to perform songs he or she already plays well, it doesn't do a lot for moving forward. I'm not saying playing guitar should be all work and no play, but if you're looking to play better it's necessary to work at it. Each serious practice session should at least have a couple of goals, things you're working on.
Scales and alternate picking.
One way to move along is to improve your playing techniques. Scales help with muscle memory as well as developing your ear. Most people seem to think that playing by ear is a mysterious skill that can only be learned by talented, gifted students of music. However, once you know a little theory and you get used to the sound of scales and chords you'll find that it is a skill that most people can learn. Using alternate picking, (picking down and up), is a good technique to develop while practicing scales. It helps you find the strings and maneuver the pick. You'll find that many songs have passages that are simply scales or parts of scales.
Songs that are a challenge.
You don't have to choose a song that's way over your head, but your playing will improve with songs that are at least a little more difficult than what you're used to. Most beginning guitar books and most teachers will provide you with songs and exercises that get progressively harder. I don't encourage my students to gloss over songs, but I do try to keep them moving forward. Once you've got a song to a level where you just need to polish it up, see if your guitar teacher thinks you're ready to tackle another.
Keep on keepin' on.
The last bit of advice for today is to not get discouraged, don't be in too big a hurry, and remember that playing guitar is a long term commitment. Too many times the student will "pull the plug" when things get more difficult, and then years later pick up the guitar again, wishing they hadn't stopped!
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