GUITAR PRACTICE TIPS

Guitar practice has to be split into single notes and chords or chord progressions. The best guitar practice means you need time to work on your weakest guitar techniques. All scales, arpeggios, modes are motor skills which have to be on tap when actually improvising. Playing over chord progressions is a must for a good improviser and backing tracks are great for jamming over changes. Guitar lessons are useful to give you perspective on where you are really at in terms of technique, music theory and rhythm. To learn guitar seriously you must master motor skills! These are sometimes boring and monotonous finger exercises that eventually give you the agility to play what is in your minds ear instantaneously. To play guitar in a band your meter must be excellent. Meter is your ability to feel music in even measures of time. Rhythm is technique related, often beginner guitar players think their rhythm is bad, when in fact, it's their technique that is lacking. If you don't have the agility to move into a chord or lead position, then you lose your timing. That's why motor skills are crucial for guitar practice.

Guitar practice can also mean listening. This develops your sense of relative pitch which in turn speeds up your ability to pick up or copy from recorded guitar solos or guitar parts without any tab or music whatsover.

Guitar practice means you have to study how music theory works. Music theory is the interface between your fingers and your imagination. Finally, good guitar practice means practising rhythm like a drummer.

You should master articulation of bends for pitching, slides, hammer-ons and pull-offs with and without vibrato. You are expected to be able to solo over any simple 12-bar blues in a major or minor key, for any band situation.

Phone John Mizarolli 07958 427 236 to discuss further.
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