Advice to improve a lot

[Rute Rodrigues]

Hello guys, as you know, we re in summer holidays, and it gives me time to dedicate myself to music. And, you know, until school starts again, I would like to make great progress in my playing. So I would like to question you, whats the best way to improve REALLY. BUT first, would like to introduce myself for those who dont know me yet. So, Im Marlyn Voe, Im 15 years old and i play guitar since I was almost 10. Started with classical guitar and when I was 14 I changed to rock music and started with eletric guitar. I was in my local music school, but in last summer, they closed, and I got into this school. I dont really know a lot of music theory, I know the basic stuff. I guess I can say Im an intermediate guitarrist, hum, I can alternate picking and tapping, but no sweeps yet XD I dont dont know if I can say something else to help you answer my question, BUT, whats the best way improve my playing? Sholud I be focused more in the tecnniques? Practise all of them? Or should I play hard songs to help me improve? Or maybe get into more music styles, beside metal? Finguerstyle? Or improvise w backing tracks? Scales? I dont really know, Im a little bit lost , and sooner the school is starting, and I really wanna improve a lot this summer, bc in chool time, is hard to find time to play, as you must know (especially in 11th grade )
So will be waiting to read all your answers, all of them will help me, because I dont know what to do. Thank you very muchhhhhhh.

 

[Ethan Keeling]

I mean with me I have less time then I did and now I play things I like, for example I learnt the nightmare solo, and then used areas in that to work on technique etc. Then I learnt scales so I could play with backing tracks to get a better feel and use what I learnt from the solos in my jams. But honestly do what ever you enjoy and then success will come naturally, whether that be covering songs or learning theory, more time with the guitar is the key too. That’s my best advice. Have fun!

 

[idssdi]

First of all there is no real shortcut, repetition is key as it is with pretty much everything you do.
As for practicing your playing. Technique is a good place to start but to improve the most as an overall musician, working on your musicianship is probably the best way to go about it. What I mean by this is realizing when to go fast and when to slow down and when you solo play things that fit the song like a glove(George Harrison come to mind here) the easiest way for me to do this is by learning/studying a bunch of different styles because this allows you to get a feel for what works over different types of music. Learning signature scales for the different genres is also a good idea!

 

[Aaron Aldous]

Hi Marlyn! In my experience, Transcription and emulation of your idols is by far the quickest, yet toughest method to drastically improve because it challenges all areas of your musical ability (music theory, aural dexterity, technical ability, and stylistic awareness – there’s definitely many more sub categories to musical ability, but for the sakes of avoiding categoric chaos, the few listed above should suffice but DEFINITELY add to it as you wish).
Transcription and emulation also gives you a nice bench mark to set yourself against and it definitely aids one’s musical analysis ability. Remember to keep this healthy, you always want to sound like you and you don’t want analysis paralysis (this happened to me throughout studying music at university (college for my colonial cousins ).
Most importantly, play every note like it’s the only thing that’s worth believing in. Conviction is the one common denominator between all pieces ‘that ever take you to that place’ (Regardless of technique/theoretical complexity/style or genre).
Happy Playing!

 

[Noah Berends]

I believe the best way to see practical improvement, especially when your time is limited, is to focus your time strategically. First, you can find what you want to improve on, record yourself doing (or attempting) this, no matter how new you are to it, and listen back to that recording. This way, you can hear the specific areas that you should focus your attention on. In my case, I wanted to improve how I played the solo to Seize The Day, so I recorded myself playing and heard that I wasn’t doing a very good job at muting strings and my bends were hitting slightly flat. So, I focused on practicing muting strings and practiced my bends.
As far as other methods, learning songs is a great way to improve. It might not be direct practice, but learning the song Black Rose by Volbeat for example will give you practice palm muting, high tempo downpicking, intermediately unconventional timing, and time signature changes mid-song.
Good luck!

 

[Brian Haner Sr.]

Tough question. As Aaron said – Transcription is an awesome way to improve your musicianship. Especially if you choose something challenging.
In general I would say – pick some specific areas where you want to improve; alt-picking, scales, difficult chords, arpeggios, improvising solos, etc. Make your own list and then spend 15 minutes on each one. There are plenty of exercises in my videos for you to choose from. Better to spend a few minutes a day on each one than to spend 4 hours on one subject.
The bottom line is this – if it’s hard for you to play, you will improve. It’s just like weight-lifting. Start with what you can and push yourself to lift a little more each day. It’s frustrating and incremental, but if you put the time in – you WILL get better.
There are plenty of people here (including me) who will help you if you get stuck on something.
Good Luck!
PG

 

[Calvin Phillips]

When I started this school I considered myself pretty basic. But I took a peak at every lesson.in beginner and intermediate. Watched the videos and tried to figure out what pg was saying.
Skimming was a bad choice. I learned this the 2nd time through with the homework challenges we did. Every single lesson is worth looking into and will help upi developed strength. I realized this weekend my pinky strength has grown considerably over the year but it’s still not even close. But I have strum exercises and picking patterns helping that.
Basically what I’m saying is even if you feel you know it watch the videos straight from the start. Pg does a great job making the complicated sound easy. And he has some gem stories and points that you may wanna hear. By the time you get to intermediate I bet you’ll see a huge improvement. I know I did.

 

[Rute Rodrigues]

Thanks a lot for all your answers, that really helped me. Thanks also to PG. I found a video on youtube called Steve Vai guitar method , and in that video he tells the way that he practises. Its a good idea. 9h a day, w/ 3 different groups of 3 hours each one. Ill try that out

 

[Calvin Phillips]

9 hours a day for one exercise? That’s crazy. If I were you I’d cut it back. Try 5 to 10 minutes. If you do 3 hours straight you may risk strain if your muscles arent used to it.
If he can go for 9 hours on betting hes.done it a while. I could personally never spend more then 10 minutes on a single exercise. I get bored easily and start making shit up. Lol that’s where my riffs come from.

 

[Rute Rodrigues]

Calvin, no man, its 9 a day, but 1h for each ex. Like 1h practising legatto, 1h practising tapping, idk maybe 2h scales, 1h improvising. You know, that kind of things

 

[Ed Seith]

Calvin, some of the exercises in there are about making stuff up – I know part of Vai’s 30 hour includes one hour of just playing one note – see how many different ways he can bend, twist, or otherwise express to get to or from it.

 

[Ezequiel Romanko]

hi marilyn , its hard to improve in playing in a short time because you have a really huge variety of techniques and all kind of crazy stuff but the most important to grow as a player and musician, its music theory, its the escencial thing, cuz if you learn idk 20 different techniques but you don’t know how to blend it all together it won’t song good or just it won’t reach anyone, and that’s what you want when playing an instrument. think of when you’re listening your favorite songs, i bet you are feeling things when you hear them, like anger, love, sadness, happiness ,etc. so you want to create that on your songs and in your playing, with music theory you can do that cuz u’ll learn how to create that feelings. but anyways if you want to improve it’s takes time to really nail every single aspect of playing guitar and then playing music so don’t rush yourself, take time with every lesson try all kind of posibilities when learning licks or creating your own by the scales you learned or learn.
so post a riff here to show us what you learned and how you apply it to your own creations! cheers and have a nice day/night.