Simple Tips To Becoming Great

My name is Andrew. I have been playing guitar for about 3 years now and even though I'm not as great as I want to be, it is one of the most single amazing things I've ever had the pleasure of doing. You want to play lead, and that's fantastic! I've played around for a few things like school plays, Jazz band, and just while hanging with friends. I've won awards and received many compliments for my playing. It's an amazing feeling to be a part of something like that. And I hope you have a blast and get many chances to perform with others for others.

You want advice, and I'll do what I can for you.

My advice for you may seem simple or not too "great," and I understand that aspect of it. I never thought that some of the most simplistic things I was doing would make such a difference in what I can do now. And now, I wish I had done more of those simple things.

1.) Find people and practice with them. If you can get two or three people that play an instrument and take turns playing lead, it will help you become a better musician and better at working with others.

2.) Learn the modes, pentatonics, and blues scales (forwards, backwards, and inside out. Know them like the expression goes, like the back of your hand).

3.) Practice those scales slow and steadily speed up. If you have a metronome or can get a copy of the program known as "Guitar Pro 5," then you'll have a distinct advantage over others that don't use them. Playing a scale with a metronome can make your playing more accurate, better sounding, and faster! Just take your metronome and play a scale at a slow beat. When you can play that scale perfectly at that beat, then you can increase the metronome's speed a little bit (remember, if you go by small increments then you'll get the most out of this exercise. I know it's boring, but it DOES work! Trust me!). Eventually you'll be playing at Steve Vai's speed and accuracy and Joe Satriani's technical abilities!

4.) Pick a song you like, and play lead to it while it's playing. This can get boring, but the more you play to it, and try to make it sound good, the better your ability to hear something and know exactly what to play with it and how will become. You'll gain abilities that will allow you to just walk into a room of playing musicians, sit down and just start playing without having to know what they are actually playing. This can help you become a great musician and potentially give you a career in musical performance.

5.) Listen and play to everything! Trust me on this one. No matter if it's Jazz, Rap, Blues, Country, Folk, Classical, or Pop music, you can learn tons of stuff from it all. Every single music style has it's own identity, and if you want to have your own identity, you need to study everything. It's just like serving a dinner with just ham on the table. Yeah, ham is good, but without something on the side to spice it up, it's kinda just lame and boring. You need variety and you can learn that from everything. Even something as simple as a bee flying past your ear can teach you a new thing about music.

It's music, it's all around us; you just have to choose to let it play for you.

I hope these tips helped. If you want more help, just let me know. I'll do whatever I can for an aspiring musician. Email me. Good luck. Have fun, Andrew.

Comments

[AfoHot]

Good ham example hehe Not bad not bad. First I thought it would be something like a AA meeting. "My name is Andrew. I have been..." Just joking.

[Blas3]

Nice stuff But a little bit short ...
BTW, Guitar Pro is OK to use as a metronome, only in case you have a more powerful computer. The thing is that on older machines it slows down for it has to load and work more and it goes down to the preciseness of the timing... so basically, on slower PCs it screws up timing. Which IS bad. but true, it can be good for a metronome, and is probably the best software to help guitarists.

[StripeyWhitey]

Some great tips, particularly about playing along to anything and practising playing lead to songs you like while they play - once i started to do this my playing improved immensely!

[mojosarmy]

Good advice! I do a fun little exercise sometimes - during commercial breaks on tv I'll try to either play along with the music or improvise over the top of it, you have to think fast and you never know what style is coming next...

[MyS3lF]

Good tips, it's always a pleasure to receive info from the "pros"

[Four Symbols]

Good writing, and great article. You highlight some of the most valuable tips.

[PumpkinPieces]

Nice tips, I don't totally agree with all of #2, I think it depends on why you're playing music. But if your goal is to be super skilled at guitar that would be the way to help.

great article.

[Tabassco]

Loved the ham part.

[SEALSniper1152]

"hi, I'm Dan, I'm a guitar addict. I've been playing for 6 years, and I have a problem."

[nileflows]

Good ham and bee example. this article is very sensible.

[Bonorly]

Bit common sense really but I'm not saying that in a bad way; it took someone who's played for 3 years to just give people what they need to know. Play slow, and play with mates.

[ashish.nc]

damn good advise man.....

[electricwizard_]

none of my friends plays anything and they all think i listen to crazy people's music..

[ambivalent615]

when he said he'd been playing three years i thought, dammit, stupid kid thinks hes great, doenst know anything, but thats all really good advice, so, yeah.. changed mt mind

good stuff

[busted_hater]

Well think of it like this he has been playing 3 years so you think "oh what does he know?", but if he has played it every day for 3 years where as someone playing 5 years has played it once a week, well i know who will be better. it isnt always the time you have been playing that matters, i have been playing 4 years and now a sales manager at my local guitar store and a guitar teacher. Good Advice!

[decayingdave]

Your advice is good but far too narrow for my liking.

First of all, the ''need'' to use a metronome isn't a general need, it all depends on the individual - I was a drummer previous to taking up the guitar and so I've got a built-in sense of timing and rhythm.

Where you mentioned theory, I think that it again became too narrow - Learning modes, pentatonics and the blues scale is not EVERYTHING, that's just what everyone does at a basic level.

One more thing I'll point out was that you mentioned that you played ''everything'', you don't - ''Jazz, Rap, Blues, Country, Folk, Classical, or Pop music'' is only the music you hear on the radio, and though I completely agree with you, telling people that playing nothing but popular music does not work.

Though I do have many criticisms on this article, I think that It was not all bad. Your grammar's brilliant, the structure was sound and you were not being a snob about putting your point across, I just think that what you claim to be ''Greatness'' is merely your own level of playing, and even though you may think it's great, it isn't what gives you greatness, it's just what YOU do.

If you'd have changed the title to ''What I've Done In Three Years'' then I would have had no complaints and I would have commended you.

[BillR87]

Great article I liked your comments on guitar pro 5 I use it and its the most useful tool for your playing great advice

[Yerjam]

Good article.

[isabiggles]

One more thing I'll point out was that you mentioned that you played ''everything'', you don't - ''Jazz, Rap, Blues, Country, Folk, Classical, or Pop music'' is only the music you hear on the radio, and though I completely agree with you, telling people that playing nothing but popular music does not work.

I'm sorry but you're wrong there in so many aspects. Hardly any UGers have a varied taste in music. Most of it is either 'I hate rap cuz its just a guy talkin over a beat ye' or 'Metal is horrible because it has no soul'. Hip hop is an underground genre and I would bet that way more than 95% of all UGers have never been exposed to the hip hop underground at all. The same goes for all the other genres mentioned there except for maybe pop music which IS terrible these days but used to be a completely valid form of music.

[metal4ever6328]

Now I want ham.

[tagyoureit]

Rubbish.

[hunta7989]

decayingdave wrote:

Your advice is good but far too narrow for my liking.

First of all, the ''need'' to use a metronome isn't a general need, it all depends on the individual - I was a drummer previous to taking up the guitar and so I've got a built-in sense of timing and rhythm.

Where you mentioned theory, I think that it again became too narrow - Learning modes, pentatonics and the blues scale is not EVERYTHING, that's just what everyone does at a basic level.

One more thing I'll point out was that you mentioned that you played ''everything'', you don't - ''Jazz, Rap, Blues, Country, Folk, Classical, or Pop music'' is only the music you hear on the radio, and though I completely agree with you, telling people that playing nothing but popular music does not work.

Though I do have many criticisms on this article, I think that It was not all bad. Your grammar's brilliant, the structure was sound and you were not being a snob about putting your point across, I just think that what you claim to be ''Greatness'' is merely your own level of playing, and even though you may think it's great, it isn't what gives you greatness, it's just what YOU do.

If you'd have changed the title to ''What I've Done In Three Years'' then I would have had no complaints and I would have commended you.

lol you're a douche. In all honesty, nobody can tell anyone what can make them a great guitar player. They can only show you what they did and hope it helps you like it helped them.

So if you understood the general meaning of each sentence in his lesson, applied them to you practice, and you still haven't become a great guitar player then you could complain about the lesson. If you need a revision of it with better wording here you go.

Title: Things I've done to become a better guitar player.

1. Playing with other people may help you become a better guitar player.

2. Learning commonly used musical scales may also help you become a better guitar player.

3. Using a metronome during practice may help you become better at staying in time.

4. Learning how another guitar player plays the instrument can help you become more familiar with the sounds that it can produce. I don't know anyone who can play guitar but was never taught how, so I assume most people must take their musical ideas from others.

5. He said "everything" in the first sentence. lol just because he can't name every genre to exist in music doesn't mean he still didn't mean "everything."

ya know what im sayin dog??

[geoparis]

good advice my friend, keep up the good work

[josh.haken]

that's really descent man, i sort of knew that anyway but it's al good, the key is just to practice! practice makes perfect! is all good

[reaper2751]

decayingdave wrote:

Your advice is good but far too narrow for my liking.

First of all, the ''need'' to use a metronome isn't a general need, it all depends on the individual - I was a drummer previous to taking up the guitar and so I've got a built-in sense of timing and rhythm.

Where you mentioned theory, I think that it again became too narrow - Learning modes, pentatonics and the blues scale is not EVERYTHING, that's just what everyone does at a basic level.

One more thing I'll point out was that you mentioned that you played ''everything'', you don't - ''Jazz, Rap, Blues, Country, Folk, Classical, or Pop music'' is only the music you hear on the radio, and though I completely agree with you, telling people that playing nothing but popular music does not work.

Though I do have many criticisms on this article, I think that It was not all bad. Your grammar's brilliant, the structure was sound and you were not being a snob about putting your point across, I just think that what you claim to be ''Greatness'' is merely your own level of playing, and even though you may think it's great, it isn't what gives you greatness, it's just what YOU do.

If you'd have changed the title to ''What I've Done In Three Years'' then I would have had no complaints and I would have commended you.

See, now I have a problem with what you took from this article. I never once said I am "great" or anything. I am simply highlighting the things that I have seen others really depend on to become great and things that I have used to IMPROVE my playing. Not to make me GREAT.

And the music I listed was simply a group of music that came to mind, and by no means the only things you should play to.... Hmmm... I thought I covered that by the bee thing, didn't I?

Don't attack me for your misunderstanding. Reread it again, pull the stick out of your @$$ and stop being a jerk.

I only did this to try and help others improve, not to have jerks comment on it with needless sputtering.