10 tips to be a better guitarist/musician

Words of widom! Haha!

1. NEVER, be afraid to ask someone about something you wonder about, even if you think the person are much better than you or maybe not as good as you at guitar/music . You can always gather information from all musicians you meet. And remember to really gather all information you can find. Try to always be open minded.

2. There are many important things in music. Think about these words, and think about how good you are at them, and how you incorporate theese things in your playing.
Knowledge of your instrument, technique, rhythm, sound, dynamics, sensitivity, phrasing, articulations, and of course! HEARING, the most importans part of music.

3. "Practise has to do with preparing yourself for real music" - Mick Goodrick

4. Playing faster isn't really all about to move your fingers faster, its to do the motion smaller.

5. Try to listen to music you never heard before, and don't get stuck in one genre. Good music comes in all genres. Lately i have been listening to a lot of Turkish music. Thanks Namık:)

6. Aim to stand up more when you practice at home, and in the rehearsalroom. Remember that in at least 99% of all the your gigs you'll be standing up when you're playing. A lot of players stand for the first time on stage, and wonder why it feels so different.
When i started to play with my band, I couldn't understand why my picking technique got so weakened when playing live, so i blamed it all on nervousness . In reality, at least 80% of the weaken picking technique depended on that i couldn't play the things when standing up that i was playing when i was sitting down.

7. Try practising without the guitar. Visualise the fretboard and scale patterns, appreciating chord formulae and how they work without actually playing! You can also do some ear traning. If say, you are going with the train or bus or whatever. Record some chords on your mp3 player, and see if you can recognize what chord you are playing. Do like this: Play a chord, wait 5 seconds, and then say the name of the chord. Don't care about the pitch of the tone, we talk about that another time!!

8. When learning a piece of music, do it in steps. Don't do everything at the same time. Try to begin by just listen to the song and write down a formula. Like this:
Intro
Vers
Pre-chorus
Chorus
Bridge
etc......
Then start working out the parts. Also think about what "sound" the guitarist have, and if he uses any effects or so.

9. Practise on your vibrato! Vibrato is a thing many guitarists forget. It doesn't mather how great your other techniques are, if your vibrato sucks, it won't sound any good. So go and listen to other guitarists and try to imitate their vibrato. Some players with outstanding vibrato is: B.B King, Eric Clapton, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Jeff Beck etc...

10. One thing that helped me to develope my playing a lot was learning the theory behind it. I don't say that to play good you have to know music theory, but i say that it can help you a long way on the road of being a better guitarist.



I hope these tips will give you some inspiration, and if you have any questions about them, mail me at: Kristofer.strandberg@gmail.com , or throw me a comment here on the blog.





Cheers!//Kristofer