Best Ways To Improve Your Guitar Playing

What grooves you? Why do you desire to get better playing guitar?

There are many resources available to help you whether you are just beginning to play acoustic electric guitar, you want to expand your repertoire to include blues, funk or rock and roll music, or you just want to learn a few licks of your favorite song or even if you want to record yourself regardless of your intentions you can find help.

Here are a few ideas that may help you better understand your guitar playing and some solutions you can consider.

Guitar videos
Getting electric guitar lessons on DVD for at home or computer that take you through finger exercises, rhythm and timing lessons, strumming techniques and hand position while illustrating various types of songs it best. You can mimic what you are watching on screen and reproduce what you see and the lessons become essentially a mirror for you in learning to play guitar. With commitment and determination, this can be a good one to go - especially for the visual learner who likes to learn primarily on their own.

Guitar Instruction
Find a acoustic electric guitar teacher in your area either at a community college or a private instructor that will work with you. If you choose to work with an instructor you will need to take into consideration the flexibility of your schedule, their expertise, the type of students they work with the best, their success stories and their fees of course. If you take guitar lessons there are two ways to do it with pluses and minuses for both either by taking lessons in a group or one on one will work for you.

Playing partners
There is someone around your local area that plays, find them. You can do this through asking the local community college, posting online to a resource like craigslist, or asking the guitar shop. The idea is to develop a friendship with someone who is a bit better than you who wants the accountability of practicing weekly. What you can provide is the commitment to meet up with them weekly and practice. To find what method works you can learn from their techniques in return. Of course, you always need to be aware of learning bad habits in situations like these, which is why it's important to have a foundation in guitar technique before starting.

The Theory of Guitar
Developing a basis in guitar theory is related to guitar technique. Chord patterns, minor and major chord progressions, note scales, and overlap with piano and percussion instruments can all give you a basic structure upon which to layer in the knowledge and technique you gain in your guitar playing.

Playing guitar can be a wonderful expression of ones musical and creative talent. And with a commitment to constant improvement, it can provide a lifetime of enjoyment for yourself, friends, and family.