What to Practise on Guitar?

Have you been wondering what to practise on guitar? In the previous post in the series, I outlined how to not just blindly follow a set practice routine, but to create your own unique routine based on your specific goals. It’s really no good just saying “I’m going to practice alternate picking for 6 hours [...]

May 15, 2013 at 3:30 pm | Practicing and Practice Routine | No comments

Setting Goals

When practising guitar, you might feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount there can be to learn. In fact, this problem can happen at any point in your guitar playing career. I’ve answered questions from many guitarists who just get to the point of asking themselves “OK, what do I learn next?”. If you’re facing a [...]

April 23, 2013 at 3:40 pm | Practicing and Practice Routine | 2 comments

Can You recognise the 15 Signs You’re trying to play too fast?

Here’s a response to a question that I get asked a lot by students- how do I know if I’m playing too fast? Actually, it usually comes in the form of “how long should I practise this exercise before speeding up?”. Of course, you could also be in the camp of people who are attempting [...]

August 16, 2012 at 2:52 pm | Guitar Technique and Exercises, Practicing and Practice Routine | No comments

How to play Guitar and sing at the same time

Its a great technique to use…if you can sing…but what if you can’t sing? Singing really isn’t something to be afraid of! There are some simple techniques you can learn to be able to match the pitch of your voice to the note on a guitar. The idea is that you start off by making [...]

June 5, 2012 at 11:00 am | How to, Practicing and Practice Routine | No comments

So, how can I play Guitar faster, and better?

You know what? This is actually a very vague question, but it gets asked quite a lot and so- as a guitar teacher- I might as well have a go at answering it. What’s wrong with this question? Well…to be blunt: its too subjective- I.E. its going to be a different answer for different people. [...]

May 22, 2012 at 7:58 pm | Practicing and Practice Routine | No comments

The Art of Patience

We all know the old saying: “practise makes perfect”, but how often do we really take it to heart? If you really want to play something perfectly, you’re going to need to practise hard! So, what does it take to practise hard? First of all you’ll need a practise plan- or some sort of goals [...]

May 7, 2012 at 12:00 pm | Practicing and Practice Routine | No comments

Practising Speed and Fluency

I’ll make this one short. I haven’t addressed this issue particularly when it comes to guitar technique. I’m talking about being comfortable with the instrument- no, its not a specific technique, but yes, its one of those things that make the difference between a mediocre player and an expert. You shouldn’t be struggling to play [...]

April 25, 2012 at 11:37 pm | Practicing and Practice Routine | No comments

Accelerated Learning with Creative Visualization

Sorry if the title is a bit of a mouthful! This is something that can really help you out when trying to play very difficult songs, and I’m not sure of another way to say it. Creative Visualisation What on earth is “creative visualisation”, and how can it help you to learn faster than you [...]

April 24, 2012 at 9:54 pm | Practicing and Practice Routine | 2 comments

The Importance of Playtime

This probably isn’t quite going to be about what you expect… You see, adults often neglect the importance of “play” (or you could say: “mental creativity”) in their own lives, because it’s seen as pretty childish. I’m here to tell you that that’s not only completely wrong, but it is- in fact- bad for you! [...]

April 3, 2012 at 1:23 pm | Practicing and Practice Routine | No comments

3 Tips for Memorising Scales

OK, we all know that learning your scales off by heart can be boring and tedious sometimes- and if you don’t know that yet…you will, believe me! The unfortunately, guitar scales are often a very necessary part of learning how to play the guitar. So…what is a Scale? A scale is just a collection of [...]

March 14, 2012 at 10:18 pm | Guitar Scales, Practicing and Practice Routine | No comments

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