Guitar Tips and Tricks. Share your hard learned guitar wisdom.

[polymath22]

.

[polymath22]

Guitars are designed to play easy. Do not be distracted by overanalyzing the design. Focus instead on the sound and "role" of your instruments presence and silence.

[polymath22]

Do not attempt to learn "songs"; Learn your instrument instead, and you will be able to play any song.

[polymath22]

Every space has unique acoustical qualities, and every day has different humidity and temperature. Learn to quickly adjust to anything.

[polymath22]

A well tuned guitar, electronics, and amplifier will "play itself", literally!
Play a background song at room resonant/reactant volume, set the guitar on a stand facing the amplifier, and it will sympathetically resonate. The background songs sound vibrations "drive" the guitar via constructive and destructive interference on the guitar strings, which, picked up and fed into an amplifier, reenforce a feedback loop.
If your rig is set up right, that's 90%. The rest is learning to relax and "let out the music" that is already bubbling within you.

[polymath22]

Don't mindlessly practice scales across all six strings. Instead, grab a few of the lower notes and play them well, getting a good rhythm going and then slowly venturing up the scale a note or two at a time, while maintaining the low end rhythm.

[polymath22]

Practice with all 10 fingers and all 6 strings. We will always make mistakes, but the easiest way to minimize them is to anticipate them, and "preemptively" mute strings with either hand. Often, you will be strumming and muting at the same time, which may seem pointless and wasteful, but this helps you stay in time, keeps the strings "hot" and can produce a cool "wok-a-wok-a" Jimi Hendrix type sound. You will develop a softer, smoother touch, have better tone control and musical "dynamics" for that (not so) subtle guitar presence.