Advancing in Electric Guitar?
I’ve been playing guitar for 7 months now. I can play most every chord without a chart (except weird chords like E#7) and i have my tremolo picking up to .. umm .. being able to play scarified by paul gilbert. I know all my pentatonic scales by heart and the blues scale and all my arpeggios. i practice 2+ hours EVERY day and play every type of music from classic guitar (finger-style pacabel canon in D) to metal (children of bodom bed of razors) BUT i feel like im missing something in my techniques and skills. How can i improve my guitar playing? i want to be able to play more accurate, play faster, more advanced, shredding type stuff. I’ve been doing allot of blue licks and exercises because i heard they help develop rhythm and improvise. Any suggestions of experienced guitar players?????
BTW 3rd answer lol, the only reason i learned all that "junk" scales and chords is so i know my notes and way around the fret board and can know what sounds good in what keys during what songs im playing. this way i can make a totally random solo in a song with no solo and make it sound awesome. but very enthusiastic answear
I think you are at the threshold of really advancing. Keep practicing and start to narrow what kind of music you like playing and focus on that for a while. After playing that you will develop your own sound and you will feel more like a guitarist. Also when you practice don’t get hung up on mistakes and don’t be afraid to improvised, play around with what you have learned. Also don’t give up cause while it gets harder it get so much more fulfilling.
I’ve been playing for almost 4 years now, and I never learned all those chords, and scales, and all that non-sense. I just learned to read guitar tabs and learned from those and by ear. I didn’t need all those "skills" and junk to get where I am today. All you have to do is figure out what you like the best, and practice that. Practice is the key to get playing faster, and playing more advanced riffs and licks. Just practice, practice, practice, and you’ll go far. Good Luck!!
You need to find your own voice in the guitar. Sounds to me like you have been playing other songs, but you need to find a genre that suits you and then play it the best you can.
Don’t always just do what people say will help. Do what you like. I hear that scales and such can help, but to hell with it for me. And I’ve been writing songs with my band and all the things I learnt, or a damn lot of it, came from playing what I liked. Sure a few techniques is good, but mindless shredding like some Dream Theatre songs doesn’t require musical talent imo. Anyone can hum a tune, use your taste to modify it. It has always worked, is working, and will probably continue to work for me
But yeah, tabs tabs tabs! Inspiration, find what you like. If you like shredding, I recommend taking a look at a lot of Bodom and A7X, they’re my fav’s. It’s melodic (mostly) and range from tasty to INSANE. Take a look at "Bat Country" and "Burn It Down" by A7X and try their tabs. You’d be surprised at how much you can learn just by playing songs other people did.
You can always advance. Doesn’t matter how long you’ve been playing or how often.