guitar practice – Scottsdale Music Academy

Ways to Improve Your Lead Guitar Playing

SMA — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 16:30:00 +0000

For some guitarists, playing the lead guitar is one of the most enjoyable parts of playing the guitar. This means soloing, playing cool licks, exploring different scales and much more. However, being a great lead guitar player does take lots and lots of practice, especially if you want to play in a band or group. Playing the lead guitar can mean a variety of things for different genres such as jazz, rock and blues, but there are some things you can practice to make yourself a better overall lead guitar player. Here are some ways to improve your lead guitar playing.

LEARN SCALES:

Learning guitar scales is one of the top fundamentals that will make you a better lead guitar player. While there are an abundance of different scales to learn, there are a few that are a guitarist’s bread and butter when it comes to soloing and coming up with lead guitar parts. The minor pentatonic scale will help with soloing over rock music and can easily be transferred over to blues music as well. In addition, each of the major scales are good to know to make you a better all around lead player.

PRACTICE YOUR TECHNIQUE:

Practicing your technique can also mean a variety of different things, but it will greatly improve your lead guitar playing. One thing to practice is playing along with a metronome. This will help with getting your fingers used to playing at different speeds and with your timing. As you progress, you can increase the speed of the metronome to further your skills. Another thing to practice is alternate picking. This may seem minor, but it will make playing lead guitar that much easier.

LEARN TO READ MUSIC:

Learning to read music is another way to improve your lead guitar playing. Reading sheet music will help learn the notes on the guitar neck, help you to identify patterns within different lead guitar parts, which may ultimately help you in coming up with your own. In addition to these things guitar players that read music tend to learn other concepts related to the instrument faster than those who do not.

Learn Your Favorite Solos

Learning solos is a very beneficial way to improve your lead guitar playing. Understanding how your favorite guitar players phrase their own lines using scales and arpeggios brings you one step closer to having full command of the neck and being able to express yourself freely.

Improving your lead guitar playing will open many more doors and opportunities for you in the guitar world. That is why it is best to pick up your instrument and start practicing! If you are struggling to put it all together or you can already play but not sure what your your doing call us for a FREE TRIAL LESSON and we can help you to solo like a pro!

What Should I be Practicing?

SMA — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 16:30:00 +0000

If you are just starting out as a musician or even consider yourself to be an advanced player, you may be asking yourself: what should I be practicing? There are so many components to learning an instrument like the guitar that you might begin to feel like you are just going over the same concepts over and over again if you do not progress in certain topics. Finding the right things to practice will not only increase your skills and knowledge of concepts, it will also keep you motivated to continue practicing on a daily basis. If you are just starting out as a musician or even consider yourself to be an advanced player, you may be asking yourself: what should I be practicing? There are so many components to learning an instrument like the guitar that you might begin to feel like you are just going over the same concepts over and over again if you do not progress in certain topics. Finding the right things to practice will not only increase your skills and knowledge of concepts, it will also keep you motivated to continue practicing on a daily basis.

CHORDS AND PROGRESSIONS:

Guitar chords are one of the fundamental aspects of learning the instrument and expanding your capabilities along the neck. That is why practicing and being able to play basic chord shapes is incredibly important in setting a foundation for your guitar playing. Practicing these chords over and over again and eventually mastering them will eventually allow you to transition to learning and practicing the endless number of chord variations that are out there. Having the capability to know the various chord shapes will also lead you to get better at playing chord progressions, which is essential for playing and writing songs. This is just one example of how different facets of practicing the guitar can blend into one another.

SCALES:

Guitar scales are also one of the most crucial things for guitar players to be practicing during their practice time. Although there are many different scales to learn, practice and work with, they are key to becoming a better soloist and will even improve your understanding of music theory. If you are a beginner, the minor pentatonic scale is a great scale to start with if you are just getting into soloing over songs or chord progressions. In addition to getting better at soloing, practicing guitar scales will also help with finger technique, rhythm, hand strength and finding patterns within different styles of music. If you find yourself wondering what you should be practicing as a guitar player, it could be very beneficial to start with chords, progressions and scales. From there, you can start to branch out and learn more about a fantastic instrument.