What Effective Guitar Practice Is Really About
By Mike Philippov
You become a great guitar player much faster when you learn how to practice guitar effectively. This starts with understanding what effective guitar practice is actually about. This understanding helps you focus on the right things in the right way and reach your musical goals faster.
Correct guitar practice is about:
1. Musical Skill Development
Great guitar playing is a byproduct of mastering specific skills, such as:
To practice guitar effectively, you must focus on mastering these skills to the highest level.
2. Solving Your Musical Challenges
You will face many challenges in the process of becoming a great guitar player. Effective guitar practice is about identifying your specific challenges, determining their true causes and overcoming them.
Solving problems may consist of: mastering challenging guitar licks or overcoming bad habits in your guitar technique or musical creativity.
This video shows how to overcome guitar technique challenges easily and fast:
Correct guitar practice is about:
1. Musical Skill Development
Great guitar playing is a byproduct of mastering specific skills, such as:
- Guitar technique - picking hand/fretting hand bio mechanics, 2-hand synchronization, picking articulation, etc.
- Music theory – your understanding of how to create specific emotions in your listeners with the music you play. (This makes you feel like a real musician rather than just a guitar player.)
- Ear training – so you can play the music you hear in your head on your guitar. This makes it easy to improvise guitar solos and compose your own music you can be proud of.
- Fretboard visualization – this skill helps you play scales, arpeggios and intervals all over the guitar fretboard in any key without “getting lost” or playing out of key.
- Phrasing – this skill is about making your guitar licks sound GREAT at any speed. Great phrasing is about using expressive ornaments and rhythm control to make any guitar lick sound awesome (no matter what its notes are).
- Rhythm guitar playing – this skill is about playing your music tight and in time, so you can play in a band and/or record your guitar playing and sound great when doing so.
To practice guitar effectively, you must focus on mastering these skills to the highest level.
2. Solving Your Musical Challenges
You will face many challenges in the process of becoming a great guitar player. Effective guitar practice is about identifying your specific challenges, determining their true causes and overcoming them.
Solving problems may consist of: mastering challenging guitar licks or overcoming bad habits in your guitar technique or musical creativity.
This video shows how to overcome guitar technique challenges easily and fast:
3. Musical Integration
Integration is the process of building fluency with all the musical skills you’ve developed. This fluency helps you use your skills in musical contexts. Musical integration is similar to mastering a language. First you build your vocabulary in the language and master the rules of grammar. Then you integrate your knowledge of words and grammar principles to communicate effectively when speaking or writing.
Note: solving musical challenges and mastering musical integration often go hand in hand. Watch the video to see how solving guitar technique challenges also makes you better at integrating different guitar techniques fluently.
4. Real-Life Application Training
Your guitar playing is only as good as your ability to use your skills when it really matters: when performing for others or while recording in the studio. Practice for real-life guitar playing by:
Simulating real-life performing conditions (playing guitar while standing up, playing guitar outside, moving around while playing, etc.)
Practicing recording your guitar playing. Challenge yourself to record a perfect take in as few attempts as you can.
Real-life application mastery helps you avoid embarrassing mistakes that make your playing sound worse than it really is.
Focus your guitar practice on these 4 elements of musical mastery and watch your musical progress soar.
About the author: Mike Philippov is a guitar teacher & composer in progressive rock styles. He also trains guitar players from all over the world how to practice guitar. Learn the right way to practice scales for rock guitar
Integration is the process of building fluency with all the musical skills you’ve developed. This fluency helps you use your skills in musical contexts. Musical integration is similar to mastering a language. First you build your vocabulary in the language and master the rules of grammar. Then you integrate your knowledge of words and grammar principles to communicate effectively when speaking or writing.
Note: solving musical challenges and mastering musical integration often go hand in hand. Watch the video to see how solving guitar technique challenges also makes you better at integrating different guitar techniques fluently.
4. Real-Life Application Training
Your guitar playing is only as good as your ability to use your skills when it really matters: when performing for others or while recording in the studio. Practice for real-life guitar playing by:
Simulating real-life performing conditions (playing guitar while standing up, playing guitar outside, moving around while playing, etc.)
Practicing recording your guitar playing. Challenge yourself to record a perfect take in as few attempts as you can.
Real-life application mastery helps you avoid embarrassing mistakes that make your playing sound worse than it really is.
Focus your guitar practice on these 4 elements of musical mastery and watch your musical progress soar.
About the author: Mike Philippov is a guitar teacher & composer in progressive rock styles. He also trains guitar players from all over the world how to practice guitar. Learn the right way to practice scales for rock guitar