52 Quick Tips to Improve Your Guitar Playing

The reward for learning to play the guitar is beyond words. 

In this article, I am sharing with you a massive list of 52 quick guitar playing tips to help you, one for every week of a year. (Yes, I know the metronome is on there several times.) 

Enjoy: 

  1. Practice with a metronome.
  2. Don’t buy cheap guitars.
  3. Keep the humidity stable.
  4. Change your strings at least once every six months, once per month is better. 
  5. Use light gauge strings unless you’re a skilled lead guitar player. 
  6. Don’t overdo it on the pedals with an electric guitar. 
  7. Keep a video journal to see how much you’ve improved. 
  8. Move the guitar to your body; don’t collapse your back. 
  9. Keep your hand, wrist, and forearm in a single line. 
  10. Try out different voicings for different chords to get different sounds
  11. When in doubt, slow it down and then speed it up gradually. 
  12. Practice picking up and down equally. 
  13. Never underestimate how much scales will help your dexterity and lead playing. 
  14. Listen, listen, listen to the pros. 
  15. Press the strings down directly behind the frets. 
  16. Keep the action low, but not so low that it buzzes. 
  17. Trust a music store that admits when it doesn’t know something and calls an expert. 
  18. Keep your fretting fingers perpendicular to the fretboard. 
  19. Always check the status of your nut and bridge. Repairs to these are critical. 
  20. The Blues form the foundation of most modern guitar playing. Start there. 
  21. Chuck Berry is the Father of Rock and Roll. All soloists need to learn his songs. 
  22. It’s better to practice shorter periods for more often. 
  23. Add an extra finger on top of your index finger for more power to bar chords. 
  24. Give yourself a break now and then. It’s OK to miss a practice day. 
  25. Always work in your favorite songs to your practice sessions. 
  26. Get that metronome out for practice! 
  27. Keep a journal nearby for when song ideas strike. 
  28. With three chords (G-C-D), you can play many songs. 
  29. Major chords are “happy,” minor chords are “sad, angry,” and 7 chords lead to the next chord. 
  30. Power chords are strong and don’t use the middle note in the chord. The open feeling gives it power. 
  31. Follow a program! Jam Play is the best one out there. 
  32. Build your repertoire of strumming patterns and test them out with different songs. 
  33. Use the PIMA (thumb, index, middle, and ring finger) method to help you learn beautiful fingerstyle guitar. 
  34. Acoustic guitars use steel strings with a wood body, classical guitars have wider necks and nylon strings, electric guitars use steel strings and pickup to gather the sound and send it to an amp. 
  35. A little bit of gripping on a pick goes a long way. 
  36. Medium thickness picks are the best overall. 
  37. Use thicker picks for advanced lead and solo work, specifically with electric guitars. 
  38. When buying a guitar, always check the straightness of the neck. 
  39. Use the side of your finger for a better press for barre chords (bar chords). 
  40. Get. That. Metronome. 
  41. Access the heart of the music by moving and dramatizing your playing (once you’ve got the basics down). 
  42. Play with other people. You’ll learn quicker, be more motivated, and have a ball! 
  43. Use the tip of the pick to strum, not the wider body of it. 
  44. Clip-on tuners work well for getting your strings to the generally correct pitch. Now train your ear. 
  45. When building calluses, press your fingertips on a credit card throughout the day to help encourage blood flow. 
  46. If it hurts, stop. Take a break and figure out why. 
  47. Learn the Blues scales to solo and improvise music a million times better. 
  48. Always tune starting with your lowest string first. 
  49. When playing in a band, let everyone get their turn to lead. 
  50. Play for young kids. They’ll always think you’re a rock star, even if you’re pretty bad! 
  51. The guitar is one of the rhythm instruments in a band. Use a metronome to keep your tempo!
  52. Don’t give up. It takes time! 
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52 Quick Tips to Improve Your Guitar Playing
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52 Quick Tips to Improve Your Guitar Playing
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