Hey guys I don't have the luxury of being able to get formal guitar lessons but I have picked up alot of stuff from the year I've been playing but I want more out of myself so I was just wondering what practices and exercises do I need to stress to better myself

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Guitars: Hamer Daytona, 1995 MIJ Fender Tele, Squier Bullet Strat, Dixon Se, Fender Acoustic

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Scales, scales, scales! Learn your scales ALL over the fretboard. Its boring but very worthwhile.

Have you tried this website?

http://www.justinguitar.com/

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The time has gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say.

Hey thanks alot guys

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Guitars: Hamer Daytona, 1995 MIJ Fender Tele, Squier Bullet Strat, Dixon Se, Fender Acoustic

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000428444940

Jam as often as possible with folks who are better than you.

I agree with David.
Even though the guitar is a "solo" instrument, I can learn more, faster and have a lot more fun getting together with other players - especially ones that are better than me.

Have you been learning songs of your favorite bands? How is your 'ear training'?

I'm essentially self-taught, after I learned basic fretboard theory, i.e. what the name of strings were, open chord positions, and than the barre chord positions.

I also learned the major scale formula 'W W H W W W H', than I learned that most blues & rock songs were based on the I-IV-V chord progression using the major scale formula.

Actually I learned all this by reading Guitar Player magazine .

But, the most important fretboard theory I learned was that the pentatonic scale was movable in ALL keys. I learned this in Guitar Player too.

There was lesson where the author tabbed out George Harrison's solo to 'Let It Be'. He explained Harrison's approach to the solo, and the riffs he used.

The author also talked about recording a song you wanted to learn to cassette, this was back in the '73, when I first started learning to play, so you wouldn't ruin your records.

I started learning songs off of the Allman Brothers ‘Live at Fillmore’ and EC’s ‘Layla’, plus Rolling Stones. Since I knew my barre chord positions, I would 'hunt & peck'' out the key of the songs. Here at first I remember concentrating on the first note played by the bass player, if it was at 3rd fret, 6th string, I knew it was ‘G’, at the 5th fret, 6th string it was in ‘A’, etc.

I also learned that some blues songs start on the ‘V’ and a few blues songs like ‘Key to the Highway’ are I-V-IV.

Ok, I also knew that the pentatonic scale was movable in all keys, if I thought the song was in ‘G’, like ‘Stormy Monday’, I would try the ‘G’ pentatonic scale at the 3rd fret, if it ‘fit’, than I would start learning the chord progression, and than learn the solos. Again, I would have a the song on cassette, so that I could FF & RW.

Learning solos will give you a lick/riff vocabulary. This is very important IMO, this will give you the tools to improvise, and maybe come up with your own licks.

I would spend hours learning songs, and my ‘ear’ became better, now if I’m watching a football game, I find a key a song used in a commercial in about 5 or 10 seconds.

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Tony Houston

Music theory never hurts, either. It can only improve you.

In my first post I talked about recording a song to cassette, very old school, but remember that was in the '70s.

In '80 I met Tom Scholz of Boston and he told about a new headphone amp he was working on the Rockman. I brought on of the first ones released direct from Tom.



I used it either connected to my stereo, and later with a CD walkman.

In the '90s I replaced this setup with the 1st generation Tascam CD-GT1 Guitar Trainer.



Tascam now has several trainers http://www.tascam.com/catalogue;47,21.html, I still use my CD-GT1 all the time.

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Tony Houston

Classical guitar exercises are excellent for the playing hand. Develops finger independence. Teach yourself to read music. Doesn't take much. Lot of Aaron Shearer and Julio Segreras exercises (legato, hammer-on, pull-off) are great.

There are so many differant styles of playing and so mant techniques dont hold yourself down to one basic style.Learn scales,arpeggios,sweeping,tapping,string skipping,alternate picked runs,as many chords as possible and digest it all a lil at a time till you find your own style. The most important thing I would say is do all this with backing tracks as yoy want these things to sound like music and not exercises.Everything should be musical if your playing scales and your just running through patterns it is boring but with music behind you ideas come.Learn rhythm well not just strumming but interesting parts inversions ,riffs ,play around with delay pedals for texture and HAVE FUN.

thanks alot guys your advice is already working wonders on my playing I was just solid southern rock but now I'm experiencing with glam rock,metal,punk, and even funk thanks guys!

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Guitars: Hamer Daytona, 1995 MIJ Fender Tele, Squier Bullet Strat, Dixon Se, Fender Acoustic

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000428444940

If you are into pedal effects, get a Boss or other loop station. I know, the smallest Boss is $189, but there is up to 16 minutes of recording time on it. You can put down a rhythm chord track on it, then switch pickups and work on lead solos over your track. It's a fun way to find what patterns do and do not work with a song. Easier than finding a patient friend who is willing to strum for half an hour while you work out the fingering!