Tips and Tricks to Improve Your Guitar Playing

If you’re looking to refine and improve your guitar-playing skills, you’ve certainly come to the right place!

Your desire to improve guitar-playing skills could have perhaps stemmed from the desire to see yourself become a better guitarist, generally speaking. Or you might want to focus your efforts on a specific problem – which could be something that you might have identified, such as remove sloppy playing, eliminate string noise and/or play the guitar more cleanly.

This following write-up is aimed towards enabling just about anyone to become a better guitar player:

1. Take a Solution-Oriented Approach: It is important to be fully aware of every aspect of your guitar-play. This includes being aware of imperfections in your technique, being able to pin-point what exactly is wrong and where those imperfections lie, and then look for solutions.

Without the ability to pin-point the problem area(s), there is absolutely no way to correct the problem or find the solution. There are two main ways of pin-pointing a problem: (a) When you play, record yourself. Especially when you play the guitar technique you want to improve upon. After the session, play it back and listen to it at a slowed-down speed. Provided that you have a good ear, you will be able to identify any inconsistencies, unclear notes, string (and other) noises between notes, and the like. It is also likely that you may or maybe not be able to hear everything or correctly, or identify your problem areas on your own. Either way, that bring us to (b) Working with a trained professional, an experienced guitarist or quite simply, a teacher. Have them evaluate your playing technique. Make sure that both – you and your instructor – are on the same page as far as identification of the problem is concerned. Once done, ask for feedback; a good instructor or a seasoned professional will not only tell you what to do, he or she will also be able to point out problems in your guitar-play that you yourself might be unaware of! I personally recommend working with experienced and trained teachers and professionals; you can learn a lot, work on your problems and improve your general guitar-play. Look for local  guitar teachers in your area, or better yet sign up for an online guitar course such as GuitarTricks.com, who have a ton (no, seriously!) of instructors to choose from.

2. Articulation: In addition to adopting a solution-oriented approach, it is also essential improve your ‘articulation’ – the first half of two-hand synchronization.

In order to be able to play the guitar cleanly, your hands should fret and pick each note at exactly the same time. This is known as synchronization. In order to improve your articulation, first off, play with a clean guitar tone during your next practice sessions, sans any distortion or effects. A clean tone will allow you to spot any imperfections easily. Secondly, play as loud as possible, so you can really ‘hear’ what happens as you play. And lastly, practice slowly and do the exact same way as you would if you were playing fast – this includes not playing with a lighter/stronger touch, weaker/strong pick attack, using the same angle and hand position as well. Using the same technique when you play fast or slow will truly allow you to enhance your guitar-play because the sound that comes out of the guitar will be the same, hence allowing you to spot any imperfections and/or problems easily.

3. Release: The ‘release’ is the second half of the two-hand synchronization, and the third-step in your journey towards cleaner guitar-play.

For many-a-guitar-players, this is hands down the hardest problems to correct – because after articulation of the note, most players tend to ignore the noise in between the notes which comes immediately after articulation. It almost never happens when you play without distortion/effects, which is why players think their guitar playing sounds clean when playing without effects, only to discover that something is wrong when they practice later on with effects and are unsure what the problem is.

Here’s the solution: first off, play with distortion but minus the effects. In addition, as described above, make sure that you play loud enough in order to be able to hear what is coming out of your amp, and play slowly without changing anything. Try picking up subtle sounds and noises in between the notes (such as ‘scratchy’ sounds). Still having a hard time picking them up? Record yourself, and play it back at one-fourth the speed (or even slower). Once you’re able to hear the scratchy sound in between the notes, and once you know what it sounds like, you’ll be able to notice it every time you practice from now on. Which of course, will allow you to fix the problem! In almost all instances, release problems are caused by making a sudden upward motion away from the string you just played after releasing a note. Your finger should instead relax and allow it to release the note, instead of pulling away from the strings abruptly or suddenly – something which is certain to cause tiredness, sloppiness during play, or ‘premature finger movement’, a major reason of scratchy sounds.

Adopting a solution-oriented approach, and working on your articulation + release will improve certain aspects of your guitar-play. You will most certainly feel like an improved player.


Here are a few articles on guitar techniques, courtesy Ultimate Guitar. Worth checking out.

In addition, if you’re committed to become a better player, believe in your ability, set goals and objectives (and measure the success or failure of those goals and objectives!), and last but most certainly not the least by any means, practice! Practicing, experimenting, working with a someone who knows his guitars (such as the instructors on GuitarTricks) and pushing your boundaries constantly will almost always make you a better guitar player!