If you’ve been playing guitar for a while and feel like you’re stuck in an endless loop of playing the same material and practicing the same skills, the chances are it’s time to get a little creative and take things to the next level.
Understand Strengths and Weaknesses
Every guitar play has strengths that let them succeed, whether it’s picking songs up fast, writing songs, guitar techniques, or extensive music knowledge. Naturally, it’s more appealing to focus on solidifying these strengths. However, if you’re only ever working on skills you already have, you’ll never take your guitar playing to the next level. Therefore, you must analyze your abilities to determine your weaknesses, and then integrate these into your sessions.
Upgrade Your Equipment
There are so many different styles of music out there, and some can’t be explored without investing in new equipment. For example, if you’re using an electric guitar and wish to play with different sounds, you need to have a set of quality effect pedals. Alternatively, if you’ve been playing with a budget guitar, it might be worth investing in a better brand to achieve a more professional sound.
Set Realistic Music Goals
If you’re learning to play guitar without a clear roadmap, you’re only going to stumble. Therefore, you should set realistic goals to keep your learning grounded and moving forward. If you’re working towards mastering one skill every time you pick the guitar up, you’ll pick up new skills at a much faster rate.
Focus During Practice Sessions
The human brain is only capable of concentrating for around 15-20 minutes, which is why dragged-out guitar sessions can feel a little pointless. To overcome this issue, you should make sure that you’re 100% focused on playing guitar during your sessions. Having one focus session every couple of days is better than forcing yourself to play for a couple of hours a day.
Listen To Yourself Play
When you play guitar but don’t spend time analyzing your performance, it becomes difficult to improve, which is why you should film yourself playing so that you can listen. When you watch the recording back, you might find out that you’ve picked up bad techniques without realizing it, and you can address these issues. Additionally, you may notice some notes don’t ring clearly, which indicates you may be accidentally muting.
Keep Your Dreams Close
Practicing your guitar skills will take you to the next level, but you need to have the motivation to get you through. So, you should always keep your dreams close when playing guitar, especially when you’re stuck in a bit of a rut. For example, if you dream of stepping out on stage as part of a band, keep this in your mind and see how far it pushes your guitar-playing skills.
If you arm yourself with the strategies outlined above, you’ll take your guitar playing to the next level in no time. Remember, without having clear goals and a dream to keep you grounded, you’ll struggle to progress.
