Category Archives: Practice and Warmup

Guitar Solo in Time Tips – Keeping it tight!

Posted on by
10

The Best way to Improve Timing!One of the key fundamentals with any music and any instrument is timing and it doesn’t matter what you’re playing, if it’s not in perfect time then it sounds amateur and somewhat annoying for the listener. If you have ever struggled in the past with guitar timing then you may find these ‘guitar solo in time tips’ useful, and hopefully instantly applicable to your playing.

There are two main avenues we can look at in terms of timing, and they are external and internal influences. External influences focus on what is outside of you; things like your guitar setup and the picking action itself, the things that physically go into making the sound. Internal influences come into the category of how you think, hear and structure the notes before they are played. With these two areas in mind, here are some things to think about to get ‘machine like’ timing in everything you play!

Thinking about the Beat – Internally, how you process what you hear makes all the difference. I can guarantee you that you and I could be hearing the same beat but creating different tunes in our mind to play over it, and this matters with timing because you need to hear the accents and where the main notes need to land. If you have a basic 4:4 beat and you are playing a scale over it, the scale will consist of notes in between the beats as well as notes that land dead on the beat. Even if you don’t hear a physical beat you need to learn how to imagine it’s there, as this is what timing is all about – picking where the beat should be and landing dead on it (this is how a solo guitarist can play with no accompaniment and sound good, because the beat is in his/her mind).

Following a specific beat – There are two main ways to physically create a beat to play to; use a metronome and get an instant timing you can play to, or take a little longer and set up a drum machine or drum software. Either way is fine and will do the immediate job at hand, but the advantages of the drum machine are that you feel more inspired because it’s playing real music, and you can have snare accents for example to help create odd timings and different feels. On the other hand metronomes are cheap to buy (there are even free ones online such as this one). Also, if you do get a chance to play with a drummer do it. There’s something that happens with your playing when playing with a real drummer, you become more accountable and are almost forced to become better, especially with your timing.

Pick Attack and Timing – This is the third area to control after the external and internal timing. Pick attack simply means the speed and consistency that the pick strikes the string. If you are playing a basic chord progression and are ‘strumming’ to just get a relaxed feel then you can have a very loose hand while playing the notes as timing will be a bit more forgiving. If you’re playing a guitar solo or anything with single notes or with more speed, then this needs to sharpen up and as a general rule – the faster you play the tighter your picking action needs to become. When playing guitar solos there is a focus on picking the note fast (even if the sequence is slow) to get an immediate and clean sound from the note, and only then can you add your chosen technique to it.

It’s a very handy thing for guitarists who want to learn lead or solo work to first think about the rhythm and groove of the song. Only when you get the feel from that side of things can you add to it with a solo because solos are not usually stand alone pieces, they are enhanced and structured by what’s underneath them (even if it’s not physically played).

As you can see from these guitar solo in time tips, timing comes from a few aspects of the sound, and if you learn to first hear it and then play exactly to it (practicing slowly and evenly at first) then your timing will improve dramatically in a short space of time, and just imagine what happens when you speed it all up?

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Hand Placement – The Overlooked Solo Necessity

Posted on by
Reply

Left Hand PositionWhen learning how to play guitar solos there are quite a few things that first come to mind; technique, speed, picking style for starters…but rarely is hand placement talked about. When I talk about hand placement here I’m referring to the ‘fretting hand’ and not the picking hand, although you could write a whole book on that one.

If you just play by feel and go with what seems comfortable you may stumble across the best way to do things, but you may also fall into some bad habits, or positions that don’t help you to play what you want to play. Once you get into these positions and you naturally go there it can be difficult to retrain yourself…difficult, but not impossible. Here we’ll take a look at what some different positions are and how they can be used in your playing. I’ll also point out some of the pitfalls of using certain techniques and how they can be corrected.

I also want to point out that there are no right or wrong ways to position your hands on the guitar, just ways that work and ways that don’t…

There are two main schools of thought around hand positioning:

Classical or Solo Position & Rock or Bending Position. These have been called many different names but the name itself is irrelevant, so we’ll just use these to illustrate the idea. After looking at these positions from a ‘fingers on the board’ approach, we can also look at the thumb position and find a way to get the result we’re after.

Classical or Solo PositioningClassical Position – This is often called this because it’s taught as the only effective position on the classical guitar, and with good reason. When you’re playing mostly separate notes, scales, or anything that involves a lot of finger changing and movement (such as guitar solos), it helps to have the fullest access from your fingers and that’s what this position provides.

Technique – This is achieved by placing the thumb facing vertically in the middle of the back of the neck, thereby giving you greater access for your fingers on the fret board.

Classical or Solo PositioningRock Position – This is also an effective technique and one that feels more natural to play for a lot of people but it has its limitations, especially when learning how to play guitar solos. The advantage of this technique is getting a controlled grip and general control when doing any sort of bending or movement of the notes (you’ll notice a lot of blues players using the thumb over approach to get the controlled tone and maximized feeling from the notes). The disadvantage is the reduced finger control over faster moving passages such as scale runs etc…

Technique – To do this simply place your thumb further up toward the top of the back of the neck, to the point of gripping the neck like a club and forcing your thumb down for a greater level of control.

To get an idea of the difference in the finger control, start in the first position with your thumb in the center of the neck and move it up to the top – note how your fingers move on the front and how much reach you have in either position! You’ll soon see the advantages of both and if you combine the two in your playing it will give you greater control regardless of what you want to play.

There is one last thing to consider and that is the thumb angle. Some people recommend pointing the thumb along the neck and facing the headstock, try it with both positions and see how comfortable it is to play with, but I have to also point out that the thumb straight up is the most common practice.

Whatever gives you the playability without causing R.S.I. is a good thing!

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Using Backing Tracks

Posted on by
8

Not how to get Free Backing Tracks!Do you ever get bored playing your guitar to an electronic beep? Although playing to a metronome is one of the most beneficial things you can do for your playing (in more ways than you can imagine) it can sometimes feel a little unreal and more often than not, uninspiring. When learning how to play guitar solos you usually have something to play to, maybe playing over a CD or jamming your favorite song with a friend, but what happens if you’re just practicing techniques, improvisation or composing something new? There is a solution that I have used for years and it has helped me in so many ways, creatively as well as with timing and technique. It is the use of backing tracks and real instruments to play along to.

Backing Tracks are just what Karaoke is to the singing world; a real band track with one instrument taken out so you can play along as if playing with a full band. You can approach these in two ways – buy pre existing backing tracks or what I did, make your own. It’s easy to make your own but I will warn you now, it can cost a little to set yourself up to be able to record these. Here are some things to consider when choosing either way:

Buying Existing Tracks

Does the music inspire you? There are so many tracks available and not all are created equal. Choose ones that are in your genre and that make you want to pick up the guitar and play along!

Can they be used in multiple ways? Some songs are easier to solo to than others and you want to make your money stretch as far as possible. Try to choose tracks that give you multiple ideas and that allow you to open up notes all over the neck.

How’s the quality of the sound? It’s no use playing to something that sounds like it was recorded in a cave during a hail storm! Choose something that sounds well produced and professional after all, the better it sounds the better you will play to it.

Making your own Backing Tracks

What do you really need in order to do this? Drum Machine and some form of recording device – that’s it! You can always get a lot more stuff than this to make professional recordings but that all depends on your budget, so work out what you really need before going to the guitar shop and you won’t get swept up in the moment (speaking from experience here, going in for picks and coming out with a new guitar!).

Drum Machine – There are some free ones online that will give you a decent sound to play along with and depending on what you want to achieve these may be good enough for you. Next step up is the cheap paid versions such as Quickbeats, these are a good alternative and certainly cheap enough. I personally use a program called Fruityloops and add my own sampled drum sounds in which gives the result I’m after, and that’s what it’s about.

Guitar Recording – There are also a lot of ways to record guitar, starting from cheap programs you can download to physical recording devices, but it all depends on what you want to spend. There are programs that you can buy that have a basic plug-and-play guitar recording unit, and that come with a built in drum machine, which are great for the guitarist wanting it easy, and you can get some great sounds that will inspire you for years to come.

At the end of the day you can spend unlimited amounts on recording equipment that you don’t necessarily need, but choose what suits your needs. And if you’re just learning how to play guitar solos from your favourite band and you don’t want to pay anything, find a free drum program (even a trial version) and create a few beats you can play along with and this will enhance your creativity which in turn will improve all aspects of your playing.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Finger Stretches – The Forgotten Art

Posted on by
3

Hand StrengthAre you one of those people that likes to just pick up a guitar and get straight into it? Do you wonder why you can’t always play everything you normally play until a few minutes into it? The reason is simple and it’s all because of something that the majority of guitarists don’t do (I’ve been guilty of it myself) – finger stretches and warm ups.

Think about it like this, if you go to the gym and get straight into the heavy weights without a proper warm up you run the risk of injury, so why is guitar any different? When you look at the amount of stress that is being placed on your fingers and hands it’s not surprising that things like R.S.I. (repetitive strain injury) are so common amongst guitarists. It doesn’t need to be this way, and you can confront this head by learning how to play guitar solos with the least amount of pain and stress…let’s take a look at 3 ways we can do this:

Stretching/ Workouts/ Exercises

Stretching

What stretching does in its basic form is elongate the muscle and keep elasticity, with the result of more control, flexibility and range of motion, which is great for guitarists to remember. Focus on both the hands and the fingers as they both work in guitar playing, and you can do a variety of exercises. The aim is to loosen and warm up both the hands and fingers before playing to prevent injury, and to give you more control over what you do on the fret board. For a few examples check out these Hand Stretching Exercises.

Workouts

It may sound funny to some to do hand workouts, but you know how important finger strength is for holding barre chords, bending notes, and the list goes on and on, you’ll know what I’m on about…so why do so few people work on strengthening their hands and fingers? Whether or not you do any form of exercise for the rest of your body is a topic for another site, but here the importance of strengthening your hands is all we’re concerned about. Have I mentioned that hand strength is important yet? J Well…it is. If you work out already then you’ll know that just doing weights for the rest of your body strengthens your hands as well, but if you don’t then try this little tip – Gripmaster. This is a great tool for guitarists and can work on individual finger strength, but you can also use an alternative that I used when starting out and that is standard Hand Grips from a sports/ gym store. Keep it in your car, bag, locker at work and use it when you get a free moment, it’ll really pay off in a short space of time!

Exercises

I’m not talking about hand strength now, but a series of patterns on the guitar that challenge right from the start. There a lot of different ways to do this from odd shaped chords to massive stretches all over the neck, but my favourite even though it sounds a bit dull (but this is all about finger warm up here and not sound) is chromatics. Practice playing them up and down like scales, try alternating the fingering and challenging yourself as you go and then get into you’re playing. A great way to do it is to start with all fingers together in the natural chromatic progression, and then gradually increase the spacing. If you play on frets 12,13,14,15 with fingers 1,2,3,4 then simply play frets 12,13,14,16 with the same fingers to get a stretch. The next time around you might play 12,13,15,16 and move the 3rd finger up one and continue in this pattern and then back down until you’re back at the starting position. This is just one example but a good starting place. If you want an extreme warm up tab exercise click here. Also, here is a video with a great demonstration warm up to stretch you out…enjoy!

If you take the time to do this for even a few minutes a day, it will make your practice time more efficient and as a result your playing will improve at a faster rate than it would have before – well worth it if you ask me!

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Killer Sweeps! – How to Play Guitar Solos

Posted on by
3

When learning how to play guitar solos there are quite a few flashy techniques that can make you stand out from the crowd, and all have varying levels of difficulty. There is however one technique that is feared by the masses, and if you can tame it, will make you stand out in any crowd as being an expert on your chosen instrument!

That of course, is Sweep Picking.

Sweep Picking is simply the technique of playing the individual notes of an arpeggio in a ‘sweeping’ motion, and is one of the quickest ways around the neck while playing individual notes. An Arpeggio literally means ‘broken chord’ and can be used with any chord shape. In essence, you sweep (technique) over the arpeggio (notes) to create a devastating assault on the listener…

Let’s take a look at some examples and then we’ll get into the nuts and bolts of it and get you on your way!

Here’s an example from one of the best solo artists around today – Jeff Loomis, and if you want to master arpeggios then this is a must see!

Here’s the Tab to play along with, good luck!

Jeff Loomis - Devil Theory Sweeps

Key points to note when learning to sweep:

  1. Keep a firm grip on the broom!
  2. play around with different picking positions – i find it much easier to turn my picking hand slightly to the right and cut through the notes rather than playing with the pick level with the strings.
  3. As with all techniques practice slowly with a metronome or drum machine, and only speed up once it’s fluid and you have clean notes (This is one technique that it pays to learn properly and take the time to get it right, the rewards are well worth the effort!).
  4. Make up your own patterns and when you feel a little more comfortable with it, throw in a slide or a hammer on here and there (see video for examples of this) and spice it up a little.
  5. Always push yourself with new patterns and don’t let yourself get too comfortable.

When learning how to play guitar solos it pays to break things down into small chunks and practice, practice, practice! Have fun with these and when you get something you like, use it as a warm up and you’ll be surprised what it does to your solo capacity.

Here’s some other Articles you may find useful on Sweep Picking:

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Sounding Pro with a Simple Practice Plan

Posted on by
6

Brian May shows How to Play Guitar SolosHave you ever been disheartened when you see a great guitar player pulling off a massive solo and thinking ‘I could never do that’? This so often happens to less experienced players when they are practicing how to play guitar solos and a lot of the time, they end up giving up because of it which is a tragedy.

The truth is the majority of people who listen to music want something they can connect with, so if you are in the above category and feel like giving up this may put your mind at ease.

Instead of looking at what you can’t play, focus on what you can and do it well!

When learning how to play guitar solos the most important thing is playing every note well, with great technique and emotion. If you can’t play the flashiest solos yet don’t worry about it – it will happen in time with the right practice. There are certain things to concentrate on when practicing that will make you sound like a better player while playing very few notes, so try these out and forget what everyone else is doing – this is about you.

Practicing with single notes:

If every note has to be spot on it makes sense to practice notes on their own as well as in scale runs. Try practicing notes like this and see how it feels:

  • Pick a scale, let’s use the C major scale (C Ionian) as a starting position
  • Play through all the notes in the scale slowly with a metronome, and with the most important thing, total control of every note. Make sure you watch your fingering as well, and move your hand as little as possible by placing a different finger on each fret (1st finger – 3rd fret/ 2nd finger – 5th fret/ 4th finger – 7th fret etc).
  • When you can play it through with each note sounding smooth and it feels easy, put the metronome to half the time of what it is now.
  • Play each note again in half time and practice a steady vibrato on each note, and make sure the vibrato is in time with the metronome as well (it’s not enough that the note is played on the beat, the vibrato should be practiced in time as well).
  • When this feels easy, practice sliding up from the previous note in the scale, so in this case slide up from the B note before the root note of the scale. The aim is to pick the note in the same scale previous to the one you’re playing and slide from it.
  • Combine the two by sliding up to the note and then adding vibrato.
  • When this all feels comfortable, try adding a downward slide as your coming down the scale to add a new element.
  • When this is done and you feel good about it, turn the metronome back to the speed it originally was and play through the scale again normally, and you should find it a little easier and you’ll have more control over the notes. Keep speeding it up as you start feeling comfortable with it, and when you get to the stage when you start making mistakes, start over with the next scale up the neck (try playing all the scales of the notes in the C major scale, C D E F G A B C – so the next one here is the standard D scale).
  • Repeat for all scales until you get back to C further up the neck.

It sounds a little basic but you may be surprised how challenging it can be, and this way of practicing alone can give a huge control over the notes you play and at the same time, set you up for both knowing the fret board and learning modes (both will really help you with composition).

Good luck with it and remember to take it slow and get that control over the notes before you move on to other techniques or speed, and your playing will improve tenfold!

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Getting that Blues Feel…

Posted on by
Reply

Today we’ll be looking at the style of Blues and learning how to play guitar solos around the blues pentatonic scale shapes. Blues is one of those styles that sounds so simple when you listen to it because of the natural flow, but can be challenging to say the least because you have to put so much of yourself into it to pull it off…

There are a few basic tricks that can really help you do it well, and bring out that creative juice, one of them being this particular phrase based solely on the pentatonic shape. Listen to Marty as he shows you how to not only play the technique, but also gives you tips on how to join your own ideas and musical thoughts together.

These phrases should be practiced with some form of backing track if possible, just to give you the right feel for your playing. If you don’t have any way to do this then playing to a metronome or drum machine is fine.

You can also use this technique for other styles of playing as well. For example, if you were learning how to play guitar solos in Rock or Jazz, this would be a great addition to your playing and really add a bluesy feel while playing another style.

One thing to remember, this is not limited to this shape or phrase. How could you use this pattern for other scales and shapes?

Technorati Tags: , , ,

How to Play Guitar Solos – Understanding Guitar Tab

Posted on by
Reply

It’s always a challenge learning something new, especially when it comes to things like foreign languages. Music is no different, especially if you’re planning to learn to read sheet music. This can be a daunting task for even the most keen students among us, but you don’t have to learn to sight read to be able to know how to play guitar solos or anything else!

There is a form of written music known as guitar tablature (usually referred to as just ‘Tab’), and this can be so much easier to read as it Is literally written as it is on the guitar, so you can see it and play it. Even with the most basic forms of anything though, it still requires explanation to know how to read and understand it, especially when everyone is suddenly an expert on it, so let’s cover the basics so you can actually learn something whenever you want to.

Just as sheet music has 5 lines on the page where the notes fit into, guitar tab also has lines. The difference being it has one line for each string on the guitar, and instead of notes being drawn in a separate place for every note, they are simply written on the line (string) with the number of the fret they are played on. Simple. You’ll quite often see this tab as a basic form done in a program like notepad, with broken lines made into a music line. If you want to write your own you can use quite a few programs to draw lines such as Microsoft word, or any free word processing program. 

  Badd11                                    E7Madd13
--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|
-----------5--------|-----------5--------|-----------4--------|
--------8-----8-----|--------8-----8-----|--------6-----6-----|
-----9-----------9--|-----9-----------9--|-----6-----------6--|
--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|
--7-----------------|--7-----------------|--0-----------------|

This is what the tab looks like, and you’ll see it has six lines for the six strings, going from the bottom line being the low E string all the way through to the high E string as the top line. The bars are separated the same as any other sheet music, and the chords that the notes are based on are at the top (in this case it’s Badd11 & E7Madd13). The notes are written as the number of the fret played on the string, so it starts with 7th fret on the low E string, then 9th fret on the D string and so on. Easy huh? This combined with a couple of videos to get the feel and sound of the track you’re learning and you’re well on your way.

When the notes call for a specific technique such as a hammer on, vibrato etc it will tell you, and this is what to look out for:

Slide – ( / ) up or ( \ ) down – means to slide, usually from one note to the next.

Vibrato – ( ~ ) means to add vibrato, usually after the note. 

------------------|--------------|-------------------|
--4----5----------|--------------|-------------------|
----------4/6~----|--------------|--6/4---6--6/8-----|
------------------|--------------|-------------------|
------------------|--------------|-------------------|
------------------|--------------|-------------------|

Hammer on – ( h ) means to hammer the note after the ( h ) instead of picking it.

Pull off – ( p ) means to pull off the note before so it sounds the note after the ( p ).

------------------------------|------------------------------|
--5-12p0h7-12p0h9-12p0h7-12p0h|--5-12p0h7-12p0h7-12p0h7-12p0h|
------------------------------|------------------------------|
------------------------------|------------------------------|
------------------------------|------------------------------|
------------------------------|------------------------------|

Other symbols to look out for are ( t ) – Tap ( x ) – dampen the note or palm mute it.

You won’t have too much else in most songs and if you do there will usually be an explanation with it. Just remember, when learning how to play guitar solos it pays to get all the different forms of the song you can to learn from, video/ tab/ live audio etc. This will give you the best chance of getting the overall feel and notes of the song.

If you want more guitar solo advice and lessons, feel free to check out my site How to Play Guitar Solos

Posted via email from glennbird’s posterous

Technorati Tags: ,

How to Play Guitar Solos – Learning Guitar Online

Posted on by
Reply

As iv’e talked about in other articles, there are three ways to learn guitar solos, and for the purposes of this article we’ll take a look at the learning how to play guitar solos online method. Most people just browse when it comes to looking up things online, and that is no different when it comes to learning guitar. What i’m going to suggest here is a system to give you the greatest advantage of really getting ahead by using this method, regardless of what style you play or who the lessons come from. Interested?

There are four parts to this, and most people will do just one of the first three. If you do all four you’re guaranteed to see improvements in a very short space of time, and the great thing about doing it online is you can change the lessons or even styles to suit you at any stage. First of all, set up a folder in your computer for each song and categorise it in the style as well – this will make it so much easier for you later down the track. Let’s take a look at the four parts:

1) Get the original song – There are so many sites online that you can download audio or video from, and in this case i’m going to suggest video so you can see what is actually being played. The biggest site for videos is, you guessed it, youtube. There are ways to download youtube videos or videos from any other site, and you can either choose the original clip or a live version, sometimes you don’t have a choice so just grab what looks good and has a clear enough sound.

2) Get the Tab – Like video sites, guitar tab sites are too many to mention, but if you search for specific tabs you will eventually find what you want somewhere. Just for clarification, this doesn’t have to be original tab, because you’ll soon work out what’s right and what’s not from the other steps.

3) Get a fan video lesson – If there is one available, grab a video lesson from a fan who is playing the song you want. There are countless videos of people trying to play their favourite song, so chances are you’ll get something in this area. This is just another interpretation that may give you an idea of how it’s played, as sometimes you may miss things in the other steps.

4) Get software to help – The best software i have found while learning how to play guitar solos is software that slows down the original music. This is more in the category of playing by ear, but if you add it to the songs you’re learning from these other three ways you’ll master it in no time. Imagine being able to slow down the solo and still keep the same pitch so you could replicate it note for note?

Well there you have it. If you do these four steps together there should be nothing you can’t play, and without paying money for one on one tuition this is one of the best ways to learn any song or solo!
If you want more guitar tips and advice, check out my site here – How to Play Guitar Solos

Technorati Tags: ,

How to Play Guitar Solos – What’s your learning style?

Posted on by
2

There are 3 ways of learning how to play guitar solos, and it all depends on how you learn best as to which one is suitable and will work best for you. Let’s take a look at these ways and see how they can impact your guitar playing.

1) Traditional Teaching – This is what most people think of when they think of ‘guitar lessons’ and is a great way to go if you like getting lessons in either a one to one format with a guitar teacher sitting in front of you, or in a small group lesson, still with a guitar teacher but a little less personal. There are advantages in this way depending on who you go to, and if you choose this way be sure to add improvisation to your practice as well – if you only play other peoples songs you stunt your own creativity. The advantages are:

  • Picking Up Good habits – A good guitar teacher (i say that because there are the other kind out there as well) will point out your mistakes and bad habits before they take hold.
  • Giving You Structured Practice – They will also be able to guide you through a structured practice routine that left to your own, you may not be as effective with.
  • Having Access to Great Music – Some Tabs and music scores can be hard to find for the average guitarist, but for a teacher who knows his/ her stuff it is easier to come by, and you are the one that benefits from this
2) Learning through Video/ Tabs online – This is what a surprisingly large amount of not only guitarists do, but musicians in general, and can be a great way to get a whole load of different lessons in the comfort of your own home. With the introduction of sites like Youtube and  and handfull of other video sites, and the massive amount of guitar tab sites online, there is no end to what you can learn. Best of all, you can also be the teacher yourself if you choose to! The advantages of this way are:
  • Learning Any Style – You no longer have to find a separate teacher to teach you different styles. If you want to play Rock one day and suddenly feel like learning Jazz or a Bossa Nova (you never know) then you can do it as fast as your computer will let you. There are also dedicated sites out there to teach you different styles online, so it’s like still having a one on one teacher but online.
  • Learning At Any Time – This speaks for itself, but if you chose to learn a song at 4am it’s possible, and with headphones there’s no reason for not rocking out at the wee hours of the morning!
  • Learning Wherever and Whenever Suits You – You can be on any computer, anywhere in the world and get a guitar lesson. I doubt your guitar teacher would travel with you:)
3) Learning by Ear – This is a great way to train your ear to hear certain notes, and can be a real advantage when improvising. Simply put on a CD or some form of music (put your ipod on and play along), and follow as closely as you can. If you’re feeling adventurous put on an instrumental piece and try and play harmonies – this will make you a better player in no time! The advantages are:
  • Ear Training – This is one of the best ways to train your ears, and it makes sense – train your ears by using them. If you don’t just rely on tabs and use this skill aswell, you’ll find yourself being less restricted and being able to learn most pieces.
  • Improvisational Skills – Learning by ear is a great way to learn how to play guitar solos, and any music for that matter. One thing it teaches is improvisation, and it will force you to know the guitar neck and memorise notes (even just by sounds) which will open you up to great improvisation when you need it.
  • Creativity Boost – Adding to the first two, creativity is an added benefit when learning by ear and can be a great way to start writing your own music. I know personally the times when i would spend days on end playing along with my favourite CD’s were  the most productive in terms of writing my own songs.
So there you have it. I have done all three for different reasons and at different times, and would suggest you do the same to get and overall perspective on the guitar. Remember, you need flawless technique, timing, and to be your creative self if you want to master the guitar, and when learning how to play guitar solos especially.

Technorati Tags: , , ,