If you want to improve as a guitar player, practice, practice, practice! In case you are finding it difficult to play at faster tempos or hold a barre chord, then again the fastest way to improve is to practice. Take time to think through your guitar playing routine, analyse where you are going wrong, and come up with ways to fix it.
Everyday Guitar Exercises You Can do to Improve Your Guitar Playing
Given here are five easy guitar exercises you can do on a daily basis.
Do Warm-Up Exercises
Every session of practice must begin with some fundamental warm-up exercises as this prepares you physically for playing the guitar. Over time warm-up exercises also help enhance your technique in both your strumming hand and your fretting hand. The first warm-up exercise is to play the first four notes of every string starting on the low E. Do so while keeping an eye on your technique in order that each note clearly rings out.
A second warm-up exercise is to play the frets 1 to 4 on the sixth string. Follow this up by playing the next 4 notes being frets 5-8 on the next string. Continue playing all the way up till you hit the twelfth fret on the fourth string. Now work your way back down. In both warm-up exercises make sure to use a metronome. To get the most out of these exercises, play them both ascending and descending. And while it may seem challenging at first, it will improve your general finger technique.
Chord Shapes Need to be Practiced
All beginners need to practice their chord shapes. While it might feel awkward initially to play a C chord if you are unfamiliar with the guitar, with practice things get much easier. If you have advanced a bit more with your guitar playing, it is important to practice barre chords. Start with the barre chord that you need practice with and break it down. Remove the barre in order that you can play it without causing stress to your fingers.
Once you get it right, add the barre and now see if your strumming is clear or not. You can move the chords around and use a backing track from a station to play along. All the while make sure to use a metronome to keep time. Know that the fundamentals of rhythm is the basis of all music. By practising chords, you practice rhythm.
Practice Trill Drills
You perform a trill when you hammer on a note and pull it off in quick succession. The sound produced when doing so is called trilling. This exercise is excellent for practising your hammer-ons and pull-offs. It is also a superb workout for your fingers.
Your focus should be on your fretting hand position in order that you can dependably trill using enough power to hit the strings. All you need to do is remember that you must stay relaxed, making sure that string is in constant motion as it is what keeps the sound alive.
Practice Spider Fingers
Spider Fingers is a good exercise that is a workout for all 4 of your fretting fingers. The fundamental rule is to place one finger on every fret. This means that you should keep your first finger on fret one, your second finger on fret two, your third finger on fret three and so on. With each finger aligned to their fret, now all you have to do is play the notes down and up the fretboard. This is also a warm-up exercise like the ones mentioned above.
It is all about practising the basics of guitar playing. Doing this a lot will greatly enhance your accuracy while playing the guitar especially if you play different tempos and varied combination notes.
End Your Practice Routine With a Song
Playing songs on your guitar will probably be the most rewarding experience for you if you are a beginner. Therefore, it is very important that you incorporate playing a song into your daily practice routine. This will enable you to actually make music and will also keep you inspired to practice regularly. More so because just practising chords, scales and other music theory can get boring. Playing a song is a fantastic way to add fun to your practice routine.
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