While almost anyone can learn how to play a few chords or songs on the guitar, if you’re wanting to become a proficient guitar player, either as a dream of making your own music or as a way to just get some of your creativity out, there are a few things that you’ll need to have to pass this threshold.
To help you see just what these things are, here are three things you’ll need to become a proficient guitar player.
A Way To Learn From Yourself
Although you might be able to tell how you’re progressing as a guitar player by how your playing feels to you and what you think you’re hearing while you play, the best way to really see what’s going on with your playing is to really learn from yourself by recording yourself.
If you have a phone, laptop, tablet, or other way to record yourself while you’re playing, set this up the next time you’re practicing or playing some of the songs you’ve been learning. Then, watch those recordings back. By doing this, you’ll be able to see exactly what you look like and sound like when you’re playing the guitar. This can help you see where you might need to improve or practice a bit more.
Consistent Practice
While any practice is going to be better than no practice, what you really need to get proficient at playing the guitar is consistent practice.
Ideally, you should be practicing everyday for as long of a period of time as you can. But even if you can only get twenty or forty minutes of solid practice in each day, that’s going to be better for your proficiency than practicing just once a week for a few hours at a time. By making this a habit that you work on everyday, you’ll see much more progress and learn how to be proficient at a much quicker pace.
A Good Ear
Another thing you’ll have to have in order to become a proficient guitar player is a good ear. With a good ear, you can learn how to do things like tune your guitar by ear rather than using an electric guitar tuner, which often can’t get your guitar perfectly tuned. But if you can learn to do this by ear, you can always ensure that your guitar is in tune for what you’re playing.
Also, if you work on your ear and your ability to hear songs, you can start to play by ear and grow your repertoire of songs more easily, which can give you a lot of practice and make you more confident in your guitar playing.
If your goal is to become a more proficient guitar player, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you get to this point.
