Ten Tips to Become a Better Player
from GuitarTrader.com Newsletter
http://www.guitartrader.com/

1. Practice every day, even if it's only 5 or 10 minutes. A day when you don't play is a lost day.
2. Play music that is challenging, but don't play material that is way beyond your ability.
3. If your fingers start hurting or aching, you are probably on to something. Keep playing until your whole hand aches. (Besides, this makes your blues solos much more authentic.)
4. Scales can be boring and dull, but they are essential to being able to improvise and perform solos. Learn new scales and memorize them as templates for future solos.
5. Don't spend so much time playing around with effects or your amplifier that you ignore the actual guitar.
6. Keep excited about playing by playing when you want to (although make it happen daily). You will learn better when you feel like playing. Grab the guitar when the mood hits you.
7. Don't always play in the same place or time. Not only does playing up on your roof look cool, it also can trigger some new creativity. Different room acoustics do the same thing.
8. Change your strings routinely, to make sure that what you are hearing is really what you are playing. Don't let faulty gear make you think that you aren't making progress.
9. If you find yourself getting bored, try a style of music that you don't usually play. Every genre has something that you can use in your own music.
10. Your guitar doesn't care what kind of day you had, how you never have time to play, or how you just can't seem to get that part. So stop telling the guitar about all of that, and play until the only noise is music

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