99 Ways To Play Better (And Sound Better) Right Now
Up your guitar game with these 99 tips from cats who know their stuff.

Here at GP, we figure that if youâre going to expand and maximize your talents, you may as well learn from the best. So we offer these 99 tips from cats who know their stuffâfrom rock royalty to jazz patriarchs to any-and-all, top-of-their-game bad asses. Hopefully, youâll find something in these cosmic, practical, and musical nuggets of wisdom that will kick that rut-raddled mind of yours into higher gears of inspiration.
If youâre locked away in a basement for eight hours a day with a metronome and a torturous practice book that is equal parts Mel Bay/Guantanamo Bay, youâre still not assured of transcendent 6-string skills. Sure, you may get stenographer-like dexterity and harmonic book-smarts up the f-hole, but playing soul-shaking music often requires a more diverse skill set. But this doesnât mean that attaining the level of expression produced by someone like Jeff Beck necessitates a life of guitar monk-dom. First, donât worry about the transcendent and unattainable talent of Jeff Beck. Thatâs just silly. What you need to do is ensure that whatever you play makes the hair on your arms stand up and quiver with bliss and excitement.
1. Renew!
âMoving into uncharted territory is a key ingredient to making your practice sessions a success. Playing the same stuff over and over will only take you so far. Introduce a new set of chord voicings, tunings, or scale patterns to your routine every week. Itâs not necessary to know how to implement the stuff right away, just make your fingers go to new places, and let the musicality follow naturally.â âJoe Satriani
2. Sing, Sing, Sing
âBefore you play a solo phrase, sing it first. Then youâll know if itâs going to be effective or not. And if you start to sing a line, and find you have to gasp for breathâwell, youâve overextended yourself.â âRonnie Montrose
3. Beat on the Brat
âHereâs an unconventional technique for building your rhythmic chops and expanding your ideas about inventing phrases for solosâand it involves zero notes! Mute the strings with your fretting hand. Now, forget about that hand completely, and start a groove with your right hand by scratching a beat on the muted strings. The minute you start getting bored, challenge yourself to come up with a variety of rhythmic phrasesâboth busy and sparse. Think of the exercise as a drum solo that maintains the groove, and try to keep going for five minutes or more.â âBob Brozman
4. Use Dynamics
âTo work on picking dynamics, plug into a practice amp and turn your guitar all the way up. Then play arpeggiosâvery quietly at the beginning, and then gradually louder by adjusting your touch. The goal is to vary your dynamics, but not change the position of your hands. Many guitarists change the way they hold their hands when changing dynamics. As a result, they end up with a âlight-touchâ group of licksâthe very fast stuffâbut they donât develop any power. What you want to achieve is continually making those conversions back and forth from quiet to loud picking.â âJerry Garcia
5. Unmask Your Sound
âTry cutting back on the effects in your setup. It may help you to better discover the music.â âBill Kirchen
6. Mess With Your Head
âTry to keep your playing as fresh as possible, and not rely on set patterns. When I practice, for example, I often tie off some strings with rubber bands to force myself to look at the fretboard differently. I might practice on the G and D strings only, or even the G and A strings.â âJim Hall
7. Try Room Miking
âThereâs a very old recording maxim that goes, âDistance makes depth.â Iâve used that a hell of a lotâwhether itâs tracking guitars or the whole band. People are used to close-miking amps, but Iâd have a mic out around the back, as well, and then balance the two. Also, you shouldnât have to use EQ in the studio if the instruments sound right. You should be able to get the right tones simply with the science of microphone placement.â âJimmy Page
8. Relax
âThe most important thing to remember when youâre attempting to increase your speed is to relax. Donât push your muscles beyond what they can give. Practice for about a half hour, and then take a break. You can always resume after a few minutes. This is especially important when youâre trying to get seriously twisted patterns under your fingers. I used to sit in front of the TV when I was a kid, and alternate-pick scales very lightly. I wasnât really paying attention, and it actually helped that I wasnât concentrating so much, because I stayed relaxed, and yet I was able to build up my technique and stamina. But never keep playing if you start to feel pain. Ever. Tendonitis is no joke.â âSteve Lukather
9. Get Sensitive
âIf youâre in a rut with your electric playing, pick up an acoustic. Thereâs something about playing the acoustic guitar that makes you think about songs. And if you work up solo versions of your favorite pop tunes, youâll become more aware of how bass lines and harmony fit together. Then, when you go back to electric, those discoveries will help you play more empathetic solos.â âBuck Dharma
10. Get High
âWherever your guitar is when youâre sitting and practicing is where it should be when youâre standing. I discovered this the hard way. Years ago, Iâd practice my solos sitting downâand Iâd nail themâonly to go to rehearsal and blow it because my right- and left-hand positioning was completely different when I stood up. Now, most players think it looks uncool to wear your guitar up high, but I think itâs cooler to sound kick ass than it is to look cool and suck! Zakk Wylde slings his Les Paul really low, but as soon as a solo comes up, heâll put his foot on a stage monitor to raise his guitar up. Hell, Tom Morello wears his guitar so high that he says it sometimes hits him in the chin. So, for the sake of killer guitar playing, raise âem up!â âRusty Cooley
11. Expand
âLearn everything you know in all keys.â âJoe Pass
12. Move On
âDonât be precious about anythingâmuch less a certain guitar sound. There is always another interesting sound or effect just waiting to be discovered.â âRobin Guthrie
13. Play Loud
âStart playing loud when youâre young, and youâll be one step ahead of the game. If you start off playing soft, it will get you into a lot of bad habits. Terrible, terrible, habits. Look at these jazz people. Of course they play soft. Itâs a trick so you canât hear them.ââNigel Tufnel
14. Slide Right
âPlay slide to records to develop accurate intonation. I prefer early Ricky Skaggs albums, because they are full of simple progressions with different grooves in different keys. You donât want to worry about exotic chords or tricky changes. Stay focused on I-IV-V progressions, and learn how to play through the changes without moving around the neck. You donât always want to start with the I chord, move up five frets to the IV, and then two more frets for the V.ââWill Ray
15. Be Challenged
âPlay with others who are more advanced musically. They will help you rise to their level.ââBill Kirchen
16. Cork Your Slide
âIf you find a slide that sounds great, but is too big for your finger, try cutting a few strips from a wine bottle cork, and gluing them to the inside of the slide. A snug-fitting slide will improve your playing immensely.â âChris Mule
17. Dig Deeper
âSeek out talented, but lesser known artists from the past and present. Some of the coolest jewels life can offer are found on dusty back roads, miles from the main corporate boulevards of life. And when you find an artist you love, find out who they love.ââGreg V.
18. Appreciate Art
âIn the long run, itâs more important to look at paintings than to listen to the way somebody plays bebop lines.ââJim Hall
19. Think Literally
âThink of a guitar solo as a paragraph. You need a clear beginning, a middle, and an end. Look at musical phrases like sentences, and make sure you break them up using punctuationâor space. You pause naturally when conversing, right? If you donât, youâll bore the listener. The same thing will happen with your audience if your solo is one dimensional. Youâll wear them out and lose their attention.â âTom Principato
20. Get the Bends
âOne of the most useful exercises Iâve come across was on a Larry Carlton instructional video. Larry would play a major scale in fifth position, going up one octave, from the third string to the first string. He then proceeded to do the same scale, but heâd bend the majority of it. The best part of this exercise is that you do it the same way in reverse. This way, you learn to bend up in pitch, but also pre-bend and descend in pitch. The major scale is a wonderful reference for articulating and intonating your bends, because pretty much everyone can hear its intervals clearly, and will know if theyâre sharp or flat. Itâs a demanding exercise, and yet its kind of pretty.
âThen, practice Beatles songs, standards, and folk songs by using bends to play the melody, rather than traditional fingering. This is a very demanding and rewarding musical exercise that will teach you more than, say, approximating the solo of âLittle Wing.ââ âJim Campilongo
21. Love You Less
âListen more to the other players on the bandstand than you do to yourself.ââBill Kirchen
22. Get Ear Training
âFor some basic ear training, play any note on your guitar. In this case, letâs say itâs an A. Then pick an interval out of the airâsay a perfect fifth, E. Now, try to sing the E note, and then play the same note on your instrument. See how close you came. Donât play the interval before you try to sing it. Then youâre only imitating, not ear training. Force your brain to seek out and determine the interval youâve chosen. Start off easy with octaves, perfect fifths, major and minor thirds, and then move on to more difficult major sixths, sevenths, seconds, flat fifths, and so on.â âRik Emmett
23. Screw Up
âDonât worry about a bit of slop. Instead, put truth in every note. Music isnât about playing with absolute perfectionâitâs the intense and soulful commitment to the note.ââGreg V.
24. Seek Truth
âDonât listen to unimaginative naysayers when it comes to personal creative expression. At some point, there will no doubt emerge a conflict between the rules of instrumental mastery, and the need to follow oneâs own intuition. Be strong! The only so-called advancements in artâforget about commerceâhave come about when someone has either boldly modified or completely disregarded the norm. Those who deviate must stay true to themselves.â âNels Cline
25. Get Evocative
âWhat is it exactly that moves you when you hear a guitarist you love? I think itâs the relation between the playerâs emotional feeling and their muscle action on the guitar. To connect with this idea, first experiment with the full range of your muscle power, trying to play the same riff with an angry feel, a tender feel, and everything in between. Then, take a song you know, and try to increase the sonic contrast from verse to chorus, or section to section. Use this range of sound to better sculpt the landscape of the song.â âBob Brozman
26. Try Being Quieter
âExperiment with not being the loudest thing on stage.ââBill Kirchen
27. Read More
âSpend at least 15 minutes per Guitar Player magazine learning something from a GP lesson. Some of the concepts Iâve learned by doing this have stuck with me for years!â âDave Wronski
28. Get Bluesy
âStudy jazz soloing using the 12-bar blues form. Most players want to start playing long bebop lines from the start, but the simpler the melodic material is, the sooner you begin to develop a sense of phrasing. In turn, this will give you greater soloing freedom, because youâll have a larger rhythmic vocabulary at your disposal.â âLenny Breau
29. Wrap it Up
âRemember that the reputations of some of the greatest jazzmen ever are built on eight-bar solos. Too many guitarists play solos that are way too long.â âJim Hall
30. Do for Others
âRecording your own music is one thing, but having to deliver something for somebody else is entirely different. Session work makes you more critical about your playing. You canât hit notes all over the place, youâve got to make each note count, and if you canât play really clean, it all sounds like a mess. You may think you sound fabulous onstage, but when you hear yourself played back in the studio, itâs just disastrous most of the time. But if you can play well in the studio, you can play well onstage.â âRitchie Blackmore
31. Find You
âA good way to crave your individuality is to get a tape recorder and get into a room thatâs kind of darkâwhere you donât have interruptionsâand then just play with a rhythm machine. After a while, itâs like a deck of cards on the table, and you can begin to see the riffs that came from this guy, the riffs that came from that guy, and then the two or three riffs that are yours. Then you start concentrating on your riffs until you develop an individual sound.â âCarlos Santana
32. Mix It Up
âTreat each guitar trackâand each songâcompletely different. For example, if Iâm using a certain amp and guitar on one track, Iâll deliberately use something else for the next tune or overdub.â âKeith Richards
33. Balance Your Pickups
âTo balance your pickups, plug your guitar into something with level meters, such as a 4-track recorder. Play each string individually, and adjust the pickup height until the level of each string hits the same point on the meters. Typically, youâll have to lower the bass side of the pickup. If your guitarâs overall output is quieter than what you had, simply turn up your amp to compensate. The benefit here is string-to-string clarity.â âDave Wronski
34. Cut Back
âSometimes that massive, high-gain, mid-cut, huge bass tone can sound about two inches tall in a concert setting. The guitarâs voice is in the midrange, so try adding some midrange and cutting the bass. For even more punch, attack, and clarity, cut your gain and distortion levels. Too much gain can be counterproductive, as it compresses your tone and kills dynamics.â âGreg V.
35. Shift Priorities
âPlay what you would like to hear, rather than what you would like to play.â âBill Kirchen
36. Try Rhythmic Soloing
âIf the band is playing in 7/4 time, try to play in 4/4. When you do that sort of thing, you begin to notice certain ways in which the two rhythms synchronize over a long period of time. Thinking in these long lengths, you automatically start to develop rhythmic ideas that have a way of interconnecting.â âJerry Garcia
37. Grease Up
âWant to make a solo greasy? Start on the âandâ of one.ââDave Wronski
38. Get Funky
âForget about the fancy chords, and just concentrate on a funky beat.â âJohn Lee Hooker
39. Lighten Up the FX
âItâs best if people donât notice effects that much. If you overdo it, and everybody realizes youâre using a phaser, then youâre on the wrong track already. Youâve got to use those things with a certain degree of subtlety.â âKeith Richards
40. Get Your Rhythm Chops Together
âTo become a better rhythm player, you must listen to the drummer. Iâd also advise that you listen to the masters of rhythm guitar. The work that Steve Cropper did on the Stax records is the definitive document of how to play songs and accompaniment parts. Also listen to Chuck Berry. His rhythm playing is so intense that he can go out and perform with bands he has never seen or heard before and hold them together like glue.ââDanny Kortchmar
41. Go Big
âUse big strings. I like a set with a .013 E string, but Iâve gone as high as a .018-.074 set. Theyâll eat your hands, your tuning pegs, and your amp, but they sound great.â âStevie Ray Vaughan
42. Try Moderation
âOver-indulgence in anything is wrongâwhether itâs practicing 50 hours a day, or eating too much food. Thereâs a balance with me, as there should be with everything and everybody. Iâve tried to keep it so that Iâm able to execute the ideas that come out, but practicing too much depresses me. I get good speed, but then I start playing nonsense because Iâm not thinking. A good layoff makes me think a lot. It helps me get both things togetherâthe creativity and the speed.â âJeff Beck
43. Play, Donât Worry
âDonât spend more time worrying about what it is youâre supposed to be doing, rather than just doing the work. Once I was stuck while trying to write some new music, and I asked my friend Wayne Horvitz how he did it. He gave me a pencil sharpener. The moral? There are no short cuts, so stop whining and get on with it!â âBill Frisell
44. Move in Stereo
âTry using two amps and some stereo effects to get a bigger sound onstage. A ping-pong delay sounds huge when you stand between both amps, and any type of stereo chorus, flanger, phaser, or, in my case, a Leslie simulator, creates the illusion of an even wider sound. Panning your signal from side-to-side is a cool effect. I do it using a stereo Ernie Ball volume pedal. I like the amps to be almost identical, while othersâincluding Stevie Ray Vaughanâprefer two amps that have different sounds that compensate for each other. Finally, itâs important to understand that unless both of your amps are miked, and panned left and right in the house, nobody except you will hear the stereo effect.â âOz Noy
45. Be a Sponge
âListening is just as important as practicing. Your ears are your greatest assets, and they work on a subconscious level. You should steal from as many different guitarists as possible, as opposed to picking one and trying to emulate that personâs style. Once you have assimilated a number of different approaches, try to blend them into one vision, instead of jumping from one style to another.â âWill Bernard
46. Vibe a Little Vibrato
âStrengthen your vibrato technique by using each finger to play a note and bending it up and down continuously, in half steps. As you move to fingers two, three, and four, remember that all available fingers can help you attain this half-step movement.â âJim Campilongo
47. Alternate Pick
âA good way to work on alternate picking is to choose three or four notes, and work on those. Too often, players who are trying to improve their right hand dexterity get hung up by trying to play too many notes with the left hand. I hear a lot of players running whole scales from the sixth string to the first, and playing them really sloppy. Keeping it very basicâusing only a few notesâand playing slowly with perfect rhythm is a task in itself.â âAl DiMeola
48. Ignore the Obvious
âWhen youâre comping behind a vocalist or soloist, donât always play the root of the chord on the low stringsâespecially if thereâs a bassist on the gig. Sometimes the third and the seventh of the chord is all you need if the bass player is playing the root. It will still sound full, and the sound wonât be muddy.ââTal Farlow
49. Use Stage Smarts
âA good band is not all about playing your instruments. You have to work on your stage sound, too, so that you sound good out front. For the guitarist, that means not being so loud. Now, I love loud, but I soon realized that if I turned down, there would be more separation between the instruments, and people would actually hear me better.ââPeter Frampton
50. Get Down
âFor heavy rhythm, it has to be downpicking. Itâs absolutely key. Itâs tighter sounding, and a lot chunkier.â âJames Hetfield
51. Stay Hot
âKeep your guitar out of the case and handy. Practice short periodsâanywhere from five to 45 minutesâmany times throughout the day, rather than for one prolonged period. Often times, five minutes is enough time to work on a technique or musical passage. The whole idea of practice is to get your reflexes working like a gunfighterâs, so you can pull out that gun and be instantly hot.ââBarney Kessel
52. Get Classical
âWhen playing while sitting, rest the guitar on your left legâjust like classical-guitar legend AndrĂ©s Segovia. This way, the guitar will be in the same position as when you stand. You can even get yourself one of those little foot stands to really anchor the guitar to your body when playing aggressive music.ââDave Wronski
53. Use Cruise Control
âFast playing begins with careful and sharply targeted slow playing. You must develop the ability to âhearâ and âthinkâ every note. A fast passage is a rapid succession of musical notesânot the product of a frantic, panic-stricken flapping of the fingers. Begin practicing with scales or patterns, which allow you to concentrate on getting your actions and timing in good shape. Always start slowly and deliberately. Increase speed gradually. Use some form of metronome or drum machine to monitor your work. When you reach a speed at which you can no longer get things right, stop. Any further attempted acceleration will do damage, not good.â âJohn Duarte
54. Donât Peek
âAdjust your ampâs volume and EQ settings by listening, rather than looking at the settings. Simply shut your eyes, and turn the knobs to where the amp sounds best. Iâm consistently surprised when I open my eyes to discover things such as the Bass being nearly full up in one situation, or the Treble on 10 in another.â âCameron Williams
55. Use Teamwork
âWhen you sit in with musicians youâve never played with before, do your thing in a way that compliments their sound. Listen attentively, and make sure that what youâre doing isnât stepping on anyoneâs toes. Play as if you were a member of the unit, and keep your eyes open to allow for good communication.â âDan Lebowitz
56. Get in Touch
âTone has more to do with touch than gear, and the most important thing is dampening anywhere youâre not playing. Dampening can be done underneath your fretting fingers or thumb, or with the outside of your strumming-hand palm or thumb. Also, the way your finger makes contact with the frets makes a big difference. You need to learn the sweet spots on your guitar like a violin player would.â âEric Johnson
57. Improvise
âDuring improvisation, a soloist should be influenced by the other musicians, and vice versa. The Miles Davis Quintet was a great example. As soon as the soloist paused, a band member would play something that would influence the soloâs direction from that point forward. This happened at every turn, so by the time the solo had finished, it would be completely different than if the soloist had played with nothing to respond to. The best improvisations come about this way. Equally important is how you respond to your tone. For example, if you are playing with a sound that doesnât sustain much, then itâs futile to play long notes. The low strings tend to sound better with a thinner tone, and high strings with a thicker toneâwhich is why good guitarists continually change their settings on their toggle switch, volume, and tone controls throughout their solos.â âWarren Haynes
58. Use the Pinkie
âUse your pinkie! When I first started playing, an older country musician told me to keep practicing with my left-hand pinkieâeven though it felt awkwardâuntil it was second nature. That was the best advice I ever got. You were born with five fingersâdonât forget to use âem all!â âDeke Dickerson
59. Think Different
âThe ability to differentiate your playing while maintaining a support role in your band is crucial. Louder doesnât necessarily mean better. I try to find a strong niche in each partâeither by technique, or by finding an uninhabited frequency range. I sometimes distill ideas into a lean riff, rhythm, or melodic phrase that sits right in with the drums. Conversely, agile flourishes can make a skull-crushing riff seem nastier if you break from the pack. A fat, signature guitar tone is something we all chase after, but whether playing ensemble or stepping out front, choosing a complimentary or contrasting sound can get your point across, add structure, and make the song richer.â âChuck Garvey
60. Damp Those Strings
âLearn to damp notes to control feedback and noise when playing slide at high volumes. Many people play slide with a pick, and then use the heel of the hand or something to control the sound. The style I got from Duane Allman is to use the thumb and the first two fingers without a pick. If you have glass or steel on your left hand, and a plastic pick in your right, you are completely isolated from your instrument. What you have to learn to do is to strike a note, then stop the note with the fingers before you strike another one, so only one note sounds at a time. It works kind of like a damper pedal on a piano.â âDickey Betts
61. Embrace History
âThe greatest musicians are knowledgeable about musicâs roots. Experience provides authenticity for the music we create. Eric Clapton and Keith Richards can teach you a mess of blues, but itâs good to find out about the original artists whose tunes they covered, such as Robert Johnson. Itâs like the old saying: âHow can you know where you are going, if you donât understand where youâve been?ââ âMarty Stuart
62. Use Circle Picking
âUse circle picking to play faster. Itâs an old jazz technique. Start by playing with your pick at an angle. Hit the string with one edge of the pick, and youâll find that youâre in position to come back on the upstroke with the opposite edge. Then, alternate pick with a rotating motion in either a clockwise or counterclockwise circle. The pick, while not changing its angle in relation to the string, is circling that area of the string. Itâs not done with the wrist, but with the fingers holding the pick. When first learning, start with a large circle, just to get the feeling. After a while, you should be able to get two or three notes going so fast that itâs like a quiver. The reason itâs faster is because your picking motion is not interrupted for a change in direction. The circle also gives the notes a flowing quality.ââRoy Buchanan
63. Try a Little Compression
âUsing compression is one of the best ways to get a consistently good tone. It makes the guitar feel electric and alive in your hands, because the notes sustain, rather than die on the vine as soon as you play them. Any stompbox compressor will do. I always place the compressor at the beginning of the signal chain, before going into the amp. Setting all the dials at 12 oâclock is a good starting point because it should give you a lot of extra sustain and a little bit of breathiness without affecting your basic tone much.ââAdrian Belew
64. Hang In There
âIt takes time to develop every aspect of your technique. A lot of people donât realize the crises youâve got to go through. I used to get headaches when I started doing the octave thing, but, over time, I was fine. All it takes is to hear a little improvement in your playing, and that little bit of inspiration is often enough to push you even further.â âWes Montgomery
65. Work on Delay Levels
âWhen youâre mixing a tune and adding delay to a solo, adjust the effect level to match what you played. The right amount of delay for a slow passage or a high note is going to be different than the amount of delay you want for a fast passage or a low note. For example, a fast passage with a ton of delay sounds like garbage.â âSteve Morse
66. Get Your Picking Together
âTo develop picking technique, start by playing a series of downstrokes on any open string. At the beginning of the attack, stay close to the string, following through just enough to sound the note. Immediately return to the starting point. Now, try the same sequence with upstrokes. Finally, combine movements so that youâre strictly alternating strokes. Still on one string, meticulously practice the following: repeated down-strokes, repeated upstrokes, alternate downstroke and upstrokes, alternate upstrokes and downstrokes. Start slowly and gradually build up speed. Next, try moving to adjacent strings, and then to melodic skips on non-adjacent strings. Finally, apply the technique to alternate chordal picking, or crosspicking. Be sure to use alternate picking, playing downstrokes for notes that are on the beat, and upstrokes for ones that are off the beat. Focus on economizing the hand and finger movement of your picking hand, so that you donât use excessive motion between up- and downstrokes.â âAl DiMeola
67. Find Yourself
âGet in touch with your uniquenessâeven if you donât like it. Once the crushing realization that I wasnât going to be Brian May or Steve Morse hit me, I had to start embracing the things I hated about my style.â âTy Tabor
68. Be Aware
âRemind yourself that youâre free to feel great instead of reserved or insecure. When youâre feeling good, youâre more apt to take chances onstage, and if you make a bunch of mistakes, it wonât matter. Itâs almost like youâre the instrument, and the music is flowing through you like electricity. Like John Coltrane saidâthe paramount aspect of being a musician is to try to get more in touch and in tune with yourself. When you do that, itâs like returning to the center and everything emanates from there. You automatically become a better musician in becoming a more aware individual.â âEric Johnson
69. Loosen Up
âPracticing eighth-note lines with a triplet feel is very helpful for improving oneâs rhythmic feel for jazz. Of course, the best way to get a jazz feel is to play with records or with a group. Itâs something youâve got to inherently feel. A lot of rock players have such a straight-eight feel that they canât play jazz. Theyâre too stiff.â âJoe Pass
70. Get Out
âYou must perform for an audience, because the real crunch happens when you get in front of people. You may discover that some things you played in rehearsal donât make any sense, because you fooled around too much with the frilly stuff and forgot the basic drive of the song. Playing live also teaches you deal with situations like dropping your pick or breaking a string, as well as forcing you to project. You have to direct your playing somewhereâunless you want to sit in a room like a painter who wonât show his paintings to anybody.â âRory Gallagher
71. Make Some Noise
âOnce you get off the beaten path of chords and notes, any noise can be its own microcosm of songwriting. There is a deep library of songs that go from G to C. There is not a deep library of songs that use a toggle switch and a wah pedal. Itâs a wide-open road.â âTom Morello
72. Fiddle Around
âLearn to play fiddle tunes note-for-note. Donât cheat, or play little slurs and things that you have a tendency to do when youâre playing fast. Play the songs slowly at first, until you get the notes even, and keep increasing the speed until you can play them as fast as you want. There are so many notes in fiddle music that youâll really get your technique and coordination down. And the exercises arenât boring, because you are actually playing something.â âRoy Clark
73. Go Big
âIf youâre going to go out of the norm, go all the way. Donât just go out a little bit. If youâre scared to go out there, then stay in the normâjust learn to play really well in 4/4. But if you want to go beyond that, you must in a totally different direction. If you want to count odd meters, theyâre all broken down into groups of twos and threes. And Iâm not just talking about tinier subdivisions. What it amounts to is ritardos [slowing down] and accelerandos [speeding up] inside of a bar, mathematically worked out so that instead of bomp, bomp, bomp, bompâfour beats in a barâyou get other kinds of action, where the time inside of the bar goes faster, goes slower, and goes faster again. But it all comes out on the downbeat of the next bar so you can still tap your foot to it.â âFrank Zappa
74. Find the Groove
âSlowing down our tempos really opened things up for me. Suddenly, the songs had a real groove, instead of always being driving, relentless, and in your face. As a guitarist, that openness allowed more to explore parts that had more funk and feeling.â âAllison Robertson
75. Renew
âPlay a new thing every day. Learning one new passing chord or a note combination will get you moving towards something that will serve you later on. Someday, a song will come along that all of those things will relate to.â âRy Cooder
76. Practice Patience
âTake things real slow so that youâre not making a lot of mistakes right off the bat. Youâll learn faster if you donât have to spend time un-learning the things you screwed up at the beginning.â âBill Frisell
77. Be Strong
âThe enemy of inspiration is self-doubt.â âNels Cline
78. Get Healthy
âMusic is life force expressed in notes and phrases, so the more life force the player has, the more energized the music will sound. Concentrate on your health. Seek a nutritious diet, and drink lots of water every day. The better the quality and balance of food you eat, the less energy your body uses for digestion, and the more energy you have in reserve for your music. For your mental self, clear your mind of unnecessary chatter and negative messages that distract your focus when youâre performing or composing. For your emotional self, address nagging problems. Itâs hard to be honest and deal with things, but youâll feel so much better afterwards, and the less internal stress sapping your energy, the more you can put into music.ââJohn Jorgenson
79. Separate
âTry to separate yourself from what your fingers are doing and listen to the amp.â âSteve Vai
80. Be Consistent
âWhen playing legato, try to make all of the notes come out at a consistent volume. To achieve even more control, practice accenting the notes that arenât picked.â âAllan Holdsworth
81. Commit
âDonât be lazy. You have to want to play, and, most importantly, you have to love the guitar.â âRandy Rhoads
82. Open Up
âSelf analysis can turn you into a selfish player, because itâs like saying, âLook at what I can do.â In popular music, people want to hear the song and the singer, and it should be your job to make sure the song feels great. To do that, you need to feel the song, not intellectualize it. After all, the tone is in your hands, and the attitude is in your heart, and thinking things to death wonât change any of that.â âNeil Giraldo
83. Build Up
âNever forget that dynamics are a big part of the heavy factor in music. The quiet parts that build tension are what trigger a huge release that makes 100,000 kids jump up and down.â âTom Morello
84. Adapt
âTake a note from me, put it with your own notes, and make it you.â âHubert Sumlin
85. Avoid the Obvious
âTry to avoid ordinary licks. If Iâm watching somebody for the chords, I think about the relative minor and the relative minor 7th, and Iâll do away with the root note. I find it interesting changing from minor to major, and, anyway, I always like to steer away from the obvious.â âSteve Howe
86. Absorb
âIncorporate the feel of what someone plays into your style, rather than the actual notes. Then, youâre not judging whether you can play a song as well as the recording, because youâre not trying to duplicate it. You just want to nail the emotion of how an artistâs singing and playing is making you feel, and how those feelings transform your own playing.â âBonnie Raitt
87. Craft
âIn commerce, the musician makes music. In craft, the music makes the musician. The musician of craft acts on principle and moves from intention. In this way, nothing is wasted, and our playing is not accidental. There are ten important principles for the practice of craft: (1) Act from principle; (2) Begin where you are; (3) Define your aim simply, clearly, and briefly; (4) Establish the possible, and move gradually towards the impossible; (5) Honor necessity; (6) Honor sufficiency; (7) Offer no violence; (8) Suffer cheerfully; (9) Work, but not solemnly; (10) Without commitment, all the rules change.â âRobert Fripp
88. Set Limits
âIf you want to keep things raw, try limiting yourself to only two guitars on a track. Once you get into three guitarsâor three of any instrumentâyou might as well put 60 on there.â âJack White
89. Set Solos Free
âI enjoy solo lines that reflect the melody, but subtlely change it in a way that opens up another little window in the song. And these lines should have some freedomâsome spontaneity. They shouldnât be totally planned out.â âBrian May
90. Exercise Restraint
âDonât play every lick you know before the end of the set, because then youâre screwed. Youâll just end up repeating yourself. But itâs a very youthful thing to jamâitâs like sowing wild oats. But as grow older, you become interested in doing something more lasting. You have to settle down and make everything countâmake sure what you do is worthy of being heard again. Iâve become more devoted to the song, and I feel that jamming, unless it has a goal at the end of it, is pretty much a waste of time.â âEric Clapton
91. Mess Up
âPlay sloppy, make mistakes, and let those mistakes lead you to different territories and ideas. Itâs important to take advantage of both the rational control and the irrational uncontrolled.â âHenry Kaiser
92. Let It Ring
âFor an electric guitarist to solo effectively on an acoustic guitar you need to develop tricks to avoid the expectation of sustain that comes from playing electrics. Try cascades, for example. Drop arpeggios over open strings, and let the open strings sing as you pick with your fingers. Itâs kind of a country style of playing, but it works very well in-between heavily strummed parts and fingered lead lines.â âPete Townshend
93. Surrender
âThe best performances are completely unselfconsciousâwhere youâre inside the music, and itâs leading you, and you just follow where it goes. The minute you start to think about how the audience is going to reactâwhether what youâre doing is right, or wrong, or entertaining peopleâyouâre in trouble. All kinds of doubts and insecurities creep in, and you lose the music. Suddenly, the music is no longer this organic, living, breathing thing. It becomes something you try to knock into shape with a set of rules youâve picked up throughout the years. Thinking should be done at an early stage in a musicianâs career. After that, you just let go. And it becomes a blissful experience to play.â âBill Nelson
94. Move On
âWhen youâre recording, if you havenât got the take in three or four tries, then thereâs something wrong with the arrangement. Itâs madness to worry yourself to death listening to 15 takes of the same song.â âDave Davies
95. Think in Colors
âPaint pictures with sound. First, find your whiteâthe deepest, roundest sound you can play on the guitar. Then, find your blackâwhich is the most extreme tonal difference from white you can play. Now, just pick the note where youâve got white, pick it where youâve got black, and then find all those colors in between. Get those colors down, and youâll be able to express almost any emotion on the guitar.â âLes Paul
96. Choose the Right Distortion
âTailor your distortion tones to the material youâre playing. If youâre doing a slower, droning song, try a fuzz-style toneâa sound with some low end that kind of hums. If youâre doing something faster and more crazy, go for a sharp, midrange-heavy tone with a lot of harmonic content. For songs that are in-between those two extreme, any vintage distortion tones usually sound great.â âMick Murphy
97. Use Melodic Delays
âA bit of delay can smooth out the unpleasant, raw frequencies you get from a fuzz box. I have two units, and I have different echo settings on both. There are times when I have both running at the same time for certain effects. During solos, I usually try to set the delays to have some rhythmic time signature in common with the tune. I usually set them to a tripletâthe notes all intertwine, so it doesnât really matter anyway, but I find that a triplet delay is very melodic.â âDavid Gilmour
98. Mach Schau!
âAll music is theatre. All music is expression. So never let the music get in the way of your stage act.â âPete Townshend
99. Trust Your Hands
âYour sound is in your hands as much as anything. Itâs the way you pick, and the way you hold the guitar, more than it is the amp or the guitar you use.â âStevie Ray Vaughan
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Guitar Player is the worldâs most comprehensive, trusted and insightful guitar publication for passionate guitarists and active musicians of all ages. Guitar Player magazine is published 13 times a year in print and digital formats. The magazine was established in 1967 and is the world's oldest guitar magazine. When "Guitar Player Staff" is credited as the author, it's usually because more than one author on the team has created the story.

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