|
I've been playing for 12 years now.. wow.. I seriously had not thought about it. My BEST advice having done this the hard way, *in no particular order:
1 - Keep your guitar in tune (*seems obvious, but you'd be surprised)
2- You dont necessarily have to learn music, but you do need to learn scales.
3- Practice playing by ear, minimize playing with tablature, play along w/ records, cds, the radio, etc. -- even if you arent even close at first, you will eventually start picking up on it. (*especially if you already know scales)
4 - Set aside time everyday to practice scales and/or licks or whatever you need to get your chops up with.
5 - Practice playing with a metronome
6- Go find this video by John Petrucci
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/John-Petrucci-Rock-Discipline/dp/B00006L57W[/ame]
That video is great, and it teaches you some excellent practice techniques and exercises. Its still expensive, but trust me it is worth it, and if you lay down the foundation properly starting now, you will be much much better in a far shorter length of time.
Also, alot of guys get all bent out of shape about their equipment at a certain point. You will too, remember this though:
If a guitar sounds beautiful unplugged it can sound beautiful plugged in. If it sounds like shit unplugged, it will never sound beautiful plugged in.
You can fix crappy electronics, but not crappy materials and worksmanship.
|