Guitar Playing Tips for January 2010

Welcome to my guitar playing tips for January 2010!

Each month I will be providing you some guitar playing tips that will help you become a better guitar player.  Although the tips may be short, they are very powerful and I strongly encourage you to read them over several times and begin using them.

Lets get started!

Guitar Playing Tip #1 – “Get Rid Of the Death Grip”

Do you find your fretting hand getting tired, cramped up or sore after playing your guitar for a while? If so, one very common cause of this is you are gripping the neck too tight.

By loosening your grip you will be able to perform chord changes much quicker as well as any other singly note changes. Experiment a little with your grip and you will find that most things take very little pressure to execute. Let your thumb gently rest on the back of the neck. Focus on relaxing and breathing while you play.

This will help a lot with eliminating the excessive tension that is causing your hand to hurt.

Guitar Playing Tip #2 – “Visualize Playing the Hard Parts”

Visualization techniques have been used for thousands of years for many different situations. By visualizing yourself doing something, you are, in essence, programming your mind to tell your body what to do before it actually happens.

This is the core principal of “Muscle Memory” in that your mind must be programmed to know exactly what movements your fingers will need to make to play something. Notice I said “your mind” and not “your fingers”.  Train your mind and the fingers will follow.

Guitar Playing Tip #3 – “Own That Thing”

I have noticed drastic improvements in my own playing by just changing my attitude. If I am feeling defeated and like I just can’t play what I want, my playing reflects this attitude. If I have the attitude of “this guitar is mine and what I want to play is within my grasp, I just have to go and get it”, then my playing reflects this attitude.

I notice that I instantly play better, play stronger and am able to do things I wasn’t before when I have this attitude. It’s totally a mental thing. But so is most everything we do in life. Why is it that a start athlete can do so well one day and so bad on another day even thought the circumstances had not changed? Attitude!  The stars that rise to the occasion and “own that thing” just do better. You can do it as well!

Well that’s it for this month!

If you would like to find out how you can take guitar lessons and Vivrette Guitar Academy just contact me here!