Game-changing practice tricks for guitarists

[UKPete24]

For me: 10 minutes of slow, perfect alternate picking every day. Went from sloppy to clean in weeks.

[GearNerd]

Pick one chord and make yourself play it for a long time, at least 15 minutes. Set a timer. You can play other stuff around it, but keep that chord going. Play a lick and go back to the chord, then play another lick.. You can use different voicings of the chord, but keep the chord humming. If you're getting bored, that means what you're playing is boring, so look for new ideas. Usually what happens is you get extremely bored and frustrated after just a few minutes. But if you can push through that, you will discover some new ideas. When you're done, you will have a lot of expertise about that chord. You will know new ways to play it and you will have a library of other tricks and ornaments that go with it.

[StudioPro]

Practicing scales with strict alternate picking and strict left hand positions. More probably was just consistent, intentional practice.

[MetalPlayer]

Consistency, playing every single day with a plan of what I was working on was my greatest advancement. Sitting down and goofing around got me plateaued a lot.

[MetalPlayer]

Using drums instead of a metronome. Seriously, if you're someone trying to force getting a groove from a metronome and never quite feeling right with it, try a drum loop on your phone. Our brains are already wired to hear the beat from drums because that's the structure of most of the music we hear, so work with it instead of trying to train it to recognize something new that also won't be there most times in a performance situation. Shit I use my RC-10R to practice fiddle tunes and we don't even really *do* drums in bluegrass. It still just works.

[BluesGuy]

It’s so annoying and I still hate using it but practicing with a metronome really works. It especially helps with learning faster licks. Getting it on time slow first really helps.