Best Guitar Tips For 2023

This article comes from Shawn Leonhardt from Guitar Tricks and 30 Day Singer!

And here we are as time keeps marching along, the meter of 12 months has passed and once again we are on the New Year down beat! Now is the time where we can reset and look at the bigger picture and set some new goals with our guitar lessons. In this case, we will look at ideas that will keep us playing and sticking to our guitar goals this year. Here are the best guitar tips for 2023!

Practice Ear Training

Practice is the most obvious answer to being a better guitarist; any musician at all builds their skill with proper practice. However, not all playing time is created equal; you need to take better approaches to how you practice. It may be 2023, but practice and party like it’s 1899. You have all these technologies and resources, put them aside at times!

In the old days you learned a song by listening and copying what you heard. It can be difficult, tedious, and frustrating beyond belief to work on ear training, but it is one of the best ways to practice. It’s okay to eventually check your work and further investigate the song, but initially, just use your ears. Figure out the notes, lengths, times, and even the effects pedals and the tuning (without a guitar tuner) that may be used in the music you want to learn.

Challenge Yourself with Music Theory

Another memory lane to stay on is the time when music was taught in schools on a more regular basis. Since streaming platforms arrived, some songs have less tone, harmony, key changes, and just different direction. That’s not to say all music today is bad; it’s just the algorithms are terrible at creativity. Knowing the foundation and rules to a game will allow you to take a unique approach.

After training your ear, check and see if you are right, and while you’re at it, see why the song sounds that way. There are many ways to study music theory, and the easiest is to just take a closer look at your songs. What guitar chords and progressions are being played? Which techniques have been inspired by other instruments? Why does the guitar pedal have that effect? Music theory has various creative and scientific paths; take a stroll on one.

Slow Down

Regardless of the genre or music style, there are often a few mistakes that everyone seems to make. Besides not practicing correctly, they also tend to move too fast into a new technique, riff, or solo. That’s one benefit of learning by ear; sometimes you move too slow, but this helps in the long run.

To learn how to play guitar, your brain, arms, and fingers all need to coordinate and to get there, it needs slow repetitive movements. Even if you naturally have a talent for guitar, you still need to hone that skill or you eventually develop far too many bad habits. We all have our foibles and common mistakes, but if we usually slow down we will develop better playing habits.

Try New Time Signatures and Grooves

A lot of pop, funk, rock, metal, and more are often in 4/4 so expand your rhythms into new time signatures and even polyrhythms. Listen to and play music that has different vibes to it. This will require a little study of bass and drums. If you are lucky enough to play with other band members, take more of a focus on what the others are doing, like the other tips on this list, this gives us a bigger picture view.

New rhythms and grooves are also great to practice guitar scales, chords, chord progressions and even to get new song ideas over. One of the best guitar practice tips is to play a drum loop, drum app, or any backing groove and just jam along with it. Try weird times and meters when possible. Just get a feel for other genres and moods.

Play New Genres

Besides new rhythms, we also want to push ourselves into new musical styles, sometimes ones we may not like that much! Look into different music cultures and eras to find new and interesting ideas. You may have to search a little more online or even get a record player, something that will allow you to hear music that may not be popular or pushed on a regular basis. If you want to get weird like Frank Zappa, then check out Slonimsky’s Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns!

But you can stick to new genres with easy guitar songs. Even if these new songs or styles are not guitar-centric, you can attempt to adapt them! Boogie woogie piano rhythms were adapted to the guitar and helped make it the backbone of rock music. A lot of guitar students out there are playing very similar music now, expand your song knowledge and it will give you a boost in your overall playing!

Play New Instruments

So technically, this one is not a tip on how to play the guitar better in 2023, or is it? Get a cheap second-hand keyboard, as it helps wonders with music theory. Sit down at a drum kit and play a proper 2 and 4 backbeat or learn some bass lines. Pick up a ukulele, mandolin, banjo, or wail on the sax, it doesn’t matter as long as it is musical in nature. A harmonica goes great with a guitar!

Playing new instruments also applies to different guitar styles and bodies. Notice on a 12-string how larger the fretboard is? And of course the action of an electric feels awesome after playing an acoustic for a while! New guitars and instruments are also excellent for helping with creativity and inspiration, sometimes that different sound will be a spark or even a bolt of lightning that makes a new song.

So there you have the best guitar tips for 2023, and honestly, they will work just as well for any past years if you happen to discover a time machine! It’s all about spending more time studying the instrument, music, and making sure that the time is productive and leading to expanded skills. Remember, if something doesn’t seem to be working after a while when playing guitar, try a new approach and see what changes!

Published on February 20, 2023