You’re not going to quickly improve your guitar playing unless you understand precisely what prevents you from reaching your musical goals. In fact, you might go years without making significant progress until you figure this out. To propel your guitar playing progress forward like a ... Views: 8265
Each month I receive hundreds of emails from guitar players who want to improve their rhythm guitar skills. For many guitarists, it is a struggle to come up with original rhythm guitar riffs that sound good. In most cases, people who are trying to make rhythm guitar ideas of their own simply try ... Views: 7425
Are you feeling less motivation to practice guitar lately? Most likely if you have come to this page, you have felt frustrated more than once with slow progress during your guitar practice sessions. Fortunately, you are not the only guitarist who goes through this. Every guitar player ... Views: 6223
How To Become A Better Guitarist By Studying Yngwie Malmsteen
by Tom Hess
When it comes to the most important guitar players to have ever played, I believe that Yngwie Malmsteen stands out as one of the most highly influential and ‘underrated’ guitarists. In fact, I would even ... Views: 3147
How To Make A Guitar Sing Like Your Favorite Singer
by Tom Hess
If you are like many guitar players, you have felt frustrated when your guitar solos don't sound how you want them to sound. By using the voice of your favorite singer, you can transform your currently "okay" ... Views: 2894
If you have an ‘ethical’ issue with finding the best ways to earn money in your music career, do not read any further. Simply leave the page now.
Now, for those of you who are still with me, let’s talk about improving your music career by making a good living. Fact is, ... Views: 2762
CAUTION: If you are a guitar player currently using the CAGED system…STOP NOW. If you don’t, you will start developing these 7 problems in your guitar playing:
Problem #1: Your Guitar Solos Will Bore People To Death
If you want to play great guitar solos, don’t use the ... Views: 2392
If you are just now getting back into practicing guitar after being away from your instrument for a while, you probably noticed one thing: your guitar playing skills have dropped a lot! Don’t worry, I understand exactly how you feel...several years ago I finished a world tour, and decided ... Views: 2275
Do you lack the improvisational skills needed to be able to come up with great rock guitar solos in the moment? The truth is, many guitar players are in the same situation as you. In fact, most guitarists ‘want’ to be able to play awesome solos, but for some reason only a few actually ‘can’. So ... Views: 2257
Have you just about given up on playing with faster tremolo picking technique? Don’t quit just yet! You are probably making the common error of thinking that faster hand speed leads to faster picking. This is not how it works! Let me tell you why...
A huge amount of guitarists already ... Views: 2218
Top 5 'Conventional' Music Career Approaches That Lead To Failure
By Tom Hess
Are you ready to start building a successful career in music, but uncertain about ‘what’ you need to do? Truth is, before you can become a successful professional musician you need to cleanse your ... Views: 2098
How To Make A LOT More Money As A Guitar Teacher
by Tom Hess
Are you not earning as much money as you would like to teaching guitar? Although most guitar teachers work hard to teach lessons, they do not make very much money from their efforts. As a result, they end up feeling discouraged ... Views: 2064
What do you think separates great guitarists from average guitarists? Hint: It has nothing to with guitar technique or the amount of time your practice each day. In fact, the answer is so simple you have probably overlooked it:
The Secret To Becoming A Great Guitarist
It is commonly ... Views: 2011
How Directional Picking Makes Fast Guitar Playing A Lot Easier
by Tom Hess
As soon as you use efficient picking technique, fast guitar playing begins to feel very easy. Directional picking makes fast guitar playing totally effortless. How? The picking motions used are smaller and quicker ... Views: 1907
How To Increase Musical Creativity On 7 String Guitar
By Tom Hess
What is one way that you are severely limiting your 7 string guitar playing creativity? Answer: You are playing 7 string guitar with exact same approach you use to play 6 string guitar. Many guitarists think that this ... Views: 1900
Transform Boring Arpeggios Into Highly Creative Sweep Picking Guitar Licks
By Tom Hess
Do you want to make your sweep picking licks more creative? Do the following: focus more on creatively applying the arpeggio patterns you already know into music rather than seeking out as many new ... Views: 1835
Think that you have to play highly advanced, technical and lightning fast guitar solos in order to get the attention of your listeners? Think again. The truth is, you can play truly eye-popping guitar phrases that demand the attention of others ‘without’ playing fast… if you know the right ... Views: 1701
How To Become A Better Shred Guitarist (Without Playing Faster)
by Tom Hess
Are you wondering what it takes to play great shred guitar licks? Although it might seem counter-intuitive, playing awesome shred guitar ideas is not all about speed. Fact is, playing cool shred guitar licks that ... Views: 1666
Get Better Results In Your Guitar Teaching By Showing Students How To Practice
by Tom Hess
One of the biggest challenges you can face when teaching guitar is teaching students who never seem to make any progress. Some guitar teachers would simply assume that the student is ‘slow’ or ... Views: 1652
Is sweep picking a technique that you constantly struggle with?
It doesn’t matter how hard sweep picking may SEEM to you right now because I’m
going to show you how easy it can be when you do it right. Furthermore, I’m
going to show you how learning to effectively practice this technique can ... Views: 1594
How To Improve Sloppy Guitar Technique & Make Your Guitar Playing Accurate And Clean
By Tom Hess
Whenever you make a mistake in your guitar playing it’s likely due to poor technique. Poor technique makes your playing sound sloppy and slows down your progress. To fix this, you ... Views: 1563
What do you think is the most important skill your guitar students have to learn from you in order to become excellent musicians as fast as possible? Think it’s guitar soloing? Maybe it’s songwriting? Perhaps it’s aural skills? Or is it improvising?
Here is the answer you ... Views: 1543
How To Become A Massively Successful Guitar Teacher
By Tom Hess
Do you wish you understood what it takes to become successful as a guitar teacher? Fact is, you will find out a lot about becoming successful by studying athletes who compete in the Olympics. For the most part, those who ... Views: 1488
How To Create Cool Exotic Guitar Licks Using Expressive Soloing Techniques
By Tom Hess
Fact: you will never become a more creative lead guitarist by repeating the exact same licks or scales (you can already play by heart) over and over. Instead, you must learn how to play with passion, ... Views: 1429
How To Play Great Lead Guitar Licks (Continued)
By Tom Hess
Think that creating great lead guitar licks is hard? Fact is, it is much easier than you might first expect. All you need to do is follow this fundamental principle: “Get as much expression out of every note as you ... Views: 1422
Do you practice guitar for too much hours but can’t see real results in your guitar playing? Do you know why you are struggling to get better at guitar regardless all the time you are practicing?
I also suffered this same dilemma, but after some years of trying various strategies on ... Views: 1410
Why You Haven't Made It In The Music Business Yet
By Tom Hess
Tired of not making progress in your music career? Until you abandon the amateur music career advice you have been given by others, you will not succeed in the music business. Following misinformed advice and anecdotes from ... Views: 1410
Ever heard people say: “To be a creative guitar player, you must be born with this skill - otherwise it’s hopeless”? Like most guitarists, I used to believe in this myth and almost gave up playing guitar in frustration.
When I finally learned how to become a creative ... Views: 1404
Whether you are new to guitar teaching or have been teaching for a while, you have likely struggled at times to make good money. Fact is, this is a common problem for nearly all guitar teachers and can be overcome with the right knowledge and implementation. However, most teachers lead very ... Views: 1397
Would you like to become a more creative 7 string guitar player? Being highly creative on 7 string guitar is one of the most common challenges for musicians who have mostly played 6 string guitar. Unfortunately, most guitar players get stuck playing in the same ‘6 string’ mindset as ... Views: 1378
How To Play Awesome Blues Guitar Licks
By Tom Hess
Do you have a strong desire to play cool blues guitar licks but struggle to play them with great intensity because you can’t keep unused strings from ringing out? Truth is, most guitar players can’t do this and as a result ... Views: 1340
How To Get Tons Of Guitar Students In The Summertime
by Tom Hess
The slowest time of the year for lesson inquiries is the summertime (as you probably already know). Although most guitar teachers know this, the overwhelming majority of them are unable to deal with it and struggle to make ... Views: 1317
How To Build And Maintain A Career In Music With A Mentor
By Tom Hess
One of the biggest challenges you will face early on as you start a career in music is simply ‘not knowing’ what to do. Fact is, many musicians do not know much about the music industry in the beginning. As a ... Views: 1312
Start Playing Blues Guitar Licks More Creatively Using Double Stops
By Tom Hess
Wish you could play lead blues guitar licks that sound highly expressive and creative? One of the best ways to begin is to look into mastering blues guitar double stop technique. This technique is used ... Views: 1284
Sweep picking cleanly at fast speeds requires mastering the rolling technique in your fretting fingers. This is the key to playing notes on strings right after each other, on the same fret, with the exact same finger.
Being able to play with excellent rolling technique requires:
*Knowing ... Views: 1284
Does it seem nearly impossible for you to play both fast AND clean on guitar? A lot of guitar players have this same issue, and try to fix it by moving their hands faster. However, this will not help you play guitar both fast and accurate. To do this, you must identify the most fundamental cause ... Views: 1261
How To Play Clean & Articulate Legato Guitar Technique
By Tom Hess
Wish you could play legato guitar licks with much better technique? Well, you don’t have to seek out any special licks to do this - you need to learn the best way to practice legato efficiently as the great ... Views: 1253
If you’re tired of making mistakes or being nervous about performing live, I have some good news for you. ALL guitar playing mistakes come from a lack of practice (or ineffective practice). “Wait, Tom. How is that GOOD?” It’s good because knowing this gives you all of ... Views: 1231
How To Play Intense Blues Guitar Licks As Clean As Possible Part 2
By Tom Hess
This article is the second part in a two part series on creative blues guitar playing. It is crucial that you understand the concepts in part one before you read any further on this page. For a quick review of ... Views: 1224
Why You Have A Hard Time Expressing Yourself With Your Music
by Tom Hess
Of all the musical skills that you can develop as a guitarist, the single greatest goal you can reach is the freedom to express any musical emotion that you feel through your guitar playing. The ability to instantly ... Views: 1224
What is the most effective way to see how well you can play a certain thing on guitar? Answer: see how well you can play when in live situations – This is what I call “real life guitar playing”.
Real-life guitar playing can best be described as the ... Views: 1218
Tom Hess, musician success coach and guitar player in the 1.5+ million record selling metal band Rhapsody Of Fire discusses success in the music industry.
Why do some musicians reach success in their music careers while others never seem to ‘make it’ and end up working in jobs outside of the ... Views: 1217
Seven Questions Not To Ask As A Guitar Teacher
By Tom Hess
As you advance your guitar teaching business you will have many questions about how to become more successful. However, until you understand the ‘right’ questions to ask, you will be doomed to repeat the same mistakes ... Views: 1210
Ever wonder why guitar players struggle to express themselves? It is not that they don’t know enough guitar licks or scales or that they lack natural talent. Truth is, most guitarist do not even attempt to improve their ability to express emotion in their playing.
If you neglect ... Views: 1196
Answer this: What is the biggest factor that keeps musicians from beginning and developing a career in music? Is it lack of musical skill? No music business connections? Not getting any opportunities? Being low on money? Not living around a big music scene? ... well, it’s actually none of ... Views: 1167
How To Play Lead Guitar With Excellent Guitar Phrasing - Part One
By Nick Layton
Wish you knew how to make your lead guitar playing and improvising sound totally killer? You’re not alone. Many guitarists struggle with this and never truly learn how it’s done. Contrary to ... Views: 1167
The majority of guitar teachers use general guitar learning books or methods to try to teach their students. Unless you only teach beginning guitar students, you are going to face these major problems in your guitar teaching:
1. Your students won’t make a lot of progress on guitar and ... Views: 1162
Want to become a great guitarist? You’ve come to the right place. After helping thousands of guitarists reach their highest goals, I have discovered five main requirements for true greatness. Before you can ‘truly’ reach greatness as a guitar player, you must attain all five of the following key ... Views: 1157
When you first began to practice guitar, you quickly observed that you’d need to practice several techniques and skills for a long period of time (even for years) in order to become a great player. That said, even though you've now invested a huge amount of time into practicing your ... Views: 1150
Wish your music career was moving ahead much faster? Stop accepting these false claims about the music industry:
Music Career Myth #1: You have to be generally young to get far in the music industry.
Reality: People and bands in the music business don’t care much about age. There ... Views: 1136