4 Best Tips to Improve Your Guitar Playing

When you first pick up the Guitar it feels alien because its something your not used to, the way the Guitar feels hanging over your shoulder, the way you curl your hand around the neck. It sometimes puts a strain on your fretting hand but that's natural, the only thing I will say is if it does start to hurt then STOP! because if you don't rest it can cause permanent damage to your hand and stop you from playing altogether.

Don't let this put you off, as long as you do some hand stretches and warm ups before you play and take it slowly then you shouldn't have a problem. One of the main injuries Guitarists suffer from is something called RSI (Repetitive strain injury) because your fingers are, as the name suggests, repeating their movements over and over and if you try to play through the pain can cause yourself more damage.

After a while once you get into a routine of practicing you will start to condition your hands and fingers and it becomes second nature. You will find that youcan play for longer without any pain. This is because you have built up your stamina and the muscles in your hand over time with regular exercise and practice routines.

Spend a few minutes a day lightly stretching your hands and fingers before you pick up the guitar, and also your arms, don't forget your arms are going to be under as much strain as your hands. Stretching is good practice because it will help relax you when you play and keep your blood flowing, you don't want to tense up this will not help your playing.

Most Beginners when starting to play do tense up in the hands and arms, it's natural because the whole thing is alien to the body. Once you feel yourself tensing up tell yourself to relax, Loosen your grip on the plectrum, or put your arms out to the side and give them a good shake to release some of that tension. It really does help, you'll be surprised.

Once you start to relax while your playing you'll find that you can fly across the guitar neck. You'll be able to change chord shapes with ease and play up and down those scales without a problem. But in the mean time don't try to rush your learning experience take your time to learn the different chord shapes, visualize what they look like in your head then let your fingers do the moving.

We'll get into learning chord shapes at a later date but for now just remember to Stretch, warm up, Take your time and Relax.

So to summarize follow these 4 Tips and you will see an Improvement to your Guitar playing

1. Relax when you play Do not tense up.
2. Stretch your fingers and arms lightly before picking up the Guitar
3. Have a warm up routine, either from your favourite guitar mag or blog or even create your own, this will help loosen up your fingers.
4. Take things slowly. This is key to improving your playing and nailing the tricky parts of the guitar you have trouble with.

I hope you found this Article helpful, I will be recording some videos soon to help with your practice and warm up exercises so be sure to visit back regularly.

Happy playing and Enjoy!