How To Eliminate Sloppy Guitar Playing Mistakes And Sound Great Every Time You Play

How To Eliminate Sloppy Guitar Playing Mistakes And Sound Great Every Time You Play

By Tom Hess

You probably have some days when everything goes right in your guitar playing and you feel really motivated... Days like this feel awesome, don't they?

You’ve likely also experienced days where nothing could go right in your playing and you constantly made mistakes. Does this all sound very familiar?

You are not the only one who has this experience. Every guitarist goes through the same thing (even the really great ones).

Wouldn’t it be awesome to play guitar at your very best every time you play?

For sure it would… and it’s not as hard to do as you might think.

Getting rid of sloppy mistakes that make your playing sound bad requires improving your practice approach. This is the best way to become a better guitarist in less time, and isn’t dependent on being able to practice many hours every day.

The following are five additional practicing tips that help you play guitar great, even when you aren’t feeling like you’re at your very best:

Guitar Practice Tip #1: Make Your Guitar Technique Very Efficient, So Your Playing Is Accurate And Consistent. Here Is How It’s Done:

When you play with efficient guitar technique, you don't move your hands any more than is necessary to play the notes. This makes playing fast feel much easier by getting rid of frustrating mistakes that lead to sloppy noise.

These are just a few basic approaches for developing better guitar technique efficiency:

*Don’t move the pick away from the strings while playing (unless you are playing with string skipping technique).

*Fret notes by using your fingertips.

*Use a heavy guitar pick. Your pick needs to not bend whenever you strike the string.

*Keep your fretting hand thumb on the lower part behind the neck while playing scales and/or arpeggios. This makes it easier to play cleanly because you are able to stretch to play notes without straining your wrist.

Guitar Practice Tip #2: Develop A Lot More Guitar Technique Than You Think Is Required. This Is Why This Helps You:

Think about your greatest goals with guitar technique. Maybe you wish you could play certain riffs or guitar solos, or maybe you wish you could raise your max playing speed by 50 beats per minute. Set up your goals to try to play at a level that is a little higher than what you want. Example: practice playing a song that is 20 beats per minute faster than the actual tempo you want to play it at.

When you develop more technique (or gain more speed) than you need to reach your goals, you become less probable to mess up because you are never playing just below your limit. This makes it easier to focus on enjoying yourself rather than feeling frustrated because you keep making mistakes.

Guitar Practice Tip #3: Remove Excess Tension From Your Body That Causes Sloppy Mistakes. Here Is How:

Keep your hands relaxed as long as you can – This makes it easier to keep them in perfect sync with each other and play guitar without messing up.

Guitar Practice Tip #4: Practice Performing On Guitar For Others, To Overcome Stage Fright & Play Without Mistakes When It Really Counts. Here Is How:

It’s much easier to play guitar without making mistakes at home in your room than it is to do it while performing in front of other people. Here are several ways to make less mistakes while playing in live situations:

Simulate real-life performing situations when you are practicing guitar.

Here are some examples of how to do this:

*Stand up to practice rather than always sitting down.

*Practice guitar while playing very close to your amp.

*Practice guitar far away from your amp by playing in a different room.

*Practice guitar while moving around and performing (making gestures as if you were playing on stage).

Most importantly, perform guitar for other people every chance you get.

Guitar Practice Tip #5: Integrate Guitar Techniques Together To Make It Easy To Play Difficult Guitar Licks. Here Is How:

What is one aspect of guitar playing that so many guitarists wish they could master but never actually work on? Combining all their musical skills together. Combining skills refers to being able to easily use your skills together in a musical way that sounds, smooth, natural and effortless.

Mastering this makes your guitar playing mistakes disappear.

Now that you have learned many ways to eliminate mistakes from your guitar playing, are you ready to discover a much more simple guitar practice method that combines this info together to make your playing more clean and accurate? Check out this free resource to find out how to develop better fretting hand finger independence and make guitar playing effortlessly and consistently without mistakes.

About The Author:

Tom Hess is a professional touring musician, recording artist and online guitar teacher who teaches guitarists from all over the world in his online guitar lessons. On his website, tomhess.net, you can get additional free tips about guitar playing, guitar playing resources, mini courses and surveys.

Tom Hess is a successful professional guitar player, composer and international guitar teacher.