If we want to become better guitar players, we must practice.

Here are some excellent “practice tips” that I have compiled over the years:

1.) Set aside a certain amount of practice time every day. At a minimum, it should be 20 minutes. Longer is better, if your day allows. 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening is another option.

2.) Select a location that will be comfortable and totally free from distractions. Turn the TV off and if possible (without offending anyone) ask others to not disturb you during practice time except for emergencies. You do not want to become a hermit, but you need to focus and stay focused on your practice efforts.

3.) Commit to practicing every day. Make it a part of your daily routine. If you miss a day, it’s not the end of the world. Just don’t miss the next day! Remember, the result of continued practice is that you will become a better player. Isn’t that what you really want?

4.) Choose specific things you will practice each week. Memorize a new chord shape, work on a new strumming pattern, develop faster chord changes, learn a new lick, etc…

5.) Use a metronome! A great guitar player with poor timing and rhythm is not a great guitar player. If you do not own a metronome, buy one! If you cannot buy one, then search Google.com for the words “Free Metronome”. There are many options available. No excuses!

6.) Record yourself playing the guitar. This is the best way to monitor your progress. You do not need to invest in elaborate recording equipment; you can use a simple little cassette tape recorder. Keep a history of tapes, at least one per month. Go back and listen to recordings from 6 months ago. Your improvement will inspire you to keep practicing as you realize how much better you have become!

7.) Take breaks. Never practice for over one hour without taking a break. Your fingers (and your mind) need a rest!

8.) Finally, end each practice by playing your favorite song. It does not matter if you play alone or play along with your favorite backing track. Just play… and smile… because you are getting better every day!

I came across this video on YouTube – “10 Tips From Joe Satriani“.  I was very impressed with the variety of these tips and will be incorporating several of them into my daily practice routine.

Check out the VIDEO:

Special thanks to Josh over at the Guitar Lifestyle Blog for a simple yet profound post.

For most of my guitar-playing life, I’ve been trying to find the secret to becoming a better guitarist. I’ve spent countless hours reading magazines and books, scouring the Internet, and searching for teachers. What I’ve learned is this: There is no secret.

Becoming a better guitarist takes hard work, dedication, and perseverance. There are no shortcuts. This is a lesson that has taken me many years to learn. Actually, I’m still learning this lesson. The way all the guitarists I admire got better was by playing, listening, and learning. That’s what it’ll take for me and you to get better, too.
-Josh, Guitar Lifestyle

If you have never visited his blog, you are missing out on a great read. Check it out!

The world is full of guitar instruction books.

Don’t believe me?

• A search on Amazon.com for “Guitar Instruction Book” returns 5,442 titles.
• “Guitar Chords” returns 3,771.
• “Guitar Scales” finds another 779!

So why do we need more study books? We don’t. What we need are new perspectives and creative ideas to learn from. Guy’s Publishing Group has delivered on both counts.

Last summer, I posted a review of a breakthrough guitar chord reference book titled: “Guys Grids”. If you missed that post, check it out: Guy’s Grids: A Master Class in Guitar Chords.

The much anticipated follow up to Guys Grids is now available!

Guy’s Scales, Modes, and Arpeggios is a comprehensive and integrated presentation of all of the most commonly used guitar scales, modes, and arpeggios in all regions of the fretboard.

Every guitarist knows that playing a solo is a skill that requires a strong working knowledge of scales and arpeggios. This book delivers that information in a very user-friendly format that guitarists of all levels will be able to follow with ease.

The book begins with a simple but well executed 5-page study on music theory and is followed by two-page spreads that show the fingering patterns and the corresponding standard notation. The fingering patterns are presented in a grid format, with each horizontal row showing scale patterns, arpeggios and chords all being played in one region of the fretboard. Then, each vertical column displays the same set of information in seven different regions of the fretboard. In the appendix, Guy presents a comprehensive set of triad studies which follow a similar grid format.

“I wrote this book because I needed a comprehensive resource on scales, modes, and arpeggios and I could not find one that I really liked… What really sets the book apart is its thoroughness and clarity. I believe that it will soon be recognized as the definitive resource book on scales, modes, and arpeggios.”
- Author Guy McRoskey (a guitarist)

Make no mistake, I am very impressed with this book. The print quality is superb.  The paper quality is thick and sturdy and yet the book is thin enough to fit inside your gig bag. One thing I really love is that Guy addressed a pet-peeve of mine with most other guitar instruction books by using a spiral binding so the book would lay flat while you are using it. Thank’s Guy!

The book is available directly from the company website for $14.95 and through select retailers. I’d suggest you order one before he realizes he under-priced this encyclopedic reference tool!

To learn more, visit www.GuysGrids.com.

I was roaming the isles at NAMM and came across a demonstration for what quickly became a must-have electric guitar application for my iTouch.

The PRS JAM AMP combines a great-sounding guitar amp simulator, a backing track audio file player and a super-accurate tuner into an all-around first class application that allows me to jam along to backing tracks and slow down riffs and solos for optimal practice — all through my mobile device and the privacy of my headphones.

The PRS JAM AMP lets you load, loop and slow down audio clips for repeated practice of those tricky parts. Upload and play back popular riffs and songs in MP3, ACC (unprotected) or AIIF formats using the onboard web interface.

You can even adjust the tuning of your audio tracks to your guitar. For example, if the backing track was recorded in the key of C#… you can adjust the pitch upward by three tones and play along on your guitar in E!  That means any track can be played in your favorite key!

The amp application includes the standard tone controls as well as input boost, reverb and crunch (overdrive). There is even a slider to adjust for room size.

As far as I am concerned, this is the ultimate iPhone-iTouch application. I can walk around in my house with my Les Paul strapped on and my iTouch in my pocket. The optional (but required) Guitarbud cable that connects my iTouch to my Guitar and headphones is neatly tucked in my back pocket and I am jamming along (walking room-to-room) to a backing track — all the while listening to everything through my headphones.

The best part is…. I am playing LOUD… and my wife hears nothing!

Whether you’re practicing, recording your latest idea, or just killing time, true inspiration and killer tone is finally as close as your iPhone or iTouch.

In case you did not know… MusiciansFriend.com has a daily special called the “Stupid Deal of the Day”. 

I have purchased a few items from them over the past year that had great special prices. You can add it to your RSS feed as well. It’s a pretty cool idea and I would recommend you get their daily feed.

Anyway, I have been reading about the VOX JamVox for several months. The product is supposed to strip the guitar from any MP3 music file you have so that YOU can play along with the track as the lead guitar player. The JamVox includes software and a monitor and requires a pretty powerful computer.

Well, good old St Nicholas at MusiciansFriend must have known what I wanted for the holidays as The JamVox popped up as the “Stupid Deal” for today at $129 with free shipping. That’s a really good price!

I know… it sounds way to good to be true and I am sure the JamVox is not perfect.  But I pulled the trigger and ordered one since the price was only good for TODAY.

Does anybody already own one of these?

I am always on the lookout for new guitar related web sites. There are thousands of them out there and it’s a full time job keeping track of the new ones!

While it’s true that any web site focused on the guitar will grab my interest, some of them will hold my interest longer than others.

I think I found one of those today.

Click on the image to link to Guitar Scales V2.

It appears that the site is still in development, but the product that is online now is absolutely killer. Virtually any scale you can imagine is available – Pentatonic, Major, Minor, Dorian, Chromatic, Mixolydian and more.  Did you know there was a Persian scale?  I counted 58 variations in all – viewable in any key you want!  You can configure the display to show dots or notes. You can even set it up for alternate tunings.

Best of all – it is 100% free!

Looks like I may be selling all of those scale books I own on eBay…

If you know of another cool guitar web site, let me know!

I love to travel… but I hate to be away from my guitar(s).

Three years ago my wife and I were making plans to visit Australia for 2 weeks. While I was excited to see the land down under, I was depressed thinking about spending 2 weeks without a guitar…

I had heard the horror stories of people who trusted their guitars to the airline baggage handlers only to arrive at their destination and recover their beloved axe with a broken neck.

I vowed to myself — that would never happen to me.

As for me, (and most guitar players who are honest with themselves), airline travel presents a dichotomy that must be resolved before the trip can be enjoyed.

Just how do you keep up with your guitar playing when a trip requires airline travel?

Everything changed when I discovered the Traveler Escape EG-1.

The Escape EG-1 is the most sophisticated travel guitar you’ve ever played!  It includes an onboard Pocket RockIt headphone amp with distortion & clean tones so you can plug your headphones directly into the guitar and rock out anytime, anywhere.

The Escape EG-1 has traditional guitar features like an American Hard Maple neck with an ebonized rosewood fretboard. With a full-size humbucker pickup, full 25-1/2 inch scale, and 22 jumbo frets, you almost forget that you are playing a travel guitar.  It’s sounds (and feels) that good.

The guitar comes with a very cool-looking padded gig bag that will fit in any overhead compartment.

Traveler Escape EG-1 Travel Electric Guitar Features:

* Full 25-1/2″ scale
* 5 pounds light and only 29-1/4″ long
* Built-in Pocket RockIt headphone amp with distortion and clean tones
* Fits in airline overhead compartments
* Alder body
* American hard maple neck
* Fretboard: Ebonized rosewood
* 22 jumbo frets

I will be taking another trip this week and my trusty EG-1 will be slung over my shoulder as I board the plane.  My EG-1 has been all over the United States, Mexico, France, Germany, Austria and Australia.  Next to my wife, it is my favorite travel companion.  No worries!

A new version of the Traveler Escape Guitar, the EG-2, will be released soon.  It sports a double-cutaway strat-like design with an input jack for your music file player so you can jam along to your favorite tracks through the guitar’s headphones!

(One last thing… I will be traveling this week and the posting to the blog will be minimal)

I just finished dinner with my 11-year-old daughter.

During that dinner we watched President Barack Obama’s speech to America’s youth. This is not a political blog (and that was not a political speech) but just in case you missed it… I will provide a link: CLICK HERE.

What that speech prompted me to do (as a 52-year old man) was to sit down with my 11-year-old daughter and remind her that her opportunities are endless… as long as she starts now, works hard, finds a mentor and never quits. While all of her dreams may not come true, none of them will ever come true without a commitment to the cause and a sincere dedication to learn and apply the knowledge she acquires along the way. Above all, quitting is not an option!

Sounds like good advice for aspiring guitar players.

Case in point: Orianthi Panagaris, the young female guitar-playing superstar to the left that Carlos Santana called “the one he will pass the baton to” and the same young lady who practiced on stage with Michael Jackson the night before his tragic death.

Orianthi Panagaris or “Orianthi” was born on January 22, 1985 in Adelaide, Australia.  She learned to play the acoustic guitar at age 6, started playing electric when she was just 11 and started writing songs and performing at the mature age of 15.

Orianthi had the opportunity to meet Carlos Santana when she was 18 in her hometown. Carlos invited Orianthi to get up and jam with him during the soundcheck then asked if she would join him on stage later that night.

She has played with Prince and toured with Steve Vai.  She played at the Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Festival and also appeared at the 51st annual Grammys with Carrie Underwood where she was Underwood’s lead guitar player.

Not bad for a young girl who picked up a guitar at a young age, worked hard, found a mentor and never quit.

Check out what Carlos Santana had to say, then watch this girl rip it up on her PRS:

This blog was never intended to be a “Guitar Lesson” site. There are lots of those already and I do not want to re-invent a wheel that is already rolling along quite well.

(Coming Soon! A new category that reviews some of the better instruction sites I have seen)

That said, this post is designed to be a “Print Me” kind of post for those of you who want to play lead guitar (read:scales) but hate the thought of learning theory.

So here goes — a simple look at the most common scales known to man… the Minor Pentatonic Scale and the Blues Scale. The key is to FORGET about learning the entire scale and instead MEMORIZE the movable pattern positions.

Here they are:

The Five Minor Pentatonic Positions
A pentatonic scale consists of five intervals (notes) taken from the natural minor scale:
Root (1st), (3rd), (4th), (5th), and the (7th).

The Five Blues Scale Positions
The Blues scale is nothing more than a minor pentatonic scale with an added flat 5th note, which is commonly called the “Blue note.”

There… now that’s not so hard is it?

Everybody has to start somewhere, even if that somewhere is sitting Indian-style on the floor in your bedroom, plucking out an awkward first chord and feeling like a dork. In fact that’s what stops most wannabe guitarists before they’ve even begun: The initial agony of knowing nothing just doesn’t match up with the imagined ecstasy of ripping into a guitar right off the bat.

But the fact that even Frank Zappa got his start fooling with chord books and that John Mayer was subjected to a year of guitar store lessons is somewhat heartening, right? This collection of quotes imply that not only does their love of music bind these amazing guitarists but also their complete and utter dedication to learning guitar. As Judas Priest’s Glenn Tipton said, “I gave dedication a completely new meaning.”

Stroll on over to Gibson Lifestyle to read the rest of this superb post by clicking HERE.