The Key Difference Between Average And Great Guitar Players
Ever wondered why your favorite guitar players sound so good?
It’s very easy to think that they are some kind of super-talented-out-of-this-world beings. But you can rest assured that this is not the real difference. The truth is: many great guitar players are just normal people, much like you and me.
Yes, your favorite guitar players had to put in a lot of practice time in order to become that good. Some even practiced 8–10 hours per day! But the reason they had to do that was, because not many things were known or figured out about playing guitar during their time.
You, however, have all these awesome resources and practice strategies available, that allow you to become good while practicing even only 30–60 minutes per day. Isn’t this great?
With that in mind, it’s also very easy to become overwhelmed with all the different “things” you can practice. And if you are reading this, you might have noticed, that no matter how many licks you know, you still don’t sound as good as your heroes.
So what does make the difference? One word: refinement.
If you really want to sound as good as your favorite guitar players, or maybe even copy (in a good way) some of their style, you want to refine things as much as possible. It’s the little nuances that make all the difference.
The nuances I’m talking about are their phrasing elements. I’m talking about their vibrato, bends, slides, pinch harmonics, whammy bar tricks etc. These elements are the ones that make heroes sound like themselves.
You can get really deep into this by paying attention to things like:
Now, the next time you practice one of your favorite guitar solos, try focusing on one lick at a time and try to make it sound as close to the original as you can. Watch and listen to your phrasing elements and refine them with every repetition you make. Don’t give up on the lick and don’t give up on yourself. Keep working on it and refine, refine, refine.
After a while, you WILL notice improvement. And when you are happy about how good it sounds, you can try to change some of the elements we talked about, and try to come up with as many different variations of the lick as you can. Now you are building your playing style. Be as creative as you can be, and soon you will have your own voice on guitar.
©Janez Janežič, 2023
About the author
Janez Janežič is a creative guitar teacher from Novo mesto, Slovenia. If you are looking to improve your creativity on guitar, you might want to consider taking lessons from him locally.
It’s very easy to think that they are some kind of super-talented-out-of-this-world beings. But you can rest assured that this is not the real difference. The truth is: many great guitar players are just normal people, much like you and me.
Yes, your favorite guitar players had to put in a lot of practice time in order to become that good. Some even practiced 8–10 hours per day! But the reason they had to do that was, because not many things were known or figured out about playing guitar during their time.
You, however, have all these awesome resources and practice strategies available, that allow you to become good while practicing even only 30–60 minutes per day. Isn’t this great?
With that in mind, it’s also very easy to become overwhelmed with all the different “things” you can practice. And if you are reading this, you might have noticed, that no matter how many licks you know, you still don’t sound as good as your heroes.
So what does make the difference? One word: refinement.
If you really want to sound as good as your favorite guitar players, or maybe even copy (in a good way) some of their style, you want to refine things as much as possible. It’s the little nuances that make all the difference.
The nuances I’m talking about are their phrasing elements. I’m talking about their vibrato, bends, slides, pinch harmonics, whammy bar tricks etc. These elements are the ones that make heroes sound like themselves.
You can get really deep into this by paying attention to things like:
- How wide and fast is their vibrato?
- Is the vibrato instant or delayed?
- How long is the bend? Is it bent instantly, or slowly?
- Are the phrasing elements stacked upon each other? How are they stacked?
Now, the next time you practice one of your favorite guitar solos, try focusing on one lick at a time and try to make it sound as close to the original as you can. Watch and listen to your phrasing elements and refine them with every repetition you make. Don’t give up on the lick and don’t give up on yourself. Keep working on it and refine, refine, refine.
After a while, you WILL notice improvement. And when you are happy about how good it sounds, you can try to change some of the elements we talked about, and try to come up with as many different variations of the lick as you can. Now you are building your playing style. Be as creative as you can be, and soon you will have your own voice on guitar.
©Janez Janežič, 2023
About the author
Janez Janežič is a creative guitar teacher from Novo mesto, Slovenia. If you are looking to improve your creativity on guitar, you might want to consider taking lessons from him locally.