Many who learn guitar are wondering what they can do to improve their playing sound.
How your guitar sounds depends on many factors. It could be your personal playing style and technique, the equipment itself, or how well you are playing. Here are five easy ways how you can easily make your guitar sound better, no matter what style of music you play or which level you are at.
1. Tune your guitar
It might seem obvious, but many who learn guitar don’t know that they should tune their guitar every time they pick it up to play it. Just because you tuned it yesterday doesn’t mean it will still be in tune today.
1. Use heavy picks
Using a pick that is more than 1 mm thick will give your guitar playing a heavier and fatter sound. A light one, less than 1 mm, tends to give a thinner or flimsier sound. Many who learn guitar prefer the very light picks, but the sooner you get used to thicker picks the better.
2. Change your strings
Everyone seems to know that guitar players should change their strings regularly, but how many who learn guitar actually do it? How often you need to change your strings will depend on how often you play, how much your hands perspire, etc. Changing outworn strings will improve your sound immediately by 100%. When you change your strings, change all of them. If you learn guitar and just play at home for your own enjoyment, then you should change your strings at least every three months.
3. Use thicker strings
The thicker the gauge string you use, the better the sound. Next time you change strings try the next gauge level up from what you are playing now and you will immediately get a better sound. Even when you still learn guitar you can profit from the favorite trick of many famous rock guitarists: use heavy strings and tune down one semitone. You may need to reset the action of your guitar if you do this, so see a guitar maintenance shop first.
4. Raise the action
Many who learn guitar tend to have the action (the distance between the strings and the frets) far too low, which results in a slight or bad buzzing sound. By raising the action only slightly you will immediately hear how your sound improves. Professionals tend to have a reasonably higher than normal string action on their guitars. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it is worth it.
5. Record yourself and listen to the playback
One great thing to do while learning guitar is to record yourself. Try to figure out what you need to work on when listening to the playback. The recording doesn’t need to be studio quality, just listen and then ask yourself things like: are you buzzing any notes? Using too many effects? Not staying in time? Is your guitar out of tune? Solo doesn’t fit the song? You should do it often and maybe write yourself a checklist, then work on improving it.
We hope those ideas get you in the right direction and help you create a better guitar sound so you will stay motivated and make fast progress when you learn guitar.
You can find many more useful articles about how to learn guitar fast on http://www.learn2playguitarfast.com.
