Improving Your Guitar Playing And Getting It To Sound More Musical

A lot of people struggle to get their guitar playing to sound musical or more melodic. Especially when you are playing through scales, either trying to play a solo, or even when you play through the notes. In a sequence. It can sometimes seem difficult to make the scale not sound robotic. 

 

For different people, sounding musical also differs. Which is what makes guitar playing so personal to each individual. What you like and what sounds great to you may not be the same as someone else. 

 

One great way to find out what you enjoy is to listen to your favourite musicians. It could be a guitarist or even a singer, saxophone player. Listen to their phrasing, their tonality. The way they use rhythm, the notes that they sing. 

 

You want your guitar playing to sound purposeful, so when you play the notes. It doesn’t sound like a bunch of random notes. In the beginning, it is more difficult when you are playing through your scales. 

 

But let’s try the following exercise and see what a difference it makes to helping your playing to sound more melodic. 

 

Letting your notes ring out 

 

When you play, try to pause on some of the notes. Experiment with having some of the notes ring out.

 

This is a technique that singers use a lot. So when you are playing through your scales, or trying to start to play a solo on the spot. Pausing on some of the notes will add more variety and rhythm 

 

Playing only with a few notes 

 

Use the method above in a combination with playing less notes. 

 

Instead of playing through your entire scale or trying to use every note in the scale. Just pick 3-4 notes, and experiment with playing through those notes. Combine this with letting one or two notes ring out through out. 

 

Listen to what you’ve created and think, what do you like, what don’t you. And keep experimenting. 

 

Adding in phrasing elements 

 

Phrasing is something that needs to be practiced and it’s what makes great guitar playing sound great. 

 

Phrasing is what makes each individual note sound amazing. And there are lots of phrasing techniques. A great one to try to start off with is vibrato. Which if you are unsure what it is. It’s where a note is made to vibrate, and the most common method to make this happen is pull the string up and down across the fretboard. 

 

You will notice that this is a technique that singers use as well. 

 

There are many other phrasing elements that you can experiment with to improve the sound of each note. 

 

Again, experiment with them when playing through a scale, sequence or a little solo/lick that you are practicing. To find out what you like, what needs improving. To make your playing sound more melodic. 

 

About Author: 

Guitar Tuition East London provides guitar lessons for adults, kids, beginners to advanced students who are passionate about guitar. They have lots of experience in providing beginner guitar players with guitar lessons in London. And wanting to overcome their challenges and enjoy their guitar learning experience.