1) Draw neck diagrams and label the note names
on the strings. This will improve your knowledge
of the instrument, and solidify your ability to
quickly jump to any note (like when a fellow musician
tells you it's an A chord). Start with just one
string, such as the low E string, and label every
note: E, F, F#, G, G#, etc. Do this a few times
for each string and you'll soon know your way
around the guitar sooo much better than you do
now!
2) Draw more neck diagrams and fill in scale patterns.
You know that old joke about the school teacher
making you write something stupid (I will not
chew gum in class.) 100 times on the chalkboard?
That teaching method may not have successfully
kept you from chewing gum, but it will successfully
help you memorize scale patterns.
Draw neck diagrams and put dots on the diagram
in the shape of your five pentatonic patterns
and seven diatonic patterns. Do this repeatedly,
until you drill those patterns into your brain.
Even without your guitar in hand, this exercise
will improve your ability to memorize the 12 basic
scale patterns you must know to play pro-level
lead guitar.
3) Give your fingers a workout with a stress ball.
A tennis ball, or any other squishy ball will
work too. A big part of playing guitar satisfactorily
lies in the development of the muscles in your
fret hand and wrist. You'll recognize this fact
real quick if you pick up an acoustic guitar and
try to play lead guitar. You can do this at work,
at school, or anytime actual playing is not an
option – and it will improve your playing
abilities!
4) Analyze the tablature in your favorite artists'
songbook. Learning to read the most advanced tablature
notation is not much easier than learning to read
the actual sheet music – and it takes practice.
Don't forget that there is usually a key to all
the weird symbols – all those arrows and
squiggly lines – in the back of many, if
not most, song or method books. Study that key
until you know what is meant by all those symbols,
and then actually read through a few songs –
all the way through. Your tab reading will become
a whole lot easier after you've done this a few
times.
5) Better yet, work on reading sheet music instead.
It's not really as hard as it seems, but it absolutely
takes practice. And sheet music has one huge advantage
over tablature – it can tell you the actual
rhythm of the music, which most tab does not.
Start with easy stuff, such as a Guitar Method
1 type book where all you're expected to read
is quarter notes and half notes, and only the
notes as they fall on the low end of the neck
in the key of C major (no sharps or flats to worry
about!). Then work your way up from there.
Learning to read sheet music is a skill that can
be built one step at a time, one new concept at
a time. And you can practice reading without a
guitar in hand, by simply picking up any piece
of sheet music and literally reading it as if
the notes were printed alphabet letters put into
phrases and sentences, just like the ones you're
reading right now! Understand that becoming really
adept at sight-reading may actually take months
or years, so be patient with yourself. But you're
planning on playing your guitar for decades, right?
The extra effort will pay off a thousand-fold!
By Adam St. James
