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Articles from Tom Hess | Selfgrowth.com
- How To Correct Guitar Mistakes That Happen While Playing At Fast Speeds - by Submitted on Dec 05, 2016 from Tom HessHow To Correct Guitar Mistakes That Happen While Playing At Fast Speeds By Tom Hess So your guitar playing becomes sloppy when you play fast… what should you do? It’s a common approach to practice very slowly while trying to solve mistakes… then build speed over time. ...
Views: 685 - Three Mistakes That Make It A Struggle To Play Creative Sweep Picking Arpeggios - by Submitted on Jul 09, 2018 from Tom HessThree Mistakes That Make It A Struggle To Play Creative Sweep Picking Arpeggios By Tom Hess It’s difficult to play creative sweep picking arpeggios when you fall into the trap of making these 3 mistakes: Mistake #1. Not Mastering The Fundamental Aspects Of Sweep ...
Views: 682 - 3 Myths About Increasing Guitar Speed That Slow Down Your Progress - by Submitted on Sep 03, 2018 from Tom HessIt’s nearly impossible to become a faster guitar player when you believe common guitar speed building myths. Avoiding these myths opens the door for you to make fast progress. Here are 3 big myths about building guitar speed and why they are wrong: Myth #1: “It takes 8 hours ...
Views: 681 - The Easiest Way To Reach Any Guitar Playing, Music Career Or Guitar Teaching Goal - by Submitted on Dec 09, 2018 from Tom HessThe Easiest Way To Reach Any Guitar Playing, Music Career Or Guitar Teaching Goal By Tom Hess It’s easy to become a massively successful as a guitarist, guitar teacher or musician when you follow these 3 steps: Step 1. You Need To Know What “To” Do It’s ...
Views: 679 - Three Reasons Why Guitarists Give Up Before Reaching Their Musical Goals - by Submitted on Jun 05, 2017 from Tom HessThree Reasons Why Guitarists Give Up Before Reaching Their Musical Goals By Tom Hess To become an excellent guitarist, you must persevere when faced with challenges. Guitarists who fail to do this, never reach their goals and usually end up feeling frustrated. Don’t become like ...
Views: 677 - How To Teach Guitar More Effectively By Spending Less Time Creating Teaching Materials - by Submitted on Jan 22, 2018 from Tom HessHow To Teach Guitar More Effectively By Spending Less Time Creating Teaching Materials By Tom Hess Teaching guitar becomes easier and less stressful when you avoid spending extra (unpaid) time creating lesson materials for your students. These are 3 key ways to do it: 1. ...
Views: 671 - Why The Majority Of Self-Taught Guitarists Do Not Become Great - Part 1 - by Submitted on Feb 20, 2018 from Tom HessLearning guitar alone makes it very hard to become a great player. This happens because you don’t know if your practice habits are effective and have to guess your way through. It’s common for guitarists who learn on their own to form bad habits that hold their playing back. The ...
Views: 670 - How To Get Insanely Faster Guitar Picking Speed (Shortcut) - by Submitted on Jan 06, 2020 from Tom HessHow To Get Insanely Faster Guitar Picking Speed (Shortcut) By Tom Hess What if I could give you a quick shortcut to adding insane amounts of speed into your guitar playing... and it made playing fast feel easier? This shortcut comes in the form of a technique that the ...
Views: 662 - Why Your Guitar Teaching Policy Makes Or Breaks Your Business - by Submitted on Dec 11, 2018 from Tom HessWhy Your Guitar Teaching Policy Makes Or Breaks Your Business By Tom Hess Having a weak guitar teaching policy makes running a successful business difficult. Here’s why and what to do instead: Having a weak guitar teaching policy gives students power over your time and lets ...
Views: 655 - Songwriting For Guitar - 6 Easy Songwriting Tips For Guitar Players - by Submitted on Dec 02, 2019 from Tom HessGuitarists who write expressive rock & metal songs do 2 things differently than most musicians: They understand the musical skills needed to become excellent songwriters and they practice often to improve them. They make their #1 goal to create great music, followed ...
Views: 650 - Why You Need Aural Skills To Become A Great Guitarist - by Submitted on May 07, 2018 from Tom HessWhy You Need Aural Skills To Become A Great Guitarist By Tom Hess It’s difficult to become a better guitarist without solid aural skills. But it’s probably not for the same reasons you're thinking of... A lot of guitarists think that developing aural skills only ...
Views: 641 - 3 Common Mistakes That Make Sweep Picking Sound Sloppy - by Submitted on Mar 19, 2019 from Tom HessSweep picking is not as hard as you might think. Getting good at it simply requires avoiding the common mistakes many other guitar players make. Make it easy to sweep pick cleanly and fast by staying away from these mistakes: Mistake #1: Killing picking ...
Views: 630 - Why You Need Aural Skills To Become A Great Guitarist - by Submitted on May 07, 2018 from Tom HessWhy You Need Aural Skills To Become A Great Guitarist By Tom Hess It’s difficult to become a better guitarist without solid aural skills. But it’s probably not for the same reasons you're thinking of... A lot of guitarists think that developing aural skills only ...
Views: 629 - The Crucial Skill To Practice For Recording Guitar On An Album - by Submitted on Apr 09, 2018 from Tom HessThe most important skill to improve for recording better guitar parts is rhythm guitar. A lot of players do not improve this skill and end up wasting tons of time and money in the studio. When you improve your rhythm guitar playing, your recordings begin sounding professional. To make ...
Views: 628 - How To Become A Successful Guitar Teacher Faster - by Submitted on Aug 06, 2018 from Tom HessWant to transform the musical lives of your guitar students and make good money doing it? Get started by using these three ideas: 1. Create Unique Lesson Plans To Help Students Reach Their Goals It’s a frequently-made mistake to use cookie-cutter lesson plans for every student. ...
Views: 626 - The Four Keys To Becoming A Massively Successful Guitar Teacher - by Submitted on Oct 30, 2017 from Tom HessThe four main keys to achieving success as a guitar teacher are understanding what to do to grow your business, how to teach more effectively, how to implement the things you already know and which mistakes you have to avoid. Why You Need To Learn How To Build Your Teaching Business You ...
Views: 622 - Three Mistakes You Must Avoid If You Teach Guitar - by Submitted on Jan 23, 2017 from Tom HessThree Mistakes You Must Avoid If You Teach Guitar By Tom Hess Becoming a successful guitar teacher requires not making the same mistakes made by mediocre teachers. These kinds of mistakes keep you from making good money and hold your students’ progress back. Stay away from ...
Views: 618 - 3 Helpful Guitar Technique Shortcuts That Greatly Increase Your Speed & Make Playing Guitar Feel Effortless - by Submitted on Jun 05, 2019 from Tom Hess3 Helpful Guitar Technique Shortcuts That Greatly Increase Your Speed & Make Playing Guitar Feel Effortless By Tom Hess Why are shortcuts so awesome? They often get rid of hard and unnecessary work from our lives. This is why we constantly look for shortcuts (and nothing is wrong with ...
Views: 610(1 vote) - 5 Simple Lydian Guitar Licks That Sound Awesome - by Submitted on Jun 22, 2020 from Tom HessLearn Cool Lydian Guitar Licks That Your Playing Sound Great By Tom Hess What is it about the Lydian mode that creates so much expressive emotion when used in licks and solos? Why do world class players like Vai or Satriani use this mode all the time? And what do you need to do to ...
Views: 610 - How To Play Emotional & Creative Guitar Solos By Using The Phrasing Of Your Favorite Singers - by Submitted on Nov 05, 2018 from Tom HessHow To Play Emotional & Creative Guitar Solos By Using The Phrasing Of Your Favorite Singers By Tom Hess What is the easiest way to make your solos very emotional? Answer: imitate the phrasing of your favorite singers. Here is how: 1. Transcribe Vocal Lines Of Your Favorite ...
Views: 608 - Why Musicians SHOULD Want To Make Tons Of Money - by Submitted on Mar 26, 2019 from Tom HessWhich would you prefer: making a good living entirely through music or being a “starving artist” who spends most of his/her time working at a miserable day job just to get by? No doubt you chose the former... However, even musicians who make decent money in music could be doing so ...
Views: 608 - 15 Major Guitar Teaching Mistakes You Must Avoid - by Submitted on May 26, 2016 from Tom HessThe most effective way of becoming a better guitar teacher is NOT to make the most common mistakes others make when they teach guitar. By doing this, your students will quickly become great players and take lessons with you for longer periods of time. Don’t make these common guitar ...
Views: 605 - Find Out How To Overcome A Guitar Speed Plateau In A Single Day - by Submitted on Jan 20, 2020 from Tom HessRock guitarists can all agree: Getting stuck in a speed plateau is the worst! Not being able to make improvement for years at a time is incredibly frustrating. And the worst thing is… … you start to doubt your ability to make ...
Views: 600 - Cool Lead Guitar Licks From The Hirajoshi Scale - by Submitted on Dec 07, 2020 from Tom HessWant your guitar solos and licks to sound amazing to anyone listening? The Hirajoshi scale is an amazing tool for this. What is this scale? It’s a pentatonic scale (meaning: it only has five notes) that originated in Japan. No, this is not exactly the same as other pentatonic scales ...
Views: 596 - How To Improve Your Guitar Playing With Little Practice Time - by Submitted on Jul 08, 2019 from Tom HessHow To Improve Your Guitar Playing With Little Practice Time By Tom Hess Fact: Improving your guitar playing doesn’t require practicing for 3-5 hours every day. Here’s 3 ways to get better fast with limited practice time: Plan Out Your Practice In Advance Deciding ...
Views: 593 - 5 Effective Warm Up Tips That Make You A Better Guitar Player - by Submitted on Feb 03, 2020 from Tom Hess5 Effective Warm Up Tips That Make You A Better Guitar Player By Tom Hess Want to know the most effective warm up exercises to get massive results from your guitar practice time? Chances are, you’ve seen other guitarists using a variety of different ...
Views: 592 - How To Get Faster Results From Your Guitar Practice - by Submitted on Nov 20, 2018 from Tom HessWant to make much faster progress on guitar? Tap into your unfulfilled potential using these 3 approaches: Approach #1: Always Practice Guitar With Clear Direction It’s a mistake to practice without any clearly defined goals or schedule. This makes it much harder to make progress ...
Views: 588 - Why Successful Music Careers Aren’t Built Through Trial-And-Error - by Submitted on Jul 25, 2019 from Tom HessBuilding your music career through trial-and-error causes you to waste time on things that don’t matter and make poor decisions that prevent you from achieving your musical goals. When you mostly guess about what is best for building you music career, you end up believing in ...
Views: 574(1 vote) - Why Most Guitar Teachers Are Unable To Help Their Students Make Progress - by Submitted on Jan 11, 2019 from Tom HessWhy Most Guitar Teachers Are Unable To Help Their Students Make Progress By Tom Hess When you don’t help your guitar students make tons of progress, they don’t become better players, stop taking lessons and your reputation as a teacher suffers. There are 3 mistakes most ...
Views: 572 - The Three Mistakes You Make That Harm Your Guitar Playing Creativity - by Submitted on Jul 29, 2019 from Tom HessThe Three Mistakes You Make That Harm Your Guitar Playing Creativity By Tom Hess You become a creative guitar player by practicing the integration of many skills while also not making key mistakes that other guitarists make. The following are frequent mistakes that hold guitar players back ...
Views: 556 - Become A More Creative Lead Guitarist Using These 3 Powerful Tips - by Submitted on May 13, 2019 from Tom HessBecome A More Creative Lead Guitarist Using These 3 Powerful Tips By Tom Hess Wish you knew how to play unbelievably creative and expressive lead guitar solos whenever you picked up your instrument? Of course you do! Most guitarists dream about this, but never make it this far... Good news ...
Views: 555 - Find Out How To Make Your Guitar Speed More Melodic - by Submitted on Apr 13, 2020 from Tom HessFind Out How To Make Your Guitar Speed More Melodic By Tom Hess Ever listened to a guitarist who had great technical chops, but little ability to make their soloing sound melodic and memorable? …while other guitar players are able to play just as fast or with ...
Views: 554 - Why Conventional Guitar Practice Wisdom Causes Sloppy Playing At Faster Speeds - by Submitted on Nov 18, 2019 from Tom HessWant to play guitar faster and cleaner than ever? Stop listening to conventional speed building wisdom. Tons of popular guitar speed advice is wrong and actually turns you into a slower player! Here are 3 pieces of conventional guitar playing wisdom to stay away from in order to become a ...
Views: 553 - Ten Incredibly Actionable Guitar Practice Motivation Tips That Improve Your Guitar Playing Today - by Submitted on Feb 04, 2019 from Tom HessTen Incredibly Actionable Guitar Practice Motivation Tips That Improve Your Guitar Playing Today by Tom Hess You probably already understand how difficult it is sometimes to feel inspired to practice guitar. On days where you lack motivation to practice, you become much more ...
Views: 552 - Ten Incredibly Actionable Guitar Practice Motivation Tips That Improve Your Guitar Playing Today - by Submitted on Feb 04, 2019 from Tom HessTen Incredibly Actionable Guitar Practice Motivation Tips That Improve Your Guitar Playing Today by Tom Hess You probably already understand how difficult it is sometimes to feel inspired to practice guitar. On days where you lack motivation to practice, you become much more ...
Views: 552 - Master Creative Guitar Tapping Using This Tutorial - by Submitted on Mar 30, 2020 from Tom HessMaster Creative Guitar Tapping Using This Tutorial By Tom Hess Want to learn how to play with awesome guitar tapping technique? You're in the right spot to learn about it. I spent many years trying to play guitar tapping licks like my favorite guitarists at ...
Views: 547 - How To Make Fast Guitar Playing Easier By Keeping Both Hands In Perfect Sync - by Submitted on May 11, 2020 from Tom Hess“I wish I could make my fast guitar playing a little more sloppy!” – said no guitar player on Earth. So why do tons of guitar players struggle to play clean when they play fast? This is the answer: Not very many guitarists understand how to keep their ...
Views: 545 - 3 Things To Look For While Finding Musicians For Your Band - by Submitted on Dec 30, 2018 from Tom Hess3 Things To Look For While Finding Musicians For Your Band By Tom Hess Finding the right musicians for your band is about more than just musical skills. Look for these 3 things to find the best fit: 1. They Have An Empowering Mindset High-quality musicians have positive and ...
Views: 542 - How To Play Awesome Guitar Licks Using The Power Of The Tritone (No Theory Needed) - by Submitted on Mar 02, 2020 from Tom HessHow To Play Awesome Guitar Licks Using The Power Of The Tritone (No Theory Needed) By Tom Hess Looking for new ways to make your guitar licks sound more interesting? You're in for a treat. You're going to learn a powerful way to create new guitar licks ...
Views: 541 - Genius Guitar Practice Hacks That Make Other Guitarists Envy Your Guitar Playing - by Submitted on Apr 09, 2019 from Tom HessGenius Guitar Practice Hacks That Make Other Guitarists Envy Your Guitar Playing By Tom Hess Could you practice guitar three times longer every day? Didn’t think so… and me either. Here’s something you can do ...
Views: 539 - How To Quickly Become A Successful Guitar Teacher - by Submitted on Dec 12, 2020 from Tom HessWant to make a good living teaching guitar while getting the best results for your students? Use the following ideas to begin: 1. Create Unique Lesson Plans To Help Students Reach Their Goals It’s a frequently-made mistake to use cookie-cutter lesson plans for every student. This doesn’t ...
Views: 537 - Three Powerful Guitar Exercises That Make Your Solos Sound Better Than Ever - by Submitted on Feb 17, 2020 from Tom HessThree Powerful Guitar Exercises That Make Your Solos Sound Better Than Ever By Tom Hess How do you start playing better guitar solos very quickly? It’s hard to believe it now, but I used to think the answer was: “Build a vocabulary of tons of scale ...
Views: 537 - How To Master Expressive Guitar Vibrato Technique - by Submitted on Apr 27, 2020 from Tom HessHow To Master Expressive Guitar Vibrato Technique By Tom Hess I have zero doubt that: Vibrato technique is the most critical technique to develop if you want to sound like an excellent guitarist. Why is this exactly? Because notes that have no vibrato ...
Views: 535 - How To Practice To Become A More Creative Lead Guitar Player - by Submitted on Jul 20, 2020 from Tom HessWish your lead guitar playing made people feel intense emotion? That’d be really cool, right? Doing this requires practicing creativity. (Yes, you really can practice and improve creativity.) Fact is, practicing lead guitar creativity is one of the most fun things to do with your ...
Views: 529 - Learn 3 Ways To Develop Fast & Clean Sweep Picking - by Submitted on Mar 16, 2020 from Tom HessLearn 3 Ways To Develop Fast & Clean Sweep Picking By Tom Hess Want to massively increase your clean sweep picking speed? Wish you could shred jaw-dropping arpeggios anytime you felt like it? And do it flawlessly - without any unwanted sloppy sounds coming ...
Views: 529 - The 3 Mistakes You Make That Hurt Your Guitar Playing Creativity - by Submitted on Oct 08, 2018 from Tom HessBecoming a more creative guitarist takes practice like anything else on guitar. It also requires avoiding common mistakes that stop you from improving your musical creativity. Below are common mistakes prevent guitarists from improving their guitar playing creativity. Your creativity ...
Views: 521 - [Guitar Speed Tips] Fix Sloppy Sweep Picking With Tremolo Picking Technique - by Submitted on Jan 04, 2021 from Tom HessEver wish you could play badass sweep picking arpeggios without making unclean mistakes that ruin them? Not a problem! A long time ago, I struggled to play sweep picking licks. Really ... I was nowhere near proficient at the technique. At shredder speeds, my arpeggios wasn't ...
Views: 521 - The 4 Keys To Becoming A Massively Successful Guitar Teacher - by Submitted on Mar 26, 2019 from Tom HessThe 4 Keys To Becoming A Massively Successful Guitar Teacher By Tom Hess The 4 keys to becoming a successful guitar teacher are learning what to do to build your business, how to teach effectively, how to implement what you know and which mistakes you must avoid. Why You Must Learn ...
Views: 520 - 3 Tips To Help You Become A Creative Lead Guitarist - by Submitted on May 25, 2020 from Tom Hess3 Tips To Help You Become A Creative Lead Guitarist By Tom Hess Wouldn’t it be nice if you could play amazingly creative and expressive guitar licks and solos at will? No doubt about it! Most guitarists wish they had the ability to do this, but give up before they ever do. Don't ...
Views: 515 - Why Common Guitar Practice Advice Causes Unclean Playing At Faster Speeds - by Submitted on Oct 26, 2020 from Tom HessFollowing most guitar practice conventional wisdom often leads to slower progress, formation of bad playing habits and lots of unnecessary frustration. Yes, a lot of common advice regarding playing guitar faster is wrong and actually causes you to play slower and less clean! The following ...
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