Any guitar player can improve their skills with effort and hard work. When you are a beginner you will need to work on a lot of different aspects of guitar playing, and what to work on may be more obvious compared to someone who has been playing the guitar for 5, 10 or more years.

                            Play Guitar Daily:

This may sound like an obvious thing, but it really helps if you play your guitar daily, even at moments when you do not have much time or appetite for playing. You can play through some of your songs, noodle around a bit, play some scales, or play through your full set-list to entertain yourself. All of this will help you to keep your fingers and mind in shape.

                           Set Yourself Goals:

Very important one, even for experienced guitar players, as there will always be something to work on whether it is technique related or style of music or whatever, find out what it is you WANT to learn and next find out HOW to work on this skill.

                           Start Playing with Other Musicians:

They can be guitar players as well, but it may be better to hook up with someone who plays a different instrument. Playing together with other people will teach you what it takes to play in an ensemble setting. You may enjoy playing with others, you may not, you may feel you lack the skills, by playing together with others you will find out what it is you need to make you sound good together.

                          Learn Some Music Theory:

Especially for those who have been playing for years and do it all “by feel”. Becoming aware of what it is you do will make you sound better, it will also give you a heightened insight to how to improve your own playing. There are plenty of guitar related theory books out there but you can also work with general music theory related books. A lot of basic guitar tutor books will teach you basic music theory as well. It all helps and once you have a basic, working music theory knowledge, you can always back it up later when you feel to need to dive in deeper.

                         Performing Music:

If you have never played in front of people you may be in for a shock. The first time you may be nervous after a while you may start to like it.
Performing in front of an audience (it may be just some of your friends) will show you that there is more to this skill than just playing your songs, you will need to entertain people with your guitar playing, and this may be a little more than just playing those chords or riffs or solos that you have been working on.  You will need to be on top of your music to be able to connect with the audience, you also need to believe in the songs you play (if you do not enjoy playing them how can you expect others to enjoy listening to them?) 

When you look back at the various ideas I mentioned above you may feel that some of those mentioned may not be for you.  Some of these ideas may be for later, all depending on your level of playing and your experience and how long you have played the guitar for.
Most people who play music, whether it is just for fun or something a little more, will at some point be actively engaged with any of these five issues mentioned above. Just keep at it for now and it give it some thought what it is you need to do next.

For next article more ideas about phrasing and other technical related issues.

Hope to see you soon again,
Eddie