Help with the guitar! weee

DarkSymphony

ok, so I've been playing off and on for a while now. I know tons of chords by memorization, I know a few scales by memorization (although, not every single placement of every scale), I know quite a few songs and such and I have been reading a ton on music theory. Things like Diatonic chords, all the keys (not quite all 30 memorized, but close), transposing, I know how to read sheet music on an intermediate level and well...

I want to know what would get my speed up, and just overall, what kinds of practices are good to get myself to be better? I know there's no magical thing that just makes you better, but I have been extremely serious with music and the guitar for a while now (ever since I started seriously practicing day in day out). I'm just at a point where I want to go as far as possible and work my ass of getting there.

I guess I'm looking for exercises in improving my playing ability, and less so about studying with music theory.

Filler Inc.

Just playing scale to a metronome really helps. Theres on online one if you don't have a physical one.

Zombiemambo

Do you use a metronome? If not, buy one or find a free one online (I'll bring up a link in a few minutes), and try to play to the beat. Then make the metronome faster, and play it like that. Keep increasing the speed.

DarkSymphony

now, here's another question

should I memorize every section for every major scale? like, every octave for C major up through B major? and then practice 1 at a time to a metronome?

and, if so (if I should mem. every single plot for every major scale) then, what really is a good way to go about doing that?

romanqwerty

Scales are great and the metronome sugestion is awesome.
Not mentioned but vital is to mention that you are playing properly not sloppily. I.E. Dont try to play it faster until you can play it perfectly using the tips of every finger (Including pinky). Proper use of 4th finger is what distinguishes an amatuer guitarist from a pro.

DynamiteKid

When it comes to scales and soloing, I've always avoiding learning the scales per se - I've rather learned what notes sound good in what key or over what chord, and learned where they are all over the fretboard. So many guitarists in famous bands and just locally to me, when they solo you can see in their fingers that they're doing the minor pentatonic or whatever. So I've always been one to avoid using a scale and just go for what'll sound good over it.

One way to increase finger dexterity is an exercise whereby you assign your first finger to the first fret, second finger to the second fret, etc. up to the fourth
and then starting with the low E, you go 1-2-3-4 up every string, and then 4-3-2-1 down every string, and then you move it up by one fret until you reach the top of the neck. You also once you've mastered this, further increase your dexterity by going 1-4-2-3 and then 3-2-4-1 or 1-3-2-4 and then 4-2-3-1.

And one tip I give everyone is - watch TV with a guitar in your hand. It's what I do to keep my ear in tip-top shape. Work out how to play jingles. Work out how to play the theme song of your favourite TV shows. Work out how to play the score to your favourite movie scenes. It just helps you get your ear much much better by working out something you wouldn't normally be needing to play, and it can make working out just bog standard guitar stuff easier.