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“My old teacher said practice is like a triangle – one side is speed, one is cleanliness and the other is accuracy. When you’re learning, focus on two of those and ignore the other”: Sophie Lloyd shares tips for guitar practice
The YouTuber and Machine Gun Kelly guitarist says there’s no substitute for “picking up a guitar, feeling those strings under your fingers and building your calluses”.
Image: Per Ole Hagen / Getty Images
British guitarist Sophie Lloyd has offered some practice tips and tricks to level up your guitar skills in a new interview.
On the topic of finger strength, Lloyd tells Total Guitar that players can work out their fingers using “those Gripmaster hand exercisers” all they want, but nothing will replace “picking up a guitar, feeling those strings under your fingers and building your calluses.”
“It’s also really important to build the strength of each finger,” she adds, “because a lot of players might feel great about hammering on and pulling off between their first and middle fingers, but less confident about doing the same with their middle finger and pinky.”
“There are some players who only use three fingers and I feel like they’re missing out on a massive part of their potential by neglecting the pinky.”
The guitarist – who now shreds on Machine Gun Kelly’s touring band – also details her approach to practising, saying “My old teacher used to say practice is like a triangle – one side is speed, the other is cleanliness and the other is accuracy. And whenever you’re learning, you need to focus on two of those and ignore the other.”
“For example, if you’re practising with a metronome, you’re probably going to start off slower. In those situations you are sacrificing speed for cleanliness and accuracy.”
Lloyd adds, “It’s always important to get your muting technique down at this stage, whether that’s using your fretting hand fingers to cover unused strings or your picking hand, or both.”
“You might find yourself lifting parts of your hand to only cover a few strings at a time and then also using the side of your picking hand palm to mute other ones.”
“Once you have those down, you can start practising up to speed and keeping the accuracy, maybe sacrificing a little bit of cleanliness to begin with because you can build on that more once your speed is up. At the end, you have to add it all together to complete the triangle! ”