What helped you get a lot better?

Definetly get a good guitar teacher. If you take lessons, you're supposed to improve at 3 times the speed (I think I heard something that somewhere)... Good luck.

Self confidence!

I was always very critical of my playing, even when other said it sounded good I didn't believe them, after all your friends have to nice, don't they?

Then I was somehow convinced to play in a talent showcase with a mate of mine who was going to sing. After 3 songs and a request for an encore, we ended up coming second out of over 20. After that I figured; "Hey, I can't be THAT bad!"

Point being; the massive boost in confidence in my own playing has led me to go further, faster than I have in any of the last 2 years.

So believe in yourself! ( And dont give up :) )

I'll give another vote for playing with others.

I've made more progress in the last few weeks than I had in months before. The only thing that has changed is that I'm attempting to play with others. Once you get over the "I suck" attitude and actually try listening and joining in, large leaps are made in skill.

I still suck though, just a lot less than I did a few weeks ago. :)

Jason

once I started using a looping device and making tracks on it everything broke open. before, I needed other musicians or members of the band(s) I had been in. Once I started looping tracks I improvised over different progressions, taking the progression beneath solos of cover songs and what not, and everything opened up.

My biggest jump in rate of improvement came when I realized that every little imperfection is a barrier to playing better, so if I want to play well, I have to slow down and focus on doing everything right.

I used to play through a song accepting a little bit of slop here or there as I tried to learn the whole song.

Now, I take it one measure, or even a part of a measure -- sometimes one note -- at a time until it I can play that one thing perfectly, then I move on to the next.

I used to spend a few days "learning" a song. When I started this attitude towards practice that went up to a month or more for a single song. Since then I'm back down to about a week per song.

You will play how you practice, so if you practice accepting slop, you'll play with slop.

The other thing that helped me a lot, aside from simply demanding perfection in my play on songs while I practice, was realizing the value of etudes designed to train specific techniques.
Be careful not to give starting out players the impression that every pick scratch on a note-for-note is mandatory to play it "correctly". I have reached the level where I can look at it and play it right away, even the solo if it is not too tough (and I know how it goes) but I got there through understanding the progression and structure of the song. There is a good lesson on it here in guitar noise on "wish you were here" strumming patterns.

What helped me was meeting two guys on my local park a couple of summer's ago and they showed me how to fingerpick. My guitaring leaped forward thanks to them!! You definately need someone to 'show' you how it's done sometimes - a book or dvd won't tell you when you've got it wrong, but another musician will, and you need someone to bounce off for ideas and inspiration. I owe them so much.

set reachable goals and play with as many different musicians as you can 8)

What helped me imporove was going to a teacher for lessons, and knowing what i really wanted to play, and staying focussed on it. Getting lessons really helps, but it helps even more if your teacher knows precisely what you want.
I try not to look at tab, and try figuring out songs on my own (i just started playing acoustic blues). If i get stuck, i ask my teacher, and we listen to the piece, and it helps me see how a musician's (my teacher's ) mind works.
What has also helped me enormously is music theory, and knowing all the notes on the fretboard. My appreciation has taken a big leap, after i got to now all the notes on ther frtetboard, and their relationship to chords.

For me alot of it was competition, I started at the same time as someone, I had an acoustic guitar (k yari) and my friend jsut baought an electric guitar. At first i was jealous that he had an electric but I was determined to be better, faster etc thatn him anyway and now I am VERY glad I started with an acoustic, and with some competition. (acoustics build character!)

anyone else find this about acoustic guitars/ competition?

For lead guitar playing, the thing that helped me the most was learning one of the blue scales (it doesn't matter which, you can move it all over the fretboard) and trying to solo over a backing track in that key. If you're new at this, lol, you will sound bad, but you will gradually hear yourself improve and get better. Whatever you do, stick with it, don't give up so quickly.

^^^ hes right^^^ :P

I can never think of music as a competition, and never will. But playing with others, watching and listening to others play, will teach you more than you can imagine.

Playing in my first band and the competition with the other guitar player to learn songs and earn solo rights....Playing in any band or Live is the way to learn fast. Period.

I just wanted to play music. It was such a challenge that it drove me to try and learn. But it was slow at first. I am largely self taught. Have had a few lessons.
I started listening to others playing and would think, "man, if I could only be half that good>" But I always knew that wouldn't be enough.

When I first started all I did was practice and then practice some more. But now after 3 years under my belt I have learned to practice some and then play some everyday. What i do is run through scales and finger exercises and work on any chords I may be having trouble with, it's a good way to warm up, then I practice whatever new song i'm trying to learn, then i will finish up by playing some songs I know.

I know alot of songs now so what i do is play like 5 or 6 and then the next day i will play 5 or 6 songs i know that i didn't play the day before. this seems to help keep it all fresh for me and for my mind.

Mostly when i learn a new song, I will learn alittle, but will think about it and play it in my mind. It's amazing because sometimes i will hear something in my head, go rab the guitar and try it and wow, it's right, break out the cd listen, then play, then listen, make notes.

But I guess the single thing that really drives me.....is not feeling like i am good enough so i practice. people say that I'm good, but in my mind I go yeah but i made a small mistake here and there that you may not noticed but I have, so i will keep at it cause i have a burning desire to play music. I want to express my feelings and emotions through songs I write as well as those I have learned.

What helped me a lot with my lead playing is Record yourself, then when you can listen to yourself you can decide what you dont like about your playing and actively fix it. Also... master the basics. I played years without doing scale runs and picking excercises, and now that ive started doing it ive improved 500% in like, 3 weeks. I hate myself for wasting so much time lol.