One of the most beneficial learning tools for a guitarist looking to fully master the guitar is to play a lot of live gigs. Playing live shows is great for honing and perfecting your skills and abilities under the pressure of playing in front of an audience. Performing in front of an audience will help you to gauge how far you've come and give you a chance to entertain people and put all of that practice time to good use.

One reason why some guitarists may not do live gigs is because they aren't in a band and have no one to back them up on stage. Others may be in a band with members who aren't as dedicated, or don't show up to practices, so playing a live gig would be a disaster. Whatever the reason may be, these individuals are missing out on a great teaching experience that could really help them to master their instrument by not playing live.

This is where playing live gigs with guitar backing tracks can be extremely useful. Guitar backing tracks are the serious guitar student's most effective secret weapon for improving their playing style and perfecting their instrument. These backing tracks sound great, like a professional band playing behind you to back you up. Do ensure that you do play along to professional guitar backing tracks and not "midi" based tracks. Professional tracks are available from online shops such as Planet of Rock.

Guitar backing tracks are great for private practice sessions as well. They increase your skill by allowing you to practice chords and scales as well as improvising solos to a live backing band. This practice experience also helps you to develop the timing skills necessary to play along with other musicians. They improve practice time by making it less dull and helping you to use the knowledge you have gained to create awesome lead work as well as perfecting rhythm techniques. By perfecting your skills with guitar backing tracks, you can also work on perfecting your tone. All great tone comes from the player's abilities and how well they actually play; it's not all about the fancy equipment.

Once you've gotten comfortable with your skills and abilities, you're ready to put them to the ultimate test! Using guitar backing tracks for a live performance will allow you to express your creativity by using your knowledge to improvise great lead work and to thoroughly rock the crowd without worrying about your back up band messing up or missing the show.