Hi all, I find myself wanting to improve my music skills in situations where I don’t have an instrument available to practice with. What’s some good ways to improve just with my phone and some theory? And btw I’m only just starting off with the practical music theory course. Thanks.
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The ear trainer app
And note finder I find the most useful.
Links are for Apple Store but assuming they’re available on android too.
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Hi Rudy,
Welcome here and I wish you a lot of fun , 
If you ask your question at the top right of the search window you will get many more tips… 
Greetings,Rogier
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thanks i never thought about buying these , now its done 
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I always have the same thought too Rudy. I also like to listen to music I am working on and try and imagine myself playing along. I think about the positioning of fingers, the timing, the stum pattern, where there is a pause or break etc. etc. as I listen.
Strong recommendation is to learn how to sing any scale you are learning on the guitar. If you aren’t learning one yet, learn the major scale first. If you have a phone and somewhere you can make noise, you can use a tuner app to check your pitch.
Best of luck!
Lately, I got into visualization of pieces I play.
It helps me to discover places where I have only muscle memory, which leads to blackouts at these spots in stressful situations of live performance.
I just visualize my both hands playing.
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Thanks for the replies everyone! I’ll have to have a try at each suggestion. Another thing though, what would you guys do if you couldn’t have audio either, like at downtime at work… I’ve just been reciting the major scales in my head lol.
Justin recommends visualising the fretboard notes in your head, that’s a bit hardcore for me.
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That happened to me a lot eventhough I wasn’t playing live; visualisation is really a super powerful tool we have…not easy at all when one starts doing it but, as anything else it’s a skill that develop the more you do it. Now I can play in my mind most of the pieces that I want to retain (short things insofar)…if I can’t play it in my mind then I won’t be confident enough to play it on the guitar…it’s like I need a nitid mental picture of the piece I can rely on, and yes that picture is made also of how both my hands move on the guitar, as you say, and more and more of earing the sound of a note in my mind and be able to connect with the fretboard while playing.
@RudyTaylor Hello Rudy and welcome here…there are many ways to practice without a guitar…mindfull listening is one of my favourite…sometimes I wonder about the time signature and by listening I can tell “this song is in 3/4 or 6/8 or more commonly a 4/4”, sometimes I can just make an hypothesis, especially on the 12/8…I remember at the beginning I loved to play air guitar and work out my strumming patterns by listen…I don’t know where you are in your journey and this sounds crazy or difficult or something you already can do…whatever it is,
it’s great exercise. Other things you can do…memorise the structure or the lyrics of a song you’re learning or the chord progression. It really depends on your learning needs…but what you can do without a guitar is not only related to Music Theory.
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I practice without my guitar all summer as my kids are off school and I spend every second I can with them , as they still are at an age where they think I am cool 
. I am lucky if I pick the guitar up for an hour a week but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
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Yep, available on Google Play. Great apps, and for only a few bucks from memory.
Cheers,
Shane
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This made me really smile Eddie 
…but I can tell you that a cool dad is a cool dad forever …maybe with a few years break!? Why don’t you print out some tune they love? You know one of those pop hits of the moment the youngest ones know every word of?
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