Find Somebody To Play With

It is very important that you have someone to jam with or someone to assist you. If you're a beginner you should team up with somebody better than you as it will be easer for you to play with such a person because they have more control and experience so even if you mess up on the timing or something of that sort, they will slow down and wait for you. It is a great way to improve your musicianship and understanding of other players. There isn't a better feeling than that when you are playing with someone you know very well and you completely understand each other and can both change the speed at the same time. There is just something about knowing the person for a long time that creates a bond between you that will allows you to communicate without actually speaking.

If you are more advanced you might want to consider forming a band. It would be a good experience to play with real people instead of a backing track. Make sure they are about the same level as you are, because you don't want someone to be a lot better than everyone else and wanting to play songs that are impossible for you to play at that stage. Also you've got to like the people you play with. You will spend many hours with them and the last thing you want is someone annoying being there. Playing with a band would definitely improve your timing. When you begin covering songs start with backing tracks and then try playing just by yourself and see hoe you sound there will always be something to improve on. Find people that are into the same type of music as you are, because you don't want to have to learn a song you don't like and wont enjoy playing. 

If you're advanced and have time you could help out someone who is not as good as you and teach them a few things. Teaching is good as it forces you to analyze your playing style and techniques which cause you to find out a lot about yourself. This can sometimes be very helpful, for example when you find that on a certain riff you should start on an upstroke instead of a downstroke.

Looking For The Right Sound

Getting the right sound is very important. It wont make you a virtuoso, but it will surely improve your performance. The first way you can manipulate your sound is turning the knobs on your amp. I'm not talking about distortion levels (though that's cool), but your treble, middle and bass. What I like to do is put my treble and middle to just over halfway and my bass to just before halfway. This setting is good when you're playing with other people, because it allows the bass player to be heard better. You can also add effects like flanger, chorus or phaser, but thats up to you as not all amps have that.

Now the other way to change your sound. The way you play. Muting is quite important as it stops any unwanted noise from being heard which can completely ruin your performance (I would know)

Rest the heel of your palm on the strings to mute them. The more pressure you apply the crunchier you will sound. Less pressure will allow the strings to ring and sound cleaner. You should apply more pressure if you're playing metal and hard rock. Playing close to the bridge will create a very metallic sound and playing closer to the strings will make you sound softer and mellower. The angle at which you approach the strings also makes the sound different so as you see you have lots of possibilities.

There are other devices you can use to enhance your sound such as wah wah pedals, distortion pedal and effect boards which I've already written about so I wont go into too much detail. Effect boards are great for creating weird and unusual sounds which can even make you sound like you're playing a different instrument such as keyboard, bass, 12 string acoustic guitar or horn. To achieve this I use a Pandora mini by Korg which is a very useful tool.