The subject starts with brief introduction to electronic structure of solids. Then, the subject introduces selected spectroscopic and diffraction experimental techniques for advance material characterization. The selection of techniques is based on recent requirement on new material development. The experimental techniques introduced within this subject are: X-ray spectroskopy (XAS, XMCD), photon-electron spectroscopy (PES, HEXPES, ARPES, inverse PES), diffraction (X-ray diffraction, electron diffraction, neutron diffraction), examples of time-resolved techniques, pump-probe techniques, nuclear spectroscopy (Moessbauer spectroskopy, NMR) and resonance techniques (FMR).