The subject starts with brief introduction to electronic structure of solids. Then, the subject introduces selected spectroscopic and diffraction experimental techniques for advanced material characterization. The selection of techniques is based on requirements in recent development of new materials. The experimental techniques introduced within this subject are: X-ray spectroscopy (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 spectroscopy, NMR) and resonance techniques (FMR).