It’s an internal debate for me. I usually restart after every mistake. That got me thinking that might not be the most effective way to practice.
Your thoughts?
Personally I would say:
- Learn how to play the major scale on one string
- Learn how to play the major scale on multiple strings
- Learn the “E” and “A” barre chords
- Learn the diatonic chords in a key
- Play songs you like using steps 1-4
I know like all the open chords, I know the main shapes people use (at least i think i do), I know the E & A strings very well so I know where to place a the root and what shapes to use, i know the minor pentatonic box in the one position, and i also know the triad shapes on the bottom 3 and 4 strings, I dont really like the way the triads sound on the rooted on the E & A string so I didnt really care to memorize those shapes, I also know music theory pretty well, but one thing i find im lacking is the ability to add little guitar phrases/licks to songs, so I feel like the next thing I should learn is how to play the pentatonic scale in more ways then just box 1 or whatever its called?
Hello everyone! For many years I was traveling to houses giving in person lessons. Last year I decided to give it up. I felt that the traveling just wasn't becoming worth it anymore. So now I have just been teaching lessons online, but have found it harder to find new students. I just thought I would throw this out there for anyone interested. If you'd like to discuss your guitar goals with me over Zoom to see if I could be of help, there would be no charge. If you decided to do lessons, I charge on a week by week basis, so you could stop lessons at any time. I'm looking for beginner to intermediate level students. I specialize in music notation, rock, blues, and fingerstyle guitar. Please no negative comments just send a private message if interested. Thank you.
I’ve just never had the “creativity gene” as it were. Never been good at creating unique scenarios and ideas and just always been copying what other people have written. And I feel like the same will happen with guitar. Even if I memorize however many scales and songs, I just don’t see myself composing original pieces or deviating from exactly what’s written, even if I have the technical knowledge in my head.
Don’t get me wrong. I love just playing. But I’m just not creative at all and don’t want to feel like I’m missing out on the main thing with guitar: making my own music
Hello! I'm about two months into guitar playing. I've been using a capo to help change the key of different songs so I can sing along, but I'm having trouble understanding exactly how a capo works ... If, for example, I add a capo to the 3rd fret of a song that's normally played without a capo (e.g., wish you were here), do I then need to change the chord shapes that I learned? Or can I just add a capo to whichever fret and play the same chord shapes? I feel like I'm ear blind and can't tell whether the guitar sounds bad. I'm hyper-focused on my voice
I hope this isn't too silly of a question. I've been watching videos on music theory but I still haven't fully grasped it. Thanks in advance!
Edit: wow, thank you all SO much for your incredible (and fast!) replies!!
For context its Tears dont fall by bullet
Do i just mute the middle so when I play it with the pick it doesnt ring out?
Mute it with my index finger ?
Ta Y'all
My wife is a classically trained pianist and I play guitar by watching YouTube instructional videos. She knows her stuff and I don’t. Recently we argued whether E# and B# exist. I said no and showed her the fretboard. She said yes and showed me the keys. And said something like F is E#. I suspect she’s right bc she’s had music lessons. Tell me, fellow guitarists, do we have E# and B#?
I know this may sound silly, but I'm feeling overwhelmed with finding the structure and mindset to practice what I am learning in my lessons.
I'm 45, and have been primarily a bassist for 33 years. I learned guitar chords along the way for writing songs. I do know a good many chords, even some tricker ones like diminished chords, but I've never really taken lessons or taken my guitar playing as seriously as my bass playing.
After losing my brother who was always the guitarist in our projects I have wanted to get better. Mainly so I can write cool counterparts to the chord structures I write for my songs.
Not only am I older and more busy than I was when I was younger, I am also ADHD. I learned fast as a young lad and young adult because I learned while doing - we were always gigging and writing.
Now I am taking lessons and learning scales and music theory. It's a lot. I'm having a bit of trouble getting a routine of practice going. I feel like I don't really know how much I should be practicing and what I should be doing during that time. I know this probably sounds stupid.
I have always pretty much written my songs instead of doing covers because of a lack of patience in picking parts out. When I make myself do it, I can, but I tend to work better under pressure. For instance, my last band did a cover of Hey Bulldog by The Beatles and I was able to pick out all of the bassline parts by ear. That is not an easy song to play. I haven't really adapted this to guitar yet. It all feels overwhelming. When I do learn new things I just tend to write more songs around what I learned rather than practicing it.
Is there a schedule and or strategy that has worked for you? Any input is greatly appreciated.
I’m looking for guitarists who really analyze and break down what they play—essentially offering lessons or "studies" available on YouTube or elsewhere. They teach you a song, but more importantly, the underlying concepts so you can apply them yourself later. Do you know of anyone with this kind of approach? I’m particularly interested in R&B and soul styles—think Curtis Mayfield, D'Angelo, Cornell Dupree, or even Hendrix, who was heavily influenced by that sound.
one way to make pentatonic practice more interesting is to take the same musical idea and deliberately move it to completely different areas of the neck. instead of staying inside one position, you start learning where the same notes and intervals appear across the fretboard.
in this example i’m playing over a repeating gm7 chord and moving riffs between two different g minor pentatonic positions. the underlying harmony stays the same, but jumping to another part of the neck changes the register, string choice, and feel of the phrase.
this is a great exercise for developing motifs because you don’t need to constantly invent new licks. take one short idea, find another place where you can play it, then experiment with changing the rhythm, octave, bends, or ending note while keeping the original phrase recognizable.
practicing this way also helps turn pentatonic shapes into a map of the fretboard rather than isolated patterns. the better you know where the same scale tones repeat, the easier it becomes to move around the neck while improvising and get more variety out of a simple musical idea.
This is my first time restringing my guitar—could someone please tell me if I’ve done it correctly? 😅
I "played" several decades before I devoted the time to undertake learning the pentatonic and 7-note scales in all positions. Most of my playing was limited to song chords and a few riffs but I could never improvise until I devoted the time to learn scales, arpeggios, and triads in all positions.
i own a black strat i got 2 years back i wasnt consistent, i know few chords and metal riffs
i wanna get better where do i start from?
please help.
If you have managed to learn your pentatonic scales (the shapes in various positions) then you are very close to learning your full major/minor (natural minor) scales. The pentatonic scale gives you 5 notes and to that you add two more. In fact there are benefits to thinking about scales this way because the two notes you add help you target the sound of specific chords in the scale.
If you are still to master your pentatonic, take a look at this great video from FretScience. I shows how you can build up the pentatonic scale by thinking about two boxes (the red and blue boxes in the diagram): https://youtu.be/wzWE0dpxnmY?si=tBHQxEvCCqTDlBAw
Pentatonic patterns appear on the fretboard as two boxes, a long/thin box (blue) and a short/fat box (red). It is easiest to see this in the first position (shown here in C major pentatonic). Once you can think of the fretboard in terms of these shapes, it is easy to extend it to major and minor scales (demonstrated in the second diagram). In the C scale, the red notes can be used to reinforce the F and Dm chords and the green notes reinforce the G and Em. So learning the scale patterns this way can help with chord targeting later on.
For those interested, I built this approach into Scale Wizard.
I’ve been practicing the Em/Gmaj scale because I love Metallica and most of their songs are in those keys. My goal is to be able to solo across the fretboard. How do I transition between playing in a box to connecting those boxes? Also, what’s next on my learning list?
Works fine when connected directly
Yes i know it’s got a fuzzy sound these items are all secondhand
Changed the battery in the looper
Changed the chords arrangement from the output and input
Adjusted the volume
Just honestly wanna make some music and improve my skills
Can anyone help me out
Did any other self-taught guitarists start out by learning basic chords and scales, playing songs they liked, and down-picking every note because alternate picking felt too difficult?
I found alternate picking frustrating for many years. Every time I tried to work on it, I couldn't even play the things I already knew. YouTube videos weren't helpful at all. I stuck to down-picking for several years, even though I wanted to learn alternate picking.
Are there others with similar stories? Did alternate picking come naturally to you?
I came across Chris Buono's Alternate Picking Gym this year and gave it a try because it looked systematic and structured. It completely changed my playing. I can't believe I used to play guitar without alternate picking. It is a crucial skill that benefits everyone who invests time into it.
What helped you learn this crucial skill?
TL:DR Got some good results in a focused month versus splitting my time across lots of stuff, made some gains I'm happy with in my improv speed, rhythm, timing and phrasing.
I see a lot of people like me posting in here - people who've got the basics down, know CAGED, Scales and Triads and are working towards getting better at lead.
Lead is the thing I'm most interested in and was lagging behind quite a bit despite the work I was doing. I'm very structured, so I was doing a bit of everything every day - scales, chords, songs, solos, improv, triads etc.
But the incremental gains across all of my playing has been frustrating me for a while. So I decided to just drop everything else and do nothing but focus on Ross Campbell's lead exercises for a month.
I realized I can play way faster than I thought I could with some focused practice. So I went from 95bpm to 115bpm, sure it's not perfect and is a little sloppy here and there, but it's so much better.
Not only that, but doing timing exercises for not just coming in on the 1 all the time was actually so much harder than I thought but adds nice variation to improv.
Anyway, sharing because it helped me quite a lot and would definitely recommend the exercises to anyone who is struggling with lagging lead even if you're working hard.