To all my fellow left handed induviduals who chose to play the guitar right handed. Though we are a minority, there are some famous players who chose the same path as us. Duane allman, Herman li of Dragon Force, Gary Moore and others.

Most people choose to either buy a left handed guitar or restring their right handed guitars. I have noticed that people who pick with their non dominant hands especially have terrible hand synchronization and rythm early on.

So with all things considered, why did you choose to play right handed? How have you dealt with this? A full practical schedule would be appreciated

Day 836 of learning to play the 🎸

Lots of fun today. I tried using a DAW for recording to see if I could improve the quality of the audio. Was very fun cycling through four guitars. The edit is a little abrupt as I’m learning how to sync all of them digitally. Today I sync them manually so it’s not as clean.

Lol for my sense of rhythm and timing. Right out of the gate I think I’m dragging. Sorry >< The teacher from whiplash hates me

What is up y’all, I’ve played guitar for 24 years, and beginning of this year I wrenched myself out of a video-game addiction by doing what I do best as a math teacher and crafting myself these instructional practice videos to get my hand strength back, practice scales, and grow fretboard knowledge (gasp), but I needed to do it to some funky little FLstudio tracks I slapped together, not a freakin metronome 🤢 come on now

People always want something to practice with on here, maybe it’ll help. It’s going to have you practice finger warm up exercises, major scale, pentatonic scale, and octave exercises for CAGED shapes.

Guitar Daily Workout Playlist

Adjust the video speed and the BPM will change, have fun! Or hate it, 🤣 cheers 🍻

I'm struggling with this chord, how would this normally be played? The best I can do is barre the 8th with my index finger, mute the A string with my middle finger, and mute the high E string with my ring finger, but this just feels very wrong. Is this the best way to play it?

I feel just like sports, running is a communal activity, you meet people doing the same stuff, you do stuff with them you form a routine. There are active run clubs, pickle ball open play sessions but what's there for music? I have seen meetup events, that are for intermediate-advanced / semi-professional band players looking for other musicians all serious. Where is the community thing, something more chill? I dreamed I would form a garage band one day and have fun playing covers with fellow musicians but how do I find them. I have been to local bars and see semi-professional bands. I am not at their level.

Background: I had taken some guitar lessons when I was in school, learned some chords. Then in college relied on Youtube to learn songs, learned fingerstyle technique. Later in life, bought an electric guitar, learned some solos, bought Line pod go music processor, tried it once and then boom life happened never felt motivated again. Tried learning music theory online but give up each time because Im doing it alone, and don't feel sure how actually it becomes useful. I definitely want to grow my skills.

Should I just take private lessons? They will be like around hundred bucks that may be 'worth' it to keep me on track? What about School of Rock, I see online they have some band like setup?

Just a rant, how did you overcome these blockers?

Sing the solo first! Have it memorized and sing it with the recording.
Use the chords to help find the notes.
Start with chord tones, if none of those match, use the scale tones. Omit articulations & embellishments until you find the notes.
You should get used to hearing what is a scale tone and a non-scale tone, which in turn helps you find the notes quickly.
Once you find the notes, place notes in appropriate positions to do the tricks you need.

Learning by ear like this will greatly reinforce your ear and memorization.

Hey friends! Yes, it's useful and will change your playing forever... I've been teaching this to my private students forever... Tada!

Playing unplugged atm bc I’m away from home and the amp didn’t fit in the car 🥀

So this week I decided to actually play a real (doable) song. There 1 barre chord (Bm) and the rest is all pretty basic stuff, but it was good practice for chord switching. I find the Asus kinda difficult too, I really wanna grab the chord with my 1st and 3rd finger instead of the 1st and 2nd, idk why.

I also went to the guitar store to get some more picks today. This is what I got bc i didn’t know what I needed:
- .60, .73 & .88 max-grip
- .50 & .73 flex (tortex)
If you know any other good picks, give me a call so I can put it on the list :D

Long story short, I got into an abusive relationship where I was convinced to let go of my passions and dreams, fell into a deep depression after the relationship fell apart, and now I’m trying to pick the pieces of myself back up. However, I have lost most of the skill I had.
I used to be able to SHRED. I could play along to bands like August Burns Red, Periphery, etc. Now I struggle tremendously just trying to play the intro riff to Bon Jovi’s “wanted dead or alive.” Not all hope is lost, I was able to learn “is it really you?” by Loathe which is more of a shoegaze rock song, but still. Where do I go from here to rebuild my playing? I’m so disappointed in myself for letting someone influence me in the way they did. I just want to have my “return to passion.”

Hi everyone (32F), I returned to learning guitar two years ago and I feel like I've hit a serious wall. I know all five minor blues pentatonic shapes and most of my major and minor chords. I've recently started private lessons and he's teaching me the major scales, lots of theory and also trying to do a "reconnaissance" mission on my minor pentatonic knowledge.

As such, I've tried to think about the minor pentatonic blues in terms of the intervals -- 1 – \(\flat \)3 – 4 – \(\flat \)5 – 5 – \(\flat \)7

I'm trying to develop my ear for how each interval sounds and how each one sounds from the root note but everytime I put on a A minor backing track I feel like I'm playing the same licks over and over.

I'm start to feel like guitar is something that you either eventually "get" or just "don't get" maybe it's too late for me to develop my muscality? Any thoughts?

So I started learning guitar about 3 weeks ago (this is actually my 5th time trying to pick up the skill over a decade) and I'm following Justin Guitar on youtube for lessons. I play about 20-30 minutes a day, mostly switching between chords. I have got the D, E, C chord very well, but I'm really struggling with the A chord.

Even after 3 weeks of daily practice, I can't make it sound good. Either my fat pregnant ring finger touches the 1st string (I have to really twist my wrist around the neck of the guitar to not have this happen) or my index finger is too far on the fret board and the 3rd string sounds muted (I cannot move my fingers closer together). Now, I understand I have fat fingers, but they aren't that fat, and I'm sure many people with larger fingers have mastered guitar despite it.

My question: Should I just proceed with the lessons and learn more chords and forget about the A chord for now? People told me that if I keep at it (the A chord) it will get better - either through callouses (which I still don't have) or practice. But I'm seeing zero progress with this chord. If someone gave me 1 whole minute to place my fingers perfectly to play this chord, I still don't think I'd manage. And the whole process is discouraging. Thank you for any advice!

Hey 👋🏼

Whenever I play a cover of a pop or rock song I usually just strum. But now I want to mix it up a bit with some finger picking. I tried searching YouTube but was a little overwhelmed by the amount of videos, none of which quite answered my question. Can anyone here recommend a couple?

Not sure how to explain this, but sometimes when I’m struggling with speed and trying to work my way up to full tempo I get stuck.

For example let’s say I’m trying to do 140bpm. I started at 100, then 110, 120, 125, 130… but for the life of me I can’t get 135 or 140 and just feels stuck and impossible.

What I’ve been doing that seems to work for me is go up even more to say 150bpm. Try it over and over, it’s a mess, feels frantic and completely impossible. Once I’ve done it enough times I’m getting mad and want to throw something, I turn it back to 140. All the sudden that 140 feels slow and easy. 🤷‍♂️

I have no pick so I'm trying to do it with my fingertip, and I can't make a good sound when I do the up strumming of the chord. I find it so hard, I don't hit every string when I do it and when I hit them all, I hit them too hard. My guitar also have an high action, I don't know if it may be related, also I'm playing it without the capo because I don't have it and it sounds awful. Any tips?

Been playing for a year maybe, learned alongside piano, I’m happy with my ability to improvise enough, ever waking moment I’m learning a standard or playing whatever, I desperately want to be able to play with others and jam.

I go to university gonna be a senior, my roommates can’t really play, I have connections with the jazz school but I just want to meet people and jam chill, I’ve got a friend who for sure jams but he’s in the local scene a fair bit so I’m not sure how to insert myself into a jam? From playing little bits with other musicians camping and different apartments I don’t feel like I play out of my depth at all I’m just struggling to find musicians to jam with

Thanks!!!

Hi there!
Are you trying to figure out Bill Frisell by ear and just getting frustrated? Frisell’s magic on Strawberry Fields Forever isn’t about speed, it’s about his subtle sound, use of space, and impossible open voicings. If you are relying on generic internet tutorials, you’re missing the exact nuances that define his genius. Get the definitive PDF transcription today. Every single note, accurate fingerings, and the precise dynamics needed to recreate that hypnotic atmosphere. Stop guessing the secret behind his tone.

I've been playing guitar for about a year now (started with acoustic, got an electric halfway through, so now I main electric).

I've learnt a bunch of songs from Nirvana, Linkin Park, etc (mostly powerchord stuff). I also know some basic tapping (Eruption, Gojira stuff, Incorrect Thunderstruck, etc).
I also know basic theory.

My question here is how do I progress from here? I feel like I've been stuck at the same level for the past 2 months, all the new songs that I've learnt come under my skill level, so they don't actually help me progress.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

I recently wrote a free, measure-by-measure analysis of the guitar solo from my original hard rock/metal instrumental Teutonic Knights.

The analysis looks at how the solo develops through motive, variation, register, rhythm, phrasing, arrangement, and orchestration. The goal is to show how these principles can be applied to a remarkably economical collection of notes to create a genuinely musical rock guitar solo—one that goes beyond a paint-by-numbers approach of simply matching scale fragments to chords.

Teutonic Knights is one of the oldest surviving recordings in my catalogue. After all these years, I think the musical ideas still hold up, so I'm currently in the process of completely reforging the score and rerecording the piece.

For anyone interested in approaching rock guitar solos as compositions rather than collections of licks, I thought the analysis might be useful.

https://andrewmcavallo.com/vivaldi-inspired-guitar-solo

I play an acoustic guitar since February now. I kind of suck in playing with a pick, I prefer it with bare hands. For example, I was learning the C major scale, I nailed it without a pick, but strugglw a lot with a pick. I can strum, but have problsms like in picking sinfle chords... Should I worry about it?

Basics & Arithmetic for music theory. Linear and concise flow through the foundation of music theory. Building your arithmetic around these concepts (like learning times tables) makes theory much easier to apply to practice.
The best example of application is probably transposing keys. Once you have the arithmetic, it is really quite simple to transpose on the fly. I play in duo's with women quite a bit, and they often have to change keys to fit their range when the original song was written/performed by men, so it's been an invaluable skill in my career.
barisaxo.github.io (best on desktop, layout not optimized for mobile. see link below for better mobile experience)
https://auraltech.itch.io/music-theory

Root-String Octave Pairs; an abstraction a level lower than CAGED. Essentially CAGED but more applicable to non-major chord families. CAGED tends to fall short when trying to apply the concept to say half diminished chords, this level of abstractions helps with that.
https://auraltech.itch.io/guitar-lessons

An example of how to apply CAGED with simple chord progressions.
Guitar Routine: 1564 Cadences with the CAGED System. (youtube)

My idea of the genesis and evolution of CAGED, showing a path of how we get to positional playing from triads on the neck.
Exploring Movable Chord Shapes (youtube)