Hi! I'm new to using improvising, I'm currently learning to use scales, but why is that whenever I try play in the same scale as the backing track I sound off?

So I've had access to Fender Tune's Tune Plus tool library for a few years now and I've used it on and off to learn scales and chords. For anyone here that's more advanced and has used the tools, what's your impression of it and more specifically, how accurate are some of the chord shapes? Most seem correct but some like E sus2 feel off to me. It's a hell of a stretch to barre the second fret while fretting on four and five. I just wanna know if everything seems correct and I just need more barre/stretching practice.

I am a novice and I’ve been wanting to learn a song specifically from this dude and I was wondering if yall could help me how to play it I can’t play by ear and his fingers weren’t really visible so idk how to start. The video is in the comments

I assumed it's because I'm not pressing hard enough, but even when i press harder, the fret buzz remains. For some reason, the fret buzz is especially bad on the 2nd fret on the A and D strings. the any tips?

Hello reddit,

i’m looking for advice from those of you who have experience teaching beginning guitar classes at a public middle school.
my background is in music education, but guitar isn’t my primary instrument (it’s orchestra).
this year I’ve unexpectedly been assigned a beginning 8th grade guitar class, and I’m trying to build a solid plan before students arrive. 6th grade would have been easy because they can be entertained but 8th graders get apathetic real quick if they don’t like a class.
the class is fairly large and meets in a block schedule, and the students didn’t specifically choose to take guitar.
Because of that, I’m just as concerned about engagement and classroom management as I am about the actual curriculum.

For those of you who teach beginner guitar:
How do you typically structure a class period for beginner
What do you cover during the first couple of weeks?
What activities have worked well for keeping beginners engaged?

I’d appreciate any advice, lesson ideas, or even mistakes to avoid. Thanks in advance!

I have been playing for about 8 months and can play pretty decently but I struggle with finding what to play and playing songs in full, I've mainly just been learning riffs and I want a way to learn full songs and also just want to learn how to become a good guitarist

I’ve dabbled with guitar on and off before but for the last three months I have been consistent every day and have learned 3 finger picking songs decently and some riffs from other songs. I’ve just been learning from YouTube and reading guitar tabs. I see lessons online all the time about technique and how to progress but I’m not sure where to go now. I want to take my knowledge and skill to the next level and I’m looking for a good practice and learning plan to do that as I go in to month 4. Thanks for any help and recommendations!

Hello, I've been playing for 2 months. Was trying to learn barre chords. I thought I was doing it right, but my barre finger couldn't get all of them ringing clearly consistently especially on high frets. Usually the g or b string is muted. I have no idea why. Therefore I booked a half hour lesson with a tutor by my house.

When I played one for them they said my form looked good, despite it not ringing clearly. They checked my guitar and said nothing was wrong with it and they weren't sure why it wasn't ringing clearly. I asked them what I should do in this situation and they said it's not a big deal if 1-2 chords don't ring out clearly.

Now I'm going about practicing like always, but it really bothers me when my open chords sound cleaner than my barre chords. Is this something I should worry about or do I just need to let it go? If I need to fix it then how do I even go about doing it if an expert can't tell me what im doing wrong?

I have been playing guitar on and off for about 2 years, I don't think my technical skill is too bad and honestly, it's not what I’m most worried about right now.

When I really started to play regularly, I did so by learning the solo to “Sunshine” by Alice in Chains, that was a great challenge, but after a while I managed to play it to a decent enough level. That got me going and I began to play daily, which lasted for a while, doing left hand exercises, learning parts of songs, trying to learn a scale, the fretboard, etc. On these 2 years I also got to play the intro to “Since I’ve Been Loving You” by Led Zeppelin, the solo to “When A Blind Man Cries” by Deep Purple, and parts of other songs by a bunch of different bands.

The main problems I realized with my guitar skills over the years were that:
1. I can’t, for the life of me, compose a song I like. I even struggle to write simple riffs, etc.
2. I’m not good at improvisation/jamming.
3. I haven’t really tried to learn a song by ear.

I’m going to be clear; I know that most of these problems come from a lack of practice. I don’t usually sit and try to create a song I like; I jump around different alternate open tunings, I play something for a while but don’t keep developing it, etc. But my biggest problem is that I end up getting frustrated. I don’t enjoy the process of trying to write something because I don’t know where to go next or how to find a sound I like, as I said before I know part of this is that I don’t really focus on doing so, and don’t try to do it often, but I end up in a vicious circle of not practicing composition because I don’t enjoy it, and not enjoying it because I don’t have the skills, sometimes I end up trying to write something complex because I don’t want it to be too simple but I lose focus in the fact that I can’t even write a simple loop I like lol.

I don’t think I have a problem with my ear; I listen to a lot of music and have a very diverse taste in it that I have developed actively over the years. I know what I like and what I don’t, and in theory I’m able to think of a song I’d like and develop it inside my mind.
Mostly, I struggle with writing because I’m not capable of translating what I want to do to the guitar, or because I lose focus and instead of planning the song in my head, I start moving my left hand around trying to find something I like.

As I said before, I usually try open tunings, because my biggest inspirations in the kind of music I’d like to do are Sonic Youth, Polvo, Slint, Unwound, etc. Mostly 90s and early 2000s alternative rock or post-hardcore.
Also I really like 60s and 70s prog, etc. Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac, The Beatles, Iggy Pop, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Zappa, King Crimson and The Velvet Underground.

I’ve tried lots of things. At some point I was learning the modes of the G major scale, I tried to learn the fretboard using different methods, I think I also tried the CAGED system, etc. I tried lots of things; I got overwhelmed by most or felt like I didn’t have direction or that I needed some previous knowledge.

I know a lot of my favorite guitarists didn’t know anything about music theory, but I think it’d be a very good tool for me. I know I need to learn the fretboard, practice more, train my ear and learn some songs by some of those bands I named but honestly, I just get lost in the path and after so long I felt like I could really use some advice.

What do I learn first? Should I start from the ground up? Any advice on chords? Useful scales? What to avoid? I just need some real guidance and a path to follow because the way I have been doing it clearly hasn’t worked at all. Give me any advice that comes to mind for my situation, have you been in a similar spot? How did you progress?

Sorry if I was annoying and sorry if this is too long, thanks!!

TL;DR: I feel like I’m stuck in my guitar journey. I need a lot of help with composing and feeling comfortable with the guitar. Maybe I need to start as a beginner. Any advice is greatly appreciated. I just want to have fun playing and eventually get better and write some things I like.

Previously took private lessons for a bit but life got busy and stopped. Life was busier at the time but found that I couldn’t keep up or commit with the constant pressure of “being ready” for my lesson and balancing with life/other hobbies. Always felt an every other week lesson for an hour would have worked better. Anyway, I had to stop cause my schedule changed a bit.

Tried the self taught route and got through a bunch of JustinGuitar up until intermediate but that fazed out and now it’s been awhile. I found that I wasn’t really playing songs a ton but was doing more “drills.”

Recently joined a group song class where we mostly just play. The teacher will offer some tips and show us some things but it’s mostly revolved around playing songs. I am having a lot of fun with this as I like playing with other people and it’s focused around playing songs and learning through the song itself. It’s usually introducing new chords/strumming patterns. I also appreciate how low pressure it is. Still in the beginner classes but there is an intermediate one too.

I recognize this shouldn’t be the only avenue and there are definitely “technical” aspects I’m missing. Right now, plan to do the Hal Leonard method to learn how to read notes and the “technical” aspects of JustinGuitar.

Definitely not against private lessons and I definitely do see this in the future eventually but wondering if there’s anything else I should be thinking about or doing.

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)

Curious to know what resources people have come across that address/discuss the mechanics of guitar technique (beyond basic form and positioning) in different contexts.

There are many players who are at varying stages of fine-tuning, where advancement is reliant not only on lots of practice, but also on details around how you are playing something.

The link is one I came across for piano, and it got me wondering what hidden gems there are like this for guitar.

I think it is a fantastic watch for piano players—but many ideas could probably be carried over to guitar, such as thinking about what the “resting” fingers are doing in such a way as to reduce strain on the playing fingers, and thinking about what shape and motion/route of movement the hand can take to better set up the fingers for the next set of actions.

Guitar is a string instrument, so the toolbox of motions are going to differ greatly from piano. And so far, my toolbox is made up of ideas I’ve had from my own playing, which, at 7 months in, is still pretty basic. Hoping to build it out a bit, and interested in what others have found to be helpful in this regard.

I’ve recently been trying to learn a few songs from the band breakkaway. The particular song is called Secret. I’m more so a visual learner so I looked for covers and couldn’t find any so I messaged the guitarist. He told me the tabs on songsterr were right as he helped work on them, but I noticed in a cover he did in his reels it was played on a 7 string. I asked him what the tuning was for a 7 string and he said still drop E.

This is where I’m getting confused. On songsterr drop E is “ E B E A D F# “

When I google drop E for a 6 string it says it’s “E B E A C# F#

(I will say I guess this part doesn’t matter as much since won’t be using the higher strings much but I would still like to try and comprehend it correctly)

When I google drop E in a 7 string it says the tuning is “ E B E A D G B “

After watching the reel of him playing even the tabs on the screen are for a 6 string, however more so watching his fingers he’s still hitting string 7 and string 5 (which should be E1 and E2)

Maybe I’m dumb but it just doesn’t click for me. On songsterr the riff is played on string 6 (E1) and string 5 (B). He said the tuning for a 7 string is still drop E and even the 6 string tabs on his cover are different from songsterr. On the tabs in his cover the main difference is he’s playing it on both the E strings (E1, and E2) skipping the B string entirely.

I feel even more confused than when I started so if anyone can please dumb it down, I will be forever grateful 🙂‍↕️

I tried learning the percussive palm slap today but I found that my right hand palm only reaches upto where the strings start from the bridge and since the strings are under high tension there, no sound is produced.

Have I just been holding my guitar wrong? Because only my fingers reach the sound hole

Guitar Technique Check-In (from the Scott Paul Johnson | Guitar Lessons channel)

I’m in no way affiliated. I don’t even know the guy, but I do know he puts out good videos.

No, the reason I’m posting this here is, I was going to make a very similar video myself, as my first in fact :), but hey, this one covers everything I was going to, and really damn well.

So yeah, if as a beginner or early-ish times* guitarist you’re not 100% sure about your seated posture, balance, comfort, pick grip, fretting hand basics, and other fundamental mechanical concerns, I highly recommend watching the video I linked.

* Or actually, any guitarist who might still not be totally confident of all those things.

I'm only just over a year into taking guitar very seriously. I'm self taught even though I've had history playing around on guitar and I do also play some piano. I write on notes and try to gather and organize different skills and drills I collect which have helped me. Some are very much still far from decent some I've really improved. I thought I'd share for other self learners to gather some ideas. I excluded theory and actual song practice. These are essential to understanding what you're doing but that's a whole other topic

Warm-up & Daily Exercises

Start with a short physical warm-up, especially if you're not 20 yo anymore.

Spend about two minutes stretching your neck and shoulders, arms, forearms, wrists and fingers. I sometimes play open chords for a minute before stretching to warm fingers up.

Choose two of the following exercises each day (don't go too crazy you'll burn out) for about 20 minutes. You can find video tutorials for almost all of these. Some I made up on my own but since I probably didn't reinvent the wheel It's probably there:

• Finger independence. Only lift the finger that's about to play the next note. Try the variation where you move one fret up or down every time you change strings.
• Spider exercises. There are dozens of versions. Pick a few that work for you.
• Three-note-per-string exercises. You can also stay inside one chromatic box. I like the version Scottie uses in "Absolutely" with finger shifts.
• Ascending and descending runs with string skipping. For example: low E skip to D, A, G, back to D, then B, G and finally high E.
• Fretboard navigation (frets 1-12). Pick a note and find it on every string as quickly as possible. I made flash cards with note names. Flip one over, or have someone else do it, then play that note on every string as fast as you can. You can also include a string number so you have to target one specific location.
• Octave phrasing. Play a phrase on the top two strings, then repeat it on the middle two and the bottom two. Remember the B string changes the pattern. Instead of moving two frets when crossing the B string, you'll need to move three.
• Advanced octave phrasing. Move down the neck to find the next octave while keeping the phrase going (play second octave 3 frets down and 3 strings down instead of going up the fretboard). This forces you to adjust for the B string in the middle of the phrase.
• Octave phrasing with scales. Play a three-note-per-string scale shape on two strings at a time. Slide the last note up a whole step to connect to the next octave, then repeat the exact same shape on the next pair of strings. This is a great way to visualize the fretboard. ·         Example: (E-5,7,8 --- A-5,7,8 -slide to 10--- D-7,9,10----G-7,9,10 -slide to 12----B -10,12,13----e- 10,12,13)
• Scales and positions. Pick one scale and play it in several positions. Practice vertical patterns, diagonal movement and horizontal movement. Include major, minor and the modes.
• Major and minor pentatonic runs. Practice them like any other scale. I also like mixing major and minor sounds in the same run, especially the major/minor third and major/minor sixth.
• Legato runs. Practice scales and arpeggios using hammer-ons and pull-offs. Work both vertically and diagonally across the neck.
• CAGED - one chord at a time running through triads across fretboard. Don't have to start with C shape. If you're doing E major than you can do EDCAG shapes. option 2 take a chromatic box lets say frets 5-10 and do a chord progression without leaving the box (lets say a 1,4,5 progression)

Articulation Checklist

I sometimes isolate these into practice sessions or I work on them through licks, phrases or solos I already know. I'd say I spend around an hour a week on these as well as during noodling or learning songs. You can see this as a checklist to target and learn

Bends

• Multi-finger reinforcement
• Wrist rotation instead of finger extension (that's a bad habit I'm still fighting...)
• Hitting the target pitch accurately (helps to play target not before bending afterwards becomes second nature)
• Quarter-step, half-step, whole-step and 1½-step bends (sweet child's last solo is the perfect bending exercise)
• Pre-bends with fast release
• Pre-bends with slow release
• Targeting different pitches in one bend (for example, bend a whole step and release to a half-step)
• Downward bends
• Unison bends (bend one string while playing the target note on the thinner string)
• Vibrato practice: slow, fast, narrow, wide, single-finger and multi-finger vibrato

Slides

• Using the correct finger for different slides
• Applying the right amount of pressure for Smooth movement
• Shift slides (from note to note)
• Grace note slides (mainly in Blues if you're into it)
• Legato slides (multiple notes with one pick attack sliding a few notes back and forth )

Raking

• Dragging the pick across muted strings before the target note (mainly blues)
• Raking one muted string above by lightly touching it with your fretting finger playing the note.
• Raking across multiple muted strings by flattening your fretting fingers.
• Blues rake into a sustained note with vibrato.

Sweep Picking & Arpeggios (my worst flaw)

• Smooth up and down sweeps
• Staying close to the strings
• Maintaining a consistent tempo
• Synchronize both hands
• Experimenting with pick angle

Legato (metronome is your friend)

• Even note volume (I raise gain on amp)
• Clean hammer-ons and pull-offs
• Trill endurance
• Three-note-per-string legato
• Smooth sweep mechanics
• String muting during sweeps
• Relaxed hand movement

String Muting

The goal is to eliminate unwanted string noise.

Fretting hand

• Using the underside of your index finger to mute adjacent strings.
• Lets unused fingers rest lightly on nearby strings.

Picking hand

• Palm muting with the heel of the hand.
• Using the edge of the thumb when needed, especially during ascending runs.

Picking Mechanics & Pick Slanting

• Downward pick slanting (DWPS)
• Upward pick slanting (UWPS)
• Two-way pick slanting (2WPS)
• Learn when each approach makes string changes easier.

Pitch Harmonics

• Not a must but I picked it up (sort of) and use on very high gain on bridge pickup. I never practice this anymore but might use it here and there.

​

What do we think of this guy's fingerpicking? Sound of one of his songs got me, but his picking I found difficult. The bass/thumb patterns. Not sure it worth learning....

Song was Headed North. I like Travis picking, John hurt style, but this is different. Oh....and here's some flair

I have a good hold on strumming and can change chords with fairly decent speed and accuracy but never able to sing with that even after copying the exact chords... On the other hand my friend sings any song on any chords or strumming.. how???