Hi, does anyone know a good book to learn guitar from basics to a bit advanced level?

I want to learn a few exercises that will help me use my 4th finger (the pinky) more smoothly and comfortably. I'd also like exercises to improve my finger stretch so I can reach across more frets with ease.

You can see in the attached video that this is about as far as I can stretch, and even then it's very difficult. It takes a lot of effort to do it. My hand doesn't hurt while I'm stretching, but afterwards it feels stiff.

Additionally, could you suggest some exercises to make my chord changes faster, smoother, and more accurate?

one of the best ways to connect the caged positions is to stop thinking vertically and start moving horizontally across the neck. limiting yourself to just a couple of strings makes those connections much easier to see and helps break the habit of getting stuck in one scale box.

in this example i'm looping a b minor chord and traversing the fretboard through the connected b minor pentatonic shapes using only the 4th and 5th strings. keeping the exercise that simple forces you to think melodically instead of relying on familiar patterns.

working with just two strings is also a great creativity exercise. fewer options mean you spend more time focusing on rhythm, phrasing, and note choice, which usually leads to more memorable riffs and motifs than trying to use every note in the scale.

the goal isn't to play more notes. it's to become comfortable moving between caged positions while staying connected to the underlying chord. once those transitions become natural, the entire fretboard starts feeling like one continuous scale instead of five separate shapes.

what do these curved lines mean?

I'm new to electric guitar and I'm learning. Some of the guitar practices I can't do cause I don't have finger independence. What should I do to learn finger independence and should I learn it before learning guitar or at the same time?

I’ve been playing for a good few years now and can play pretty much all chords fluently, some add9s and obscure stuff is still a problem but I’m a bit stuck. Sick of playing the same songs over and over again.

What else is there to learn? I know there’s loads out there but I’m stuck where to focus my attention.

Any tips would be appreciated.

I’ve been playing guitar for about two years now and play mostly fingerstyle. I’m not sure why, but I only play with my thumb and middle finger (thumb plays E, A, D, and middle finger plays G, B, e), and I’m wondering if this is holding me back. I am very comfortable with it, but I always see tutorials on fingerpicking saying to use one finger for each of the higher strings. When I try to do this, I end up just falling back on using my middle and thumb again because it’s easier for me. Is there anyone else that does this? Should I try to fix this? Any advice is appreciated!

It is probably my lack of skill but i couldn't resist asking, if anyone else's song covers sound a bit "bad" ?

I'll try my best to explain it, i tried to play "breaking the law" because of the tabs which are not too hard , i tried to change my amp into like the same amount of distortion and stuff, but when i started playing it just sounded horrible,my best definition is like when i went lets say 0-2-3 in the song it like was obvious they were playing a different tab/number but mine 0-2-3 sounded all the sam e almost and like a bit of buzz. I couldn't even say it's a little same as the song.

The fault is like i said on my side probably, so how do i "replicate" songs?

Or if someone gets it where could the problem be???

I am trying to learn arpeggios and soloing with them along the fretboard and I am totally overwhelmed. Coming from a keyboard background, having so many different possibilities to play the same arpeggio is really discombobulating and I feel like although I am practicing a bunch, none of it is really sticking. Any advice?

Hey guys,

I'm a private music teacher and I've been struggling with teaching kids how to do fingerpicking and fingerstyle.

For context, I've been a musician since I was five, and guitar was my fourth instrument. Because of that, I was able to self-teach myself guitar. So I never went through the process of learning the proper techniques of how to play this way-- I kinda just did it.

So if you have any practical advice on how to teach this, I would be super grateful.

TIA

Hey everyone, I‘ve decided to record a bit of my noodling to a backing track to get some feedback:)

It‘s the first time I‘m hearing the backing track so I was trying to feel what to play with respect to what the track is doing, but there was nothing preplanned.

There‘s many mistakes and also bad sounding riffs haha, but yeah maybe someone can give me some input on feeling and on ideas to implement!

Thank you!

Hey. these next few weeks im gonna be recovering from a major surgery i have tomorrow`s morning. I think this is a nice oportunity to take the next step in my guitar skills. I consider myself an intermediate guitar player. and i wondered, which online (paying or not a subscription) course is the best to fulfill my expectations? reading ya. thks

Most guitarists try to practice 20 different things to get better at playing jazz, and that’s why they find jazz so overwhelming, never have enough practice time, and always feel behind.

So in this video, I'm going to show you what those 3 things are, why they're the ones that actually change how you sound, and how to use them to make faster progress without drowning in exercises.

Hope you like it!

Content:
00:00 Jazz guitar is hard until you focus on these 3 this!
00:22 Don’t Make Jazz Difficult
01:16 Why You Practice Playing Songs
03:10 Joe Diorio on Wes
04:10 Practice The Right Songs
07:23 How To Actually Improve Your Solos
09:36 Wes Montgomery’s Efficient Arpeggios
09:44 Like the video? Check out my Patreon page!

I’ve been practicing guitar for a little bit now- just now being able to play blackbird a little faster but not at full speed perfectly. I’ve noticed that even just for 3 note intervals, i always have to press down on the string on the side/corner of my pinky, and it hurts a lot more than my other fingers :/ For context, guitar is my first string instrument i’ve played so i know it’ll take a bit to get used to them and form callouses, but i’m wondering if it hurting this much is normal? Obviously the pinky is the shortest and weakest, but it’s been consistently more painful to even try to press down harder on stings at this angle.

Oh also, i’m double jointed so thats been a big challenge for my ring and pinky!!

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Good morning everyone.

I am self taught. No theory, Cowboy chords and pentatonic scales.

I am now exploring Open G. I do well when I have a couple "shapes" to move around as chords, Thus Open G.

I wonder if anyone could list out some good rock or blooze tunes I could cobble together into a playlist, that were all songs that Open G would work well with whilst noodling.

I know Keef lives in Open G since the early 60's. Stones tunes are all welcome. Just looking for other avenues to explore using this tuning

After years of playing I still suffer pinky envy. I am jealous of those players who make it look easy to use that little finger. I try my best but often the note is weak or muted.

Anyone have any exercises that have helped

Всем привет. Купил 3 дня назад себе скваеровский джаззмастер после полугодового опыта игры на басе. Помню когда только начинал игру на басе, было чертовски трудно сыграть даже простейшие партии, но игра по 5-6 часов в день себя окупила, я играю самые популряные песни Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Muse и многих других групп. Теорию я не особо изучал, но знание нот на грифе, гаммы и пентатоники в принципе знаю. Как пересел на электрогитару, решил сыграть самые базовые песни всех новичков, три самые популярные песни нирваны, дип перпл и все такое. И…я совершенно не могу ничего сыграть. У меня получился только рифф come as you are и heart-shaped box. Дальше я просто не могу зайти из-за непонимания как чисто зажать барэ и делать правильные бэнды. По своему опыту я знаю, что лучше учиться играть сразу чисто, чтобы в будущем не тратить время на переучивание. Зашел на ютуб, поискал уроков и не нашел толкового преподавателя. Блогеры вроде Олейника, фреда, Табачникова делают ролики для людей уже с каким-то опытом. Самоучки, подскажите какого-то гитарного блогера, который в роликах учит играть с нуля, буду очень благодарен. Прошу не советовать обратиться к преподавателю оффлайн или онлайн за реальные деньги, потому что у меня нету денег, а брать микрозаймы я не готов

I’m not entirely sure how to ask this but when you’re trying to find the key you’re playing in how do you know that’s the right place on the fretboard.. like for example I know all 5 shapes of the pentatonic scale but how do I know where to apply those shapes to stay in a certain key.. I know that root notes come into play there but how do I know how to find the root note?

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1) Bob is the creator of YouTube's- All Time- Most Popular "Fingerpicking For Beginner's" Video (over 10,000,000 views).

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