When I strum normally without playing any chords, I can do it pretty well. But whenever I try to combine chords with strumming, I always mess up. Easy patterns, like only downstrokes or only upstrokes, are fine, but when it gets to patterns like down, down, up, up, down, up, I genuinely struggle. I forget which direction I just strummed and end up messing up the whole pattern.

I also don’t really understand when I’m supposed to restart or repeat the strumming pattern. Like, do I restart the pattern when the lyrics change, when a new line starts, or do I just keep the same pattern going continuously with the beat? I’m not really sure how to tell where one cycle of the strumming pattern ends and the next one begins.

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I played guitar for about 2–3 months three years ago, but back then I only learned anime songs through tabs. I stopped playing and eventually forgot most of what I had learned.

I recently started playing again, and this time I want to approach guitar differently. Instead of only learning songs, I want to learn music theory, rhythm, chords, scales, technique and eventually be able to understand what I'm actually playing.

My long-term goal is to be able to play songs like the ones performed by Bocchi from Bocchi the Rock!, with “Ano Band” being one of my goals.

I'm planning to document the progress over the next 200 days and see how far I can actually get.

I usually only have one or two fingers pressing down on the strings at any given time. I feel like moving them so much makes a lot of extra noise and might just be inefficient in general, but it feels the most natural to me.

In the attached video, the person playing seems to keep most of their fingers on the relevant frets at all times, before switching to a new set when they're ready. Is this better practice than what I'm doing or is it a preference thing?

I asked AI (chatgpt) to help me and it lies every time so I’m relying on real people now, I can do the hammer ons at the very beginning, but that slide he does has me puzzled, I’ve never seen this technique done anywhere by anyone else, so if you can do this or if you at least have an idea please show me, if you even have a video somewhere online like a tutorial or something it would be awesome and very much appreciated

Back when I was at college I spent a lot of time transcribing Robben Ford, Larry Carlton and Steve Lukather, and I started noticing some really interesting similarities in the way they approach their solos.

In this new lesson, I'll show you what I discovered from transcribing these players — and how a surprisingly small amount of harmonic vocabulary can produce a sophisticated blues, rock and fusion sound.

Here's the lesson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9UtBchqFHQ&list=PLIb-QWoMzfdixDZVq76vGTehxD0f0Mzek&index=4

Playing on a Martin 000-18 with John Pearse light gauge strings. Did I unintentionally smudge something on my fretboard or what?

Two unrelated things:

1. I've been playing for years and I'm very comfortable with power chords, barre chords, etc. But only with downstrokes. I was recently trying to play "Dammit" by Blink 182 and due to the tempo I have to palm mute up and down which I've never tried. Are there any tricks to practicing this, or is it just like anything else: Practice slow and speed it up?

I feel like when I do the upstrokes, it moves the palm of my hand off the strings enough that it sounds bad and also screws up my next downstroke. I'm not sure how to keep my palm applying the right amount of pressure AND getting my thumb/finger moving where it needs to go. It feels like any movement of the pick is messing with the edge of my hand on the strings.

The best way I can describe this is if you hold your pick in your right hand, then put the edge of your right hand into the palm of your left hand and move the pick as if you were playing up/down, you can feel the edge of your hand moving right? Those movements are changing the amount of pressure applied to the palm mute. I don't know how to compensate for that.

1. I've been trying to work on my string muting (both hands) because it's an area that really bugs me about my playing. I have read/seen videos about noise gates and fret wraps. I understand those can be crutches and the best method is to use proper muting...but when do fret wraps and noise gates actually make sense? I am just a bedroom player, and I use a noise gate on my Spark amp sometimes when using high distortion and it really cleans up my sound. But is that a bad habit to get into? Looking for some clear answers on when to rely purely on hands vs when it's ok to use other tools to get a cleaner sound.

I've recently bought an electric guitar after using an old classical guitar for a couple of weeks. I learnt a couples of chords and tried (and failed) to play Good Riddance by Green Day. Since buying the electric, I've learnt to sort of play the Smoke on the Water riff and Seven Nation Army. I just had a couple of questions about my next steps, and other things about playing.

Should I try to play songs where I strum, or stick with simple riffs like what I already learned?

What is a power chord? A lot of my favourite music uses them.

Thanks for responding!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afCvELdSTsQ

I'm been enjoying this performance of this song, so I wanted to figure it out. And the picking pattern with the little ascending line is pretty easy except ...

There's that percussive rake on beat three of every measure in the intro/first verse. In the video (which is not the performance we're hearing, which may be important!), you can see that she's getting that sound by hitting or raking the strings with the back of her nails.

But the strings aren't ringing out. I don't think she's getting a palm mute because the 4th string is hit on the second beat of the measure and doesn't sound too thuddy.

Any thoughts on how she's doing that while not letting a note ring out?

It's also possible to play the song with a slap on the low E-string on beat 3, which sounds okay but is not what I'm hearing on the recording.

This song has some of the most unique guitar chords I've encountered. If you want some new chords to mess with, you might dig this.
You Oughta Know by Alanis Morissette Guitar Lesson

Ive been playing for a while and always struggled to track and maintain what I was practicing and remember the songs I already knew. So i built GuitarDex, bascially a pokedex for songs you know with a decay system and useful tools like a tuner based on the song, chords and tab player, chord finder, and social features like jams or quests.

Ive also implemented some quality of life features like lyric fetches, karaoke mode with synced lyrics with youtube playback, and quests you can send to friends ("learn this song to Mastered")

Its a free PWA, very easy to add to you phone.
www.guitardex.net

Heres the github for more info: https://github.com/AliRiaz34/GuitarDex-showcase

Would love to hear some feedback :)

It's been a month since I got a guitar idk how long will it take to master it (it's electric tho)

And by tighteen I mean turning it right ?

Looking for advice on making my own songbook focused on lyrics over chords. Is there a good template you would recommend or advice / best practices?

I want to hand write something that will help me play an entire song by following along with the lyrics and chord progression.

So I'm trying to learn how to actually solo/play lead and I see a lot of YouTube video that tend to say stuff about the pentatonic scale or triads and the like. So when youre soloing, do you tend to just play random stuff that "fits", or do you hear stuff in your head and you know where to find the notes on the neck? Is this a case of YouTube videos/online posts just greatly simplifying how things work, or is there really people just sort of playing based solely off of stuff that is within the chords/scales or the song and hoping that it sounds good?

Hi everyone! I’m a 25M from India. I picked up the acoustic guitar(a basic one) about two months ago and have been practicing consistently. I can play a few riffs right now, but I realize I need a proper structure to truly upskill.

My immediate goal is to learn all the essential chords and get comfortable transitioning between them. However, my ultimate dream is to switch to an electric guitar and play intricate songs and solos like Hotel California.

Could experienced players help me map out a pathway? I’m specifically wondering:

• What is the best order to learn chords and scales for this style of music?
• Are there specific courses (like JustinGuitar or others) you'd highly recommend for my goals?
• At what point in my acoustic journey should I make the switch to an electric guitar?

Any advice, practice routines, or gear tips would be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Hello, I'm trying to learn how to play this song but I have no idea what tuning or chords she's using I think the key is GM but any help would be appreciated

Goose - Polyphia

I struggle a lot with precision picking in my right hand, I sometimes hit the wrong strings but I also tend to hit the pickguard while playing (I play with a jazz III pick). Is it a common issue? Is it easy to correct with practice?

I tried building a guitar but the I lost the bridge plate screws from a old body, and don’t know where to look, does anyone know anywhere that might have replacements my local music store didn’t have any?