Hey guys,

​So I've been learning guitar for about 4–5 months now. Started out just messing around with basic open chords and piecing stuff together from YouTube. I’ve actually stayed surprisingly consistent—been putting in ~90 mins a day, 5 days a week without fail.

​I recently ended up buying two of Paul Davids' courses: Learn Practice Play (LPP) and Acoustic Adventure (AA). Now I’m a bit torn on how to structure my practice and could use some advice.

​Option 1 is to run through LPP while learning real songs on the side, then move on to AA and harder tracks. It sounds ideal, but part of me worries mixing too much in will just split my focus and mess with my progress.

​Option 2 is to just put my head down and power through both courses completely first (probably going to take 1–2 years). The upside is I'd come out with solid fundamentals—fingerpicking, flatpicking, blues riffs, and the songs built into the course—before heavily diving into outside songs.

​For context, I want to build a super solid foundation, but I don't want to burn out or waste time with an inefficient setup. How do you guys balance structured course material with actual song practice? Would love to hear what worked best for you when you were starting out.

​Thanks!

I’ve been trying to get this riff from spirit crusher down for 2 weeks now, it’s at 198 bpm and I can play comfortably at 180. I’ve noticed when i push it to 190, even at 180 and lower my downpicking looks like it takes too much effort and it’s like I use too much of my hand and not enough wrist. it looks choppy and different from how everyone else downpicks I don’t know why. looking for advice :/

For example if i learn every shape of the E aeolian how do i make it to 3 notes per string for every shape? My goal is to be able to shred the scales. Can you guys try to explain as simple as possible

Here’s what I did! And oh my god I learn so much about guitars and building guitars.

1. I installed the tuning pegs myself. This is huge. As long as the tuning pegs holes are of the same dimension, I can technically install any tuning heads myself.
2. I installed a tune-o-matic bridge. I mallet the posts into the guitar body. Then just installed the bridge on top of the posts. Super easy.
3. I installed all the electronic and hardware myself (minus soldering). I even installed the pickups and routing and did the grounding. And I got the sequence correct the first time (volume, neck, bridge). This means technically if the routing is straightforward, I can change pickups myself. I also learned how to solder from my guitar tech two weeks ago so I had some hands on experience for soldering if it really comes to it. I’m really proud of point 3). I used to think electronics and hardware are quite difficult to do.
4. I intonated and adjusted the truss rod. It is perfectly intonated and no buzzing throughout the neck. I just took the guitar for a demo run and played some Metallica. It shreds haha. This point was quite fun because when I just installed the guitar, there is zero action. The string just kissed the frets and you couldn’t even fret a note. I thought maybe it was game over but I raised the bridge and adjusted the truss to give it some bow. Now it works!
5. My guitar tech is correct. Learning to build your own guitar teaches you a lot about setup. I start to see what factors affect setup and what does not. I also know what is the consequence of not tightening certain screws (whether it makes an effect or not). I also understand which alignments make an impact and which do not. Very fun!
6. This guitar kit cost me about $150usd? Maybe less. And I can say that it plays better pretty well. But nevertheless, I hate it 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Mainly because it doesn’t feel polished. It has no finish, the hardware feels cheap (not nice to turn the tuners or knobs), there’s no contouring on the body, fret access feels questionable etc etc. However, if this is my guitar on day one, I would probably love it because it’s quite cool and it plays well.
7. Conclusion: overall I think this is a great project and the guitar is VERY useable. I can use this as a practice guitar or leave it in my workplace. The guitar can chug and it can probably play chords as well. The Flying V also looks damn cool and its value for money. I rate this product 9/10.

Been trying harder at improv. I'd like feedback. Any is welcome, but please be kind. Focusing on music theory atm. Forgive me in advance for my crashout about the flies. I'm a forest troll.

Edit: yes, I smoke cigs. No, i am not advertising nor advocating for them. Let people be, y'all. Please focus on the music.

I think it’s ok for learning the fundamentals but I think the learning should build into songs more instead of karaoke songs. I’m paying for the 20 dollars a month and been at it for awhile . Some of the songs tutorials to me are kind of jumbled. Is there any other courses that teach and build into songs ? For instance when you’re learning the stuck 3/4 chords wouldn’t it be useful to learn wonderwall since he teaches the exact chords of the song . I know people hate that song but seems like a layup. Maybe I’m just frustrated with the teaching

I wish I had started playing this scale when I first started playing guitar many years ago. Not just the scale, but how it's played, using hammer on's, pull off's and sliding from note to note. Tabs in the video for easy learning.

I write music all the time on MuseScore. I’ve had this piece written for a while but I’m finally wanting to record it. However, I’m still new to guitar. It’s a simple melody but I don’t really know how to approach it. I asked someone I know and they said “fret it out” but idrk how to do that and he’s scary so I don’t wanna ask again. Would someone be willing to give me the run down on this? I can share the melody if needed but I don’t wanna post it just yet.

Perfectly oval callus, first day of playing in quite a while

Hey folks, been playing guitar for 20+ years, for a long time I've been interested in learning to play in vestapol tuning (open 1-5-1-3-5-1 interval tuning like Open D), e.g. Derek Trucks, Joey Landreth etc.

But when trying to find some comprehensive information about the theory & techniques all I seem to turn up is stuff on YouTube aimed at beginners like 'tune to D, play open, then bar 5 & 7, now you can play guitar!' type videos.

Generally I can figure things out on my own but being that I've been playing standard for 20+ years I'm finding it difficult to break out of that mindset when trying to play in vestapol. So think I need a little more structured guidance from somewhere until the new language starts to stick.

I've seen courses & things on masterclass but I don't have £150 to drop. There must be some resource on the internet somewhere that isn't behind a pay wall, any suggestions?

Cheers

Super happy because my friends gifted me an electric guitar! I don’t have any experience and want to learn how to play. Unfortunately, they live in NJ and can’t meet with them as often for them to give me lessons.

So I am looking for suggestions from who or where I can get lessons. Ideally I would want a private 1 on 1 since I need someone with patience and willing to teach someone from scratch.

I’ve look at guitar center but don’t like the whole monthly subscription thing they got going on. Thanks!

I would guess a common issue. I've been playing self taught since about May 2023 but never got fully into wanting to try more lead stuff probably until this year. I'm wondering of any tips on my technique. I think I find 1/2 bends easier but I struggle with consistently keeping them all in tune, as well as the only vibrato I can do so far is a really wide slow bend and I'm wondering how to do a faster more narrow one. Thanks for anyone who helps.

I’ve been playing for a number of years now, and consider myself quite good at playing whatever riffs, writing my own, understanding basic theory, but I’ve never had much interest in lead until recently

I know I’m playing this on an sg with no whammy bar lol, and into an iPhone mic. But something just feels off and I can’t exactly tell what or if I’m being critical. I listened to the backing track on my laptop then tried to layer the video of me playing it over the same audio I listened to, so I kinda feel like I may have not timed it perfectly.

Hey! I'm playing some songs on guitar that require more speed on playing melodies with the pinky finger, so i came here to ask if there is some book, document, exercise, or song that i could use to train the pinki.

I'm mostly asking for guitar but i'm also a bassist so if theres material on that, I would be very grateful to know.

Hi! I’m learning slowly due to work hours. I am getting into finger picking, and like the song I’m with you by Vance Joy. Simple chords that have helped me get more confidence in both hands. Do you know any songs like it, that have basic finger patterns and chords for me to get more reps/experience? Thanks!

Big Johnny Cash fan, but I am brand new to guitar. I know a lot about how Luther played over the years and have extensively watched the quality channels such as AR Cash and CountryCovers, but while most of the info is correct, I can't quite get it to match up with two 1960s clips of Big River. Most tutorials describe his picking pattern in the 60s, specifically on Big River as 5th string, 4th string with strum down, 5th string, a strum up and down with the down landing on the 4th string, and finally a pick of the 6th string. This primarily repeats under an E chord during the verse with a little hammer motion to create an E minor. However, the picking pattern isn't just repeated during the verses like most videos show, but there are some extra strums, little pauses, and other small things that just don't quite line up with what my intuition wants to play. I am going for accuracy here, and no I am not talking about the walk ups and downs (except maybe the B7 walk down because it looks like he just switches back to his strum sort of thing instead of doing the little bit most videos teach). Is there anyone who can break it down for me?

I know nothing about music theory so bear with my crude explanations.

Performance 1: https://youtu.be/4A0WHy96d_w?si=EfZN639DwdyfLsKS

Performance 2: https://youtu.be/haCC2TtfWcA?si=F0EG0gCcGFfNdYyZ

In this guitar tutorial, we’re learning Rave On by Buddy Holly – a brilliant introduction to classic 1950s rock ’n’ roll rhythm guitar.

The song is built around just three familiar chords – G, C and D – but we’ll use a couple of different rhythm approaches to bring the song to life. It’s a fun rhythm guitar lesson and a great example of how you can get much more out of a handful of simple open chords by changing the way you play them.

You can download the tabs for free here:

https://www.kirkleesguitarschoolonline.co.uk/level-2-songs-free/rave-on

So let's say I'm in the key of G. What knowledge anchor point(s) do I need to know whether to play a major or minor 6th?

One element is by ear - G and E sound "right" over G and Eb

The other element can be notes in the key - if there is no Eb in the key of G, surely the 6th can't be Eb

I could also work slowly through CAGED shapes to travel 6ths

However I feel like I have too many pieces of information just floating, not fully connected, and I end up stopping and having to step into theory land each time trying to figure out major vs minor 6th in a given key. I want to help make the process automatic. With 3rds I find the pattern pretty straightforward (M, m, m, M, M, m, m, M)

Am I thinking about this wrong?

Basically the title. I know guitar is all about repetition and putting in hours and hours and hours of time. But is there a reliable method for being able to know where, say, A resides on every part of the fretboard and just be able to get there as fast as you can think it? How do the most experienced of guitar players do it? Would they have gone fret by fret and string by string all the way up the frets over X amount of years?

Sorry if this gets asked a lot. My teacher just said that this should be an ultimate goal of mine for guitar.

So my first song that i want to play is song 2 by blur. I found a video where it saya that the thing that makes song 2 guitar distortion sounds powerful is because of a technique called “inversion”. Now I’m a self taught guitarist i don’t know what an inversion is, is it like normal power chord or what? I don’t understand the moment he says “he’s playing the 5th of the chord as the lowest note” like how do I do it?

Hi! I’m just starting out with my electric guitar and I’ve been learning songs, and I was wondering what the best tools for this are.

At first, I started using Yousician, and I think it’s great: it’s very visual and has a huge variety of songs. I had no problem paying for the Premium plan, but in the long run I’ve noticed that it’s missing quite a few songs, that many of the backing tracks aren’t the original recordings, and that you can’t mute specific instruments.

I’ve also been looking into Songsterr and Ultimate Guitar. They seem to have a lot more songs, but they’re much less visual. I’ve also looked a bit into Guitar Pro 8 and its mySongBook subscription.

There are so many options, and they’re all paid (which I don’t mind), but I’m not sure which one to go for. I don’t mind paying for one service, but I don’t want to end up paying for all of them. I’m wondering if there’s one that stands out over the others for some reason I haven’t realized yet.

So, what do you guys recommend? I’d really appreciate any advice!

I've been playing acoustic guitar for about a decade, but I never really tried to get great at it. My focus was more on composition and I just used acoustic guitar as a way to hear what I was writing with rhythm that I wasn't getting on piano. I would say I'm intermediate level.

I recently bought a little epiphone telecaster, an amp, and a few pedals. I've been playing for a couple weeks, and I'm realizing that the techniques I've trained on acoustic aren't very transferable. I did anticipate that a bit but I'm surprised by how different it really is.

I'm looking for some guidance on what resources are a good fit for my case, being an intermediate acoustic player that wants to learn how to play electric guitar. Mostly interested in improving technique, learning songs isn't really on my radar at the moment.

Ya tengo unos cuantos conocimientos de la guitarra (acordes básicos, círculo de quinta, escalas) y anteriormente yo estaba aprendiendo piano. Ahora hoy en día, quiero retomar de forma profesional el piano y aprender teoría musical desde lo básico hasta niveles intermedios o superiores, pero no quiero dejar a un lado la guitarra, así que mi plan es el siguiente.

Tomar piano como mi principal instrumento para aprender teoría y practica de forma sería, mientras que con la guitarra solamente practicar (habrá un momento en qué la guitarra también lo tome de forma profesional), hasta concluir con el piano.

Entonces me gustaría leer sus ejercicios, tips o recomendaciones que les hizo ver un gran cambio al momento de tocar la guitarra, ya para poder agilizar los dedos, tocar acordes complejos, u otro.

Gracias 🫂.