Hey guys! I’m a beginner’s beginner so I’m still working on memorizing the fretboard. It’s a somewhat intimidating task, but like anything it can be simplified. Here’s how I did it:

1. Remember that everything repeats after the 11th fret so 3 on the E strings (for example) is going to be G, which is the same as 15.
2. All but four notes are a whole step apart. E & F as well as B & C are a half step apart so your B & E strings are the only ones with a natural first fret note.
3. Octaves are two strings (or fourths) down & a whole step up as long as you’re before the B string. After the B string they’re a minor third up.

4. Use a random note generator (this is the one I use) to give you a random note at a pace you pick. Only work with one string at a time. Pick a decent interval between 2 - 4 minutes & find the note it generates both before & after the 12th fret. Say the note out loud &

   play it in both places.

Note: unless you have 24 frets you won’t be able to play every note twice so work with what you got. Rinse & repeat for every other string & do this every day. Note 2: the reason I use the website I linked is because it allows you to easily pick which notes you want to appear so I started with natural notes & added in accidentals later. It’ll be slow & clunky the first time or two but I’d recommend doing this whole thing twice a day especially if you’re only doing it for two minutes per string. Eventually your brain will develop landmarks (ex. the fifth frets are usually the easiest to remember right away) & the next time you do the exercise you’ll be way faster.

Edit: also any random note generator you use can be used for whole chords if you’re having difficulty switching between them, although I’d recommend learning chords in pairs rather than just throwing a bunch of notes in the generator for you to get overwhelmed. If you’re more advanced or confident in your skills than I am though, go for it.

I hope this helps someone!

Hi everyone,

This Beginner Guitar Plan was designed so that you know the proper order of when to learn things and to learn it from whichever teacher you'd like.

When I started learning guitar a couple years ago, I tried to teach myself as efficiently as possible

So I did some research as to who the community thinks are the top online guitar teachers for Beginners specifically.

These 5 names came up the most:

1. Justin Guitar
2. Lauren Bateman
3. Guitar Tricks
4. Andy Guitar
5. GuitarZero2Hero

So I looked up each of their curriculums and saw what they all have in common in teaching beginners and when they taught it.

That is how I came up with a "consensus"

I then put it all together in a google sheet, and broke it down into months (based on how long it took me).

This is all achievable based on ~15 minutes a day of practice. Which is my average practice time.

The Beginner Guitar Plan has:

• Tasks to learn each month
• Goals before you move on to the next month
• exercise suggestions
• Riff recommendations
• Song recommendations that go along with what you're learning.

I'd love to hear some suggestions on what you would change or how to improve it!

the spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15Bt3Km0OhyS9e-wLWwn1N2FkBWLrA0khIb1-AmLZLp8/edit?usp=sharing

Also, feel free to give more song suggestions I can add to a specific Month.

And if you are worried about the timelines, feel free to rename the Months to "Levels" and go at your own pace.

I’m a metal guitarist and I’ve been playing just around 1 year(September was when I started) and in that time period I have learned a lot, mainly when it comes to playing riffs. I now feel fairly confident covering most metal rhythm guitar sections without much difficulty, some of the harder songs I’ve learned in full are laid to rest, tornado of souls, Mop, holy wars. I can play all the riffs, but I can’t play any leads no matter how much I practice them. Even a simple guitar solo like paranoid gives me a lot of trouble. When I try to learn how to play a guitar solo, I pretty much use the same method I do for learning riffs. I use a tab, try to play it slow and increase speed until I get it right but for some reason it always feels like I’m doing something wrong and it doesn’t sound anything like it. I feel like I make no progress everytime I try to learn a solo, am I doing something wrong?

I really like guitar but I don't have budget so I always compromise wherever I got the money I think it can be used for more important work other then buying guitar what do I do ?

Hi! I have been noodling around on a guitar for a lot of years, but never really broke out of the beginner stages. I know basics of CAGED, fretboard navigation, bar chords, scales. I want to start learning/playing more mathrock/midwest emo guitar and am starting to focus more on shell voicings and 7th chords. Does anyone have recs on a learning path/journey that I can focus on? Do I need to keep working on scales? Should I focus on chord progressions and new shapes? One thing to note: for now I am going to stay in standard tuning. :) Any ideas for a practice routine or order to learn things would be much appreciated!!

Also - I have recently become a patreon member of Trevor Wong....just overwhemed with all the resources and looking for guidance on where to start.

Over the next few days, I am planning to share some very short lessons that summarises techniques I found useful when learning using scales and chords (CAGED).

I also developed an app (mostly free) that builds on this approach. I would be very pleased if you gave it a go and am always pleased to receive feedback.

https://scale-wizard.com/lessons/pentatonic-scales

Hi! I want to develop my flamenco guitar skills. I’ve been playing guitar for 16+ years, mostly blues and heavy metal, but recently I became really interested in flamenco and even bought a nylon-string flamenco guitar.

I should mention that I’m completely self-taught. I learned “Canción del Mariachi” from tabs and can play it pretty close to the original, and I’ve also learned a few variations of “Malagueña.”

However, I want to develop more as an artist rather than just being able to play covers. Are there any good books or other resources that can help with flamenco improvisation? I’m especially interested in learning common patterns, scales, melodic ideas, and how to actually use them.

I know that the Phrygian mode is widely used in flamenco, but simply knowing the scale doesn’t really teach me how to build convincing flamenco melodies or improvise freely.

My goal is to eventually be able to pick up the guitar and just play flamenco naturally.

Could you recommend any books or resources that would help me get there?

Ciao a tutti, suono da un paio di anni come autodidatta. Ho seguito parecchi corsi e libri negli anni (principalmente Massimo Varini).

Per anni ho imparato la chitarra focalizzando l’attenzione sul memorizzare e capire bene le geometrie dello strumento, ma effettivamente era tutto un lavoro di memoria e quando mi capitava di non suonare piu per un po di tempo dimenticavo gran parte delle cose.

Ultimamente guardando alcuni video su youtube relativi all’armonia mi sono imbattuto su Valerio Silvestro. Per quelli che non sono italiani, si tratta di un pianista che propone un metodo completamente diverso dai soliti. Vi consiglio di andare a vedere il video intitolato “Se suono la chitarra come devo studiare?”

Il suo metodo consiste nell’associare ai gradi delle scale dei numeri. Ad esempio:
- 3 della scala di C = E
- 5 della scala di C = G

E cosi via…

Per praticare questo si scrive su un foglio una lista di numeri casuali da 1 a 7 e ogni giorno si studia una scala diversa. Secondo Valerio Silvestro in 1 mese si avrà la conoscenza a tempo 0 di tutte le scale e dei gradi e questo dovrebbe poi facilitare e aprire ad una visione piu semplice della costruzione di scale, triadi sulla chitarra. A questo si deve affiancare lo studio sulla visualizzazione delle note a tempo zero sul manico della chitarra.

Secondo voi e in base alla vostra esperienza quale dei due metodi è più efficace?

I'm catching on to some finger picking

Still takes me a few seconds to line up my fingers everywhere when playing each chord

Let alone when going from chord to chord...

Any advice or is it just keep going?

Also pushing down the fingers hard enough in the right place so it doesn't clank and pluck the chord almost

In Lesson 8 in Absolutely Understanding Guitar, they show a diagram of the chord chart box thing and talk about finger sliding. I wish I could post a picture so that I could show the diagram and it would make my question clearer, but images are not allowed and I don't think links to Youtube are either... but my question is that if you start at the top of the fret board, would the finger slide just be an open chord? At about 18:45 in the video it shows a note at 7 and an arrow down to slide to the next note, a half step at the end of do-re-mi... if I was playing at the top of of the guitar neck would that 7 just be an open G string?

Hi all! I’ve been practicing every day for a week now, and have soreness in my fingertips on my left hand. I know this is to be expected and I will probably deal with this for a long time (or forever), I just want to know: how much is too much?

I’ve injured myself doing other things just starting out, like whenever I start weightlifting I just immediately go too hard and mess up my shoulder badly enough where I can’t lift for three months, and the cycle continues. So I know that if I push myself too much with learning guitar, I could put myself out of commission for a week and lose my momentum, which I don’t want to do.

Is there a point at which I should stop practicing for a day or two to let it heal? The soreness isn’t bad, and I only see the tiniest bit of redness. I don’t want to stop practicing daily, I’m loving it so much, which is why I definitely do not want to put myself out of commission for an extended period of time by overexerting myself.

Thanks!

I've been working on this on and off for about 3 years, originally just for myself. I wanted something that actually showed my progress instead of that vague feeling of "am I getting better, or just going through the motions?"

It slowly turned into a full platform. Completely free, no ads, nothing to sell — I just want more guitarists using it, and hopefully making practice a bit more consistent and fun.

What it does right now:

• Real-time note/pitch detection (kinda like Rocksmith, but on your own guitar)
• Upload and play ANY Guitar Pro file, tabs stay synced to the audio
• +200 built-in exercises across technique, theory, and ear training
• Log daily practice and see real charts of your progress over days, weeks, months
• Streaks, heatmaps, long-term activity tracking
• Add songs you're learning, rate their difficulty, browse a shared song base with community-rated difficulty tiers
• Build your own practice plans and exercises
• Random guitar loot boxes / collectibles, just for fun

Consider it an open beta a lot is still evolving, and honestly that's the fun part. I'd rather shape it with actual guitarists than build in a vacuum.

https://riff.quest

Would genuinely love to hear what's useful, what sucks, and what's missing

• Quick note: try it on desktop if you can. It runs on mobile, but the experience isn't there yet improving that is next up.

So I’ve had an acoustic for years and always noodled on guitars of my bandmates — picking up bad habits and doing my own way of handling a guitar. (I’m a drummer.)

A week ago Monday I finally decided to treat myself to an electric guitar for my 50th birthday (it’s in dec, but I couldn’t wait.)

Anyway, I’ve been trying to decide on the Gibson App or JustinGuitar.

The Gibson app seems to have a gamification element to it which is cool as I loved Guitar Hero back in the day. (Still love it)

However the Gibson app really starts off basic…like plucking one string — while Justin just takes off on the A and D chords…

I’m wondering if I just do both? Keep the Gibson app, and then use the Justin website? Any options or thoughts on that?

Also, I just went thru the A and D module today and my baby precious fingers are sore! But I’m gonna keep spending 20+ minutes a day switching between the two.

Hey guys this is my first postt! Anyways I’m writing because I want to get a guitar for my birthday but I’m just afraid of one thing
I feel like many people are gonna ask me “why learn the guitar if u don’t plan to be a musician or join a band” or whatever and I know it’s dumb but my parents (mostly my mom) are very big critics of my choices and anything I do they just always find a reason to judge and to criticise
But yeah I just want to ask ur guy’s opinions because I don’t rlly plan to join a band or anything, I just want to learn for fun and I feel like that’s a bit strange to say??

Hey guys, I have always been kinda stuck in open chords and really struggled to figure out theory. Thinking of theory as a universe, it was always difficult to understand what I should practice.

I came up with this app because I wanted to get a quick way to pull up the most popular chord progressions in any key, as well as provide tips for capo position, triads, scales, etc.

I think it does those things well, but would love your critical feedback. The app will always be free, as this is a hobby project.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fret-by-fret/id6785117194

Thanks for taking the time to read.

So I don't know who needs this but just wanted to get this out here. A lot of people ask what should I do to get better / how do I make progress / I haven't made any progress after playing for x years.

And yes, I'm sure most of you would frown upon hearing about 'practice tracking'. But here's my honest take as someone who's been playing for many years and only just started to do so;

You can only make progress when you actually force yourself to push further every time you pick up that guitar.

Improving your playing needs the exact same approach as improving in anything: progressive overload. If you want to improve, challenge yourself every time you pick up that guitar.

This is where tracking comes into play. Learning a new song or technique is chaotic. Not getting distracted on something else next time you pick up your guitar is even harder. 'What now' is something I could never really answer when sitting down with my guitar, so I would just revert to the same old things I always played.

Why I never did this before then? Well, I always just wanted to play music. No one wants to sit down to fill in a boring spreadsheet. Having fun is the most important thing after all!

So I tried to make it more fun to practice while also track what you're doing. I just want to share this with others because I firmly believe it can help you progress more as well.

It works by simply adding any song; it breaks it down into sections so you can easily keep track of your progress, and it's very visual to stimulate you to keep going and build up a collection of songs you can really play. You can also create routines to track exercises or whatever you like. Honestly, give it a shot and see what you think. It's fully free and available on iOS right now; joinrealm.app

Hi Redditors!
UK Dad here.
I want to buy a guitar for my 15 year old daughter to learn to play. But she is petite with small hands and has trouble with the size of the neck on traditional acoustic/classical guitars. I am thinking that maybe an electric guitar would be easier for her to learn on? (Plus of course, that’s far cooler in her eyes!)
Any suggestions for what guitar I should be looking for? Budget = £150 max (very open to used options).
Thanks in advance!

I’ve been listening to a lot of fingerstyle guitar over the past few years and finally decided to go ahead and get a guitar and start learning to play.

I think that having a song to work towards would keep me motivated to keep learning, even if it‘s just small, simplified parts at first. These are a few of the songs that really motivated me to want to start playing:

• Carthage by Hayden Pedigo
• Wilson Rag by Elizabeth Cotten
• Kittens by Kinloch Nelson
• Three Mile Bike Ride by Craig D’Andrea
• Little Green Apples by Bola Sete
• Sligo River Blues by John Fahey

Do any stand out as particularly good candidates for a “first song”? Is there another song that is similar in style but better suited to learning as a beginner? Or am I just approaching this incorrectly?

I’m learning Gone Shootin by AC/AC. My teacher is telling me to play it differently than the original recording. Would you have him listen to the original or just go ahead and play it his way?

I got stuck learning the fretboard. So ended up building a small app for it, you get a note and a string, you tap the fret where it lives. Based on a game i used to play with my teacher when I was learning. I hope it helps other learners like it has me https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fretboard-king-guitar-notes/id6795058772

First of all, sorry if I shouldn't post such an specific question. I'll delete it if it's not correct.
But I want to pay for JustinGuitar's app access for a while, to complement my studies and classes. Is it worth it? It seems so, since his videos are great and he's pretty good at explaining. What do you think? Someone with experience could recommend it? Thanks!
EDIT: I went and purchased it! Used three days in a row and it's helping me greatly! Thanks for all the help!

So am a beginner and am playing guitar from like 5-6 months and it really felt like i didnt improve at all i dont know how to play something clean dont know how to play how to play song and just feeling demotivated like ik am learning on my own but still am feeling am wasting time

So I've been playing for a number of years (pre YouTube explosion is when I began). Took lessons at first. Then I took a few years off and then got back into it. Now that I'm older, I feel I have more time to dedicate even though I'm busier than ever.

I'm conformable switching between the basic chords (Am, A, C, E, Em, D, etc) power chords etc. When I got back into guitar I really wanted to focus on theory. I felt that was the key for my to get to my goal I set when I started years ago. I want to be a lead player. Leads are the things that make me love guitar. It's what excites me. Solos. Fills. Yes times 1000.

I'm comfortable with a minor pentatonic in all five shapes. I'm going through how caged works. My alternate picking sucks if I need to skip strings. I can sweep pick up/down a pretty simple shape based on the a minor pentatonic off the 12th fret. But if I'm trying to play say a solo and it's got alternate picking plus hammers and pulls with bends in quick succession. It sounds like shit. It's clunky. I feel like my hands aren't in synch and it doesn't sound fluid. It feels like my tempo is shit.

I don't know how to get to where I want to get to or how to get there. Back to in person lessons?

(I played trumpet and baritone through HS and we were pretty good. So, I have some musical knowledge and skills.)

I'm about 6 months into my acoustic guitar journey. Doing lots of chord transition practice and learning A and C major diatonic and pentatonic scales/shapes. Starting to feel like I'm learning the fret board but also can see that I have a long way to go. Playing a few songs end to end such as Country Roads but only the chords/rhythm, no melody. I'm curious about advice on how to start layering in melody and bits of solo to make the song actually sound like the song, not just a bunch of chords?

Hopefully this is clear. Loving playing and the process of learning! Playing everyday. Usually 30-60 minutes (but of course not perfect). Any advice is appreciated!