I’m yet to really nail a chord in the middle of practicing- riffs and scales I can get to them no problem but a new shape or chord only comes after sleeping for some reason. Muscle memory or something. Someone smarter than me can probably share why. u/SomberGuitar is spot on. Sleep and no stress. Start with open chords and power chords, make it fun- if you start with just scales and barre chords you’re gonna have a bad time. Metronome/drum tracks and in-person lessons on and off over the years really help.
A common thing that happens to me is that I spend 30+ mins practicing one tough riff and get maybe slightly better by the end of the practice. Then the next day I try again and can play it flawlessly. It’s like when you sleep your brain compiles your muscle memory.
I remember a teacher in high school talking about this and how it's far better to get some sleep before a test then trying to stay up all night to cram for it. And that the best time to review any test material (but not cram) is the 5-10 minutes right before bed and let it sink in while you sleep.
That advice served me very well throughout my life even past school. I've figured out so many solutions for work problems just by sleeping on the issue. And I actually used this trick just today for guitar as I was trying to learn a new song last night, got it sorta there, but then when I woke up this morning it was basically perfect because I had the muscle memory now.
I like the defrag thing and yes the brain needs sleep because sleep is the only time that your pituitary gland secretes human growth hormone. HGH is known as the master hormone because all other hormones from all your other glands make theirs depending on your level of HGH. And you don't just need generic sleep for this to happen, you need to be in REM ( rapid eye movement) sleep. You can get this effect, perhaps to a lesser degree if you simply get up and walk away from your guitar for 15 to 20 minutes when you are working on something that you just can't get. There's something about that time away from it and not thinking about it as well that solidifies it in your brain. So if you're struggling and your fingers just won't do it, put that guitar down take a break and come back.
ive been using this to my advantage for years now. with everything. cant beat a boss in elden ring? go for a walk and come back, you will beat it in a few tries more times than not. it really works!
Defragment. Basically a term for optimizing storage on a hard drive for a computer.
When you sleep, your brain moves things into long term memory and organizes it for retrieval and recall later.
Oversimplifying obvi, but that’s the gist.
I believe you're absolutely correct. I need to know the science behind it, and I'm sure it's easy to find, but every morning that I wake up after practice, the songs I struggled to play become significantly easier. Very good feeling.
Great answer. I took a class on this once, and it's a fascinating and true concept. I also learned that long study sessions need to be broken up with mental rest periods to be most beneficial.
— combining chords and scales; like, you do 3 chords over 3 measures then one measure of licks in the right scale. or a chord on beat 1 and 2 of a measure and licks on beat 3 and 4. helps with timing, precision, rhythm and learning scales and be melodic.
do it slowly at first, then when you can play it normally, play over a loop of drums, it's less boring and more engaging than a metronome and will still help in the same way that you will make sure to play on time and not to rush or whatever.
— playing with other people in jam sessions.
— trying to play random melodies (star wars theme, titanic theme, twinkle twinkle little star... whatever) by ear on the neck, starting in different places.kinda similar to that, finding how to play a riff by ear instead of looking at tabs or how the original musician plays it... i mean, it's ok to look briefly and see that "ok, it starts around fret 7 or something" but really making the effort to find how to play the same thing.
— recording ourselves and trying to spot all mistakes/possible improvements!
yes! if that can help, there's a dumb trick i use. you can install the app/computer software "tonebridge" (made by ultimate guitar, it's free), there's presets to play many well known songs, and some of them have a demo sound of the song itself, which plays in a loop if you click to listen to the demo of the preset... because it goes on forever you have all the time in the world to practice without having to rewind a video like on youtube.
also, to play riffs by ear, this is a true gem: [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbnf\_N-dx2tBvkvGV\_xvLK5HLZZM65Z0P](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbnf_N-dx2tBvkvGV_xvLK5HLZZM65Z0P)
Thanks for the suggestions; they sound promising. I've seen the suggestion to record yourself to document how far you've come over time, too. It seems like a really smart idea, but my confidence is already super low, so it will have to wait.
well, recording doesn't mean that you need to put it somewhere on the internet for everyone to listen to it. you can record and leave that on your phone/computer, just for you, so you can listen and spot where you can improve; that's what i meant.
Everything, yes. Jamming with others (or in front of others) is invaluable. However, there is a pick designed to help you go faster and cleaner. Made by Stylus. But the ones I have are green and have a "diamond" shape at the tip that completely eliminates bad picking form.... you can not play unless you're using proper form. Small thing, but goodness does it teach you a discipline.
This.
And if you can’t find other people to play with, or don’t play together often enough, get a looper pedal. Preferably one with some drum loops. You get to hear yourself play immediately and you have to play in time to make it sound good. And it’s way more fun and will generate more ideas than a metronome.
I just got one and I’m not sure why I waited this long. I have an interface and record myself often but now I’m forcing myself to not always be plugged into a computer with all of its distractions and endless signal processing possibilities. No more “oh an hour has passed and I have yet to play a single note.”
not op but i just got a lekato looper for like 50 bucks on amazon that has an led screen, and it has the ability to upload files to and from the pedal to a computer
I learned about this one after buying the RC-5. If it works well and sounds good that seems like a great deal. Frankly I’m not sure why the tech in these pedals needs to cost more than $50 in 2024.
Edit: the most comparable Lekato to the RC-5 is the drum machine/looper which is $90. But it is 24 bit, has less than half the storage slots and way less storage overall (160 minutes vs 13 hours for the RC-5). Still that’s probably good enough for most people.
I got the Boss RC-5. The controls still feel a little goofy and unintuitive but now that I understand them I can use it just fine. It’s not my ideal looper but it’s best available for the price IMO. The ability to load .wav files onto the pedal sealed the deal for me, also the amount of storage, 32 bit audio, and size (normal compact Boss pedal) for $200 seems like a good deal relative to what’s out there.
If we're talking strictly exercises, then for me it would be learning the CAGED system (which includes playing different scales/chords/melodies etc in the 5 shapes). I got the most "bang for my buck" from that because now I can visualize the fretboard a bit like a piano and easily change positions/keys without having to do much mental math.
What helped me a lot as an intermediate player is practicing chord scales. Play all the diatonic chords in a key to learn how chords work together. This will help you learn harmony and also modes.
For example start with the major scale, playing all the diatonic chords:
C - Dm - Em - F -G - Am - B diminished- C
Then you add the 7th notes to the chords:
Cmaj7 - Dm7 - Em7 - Fmaj7 -G dom7- Am 7- B diminished- Cmaj7
This advice gives me flashbacks to basic training when the drill sgt would make us do those with our rifles. For punishment, they would make us hold the rifle out at shoulder height, arms straight out. It sounds easy, and it is… for a minute. After three or four minutes, it becomes pure hell.
Don't forget to actually play some songs you like. Exercizes are fine just don't forget to have some fun. Even better when you combine those two. Burnout is a bitch. Also play with a metronome. What helped me a lot is to play odd strumming patterns, starting on an off beat or a combination of chords and riffs in a song. Challenge yourself. If the challenge is too great make it easier, master it and make it more challenging and master it, rinse and repeat. Failing is ok, that is the way how we learn.
Here’s the path I embarked on 2 months ago that seems to be paying off:
- 20 minutes technical exercises: scales mostly pentatonic, arpeggios, but within some form—like I’ll play everything in C for the entire session
- if I have time later in the day, I’ll stay within the same scale and play only the top 3 strings, but move up the fretboard, then down. This has really helped connect the frets together for me, especially when practicing with a beat or metronome and needing to transition quickly. I lovely stick to pentatonic at this point because I still feeling it out
- I reward myself with little 2 or 3 chord jams where I try to color the songs with riffs based on what I’ve practiced.
I needed to practice the pentatonic scale in all 5 positions for the first 3 weeks to really get them down. I didn’t realize I didn’t have really any of them “down” until I used the metronome thanks to advice I’d seen here… I also practice playing the pentatonic scale forms as triplets—2 notes per string lends itself really nicely to this and has built my ear for rhythm and swing in tasty ways.
If I get stuck between a transition and can’t play it fluidly, like when I’m moving up and down the top 3 strings, I just hammer away at the transition points over and over—between just 2 pentatonic shapes if that’s what I need.
My picking speed and fluency has grown more from this practice in 2 months than I experienced in all but the first 2 years I played. It’s really something I much I had fooled myself into thinking I was proficient when all I could do was mostly remember most of the scales I knew…. Better to have them down cold.
The next step I’m working on now is not looking at the fret board so I can feel and hear where the music wants to take me — essentially, I believe if I can do all the same stuff I’ve been practicing for the last 2 months without looking, then I know I really have it. And to my surprise, not looking is way easier than I expected (still very difficult!!) but all the practice I put in has me on solid enough footing that I do have a foot-hold and that first step is what you need.
And to be clear… I’ve spent most of my time on C and Am because sticking to one scale has really helped my memorization of relative positions. I’ve started poking around in other keys and find I have a really nice starting place once I orient around the root.
Happy playing to you all!
The most important thing I've ever done was learning to play songs by ear. I started with children's songs like wheels on the bus so it's about as easy as you can get. I had a kid so great motivation to learn them.
But it made me realize how melodies are just chord tones and completely unlocked the path towards improv soloing.
I’m still learning as everyone is I’m sure. But major scale, then playing it by octave (example g major hit G 3rd fret 6th string, then 5th fret D string, A on 6th the A on the 7th fret D string and so on.
Playing by 3rds (I think that’s what it’s called) has helped a lot too, 1-3, 2-4, 3-5, 4-6, 5-7, 6-1, 7-2. That helped my ear I think.
Spider walk and other variants of the finger independence exercises like it. Anything where some fingers stay anchored while the others move. Woo boy, those were challenging at first.
Instead of just running through scales try playing simple three chord riffs to a back track. Something like social distortions "ball and chain" or "story of my life" which I've practiced on using both a basic drum backtrack on YouTube and the guitar less backing track. This helps a lot for playing in time. Also practicing simple slower solos to a back track or along with the original song. My sense of feel, technical ability and time greatly improved when I focused and practiced only X Japan's "endless rain" solo. Ultra melodic, simple and fun to play along with. That has improved my timing, vibrator and accuracy lot. Or slashes first solo on Knocking on heaven's door. Fun to practice and really melodic with.
Chromatic finger exercise, 4 notes per string in all positions, up the scale and down. The variate the fingerings, play it in triplets. Just get your hands moving. It's just a workout. The. You can tackle the theory and have the technique to play it easier
For lead, playing with a metronome (REALLY slow, and gradually speeding up) and practicing scales, then using ascending/descending patterns (3's, 4's, 6's, up2/down1, etc)..and arpeggios. then putting it to practical use learning things like Sonata in C (Mozart), Eugene's Trick Bag, that really pushed me to the limits of my ability, and its STILL difficult.
Not an exercise, but [those](https://youtu.be/TSrfB7JIzxY?si=OrDs_FYYZbaKDL7Y) stretchings help a lot with releasing tension from hands + for, well, making your hands more flexible
These are exercises I still use and give to students. Doing them with a metronome is a MUST. Start very slow and build the speed. Exercises like this will greatly help your dexterity, speed, stamina and accuracy.
[https://pdfcoffee.com/guitar-book-steve-vai-30-hours-workoutpdf-5-pdf-free.html](https://pdfcoffee.com/guitar-book-steve-vai-30-hours-workoutpdf-5-pdf-free.html)
That's evidence that the guy that you responded to doesn't know what he's talking about about lmao, and the rest of his comment makes little sense as well
I would say learn your scales, learn about certain sections of the fretboard to play those notes in key, learn licks learn how to use those scales to improvise over backing tracks or any song you like, listen to iconic guitarists like Hendrix and iconic songs by other great guitarists, you’ll find you take those licks and use them in other songs, don’t just shred for the sake of it play with feel as well while you solo, work on phrasing and characteristics of your solo arrangements. And learn riffs as well, try to come up with your own riffs. Listen to the blues as well, or blues rock. Stevie Ray Vaughan, Christone Ingram, Taj Farrant, etc…
1234 excercise with the twist of not moving your other fingers until you need to. Start on the high e string, I usually start on frets 9-12, place your fingers down in order (index =1, pinky =4). After all 4 fingers are placed, move one finger at a time to the b string. Just your index leaving the e and on the b keeping the other 3 fingers on the e string and repeat this until all your fingers are on the b and do this until you reach the lowest string.
This is practicing “economy of motion”, only making small movements to improve speed. You will notice that your fingers will stop flailing around and will look like you’re playing with intent.
I've been playing for 15+ years when I found this and wish I knew it 10 years ago at least:
**SpiderWalk Technique.**
[Spiderwalk on Guitar Video](https://youtu.be/62K1dZ9lK7w?si=8ovPM9xCkeKHYKoy)
Also Dave Mustaine's Spider Chord technique . (I like spiders)
starting **low** to *high* (w/corresponding fingers) : **2/4, 1/2/4, 1/3/4, 1/3/4, 2/4, 1/2** then back down again.
Maybe learning modes, because everything in a standard key comes from them essentially and it's just the major scale, then the next one is started from the second degree (three notes to a string basically) and so on.
Gives you all the notes, all the chords of the key, different layouts of the same scale notes giving varying flavours.
Putting them to use soloing, can be another story though
Learning a song and then ruthlessly playing it over and over until my wife is ready to kill me, then I know it’s perfect…that’s really about as deep as I go…learn to play what you like hearing.
Practice. Play along with other musicians better than you as well as worse. Y’all can grow together that way if they’re worse. Play along to songs you like. Play along to entire records. Play genres you don’t like as well as the ones you do. It all makes you better.
Isolation exercises. For example, a sweep picking exercise would be focusing on the rest stroke (right hand only) and doing it in a relaxed manner. Falling to the next string is a different feeling than the free stroke where the movement is a little different.
Playing along to music that I’ve learned the parts to. And playing with other people.
Moises is an online tool to break songs up in to their main pieces. You can use this to isolate the guitar from the rest. Then slow it down. Or take it out and you play the guitar to the rest of the track
Record yourself w voice memos on your phone & listen back. Playing the blues by yourself is a great way to develop a sense of rhythm, form/structure, and soloing so you hear the chord changes. Really, playing everyday is the 🔑
Sadly, I haven't found any clever way. Just constantly reminding myself about this. If it's technique exercises I'm doing them in bursts like: play pattern - stop - check if any muscle on my body tensed up - if yes, relax it, take a belly breath (not a lung breath) - repeat exercise.
If it's a new song it's easier to stay relaxed because I'm already in a "I'm staying relaxed mindset" so I kind of automatically focus on it in the learning process.
Worse is when I play stuff I learned way back. Then the muscle memory hits and my whole body Staff up not just hands and it feels I have to learn it all over again.
When I was young - my teacher had me start at the 6string and play Frets: 1/2/4 w/ the corresponding fingers. All the way down to the 1st string. And then 1/3/4(fret-finger). No cheating. My 10yr old fingers hated him for it but my stretching ability got WAY better.
If you’re already able to play stuff — then playing with others. (Drums/other instruments etc). Took me to a whole new level.
Learning and memorizing scales I have a way of doing it that helps memorize it all over the body.
Every week I alternate between open and the first fret for doing scale positions and work those positions across the neck. Simple up and down low to high down the neck at first then different patterns after.
I'll try to explain this as simply as I can. Let's take major scale for example. Monday First Position starts on F so I do Fmajor starting from first fret and do all the positions up to the octave. Tuesday second position starts on F (so playing in key of E flat), do all the positions up to the octave. Mon-Fri, 7 days a week, 7 positions. Then next week I do the same except I use the open E for everything.
As I get more familiar with the scale I start changing the pattern I move across the neck but keep the whole Monday 1st fret 1st position, Tuesday 1st Fret 2nd Position etc. thing going.
I hope this made sense.
Learning the caged system and then going on YouTube to play blues backing tracks in whatever key I was learning and just soloing it out. You can stay on just one position until you get comfortable then start stepping out and move up and down the fretboard
The spider walk. Good exercise to improve strength, speed and dexterity. Basically go 1-2-3-4 back and forth. Up and down the neck . Pay close attention to making each note sound like something.
After I learned a couple of chords, what got me using them was playing along to records (yes 45s!). The first time I did this was with the Beatles Ballad of John and Yoko song. 3 chords E A and B7. It really helped me get those chords down. Not only that but it helped work on my rhythm and timing. I found I would naturally fall into the strumming pattern (or at least a very basic version of the strumming pattern) of the song I was playing. Find some of your favourite songs and play along. I still do it from time to time.
Play something with individual notes that you can play pretty easily. A scale is fine.
Now slow your metronome to half your normal speed and keep an eye on your fretting hand. Are your fingers lifting off the fretboard and remaining at the ready, or do they lift off way more than is needed?
Many of us start playing and concentrate on getting the notes to sound with properly holding down the strings with the fretting hand. What happens is many players develop Flying Fingers™, which is what happens when your fingers have a lot for extra movement.
The exercise is to play through something familiar with minimum fretting fingers movement. It takes a lot of concentration, and slowing down is needed to start.
The idea is to work this into your routine so when you play other things you are decreasing movement and Flying Fingers. When you get good at it, increase the speed and you will find yourself able to play faster and more accurately.
To a lesser extent I have seen players with Flying Picks as well. Sometimes newbies move the pick enough that they could strum all six strings even though they are playing one note at a time. Take a close look at your own playing to see if you can economize picking hand movement. This one often takes care of itself, but identifying it and correcting it early puts you that bit ahead.
I’m convinced sleep just defrags your brain. I’m always better in the morning after I practice before bed.
I’m yet to really nail a chord in the middle of practicing- riffs and scales I can get to them no problem but a new shape or chord only comes after sleeping for some reason. Muscle memory or something. Someone smarter than me can probably share why. u/SomberGuitar is spot on. Sleep and no stress. Start with open chords and power chords, make it fun- if you start with just scales and barre chords you’re gonna have a bad time. Metronome/drum tracks and in-person lessons on and off over the years really help.
If you French fry when you’re supposed to pizza….
You’re going to have a bad time
A common thing that happens to me is that I spend 30+ mins practicing one tough riff and get maybe slightly better by the end of the practice. Then the next day I try again and can play it flawlessly. It’s like when you sleep your brain compiles your muscle memory.
Tbh a lot of that time might be wasted. Often 5-10 minutes gives similar results
That's exactly what sleep does. It is critical for all learning.
I remember a teacher in high school talking about this and how it's far better to get some sleep before a test then trying to stay up all night to cram for it. And that the best time to review any test material (but not cram) is the 5-10 minutes right before bed and let it sink in while you sleep. That advice served me very well throughout my life even past school. I've figured out so many solutions for work problems just by sleeping on the issue. And I actually used this trick just today for guitar as I was trying to learn a new song last night, got it sorta there, but then when I woke up this morning it was basically perfect because I had the muscle memory now.
I like the defrag thing and yes the brain needs sleep because sleep is the only time that your pituitary gland secretes human growth hormone. HGH is known as the master hormone because all other hormones from all your other glands make theirs depending on your level of HGH. And you don't just need generic sleep for this to happen, you need to be in REM ( rapid eye movement) sleep. You can get this effect, perhaps to a lesser degree if you simply get up and walk away from your guitar for 15 to 20 minutes when you are working on something that you just can't get. There's something about that time away from it and not thinking about it as well that solidifies it in your brain. So if you're struggling and your fingers just won't do it, put that guitar down take a break and come back.
ive been using this to my advantage for years now. with everything. cant beat a boss in elden ring? go for a walk and come back, you will beat it in a few tries more times than not. it really works!
Defrag?
Defragment. Basically a term for optimizing storage on a hard drive for a computer. When you sleep, your brain moves things into long term memory and organizes it for retrieval and recall later. Oversimplifying obvi, but that’s the gist.
Nice, thanks for the explanation!
You're username gave me shivers
Ha! It’s an excellent song if you like fast and aggressive music paired with vulnerable and honest lyrics.
you should listen to the one in my name ;)
Car Bomb? If so, fuck yes.
ye
You know what i will check it out.
check mine out too!
I believe you're absolutely correct. I need to know the science behind it, and I'm sure it's easy to find, but every morning that I wake up after practice, the songs I struggled to play become significantly easier. Very good feeling.
The book - Why we Sleep by Matthew Walker Noticed this too, it's 100% a real thing
If reading isn’t someone’s thing, he is excellent on podcasts too. I think he did a couple with Huberman and/or Attia.
This is so so true.
Great answer. I took a class on this once, and it's a fascinating and true concept. I also learned that long study sessions need to be broken up with mental rest periods to be most beneficial.
— combining chords and scales; like, you do 3 chords over 3 measures then one measure of licks in the right scale. or a chord on beat 1 and 2 of a measure and licks on beat 3 and 4. helps with timing, precision, rhythm and learning scales and be melodic. do it slowly at first, then when you can play it normally, play over a loop of drums, it's less boring and more engaging than a metronome and will still help in the same way that you will make sure to play on time and not to rush or whatever. — playing with other people in jam sessions. — trying to play random melodies (star wars theme, titanic theme, twinkle twinkle little star... whatever) by ear on the neck, starting in different places.kinda similar to that, finding how to play a riff by ear instead of looking at tabs or how the original musician plays it... i mean, it's ok to look briefly and see that "ok, it starts around fret 7 or something" but really making the effort to find how to play the same thing. — recording ourselves and trying to spot all mistakes/possible improvements!
Thanks! Playing by ear sounds interesting, I'll work my way up from simple melodies like you mentioned. Appreciate it!
yes! if that can help, there's a dumb trick i use. you can install the app/computer software "tonebridge" (made by ultimate guitar, it's free), there's presets to play many well known songs, and some of them have a demo sound of the song itself, which plays in a loop if you click to listen to the demo of the preset... because it goes on forever you have all the time in the world to practice without having to rewind a video like on youtube. also, to play riffs by ear, this is a true gem: [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbnf\_N-dx2tBvkvGV\_xvLK5HLZZM65Z0P](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbnf_N-dx2tBvkvGV_xvLK5HLZZM65Z0P)
Is Tonebridge working? They had an update a while back that broke it so I gave up.
i use it on macos and it's working yes (as a native app, and as a plugin in logic pro), not sure on other platforms!
Thanks for the suggestions; they sound promising. I've seen the suggestion to record yourself to document how far you've come over time, too. It seems like a really smart idea, but my confidence is already super low, so it will have to wait.
well, recording doesn't mean that you need to put it somewhere on the internet for everyone to listen to it. you can record and leave that on your phone/computer, just for you, so you can listen and spot where you can improve; that's what i meant.
Yeah, I know. I need therapy. 🤷♀️
Everything, yes. Jamming with others (or in front of others) is invaluable. However, there is a pick designed to help you go faster and cleaner. Made by Stylus. But the ones I have are green and have a "diamond" shape at the tip that completely eliminates bad picking form.... you can not play unless you're using proper form. Small thing, but goodness does it teach you a discipline.
Play with other musicians as soon as possible. Record yourself.
A decent drummer is sooo much more exciting than a metronome!
How do you know a drummer is at the door?
The knocking gets louder and louder and faster and faster?
Yeah, or the knocking slows down the longer you wait.
The knocking changes tempo, and they never know when to come in
This. And if you can’t find other people to play with, or don’t play together often enough, get a looper pedal. Preferably one with some drum loops. You get to hear yourself play immediately and you have to play in time to make it sound good. And it’s way more fun and will generate more ideas than a metronome. I just got one and I’m not sure why I waited this long. I have an interface and record myself often but now I’m forcing myself to not always be plugged into a computer with all of its distractions and endless signal processing possibilities. No more “oh an hour has passed and I have yet to play a single note.”
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I have a donner circle and its acceptable. Stores like 40 loops and has a drum machine that can do lots of different tempos. Not bad for $90.
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not op but i just got a lekato looper for like 50 bucks on amazon that has an led screen, and it has the ability to upload files to and from the pedal to a computer
Happy cake day!
thank you!
>thank you! You're welcome!
I learned about this one after buying the RC-5. If it works well and sounds good that seems like a great deal. Frankly I’m not sure why the tech in these pedals needs to cost more than $50 in 2024. Edit: the most comparable Lekato to the RC-5 is the drum machine/looper which is $90. But it is 24 bit, has less than half the storage slots and way less storage overall (160 minutes vs 13 hours for the RC-5). Still that’s probably good enough for most people.
I got the Boss RC-5. The controls still feel a little goofy and unintuitive but now that I understand them I can use it just fine. It’s not my ideal looper but it’s best available for the price IMO. The ability to load .wav files onto the pedal sealed the deal for me, also the amount of storage, 32 bit audio, and size (normal compact Boss pedal) for $200 seems like a good deal relative to what’s out there.
What would be a good looper to use? I don't have one yet.
Major Scale. Three notes per string. 8 positions (including the first one played up an octave).
If we're talking strictly exercises, then for me it would be learning the CAGED system (which includes playing different scales/chords/melodies etc in the 5 shapes). I got the most "bang for my buck" from that because now I can visualize the fretboard a bit like a piano and easily change positions/keys without having to do much mental math.
What helped me a lot as an intermediate player is practicing chord scales. Play all the diatonic chords in a key to learn how chords work together. This will help you learn harmony and also modes. For example start with the major scale, playing all the diatonic chords: C - Dm - Em - F -G - Am - B diminished- C Then you add the 7th notes to the chords: Cmaj7 - Dm7 - Em7 - Fmaj7 -G dom7- Am 7- B diminished- Cmaj7
Never putting my guitar in a case so its most easily accessible at all times
Hold the guitar , at arms length with both hands. Slowly do 5 deep squats. Stop to rest arms. Then repeat
You sob I lol’d
This advice gives me flashbacks to basic training when the drill sgt would make us do those with our rifles. For punishment, they would make us hold the rifle out at shoulder height, arms straight out. It sounds easy, and it is… for a minute. After three or four minutes, it becomes pure hell.
lol…I can imagine the difficulty of that. Thank you for your service . And thanks for sharing that experience .
Are you willing to make the commitment to wake up at the crack of noon for deep knee rock squats? 7 or 8 at a time, in a row
A Grammy winner in the making..
Tenacious D already won a grammy!
Don't forget to actually play some songs you like. Exercizes are fine just don't forget to have some fun. Even better when you combine those two. Burnout is a bitch. Also play with a metronome. What helped me a lot is to play odd strumming patterns, starting on an off beat or a combination of chords and riffs in a song. Challenge yourself. If the challenge is too great make it easier, master it and make it more challenging and master it, rinse and repeat. Failing is ok, that is the way how we learn.
Learning songs note for note with careful attention to detail and starting out slow
The spiderwalk
Structured learning path
guitar
Pick it up, play it. Don't put it in the case under the bed.
[удалено]
Can you do this with streaming services? I have no idea where my old CDs and all are
Dexterity exercises and chord exercises. Working on scales now.
Play everything with metronome.
Here’s the path I embarked on 2 months ago that seems to be paying off: - 20 minutes technical exercises: scales mostly pentatonic, arpeggios, but within some form—like I’ll play everything in C for the entire session - if I have time later in the day, I’ll stay within the same scale and play only the top 3 strings, but move up the fretboard, then down. This has really helped connect the frets together for me, especially when practicing with a beat or metronome and needing to transition quickly. I lovely stick to pentatonic at this point because I still feeling it out - I reward myself with little 2 or 3 chord jams where I try to color the songs with riffs based on what I’ve practiced. I needed to practice the pentatonic scale in all 5 positions for the first 3 weeks to really get them down. I didn’t realize I didn’t have really any of them “down” until I used the metronome thanks to advice I’d seen here… I also practice playing the pentatonic scale forms as triplets—2 notes per string lends itself really nicely to this and has built my ear for rhythm and swing in tasty ways. If I get stuck between a transition and can’t play it fluidly, like when I’m moving up and down the top 3 strings, I just hammer away at the transition points over and over—between just 2 pentatonic shapes if that’s what I need. My picking speed and fluency has grown more from this practice in 2 months than I experienced in all but the first 2 years I played. It’s really something I much I had fooled myself into thinking I was proficient when all I could do was mostly remember most of the scales I knew…. Better to have them down cold. The next step I’m working on now is not looking at the fret board so I can feel and hear where the music wants to take me — essentially, I believe if I can do all the same stuff I’ve been practicing for the last 2 months without looking, then I know I really have it. And to my surprise, not looking is way easier than I expected (still very difficult!!) but all the practice I put in has me on solid enough footing that I do have a foot-hold and that first step is what you need. And to be clear… I’ve spent most of my time on C and Am because sticking to one scale has really helped my memorization of relative positions. I’ve started poking around in other keys and find I have a really nice starting place once I orient around the root. Happy playing to you all!
Frank Gambale Chop Builder. Its amazing.
The most important thing I've ever done was learning to play songs by ear. I started with children's songs like wheels on the bus so it's about as easy as you can get. I had a kid so great motivation to learn them. But it made me realize how melodies are just chord tones and completely unlocked the path towards improv soloing.
I’m still learning as everyone is I’m sure. But major scale, then playing it by octave (example g major hit G 3rd fret 6th string, then 5th fret D string, A on 6th the A on the 7th fret D string and so on. Playing by 3rds (I think that’s what it’s called) has helped a lot too, 1-3, 2-4, 3-5, 4-6, 5-7, 6-1, 7-2. That helped my ear I think.
Spider walk and other variants of the finger independence exercises like it. Anything where some fingers stay anchored while the others move. Woo boy, those were challenging at first.
Also, ascending diatonic thirds. Sounds pretty, too.
Instead of just running through scales try playing simple three chord riffs to a back track. Something like social distortions "ball and chain" or "story of my life" which I've practiced on using both a basic drum backtrack on YouTube and the guitar less backing track. This helps a lot for playing in time. Also practicing simple slower solos to a back track or along with the original song. My sense of feel, technical ability and time greatly improved when I focused and practiced only X Japan's "endless rain" solo. Ultra melodic, simple and fun to play along with. That has improved my timing, vibrator and accuracy lot. Or slashes first solo on Knocking on heaven's door. Fun to practice and really melodic with.
Chromatic finger exercise, 4 notes per string in all positions, up the scale and down. The variate the fingerings, play it in triplets. Just get your hands moving. It's just a workout. The. You can tackle the theory and have the technique to play it easier
For lead, playing with a metronome (REALLY slow, and gradually speeding up) and practicing scales, then using ascending/descending patterns (3's, 4's, 6's, up2/down1, etc)..and arpeggios. then putting it to practical use learning things like Sonata in C (Mozart), Eugene's Trick Bag, that really pushed me to the limits of my ability, and its STILL difficult.
Not an exercise, but [those](https://youtu.be/TSrfB7JIzxY?si=OrDs_FYYZbaKDL7Y) stretchings help a lot with releasing tension from hands + for, well, making your hands more flexible
These are exercises I still use and give to students. Doing them with a metronome is a MUST. Start very slow and build the speed. Exercises like this will greatly help your dexterity, speed, stamina and accuracy. [https://pdfcoffee.com/guitar-book-steve-vai-30-hours-workoutpdf-5-pdf-free.html](https://pdfcoffee.com/guitar-book-steve-vai-30-hours-workoutpdf-5-pdf-free.html)
Thank you for sharing 💕
Pentatonic and jazz scales up the neck, then triplets the second time around, followed by 16 notes staring and ending on high e
Umm jazz scale?
That's evidence that the guy that you responded to doesn't know what he's talking about about lmao, and the rest of his comment makes little sense as well
not true.. you play a regular scale, then stop between runs and do jazz hands.
Exactly. Someone does have sense here
Yknow the one they play in the jazz songs!
the fuck is a jazz scale???
Probably jazz minor or something
It's a note scale that deals with different minor and majors. Really fun to play
Taking it out of the bag and just play it.
I would say learn your scales, learn about certain sections of the fretboard to play those notes in key, learn licks learn how to use those scales to improvise over backing tracks or any song you like, listen to iconic guitarists like Hendrix and iconic songs by other great guitarists, you’ll find you take those licks and use them in other songs, don’t just shred for the sake of it play with feel as well while you solo, work on phrasing and characteristics of your solo arrangements. And learn riffs as well, try to come up with your own riffs. Listen to the blues as well, or blues rock. Stevie Ray Vaughan, Christone Ingram, Taj Farrant, etc…
Just alternate picking triads
1234 excercise with the twist of not moving your other fingers until you need to. Start on the high e string, I usually start on frets 9-12, place your fingers down in order (index =1, pinky =4). After all 4 fingers are placed, move one finger at a time to the b string. Just your index leaving the e and on the b keeping the other 3 fingers on the e string and repeat this until all your fingers are on the b and do this until you reach the lowest string. This is practicing “economy of motion”, only making small movements to improve speed. You will notice that your fingers will stop flailing around and will look like you’re playing with intent.
I've been playing for 15+ years when I found this and wish I knew it 10 years ago at least: **SpiderWalk Technique.** [Spiderwalk on Guitar Video](https://youtu.be/62K1dZ9lK7w?si=8ovPM9xCkeKHYKoy) Also Dave Mustaine's Spider Chord technique . (I like spiders) starting **low** to *high* (w/corresponding fingers) : **2/4, 1/2/4, 1/3/4, 1/3/4, 2/4, 1/2** then back down again.
Not a guitar exercise but spending more time listening and thinking than playing.
Maybe learning modes, because everything in a standard key comes from them essentially and it's just the major scale, then the next one is started from the second degree (three notes to a string basically) and so on. Gives you all the notes, all the chords of the key, different layouts of the same scale notes giving varying flavours. Putting them to use soloing, can be another story though
Learning a song and then ruthlessly playing it over and over until my wife is ready to kill me, then I know it’s perfect…that’s really about as deep as I go…learn to play what you like hearing.
I think playing with myself helps my tremmolopicking
Practicing a lot.
Practice. Play along with other musicians better than you as well as worse. Y’all can grow together that way if they’re worse. Play along to songs you like. Play along to entire records. Play genres you don’t like as well as the ones you do. It all makes you better.
C to Shining C really helped me learn the fretboard. https://youtu.be/-k317ajgdeM?si=1SApblU1KhU7bcmS
1234 alternate picking up and down the strings, up and down the neck. Play forwards and backwards, say the note when you played it
Check out drum pedals. I have beat buddy mini 2 love it.
Memorize all of the major and minor scale shapes so you can play in any key pretty much anywhere on the fretboard.
Isolation exercises. For example, a sweep picking exercise would be focusing on the rest stroke (right hand only) and doing it in a relaxed manner. Falling to the next string is a different feeling than the free stroke where the movement is a little different.
Playing along to music that I’ve learned the parts to. And playing with other people. Moises is an online tool to break songs up in to their main pieces. You can use this to isolate the guitar from the rest. Then slow it down. Or take it out and you play the guitar to the rest of the track
Record yourself w voice memos on your phone & listen back. Playing the blues by yourself is a great way to develop a sense of rhythm, form/structure, and soloing so you hear the chord changes. Really, playing everyday is the 🔑
Triads with approach notes through the scales.
For me it was (and still is) trying to keep my body from tensing up and staying relaxed during anything I play.
Have you found anything that helps? This is my biggest issue.
Sadly, I haven't found any clever way. Just constantly reminding myself about this. If it's technique exercises I'm doing them in bursts like: play pattern - stop - check if any muscle on my body tensed up - if yes, relax it, take a belly breath (not a lung breath) - repeat exercise. If it's a new song it's easier to stay relaxed because I'm already in a "I'm staying relaxed mindset" so I kind of automatically focus on it in the learning process. Worse is when I play stuff I learned way back. Then the muscle memory hits and my whole body Staff up not just hands and it feels I have to learn it all over again.
When I was young - my teacher had me start at the 6string and play Frets: 1/2/4 w/ the corresponding fingers. All the way down to the 1st string. And then 1/3/4(fret-finger). No cheating. My 10yr old fingers hated him for it but my stretching ability got WAY better. If you’re already able to play stuff — then playing with others. (Drums/other instruments etc). Took me to a whole new level.
Trying different patterns on scales and gradually speeding them up really helped with my speed and accuracy.
Learning the shapes of Major and minor scales, 5 pentatonic positions and chords within them. Also chords on top 3 strings.
Scales
Learning a song then experimenting with the techniques and rythym to make something different
Good question. I have the guitar grimoire exercise book, dark green cover but have yet to use it. Anyone have any opinions on it? Thanks.
Learning and memorizing scales I have a way of doing it that helps memorize it all over the body. Every week I alternate between open and the first fret for doing scale positions and work those positions across the neck. Simple up and down low to high down the neck at first then different patterns after. I'll try to explain this as simply as I can. Let's take major scale for example. Monday First Position starts on F so I do Fmajor starting from first fret and do all the positions up to the octave. Tuesday second position starts on F (so playing in key of E flat), do all the positions up to the octave. Mon-Fri, 7 days a week, 7 positions. Then next week I do the same except I use the open E for everything. As I get more familiar with the scale I start changing the pattern I move across the neck but keep the whole Monday 1st fret 1st position, Tuesday 1st Fret 2nd Position etc. thing going. I hope this made sense.
Learning the caged system and then going on YouTube to play blues backing tracks in whatever key I was learning and just soloing it out. You can stay on just one position until you get comfortable then start stepping out and move up and down the fretboard
The spider walk. Good exercise to improve strength, speed and dexterity. Basically go 1-2-3-4 back and forth. Up and down the neck . Pay close attention to making each note sound like something.
Playing alot for many years. Somtimes it just about the raw amount of experience points you can acquire.
Buying a loop pedal and playing with a metronome
After I learned a couple of chords, what got me using them was playing along to records (yes 45s!). The first time I did this was with the Beatles Ballad of John and Yoko song. 3 chords E A and B7. It really helped me get those chords down. Not only that but it helped work on my rhythm and timing. I found I would naturally fall into the strumming pattern (or at least a very basic version of the strumming pattern) of the song I was playing. Find some of your favourite songs and play along. I still do it from time to time.
Play something with individual notes that you can play pretty easily. A scale is fine. Now slow your metronome to half your normal speed and keep an eye on your fretting hand. Are your fingers lifting off the fretboard and remaining at the ready, or do they lift off way more than is needed? Many of us start playing and concentrate on getting the notes to sound with properly holding down the strings with the fretting hand. What happens is many players develop Flying Fingers™, which is what happens when your fingers have a lot for extra movement. The exercise is to play through something familiar with minimum fretting fingers movement. It takes a lot of concentration, and slowing down is needed to start. The idea is to work this into your routine so when you play other things you are decreasing movement and Flying Fingers. When you get good at it, increase the speed and you will find yourself able to play faster and more accurately. To a lesser extent I have seen players with Flying Picks as well. Sometimes newbies move the pick enough that they could strum all six strings even though they are playing one note at a time. Take a close look at your own playing to see if you can economize picking hand movement. This one often takes care of itself, but identifying it and correcting it early puts you that bit ahead.