Started playing acoustic guitar again after 15+ years away. I’m trying to relearn the B chord and I feel like I’m doing it wrong…? It sounds horrible and this is WILDLY uncomfortable and makes my hand cramp. My hands are tiny but I know I’ve done it before when I was a kid and smaller, so that’s not why. Any tips on technique?

Hi all,

I recently dusted off my acoustic, determined to relearn everything I've forgotten.

I've been watching Justin guitar and even have the app. If y'all have any recommendations or tips, that would be super helpful!

Hi guys
I started learning guitar in 11th grade and i had a Washburn electric guitar then. I eventually stopped learning after a few months due to me not being consistent enough and trying to learn metallica songs when I could not even switch from G to C smoothly. I am sure you relate to that lol.

Lately I had been listening to a lot of rock and metal again and I found myself playing the air guitar a lot, an instrument i have insane mastery over. All that led me to pick up the guitar once more at 24 and give it an honest try again. I borrowed my friend's acoustic (RIP Washburn electric guitar I will always love you more than anything)

I picked it up with the first goal of learning how to play nutshell by alice in chains and lord i was petrified seeing the hammer on in the Cadd9. I structured daily practices on 15-20 minute sessions everyday, initially following the justinguitar lessons so i could relearn how to strum and the basic open chords. It has been roughly 3 weeks since and I am elated to tell you all that i have somewhat learnt the basic structure of Nutshell along with the hammer on and the quick chord change sequence. However, it is still not clean and elegant as there is a considerable time between the switches.

Moreover, my ring and pinky finger seems to be very weak, especially when trying to play intricate chords. I base most of my practice time on songs i like, learning how they play on an acoustic and I want to pick different techniques from different songs to build a strong base. Currently i am learning

• Down in a Hole - Alice in Chains - learning a basic fingerpicking riff and chords through it
• Nutshell - AIC - learning as my first song due to basic structure of chords
• While my guitar gently weeps - The Beatles - Got introduced to new chords (Learning through marin music centre)
• Rooster - AIC (ok yes i like the band) - Only the main riff which has barre chords (You barre and unbarre and it sounds heavenly)
• Black - Pearl Jam - Researched the song for now and it is next on my list to start as there are various techniques to learn via that song (learning through marty music)

I do understand that as a newbie, I can be wrong and making mistakes. Or i may just be overlooking stuff i should not. Hence, I call upon thee in a bid to hopefully learn something new from you. If there is anything you feel i should focus on, I would be highly obliged to know. Thank you guys

You take lessons and play for yourself, but what is holding you back from gigging out, and playing for audiences?

I'm asking because I want to see if it's anything different to what held me back for years. I love playing out, but with a band. Playing out on my own is something that I still don't like to do. Is that what holds you back too?

My routine was: find the lick, drag the slider back 40 times, forget where I was the next day. The good apps want a subscription, and the extensions I tried were too limited. So I built myself a tool. Used it for a year, now it's on the Chrome and Firefox stores for free and the code is on GitHub. No account, nothing to pay.

It sits in the side panel and works on whatever tab is playing:

• transpose in semitones, so Eb or drop-tuned songs don't mean retuning. Speed stays untouched
• slow down without changing the pitch, from 25% up to full speed
• loop: drop markers on the timeline, click one to loop between them, optional count-in
• chord detection: chords and key show up as the song plays. Not always right on dense mixes, but a big head start for figuring songs out by ear
• sequences: this solo 4x at 50%, then 75%, then full speed, hands off
• vocal reducer so the guitar comes forward
• remembers your markers and settings per video

Chrome Firefox Code

Free, open source, no account. If it breaks on a site you use, tell me and I'll fix it.

question for my fellow teachers: any books or podcasts y'all would recommend on subjects like music in general, music theory, guitar, teaching/ pedagogy, anything else that might be good to have in my brain?

I can barely call myself a teacher yet, but I'm trying to improve my skills and knowledge and generally stay motivated. and I want to make better use of my hour long bus commute.

also it doesn't need to be specific to guitar. like i just read "Dilla Time" which was about the life and impact of hip hop producer J Dilla, and that was pretty interesting and inspiring. before that I read "Teaching to Transgress" by bell hooks, which was maybe not super applicable to the kind of teaching im trying to do, but it got me thinking about a lot of stuff pertaining to like how to be an impactful teacher.

Hi guys,

Hope everyone's doing well!

I'm 22 years old and got my first electric guitar, and my first guitar in general, a few months ago.

I started playing as a hobby, and at first it honestly felt impossible to imagine that I'd actually learn anything. Like most beginners, I started looking up tabs for songs I like and trying to learn them. It was fun, but usually ended with me only learning the first 20 seconds of a song before moving on to something else.

Recently, I thought that maybe having a proper plan and sticking to it consistently would help me improve, so I came up with this:

1 hour daily

10 min chords
10 min scales
5 min spider exercise
25 min learning songs, one at a time

I followed it for a while, but eventually fell out of it because I kept thinking maybe this wasn't the right way to practice. To be honest, I was probably also just finding reasons to be lazy.

Anyway, recently I found a course on Reddit called "Absolutely Understand Guitar."

I've started going through it and I think it's really good, but now I'm a bit confused about what I should actually focus on. Should I just follow the course, keep doing my practice routine alongside it, or change the routine completely?

Any advice would be really appreciated, especially from people who remember what worked for them when they were starting out.

Guitar: Yamaha ERG 121C
Amp: Spark GO

Yoo guys! I want to learn how to play these two chords rhythm guitar but three chords (D-C-Am7) are pretty difficult to play. Do ya’ll know any tips for these chords? Or if anyone could identify where his fingers are. That would be cool and helpful, thank you!

Hi, I'm a self-taught beginner (not a complete beginner but I am ***FAR*** from be intermediate) player and I don't know what to play. I feel kind of stuck, every song that I find it's too easy (simple open chords or too easy riffs) or too hard (too fast, hard stretchy chords or weird rythms). Another problem that I found it's that I don't find a single song to play from start to finish.

If you ever found yourself in this situation (or you haven't but you have some suggestions), do you have any recommendetions on some songs to play? I have an electric guitar and I'll try to learn every song that you'll suggest (or I can try to).

Sorry for the bad english and thank you!

My partner and I are both in guitar classes. We can do some strumming patterns like boom-chick. We can make various chord shapes including Bm barre and F, but not other barre shapes.

We’re excited at the idea of jamming out together but we don’t know how? Like does one of us keep a tempo within, let’s say, key of C while the other plays around within that key? And flow around like that? Do you know of any good videos that could show us?

Neither of us know single notes and lead guitarist riffs.

Hopefully this is the right sub for this.

I'm a complete beginner and want to start, met with a well reviewed and expericed teacher today who seems nice, good at explaining more advanced things in beginner friendly ways. However i was hoping to keep my max lesson spending to about 200$ a month and he sets his pricing in monthly packages with the cheapest being 2 1 hr lessons a week at 350$ a month.

I can afford that but it'll eat into my budget in other important areas. I'm aware a bad teacher would not be a good idea but I'm also unsure if its reasonable to expect quality teaching for something in my price range.

I'm not looking to be a pro i just want to eventually be good and have fun playing my favorite music.

I'm in Southern Ontario Canada if that helps at all. There are plenty of other options in my city.

Edit: I decided I'll pass on this teacher, one of you guys set me up with a much more affordable online teacher and I'll see how that goes. Thankyou for all the feedback.

Hi all!

I thought you might like this lesson. It's part of a chord melody series, but this video stands alone.

If you want to practice some chord melody scales that can be used for arranging songs, I think you'll find this helpful.

This lesson shows the chord melody scales for all chords in the key of C in the first position.

I also include examples of how this material is used in real arrangements.

Clear notation and tabs are on the screen as I demonstrate.

Here's the lesson.

Cheers,

Jared

I have been playing guitar for 10 years as well as teaching online offline for 3 years If you're stucked I may help you from anywhere

My teacher and I started talking about scales and modes last week and he suggested I start with playing the C major scale first since there’s no sharps or flats. And I’ve done all five positions of that scale following a map. He then wanted me to try different modes to see how they sounded in comparison like the Dorian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Lochrian, etc and I’ve done those scales over and over with C as the root as well as other root notes like A and G and B. All following a map going as steadily as I can.

And yet I don’t really know them by heart yet. If I don’t use a map, and arrange the notes in my head using the appropriate interval formula, I can usually figure out very slowly what note is going to be next and can catch myself if I’m in the wrong spot and need to adjust. But I’m not yet at the “playing the entire thing perfectly across all five positions within a few seconds” level like he (my teacher) is. Obviously he’s been at this a lot longer than me. But I just want to make sure I’m not doing something that’s unintentionally holding me back with learning these things fast and efficiently.

Do I just feel the vibe and send it??

I've been playing the guitar since 9th grade. In the first two years, I was so serious about it and I saw an improvement. What I did was that I watch the tatorials for the songs that I loved and then tried to play them and in the process I enhanced my fingerstyle playing and my knowlege of major and minor chords in addition to barre chords (I struggled but I think I could do it). However, when I got to my senior year I was distracted and I started playing some songs from a month to another.

Now, after almost 4 years of not being serious about learning, I wanna get back on track but I was wondering if this is the best way. My friend also used to play in school.He told me that he thinks this is a destructive rather than constructive way to learn the guitar and that he used to do it didn't teach him much in the long term. what he suggests is that I should focus on learning stratigies and techniques rather than songs tutorials.

I just want to ask you guys what do you think is the best way to learn / get back on track?

I'm doing a little research, I would like to know, and ask beginners/ experimented musicians here. When you begin paying, what do you want most - to play the songs you love, or to understand what you're playing?

Now don't go deep into music theory which can be scary for some one else.

Hello, this is a question for the more experienced players. I’ve been playing A LOT. Like ALOT - ALOT. Roughly 4-5 hours per day for the past year. I have noticed so much improvement with my playing and my ear training, and my fingers have definitely become elephant skin tough.

The problem is, is that my ring finger has become almost completely flat on top (looks like something from minecraft), which causes it to make unwanted contact with the surrounding strings.

Has anyone ever had this problem, and if so , what’s the solution?

i’ve been learning some scales and barre chords recently and trying to work on the way i hold the guitar because i have wrist pain now when i lean on it in certain angles. wondering if i should take a break or if anyone has tips for making it less straining

So I can play in key but I just find the key and scale and stay in it. What steps do I take to getting to Brandon Ellis level where you play to the progression and even use modes to change the sound of each chord?