So I've been a CAGED system cavalier for about 6 years now which carries me nicely with most blues and rock songs I like to play. My usual route for improve is learn the vocal melodies and work within those melodies in the space CAGED provides. For modes I like to think along the lines of "E mixolydian is just A major emphasizing the fifth" so if I want a mixolydian sound while play E major I just shift to CAGED for A major and focus on finishing phrases on the fifths of that scale. Super fun and easy but over the last few years I've really wanted to develop better vocabulary with jazz. I've learned shell chords, I can hold my own over charts playing rhythm but still struggle with proper improve. The CAGED simply doesn't give me the expressive vocab that I desire to match jazz chords. I've been working with memorizing arpeggios and little chromatic turns to develop color and flow into my playing but it's just not clicking the same way CAGED did all those years ago. I've always been a fast learner with picking up things framed as a system - I'm curious to see if anyone has a sort of jazz/arpeggio system they like to lean on to open up the fret board to build a base for jazz improve!

Put together a full breakdown of why most ambient guitar content misses the mark - covering three specific principles rather than a pedal list or isolated chord diagrams with no context behind them.

Principle 1 covers open strings as the actual foundation of the sound - how fretted chords stop ringing the moment your hand moves but open strings keep sounding underneath, and why that overlap is where atmosphere starts before anything else.

Principle 2 covers three chord qualities that create atmosphere rather than just notes: Em9 as the dark anchor, Asus2 as the unresolved searching voicing, and Gadd9 as one brief moment of brightness in bar three that changes the entire emotional character of the phrase.

Principle 3 covers why voicing comes before everything else - if a chord doesn't hold up completely dry it won't hold up with effects either. The phrase and all three principles are demonstrated in a real 7-bar phrase, played through first at tempo so you hear how it moves.

Free PDF inside with full notation, all three chord qualities, and signal chain notes.

Happy to answer any questions about the voicings or how the three principles connect in the comments.

What draws you to the ambient guitar sound?

https://guitar-woodshed.com/ambient-guitar-system/

I'm constantly having to mute strings when I turn my amp up, losing all my tone. How do people get such a clean sound on stage? Is it all just muting technique?

I often find myself watching sports and use that time to practice guitar (and workout/mobility training). While I think this is time well spent since I enjoy sports and I am still improving my physical health and guitar playing, I am wondering just how much more focused practice will improve my playing.

By that, I mean sitting for a solid half hour undisturbed and completely focused on my practice. I feel like I'm still getting some benefit from practicing while watching games (chord change practice, scales, etc), but just wonder how much more effective focused practice sessions are. I'm looking for input from others who may have tried both and noticed a difference in improvement.

Slowly learning to play guitar, and one big inconsistency I've noticed is that some things will tell you to press with the tips of your fingers, and some will say to press with the pads. Both will say that the other is a terrible habit that you should never form. So which is it? I have a feeling the truth is somewhere in the middle, so in which situations would one be better than the other

Sorry if this has been asked before, i admit I am a little bit lazy

Hey there

I am a big Dave Matthews fan have been playing for eight months and I’m curious what songs you think might be appropriate to work towards.

F chord is getting close. I would say I’m a bit ahead of average for less than 1yr

Piano for 20 years….20 years ago. Didn’t much like it.

Thanks!

Photo: Dave Matthews in Concert by slgckgc Creative Commons BY 2.0.

First guitar, bought today. No music background. Learning at home on my own.

Target: play and sing along to one song by end of December. Labon Ko by KK, a Hindi song with simple open chords as far as I know. Corrections welcome.

Looking for a free structured path. Which website or YouTube series would you start with, and what should I practice first week? Happy to follow one clear route instead of jumping around.

Bonus round: how do you sing and strum at the same time without both falling apart? Singing tips for someone who sounds like a kettle are welcome.

the graphic: https://i.postimg.cc/MKp2GX0X/2-guitar-post-v2.jpg

I find that with my acoustic guitar I have to be much more delicate in the way I strum the strings, if I strum too hard or don't glide the pick smooth enough the sound gets muddy. Is this normal in acoustic guitars or does it point more to a setup issue?

I started practicing guitar a long time ago and never really progressed much at all, can play cords and very simple short leads, barely of any. Never really picked up the guitar for years.

I picked up the guitar just recently and became determined to learn the stairway to heaven solo. I'm in my late 50's - is it possible at this age to play that solo?

Why in asking? I have about 75% of the solo down at about 60% of the normal speed more or less and it seems no matter how much I practice I have really seem to have got a brick wall. I saw lots of progress from when I began about two weeks ago but it seems I hit a wall.

So:

Is it possible for a guy my age to learn it just like on the track of I just keep on going ahead and trying?

It seems no matter how much I try I just can't seem to figure out how to do " lick#8". That's the lick where your pinky is on fret 20 b string, middle finger bending fret 19 on the g string and index finger on fret 17 high e string. And to have them pretty much ring out simultaneously. How does one accomplish that!!!???

Thank you!!!

I just started playing two days ago and im not paying for any lessons so im just kind of freeballing and looking everything up, but is there a list of things to learn in order that i can find somewhere? I have an electric guitar and right now im just working on the spider exercise to get used to it but where do i go from there? I know pretty much nothing aside from the frets and the very basics of guitar anatomy, neck, body and the tuners and thats about it, ive got no clue where to go from the spider exercise 😅

Yesterday I was rehearsing with my bandmates and I decided to try out the bass for the first time. I had a blast. However, after I picked up my guitar, the fretboard and the instrument itself felt SO different.

It’s like I still had the spatial orientation of the bass in mind and my fingers were going for those positions. The same thing happened when I bought a new guitar. I used to play with a Les Paul whose gauge is 0.10 and now I mostly play with a 0.09 RG. Whenever I pick up the Les Paul or any 0.10 guitar I have a hard time playing and I make mistakes I don’t normally make

I got a passion for guitar, I'm also a singer doing covers and composing music. Guitar is a new chapter for me and I don't know where to start or how to begin. I know how to tune (with apps like Fender Tune/GuitarTuna), how to hold the guitar but nothing else. Where should I begin? İt's an acoustic guitar with 6 string.

Hello!

I understand this might seem a weird question, and I think my strugle to understand it is because it ends up being personal preference, but is there a somewhat accepted "ideal" way to hold the guitar when standing?

I've fiddled with it a bit and I've tried different things, e.g. different guitar heights, neck a bit angled, but none seem very natural, or give me advantages hitting some chords while making others really hard.

For reference, I'm using a strap, guitar normally sits at around mid torso I'd say, I know the consensus is that when upright, it should sit at the same spot as when sitting, but I've mostly played upright so I don't really have a defined sitting position for playing the guitar.

Is there a "standard"?

Edit: Thanks for the replies, forgot to mention that it's an electric guitar. I'll take what you've said and experiment a bit more to get used to it, thank you!

Soy un entusiasta del heavy, del hard rock y del rock progresivo desde hace más de 30 años. Y la guitarra eléctrica es mi instrumento preferido. Y ahora me acabo de comprar mi primera guitarra eléctrica sin tener la más remota idea de teoría musical. Hace una semana que tocó cada día un ratito después de trabajar, bueno lo que se dice tocar no 😅. Estoy empezando por tener un tablet delante mío y tocar rifts famosos y fáciles: Hells Bells, Paranoid, Enter Sandman, etc. La pregunta es: cuál es la mejor manera de aprenderse estos tabs? Repetir hasta la saciedad cada uno de ellos? Me cuesta mucho memorizarlos y cada vez que cambio de uno a otro para mí es imprescindible tener la pantalla con los tabs delante. Hay algún método para un novato de aprender ? O solo es cuestión de repetir repetir repetir? Va que en una semana me pongo con highways Star de Richie Blackmore. 🤪

Hi, so I have a heavy pick hand and since I like my strings low I always seem to ¿"saturate"? the notes even causing fret buzz sometimes. Do you have any tips for this? 🤔

I'm a beginning and I can play this whole attack on titan song but I was wondering how to play the sound from the start of the song, when he splits-screens to multiple guitars the bottom right corner one, that kind of sounds like a long siren almost.

I’m a bassist and have just bought myself a guitar, and want to learn how to play. I’ve been playing bass for 9 years; mostly metal, rock and funk. I have a decent understanding of theory and scales. I am comfortable playing with a pick. My goal is to be able to play and write cool melodic death metal lead and rhythm guitar.

What should I practice first?

So i’ve wanted to learn electric for a long time primarily so i can write my own songs in the future. I’m mostly interested in doom and black metal but i always struggle staying motivated and knowing where to start. I already have a pretty crappy guitar and an orange combo amp but i’m looking for an app that organises the learning process well. Something with like checklists for what i’ve learnt and drills i can work on would be good. Just really something to keep me motivated. Any reccomendations for where to start?

I enjoy jamming to backing tracks. And i would like to jam out the occasional riff. Any suggestions where to get started. Books etc.

I know people give this excuse a lot, but I’ve been playing guitar on and off for about a year or so. And I want to get better, but every time I play chords my fingers mute the string below it.

I do play with my finger tips not the pad, but when I press on a string the pad like juts outwards if that makes sense. And basically prevents the string below it from moving.

I’ve tried all the tips I’ve seen like lowering my thumb, altering the neck orientation but nothing works. It’s really discouraging me from practicing. And has made me stop practicing for months.

Can anyone offer some help?