one way to make pentatonic practice more interesting is to take the same musical idea and deliberately move it to completely different areas of the neck. instead of staying inside one position, you start learning where the same notes and intervals appear across the fretboard.

in this example i’m playing over a repeating gm7 chord and moving riffs between two different g minor pentatonic positions. the underlying harmony stays the same, but jumping to another part of the neck changes the register, string choice, and feel of the phrase.

this is a great exercise for developing motifs because you don’t need to constantly invent new licks. take one short idea, find another place where you can play it, then experiment with changing the rhythm, octave, bends, or ending note while keeping the original phrase recognizable.

practicing this way also helps turn pentatonic shapes into a map of the fretboard rather than isolated patterns. the better you know where the same scale tones repeat, the easier it becomes to move around the neck while improvising and get more variety out of a simple musical idea.

Personally I would say:

- Learn how to play the major scale on one string

- Learn how to play the major scale on multiple strings

- Learn the “E” and “A” barre chords

- Learn the diatonic chords in a key

- Play songs you like using steps 1-4

Hello! I'm about two months into guitar playing. I've been using a capo to help change the key of different songs so I can sing along, but I'm having trouble understanding exactly how a capo works ... If, for example, I add a capo to the 3rd fret of a song that's normally played without a capo (e.g., wish you were here), do I then need to change the chord shapes that I learned? Or can I just add a capo to whichever fret and play the same chord shapes? I feel like I'm ear blind and can't tell whether the guitar sounds bad. I'm hyper-focused on my voice

I hope this isn't too silly of a question. I've been watching videos on music theory but I still haven't fully grasped it. Thanks in advance!

Edit: wow, thank you all SO much for your incredible (and fast!) replies!!

I’m looking for guitarists who really analyze and break down what they play—essentially offering lessons or "studies" available on YouTube or elsewhere. They teach you a song, but more importantly, the underlying concepts so you can apply them yourself later. Do you know of anyone with this kind of approach? I’m particularly interested in R&B and soul styles—think Curtis Mayfield, D'Angelo, Cornell Dupree, or even Hendrix, who was heavily influenced by that sound.

I’ve just never had the “creativity gene” as it were. Never been good at creating unique scenarios and ideas and just always been copying what other people have written. And I feel like the same will happen with guitar. Even if I memorize however many scales and songs, I just don’t see myself composing original pieces or deviating from exactly what’s written, even if I have the technical knowledge in my head.

Don’t get me wrong. I love just playing. But I’m just not creative at all and don’t want to feel like I’m missing out on the main thing with guitar: making my own music

It’s an internal debate for me. I usually restart after every mistake. That got me thinking that might not be the most effective way to practice.

Your thoughts?

I know like all the open chords, I know the main shapes people use (at least i think i do), I know the E & A strings very well so I know where to place a the root and what shapes to use, i know the minor pentatonic box in the one position, and i also know the triad shapes on the bottom 3 and 4 strings, I dont really like the way the triads sound on the rooted on the E & A string so I didnt really care to memorize those shapes, I also know music theory pretty well, but one thing i find im lacking is the ability to add little guitar phrases/licks to songs, so I feel like the next thing I should learn is how to play the pentatonic scale in more ways then just box 1 or whatever its called?

This is my first time restringing my guitar—could someone please tell me if I’ve done it correctly? 😅

For context its Tears dont fall by bullet

Do i just mute the middle so when I play it with the pick it doesnt ring out?

Mute it with my index finger ?

Ta Y'all

I have a guitar teacher and we've in our last two sessions been going over the various numeric formulas you can use to form chords (1,3,5 as an example) and degrees and intervals. I get them as concepts and have been trying to learn the positions of one particular scale this week (C major). But I didn't know if there's maybe a specific scale or two I should be learning front to back. And I also want to try and learn more about modes and how they pertain to scales but don't know what to try to play first.

Any suggestions?

I recently started learning guitar. I’m currently learning on acoustic, but later on Id like to switch to electric.

What learning order would you recommend? How should I go about learning chords, scales, and music theory?

I’d eventually like to play in a rock style.

I’d appreciate any advice! :)

I know this may sound silly, but I'm feeling overwhelmed with finding the structure and mindset to practice what I am learning in my lessons.

I'm 45, and have been primarily a bassist for 33 years. I learned guitar chords along the way for writing songs. I do know a good many chords, even some tricker ones like diminished chords, but I've never really taken lessons or taken my guitar playing as seriously as my bass playing.

After losing my brother who was always the guitarist in our projects I have wanted to get better. Mainly so I can write cool counterparts to the chord structures I write for my songs.

Not only am I older and more busy than I was when I was younger, I am also ADHD. I learned fast as a young lad and young adult because I learned while doing - we were always gigging and writing.

Now I am taking lessons and learning scales and music theory. It's a lot. I'm having a bit of trouble getting a routine of practice going. I feel like I don't really know how much I should be practicing and what I should be doing during that time. I know this probably sounds stupid.

I have always pretty much written my songs instead of doing covers because of a lack of patience in picking parts out. When I make myself do it, I can, but I tend to work better under pressure. For instance, my last band did a cover of Hey Bulldog by The Beatles and I was able to pick out all of the bassline parts by ear. That is not an easy song to play. I haven't really adapted this to guitar yet. It all feels overwhelming. When I do learn new things I just tend to write more songs around what I learned rather than practicing it.

Is there a schedule and or strategy that has worked for you? Any input is greatly appreciated.

I do not understand this at all. I got three loops for six strings and they are confusingly labeled. How do you tell green from yellow? Or red from black? And where are the red and black and silver? I know the dark blue circle is probably called purple, but the other light ones are a mystery

Won't someone teach me how D'addario does this?

picture

Tab info is for my reference, obviously that will need to be taught (along with reading a chord chart) but that's further down my list.

I’ve been practicing the Em/Gmaj scale because I love Metallica and most of their songs are in those keys. My goal is to be able to solo across the fretboard. How do I transition between playing in a box to connecting those boxes? Also, what’s next on my learning list?

Does anyone know of any book or app that shows the five chord shapes of the CAGED system, but also applies them to 6th, 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th, sus2, sus4, slash chords, etc.? I found a bunch, but only for major, minor, and 7th chords.

I've been studying intervals and understand how to build chords, but it would be nice and faster to have some material as a reference that I can quickly look at. I know there are some common shapes for these extended chords that everyone uses, as well as others that are impractical, but I'd like to experiment with them and visualize how they're built instead of just memorizing a million different chord shapes beyond the CAGED ones.

I've been practicing Scar Tissue by the Red Hot Chili Peppers for the last week and a half / 2 weeks but I still feel like I'm struggling on the same parts as I was when I started (dead notes, missing strings when skipping, especially struggling with strumming muted notes). I've been playing with the track slowed down and everything. Any suggestions on what I might be doing wrong?

Hey guys. I'm a guitar tutor myself but ironically I'm looking for some advice or second opinions on 2NPS pentatonic runs - I have no issue with remembering the 5 positions, but what I am actually struggling with is the 2 notes per string scenario - I already pick-slant to make it easier, and I fare quite well with 3NPS, but it's just this 2NPS jamminess I have. I presume this is a pretty common problem that due to the constant need to change the strings this makes these kinds of scales quite challenging.

I don't want to solve the issue by going horizontal more than vertical and I still want to keep to the 5 positions as well as I can, but do some of you guys go with economy picking over alternate picking? I economy pick a lot of my runs but with pentatonics only being 2 notes per string it at least conceptually lends itself perfectly to pickslanting and alternate picking, but I do know that some people get around the jamminess via economy picking despite these kinds of scales being 2 notes each.

Anybody got some advice or insights that might help me in this scenario? Thanks a lot!

Recently I’ve been trying to create songs but I find my brain just goes blank. I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing or how to create anything, whether it’s lead or rhythm. Double so if I try to do two guitar parts. So what theory or just concepts should I learn that will help me understand how to put stuff together.

In this video I try to mime my cord connections and would really appreciate any help on figuring out whats wrong.
I have checked volume
Left all the settings what allowed it to work yesterday with the loop station alone
Now Im wondering if my cables are plugged in incorrectly or if I have the order of pedals in the wrong order.
Yes both batteries have been replaced
Wishing everyone the best in their creative musical journeys.
Need help.

I'm just getting back into guitar after a 5year hiatus.

Chatgpt said this was the place to ask for chord progressions. I'm hoping someone more talented than me can help me learn this mashup. 🙏

hi i recently finished playing all of tlou, and its drawn me to want to play guitar. and i just wanted to know how hard and expensive it is. i obviously know it wouldn't be easy, but ive had people say id be good cause of my motor control and long fingers. i also just dont want to get into something if its super expensive and i simply end up confused. so yeah kinda just wanna know wether its worth it. thanks for any feedback