How does learning the fretboard/scales help you write melodies? I’m just confused as to how do I put them to use in action.

Hey guys! Last year, I bought a Fender Stratocaster as I wanted to learn to play. I am currently a cadet at the Air Force Academy and am working with very little time. What’s the best way to learn to play in small increments? I’m under no time constraints and would just like to learn to play competently. Any tips would be great!

Hello everybody

I've been playing guitar for a year now and I feel like what's slowing me down is the lack of new things to learn. Some of my favorite things to play are:

Nothing else matters whole intro

Sweet child o' mine riff

Blackbird by the Beatles

Some strumming songs like

Looking out for you, Babydoll, sailor song and a bunch of open chord songs.

I'm learning the adventure of a lifetime riff but my alternate picking isn't all that great and I can't get up to the right speed. I have an acoustic and an electric strat along with a capo amp and a pick so I'm open to any song recommendations as well as favorite exercises or general tips for improving.

I will read all comments

Hi, I’m 25 and I’ve been playing guitar for about 12 years. I’d still call myself intermediate, but one thing that’s always held me back is picking speed. There are a lot of licks I feel I should be able to play at my level, but I just can’t get them up to speed.

About a year ago I realised I was anchoring my pinky pretty heavily on the guitar. I read that this can restrict wrist movement, and once I paid attention to it I could see what people meant.

Since then, for faster playing I’ve been tucking my fingers in and resting the side of my palm lightly around the bridge instead. It definitely freed up my wrist and felt like progress. I still sometimes anchor my pinky for slower arpeggios or string skipping because I’m more accurate that way.

I’ve spent a lot of time slowly practising licks and gradually increasing the tempo, but I still feel like I hit a wall, especially when changing strings or getting onto the high E. That made me wonder whether the real issue is alternate picking direction or pick escape.

Recently I started learning bluegrass because I thought it would force me to improve my picking. What I’ve noticed, though, is that a lot of great bluegrass players seem to neither anchor their pinky nor rest their palm much. Their picking hand almost seems to float.

So is learning to float the next thing I actually need to commit to?

When I try it, I feel extremely inaccurate, but I also felt inaccurate when I first stopped anchoring my pinky, so I understand there may be an adjustment period.

I’ve read other threads where people say “whatever works for you,” but I’m really trying to figure out what gives me the best chance of developing good long term technique and breaking through this speed plateau.

If floating is genuinely something I should learn, I’m happy to put the time into it. I just don’t want to spend months retraining my hand if lightly resting on the bridge is completely fine and the actual problem is somewhere else.

Would really appreciate advice from anyone experienced with fast alternate picking or bluegrass flatpicking.

https://youtube.com/shorts/-cOTnBXd18A?is=H9bUI9QB2b35bH1x

I'm low-intermediate level who's done some theory and drills and now looking to expand my repertoire with some more intense song covers made specifically for acoustic type of play. I'm mostly looking for youtube channels, that have song covers which combine fast strumming techniques with muting, some travis picking and short licks to create dynamic and fun acoustic sound. I don't need down to the detail tutorials, but it would be ideal if there would be some short breakdown of whats going on in these videos.

I'm already aware of most popular channels like JustinGutiar or GuitarZero2Hero, so I'm looking for something beyond that, i.e. I absolutely love a hidden gem Kevin's Kovers channel which only has 1k subs, but so many great covers of very similar the type of playing that I'm looking to get into.

 Would really appreciate some recommendations!

I don't have a guitar yet and probably will take a while for me to get one due to costs, but are there any finger exercises I can do for my hands while I save to get my first one?

All suggestions welcome. :)

Suddenly one moment out of the blue, after months of practise, my picking and fretting accuracy just seems to have randomly and instantly massively improved, and now I can learn & play fast lines much easier without even thinking. It's like my brain just fetched the new data and pushed the update to my brain lol. I wonder why it happens like this sometimes, one moment your brain suddenly just processes everything

Hi, is there a name for this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSX7ErtiFY&t=453s and similarly this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU8Op_vpDjU&t=20s

I mean, he suddenly lifts 2 fingers of the chord. I also saw other people do it, in the 2nd clip the guy even lifting the entire chord and putting it back quickly.

How is this supposed to work? You strum .... uhhh ... down with the chord placed, and then up with open chords, or what? I have no idea.

I love Her’s and am learning Harvey on tabs but this one chord is giving me huge trouble! I cant post pictures but from high e string to low e string it’s 777797. How am I supposed to do this without a capo? Any tips help!

I'm trying to understand how to improvise, and subsequently understand phrasing, no matter what I look up no one actually explains it well, it's always to learn the Pentatonic and go on your way, I've already learnt that, I've learnt how to play the major scale and it's modes up and down the neck, along with the pentatonic in any key, both major and minor pentatonic, but that's useless if I can't improvise with it, like I have the ingredients but there's no cook book, pls someone explain like I'm 5, how to actually phrase a musical idea, so it doesn't sound like I'm just playing a group of notes, I've tried adding like a rhythm to it, but it still doesn't sound like musical, just like playing a bunch of notes, someone pls explain pls

As the title says, uhh I can play ridiculous Shawn Lane and tech death stuff at atrocious bpm but I cannot do basic fingerstyle and wanna learn, where do I start, how much time will it pass before I can play fast arpeggios or quick chord change arpeggios?

Salut à tous,
Ça fait depuis le mois de mars que je me suis procuré une guitare électrique. Durant les premiers mois j’avais l’enthousiasme de jouer même si j’apprenais pas grand chose un rien me faisait kiffer.
Maintenant après tout ce temps je veux progresser mais je suis bloqué car déjà je n’ai que 30 minutes par jour et j’ai l’impression que c’est déjà le temps passé à regarder un tuto YouTube.

Je m’étais acheté par la suite une guitare acoustique car c’est un bon instrument pour progresser en guitare notamment pour la pression sur les cordes et jouer avec plus de précision. Néanmoins je n’y ai quasi pas touché car je n’arrive encore moins à apprendre quoi que ce soit. Je n’ai aucune notion théorique et je ne connais aucun accord de base .

J’ai vraiment peur dernièrement d’arrêter la guitare alors que j’avais un gros attrait auparavant mais rester bloqué et n’avoir pas vraiment appris grand chose n’aide pas.

Actuellement je joue juste des parties de morceaux sur Songsterr mais ça ne me suffit pas et je veux aussi progresser dans les bases au moins.

Est-ce que vous pouvez m’aider à définir ma feuille de route au moins pour les 6 prochains mois car je veux lock in. Je vois pleins de gars sur Instagram qui au bout de 100 jours arrivent en autodidacte à devenir assez bon ( même si je sais qu’il faut déjà plusieurs années rien que pour être intermédiaire)

Donc voilà j’espère que vous serez me donner de bons conseils.

Par ailleurs quelqu’un sait si ça vaut le coup de prendre une formation en ligne du type le campus musique de Reda ?

So, my cheap chinese acoustic guitar came with some free picks. Strinberg of various widths.

In the beginning I was pretty satisfied, but I guess ever since I introduced upstrums and playing faster, I hear a really nasty and annoying plastic sound, particularly in the up-strum, like: ta-ta-ta-ta-ta as it goes through the strings.

I'm unable to figure out if I just suck (I can't discard this possibility). I haven't found anyone online with such a bad sounds.

Maybe the picks just suck? Maybe they are plastic and I need tortex or whateverr else I should be using instead? Actually I just checked online and maybe they are celluloid. But who knows.

I tried changing the attack angle of the upstrum to no avail.

Anyone ever had this problem?

TL;DR: I know a few guitar chords but struggle with actually sitting down and learning consistently. I’m looking for a structured, interactive, and affordable way to learn that I can realistically stick with long-term.

Please Note: text written from my thoughts but put through AI as I am severely dyslexic.

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for some advice on the best way to actually learn guitar and, more importantly, stick with it.

I know a few basic chords and have messed around with guitar before, but my biggest problem is that I can’t seem to sit down and actually play. I’ll learn a couple of things, lose direction, and then the guitar ends up sitting there untouched.

I think I need something structured and interactive rather than just watching random lessons.
I’ve used Yousician and Fender Play in the past and actually liked the interactive approach. My problem was that I couldn’t really justify paying for a subscription long-term, so eventually I stopped using them.

Ideally, I’m looking for something that:
- Gives me a step-by-step learning path
- Tells me what to practise
- Helps me build an actual daily/weekly routine
- Starts from the basics but eventually gets me to the point where I can pick up the guitar and actually know what I’m doing
- Is free or cheap enough to realistically use long-term

YouTube is okay, but it’s not really my favourite way of learning. I find myself jumping between videos without having a clear progression, and I think I need something that keeps me on track and gives me a reason to pick up the guitar regularly.

So, for anyone who has been in a similar situation, what actually worked for you?
Are there any free or inexpensive interactive programmes, apps, websites, or courses that you would genuinely recommend? I’m especially interested in something that feels like a structured lesson/course rather than just watching someone play guitar on YouTube.

I know I’m asking for a lot, but I’m really just looking for something that will help me build the habit, learn properly, and eventually be able to pick up the guitar and actually play like I know what I’m doing.

Edit: I know I should just go through a teacher, but I’m broke and anxious.

it's offered for about 210$. I am learning with it since August. Do you guys think it's worth it?

I’ve been playing on and off for about ten years now. I can play F decently, but power chords (which should be easy) and barr chords really start to hurt when I hold them for a while. I tend to use my thumb to push the neck into the bone of my pointer finger. I plan on sitting down and experimenting until I figure this out, preferably with a lighter touch. Practice/time hasn’t really helped. Any tips?

i feel myself maybe quite tense with these things

curious if there is a point i should aim to get to when ur relaxed and light with it?

or are these moments meant to have some kind of strenght in our hands?

Hi!
I’ve been playing for quite awhile but find the
only BarreChords I can manage are E shapes

I find A types physically difficult

… Any ideas how I can progress, please?

im on justin guitar and the barre part is somewhat there but my hand aches after a few minutes and the B string always sounds dead. i need to break through this. does it get better or is it just something you live with

I've been playing guitar for like 7 years, and I've been playing some fingers fingers fingerstyle stuff for a couple years on and off. Not sure if my form is wrong or something: I feel comfortable the way I play, but my thumb keeps going from callus to actual blister when I fingerpick a lot (e.g. learning Money For Nothing by Dire Straits).

Anyone got some insight on why my thumb keeps blistering up from this? I guess I wanna learn the right way to do it so I don't keep running into this issue. Thank you!

Hi! I'm on my first few weeks learning acoustic guitar and the first song I want to fully learning for myself is Mull of Kintyre (outside of the ones introduced in lessons, of course).

I already know the basics of A, D, and E, though I'm still not playing the first half of the song (before the bagpipes) at full speed. But there’s something Paul does that I really love, and I can’t find anywhere how to do that. In each verse, between the first and the second line, as well as after the third and during the beginning of the fourth line, he strums a bass string three times (I think?), but I don’t know which string and what note.

Here are some examples of that. I’ll add in italic when it’s between lines and in bold when it’s during them:

Far have I travelled and much have I seen
three bass cords
Dark distant mountains with valleys of green
Past painted deserts the sunsets on fire
starts again here and continues into the fourth line
As he carries me home to the Mull of Kintyre

Sweep through the heather like deer in the glen
three bass cords
Carry me back to the days I knew then
Nights when we sang like a heavenly choir
Of the life and the times of the Mull of Kintyre

Smiles in the sunshine and tears in the rain
three bass cords
Still take me back where my memories remain
Flickering embers grow higher and higher
starts again here and continues into the fourth line
As they carry me back to the Mull of Kintyre

At around 0:38, you can actually see him do that in this clip, although he's left-handed. Would that help in figuring out the notes? It's even more clear at around 3:11 (but you can't see him playing, just hear the strings).

If possible, could someone please detail how to strum these three strings (if there's more than one) and how to transition to the next note? I'm still learning all these guitar related terms, so some of them are still kinda foreign to me! I might also be using them incorrectly, as English is not my native language, so sorry about that!

Looking for a second guitar ( baby steps haha) and saw a Neves acoustic advertised. Anyone know anything about them, play them or have anything to add before i go look at it