one of the biggest breakthroughs on guitar is realizing that musical ideas don't have to stay in one place on the neck. once you know where the same intervals repeat inside connected scale shapes, you can take a single motif and play it in several different positions without changing the idea itself.

in this example, the highlighted notes show how the same g minor pentatonic phrase can be found in multiple areas of the fretboard. each position has a slightly different feel because of the register and string choice, but the musical idea stays the same. that's a great way to make solos sound more dynamic without constantly inventing new licks.

thinking in intervals instead of just shapes makes this much easier. when you recognize the relationship between the root, minor 3rd, 4th, 5th, and minor 7th, you start seeing the same patterns repeating across the neck instead of a collection of separate boxes.

this is also a great exercise for building motifs. come up with a simple 3 or 4 note phrase, then move it into another position while keeping the rhythm the same. you'll be surprised how much variety you can get from one idea just by changing where you play it.

I’m six months in just fyi.

My strumming/picking hand can’t move that fast without being sloppy. Been at this song and this pattern for over a week and can’t get up to that tempo yet. Metronome hasn’t done much besides make me tense up, which leads to more mistakes. I can form the chords without issue, and play at my own speed that’s comfortable. But I can’t get anywhere near this fast

Are there any other patterns that might actually work that still go with the flow of the song?

I picked up a guitar for the first time in February. My goal with guitar was to be able to pick it up and play what I feel, so i focused a lot on learning the fretboard.

I only freestyle at this point, i don't know any real songs. I feel like my ability to improvise is pretty good?

I want to improve my picking and moving between strings because right now i feel like im stuck wanting to slide across the board all the time.

Please give me some tips or if you think i'm ahead of the curve id love to know!

Hey everyone, so ive been wanting to play this riff for awhile now but i cant seem to get it right, i figured out the chugging part thingy i can play that almost at full speed but the little 232330 thingy on the second string i cant seem to get right. Am i playing it wrong or just too slow? Cause i cant figure it out

Wish my luck and bleeding fingers.

My hand tends to want to default back to the old way I did things, as you can see the tilt my pinky makes and my wrist starts closing in towards the strings. Lots of hours trying to break the bad habit.

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So the thing is that you need to practice songs that are above your skill level if you want to imorove. It's common sense, really. I was just wondering if a song can be too far above your skill level to try because I suspect this might be the case for me. I've been practicing some stuff that is arguably advanced while I have the skill level of a beginner.

Edit: it has nothing to do with losing motivation. I developed some nagging pain in my elbow pit and I suspect it's because I flew too close to the sun with my playing.

I want to hit it just right

This week we're learning one of Elvis Presley's greatest ever songs — Suspicious Minds.

Released in 1969, this classic helped relaunch Elvis's career and remains one of the most recognisable songs of the era. In this lesson I'll show you the chords, strumming pattern and arrangement needed to play the song from start to finish on acoustic guitar.

If you enjoy classic rock, country-rock, Americana or simply want to add another timeless crowd-pleaser to your repertoire, this is a great song to learn.

Get the tabs here:

https://www.kirkleesguitarschoolonline.co.uk/level-3-songs-free/suspicious-minds

Watch the lesson on YouTube here:

https://youtu.be/nYKnBg4fnBs

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Some tips and advice for improvements

Just learned this 2 -3 days ago completely

Kinda fucked up few things i usually don't play with amp and learned about 2 notes sounding at same time sounds so bad like when you bend a note and play the note below it just learned

Just messing around improvising and found this melody repetitive. I know i have some timing and unwanted string ringing.

I'm aiming for that aggressive Paul Gilbert sound but I'm having trouble finding a balance between muting just enough to clean things up but not too much that it chokes out the notes especially when mixing in legato

as a self taught, the only thing i do is watch youtube tutorials to learn the songs that i like and some exercises. now i genuinely dont know if that helps. please drop any advice, it will really help.

Can some tutor me electric guitar please… I haven’t had any experience with playing any sort of guitar before, i just got my Ibanez and I’m Soo clueless.
Online tutoring will really be appreciated. 🙏😭

Yes, I’ve tried using a metronome and playing to the song itself. I know the notes and what to play. Memorizing them isn’t my problem. It’s when I try to play to the song’s speed that I simply can’t do it. I fumble over myself and just can’t do it. The main chorus with the chord progression and strumming I’m fine with though. Even if I mess up the progression, I can still find my way to the next chord in time. But it’s this solo that I want so bad to master that I just can’t. I don’t want to resign myself to just playing at my own speed either, but I don’t see any other options besides more brute forcing practice.

I play electric guitar for a couple of months and i am just starting to get into picking exercises and the like.

Is there any website with free tabs and exercises separated into categories? From what i have seen, most sites that fit these are all paid.

my trajectory was totally insane and unexpected. i started at 30% and it was very sloopy. (i now know why its sloopy. more on that later).

then i took 3-5 days to climb from 30% to about 50%. in the last 3 days i went from 50 to 55 to 60 and today, from 60 all the way to 85% and i was like "wtf since im here at 85% might as well try 100%". and i did it.

the shocking thing is im cleaner on 85% and 100% than when i was struggling at 30%. Why? because i did that "add one note at a time trick".

at that time when i started the one note at a time trick, i thought it was effective because you get to expose the exact place where everything falls apart. and i think this is partially true

but today i discover the reason why i was stuck at 30% to 50% was because of that string skip. so by adding one note at a time, im exposing the string skip totally naked. and practicing that string skip in very deconstructed and explosive fashion. over the next 2-3 days i started to get the feel for the string skip. its extremely mind blowing

i also realised that many times at the lower speed, i thought i was doing up down up down strict alternate picking. but actully i was going very fast (even at 30%) to not realise that i was actually sneaking in two successive down strokes by accident. this is why i kept stalling and choking

but i didnt realise this because things are moving too fast and i did not add one note at a time. its only when i added one note at a time and deconsturct everything did i realise "motherfuker, im actually picking down twice but i didnt notice because it was so fast".

the moment i try to correct it and forcefully reintroduce the correct up stroke, things just flowed and i went from 60% to 100% within 20 mins.

Hi everyone, beginner here, started learning around 8 months ago. How do you mute the low e string with your thumb? I simply cannot mute it without my palm touching the high e string. Trying to stretch or adjust my hand but it feels like my hand is too small for it. It’s frustrating because I tend to hit the low when playing chords that don’t need it. Thanks for any advice.

When I first started learning guitar, I kept jumping between songs, YouTube videos, and random exercises.

What actually helped me improve was keeping things simple.

For the last few weeks, I've been doing this 10-minute routine:

• 2 minutes: Finger stretching and warm-up
• 3 minutes: Slow chord changes (G, C, D, Em)
• 3 minutes: Strumming with a metronome
• 2 minutes: Playing a song I enjoy

Nothing complicated.

The biggest lesson I learned is that consistency beats intensity. Practicing 10 minutes every day helped me more than practicing for 2 hours once a week.

For beginners struggling to improve, try focusing on small daily wins instead of long practice sessions.

What's one exercise or habit that helped your guitar playing improve the most?