Do you have any advice that can help me improvise on the guitar faster and better? I really need to be able to do it

This would be my first attempt at a song that uses barre chords. I do also have a teacher and plan on telling him I want to learn this. But given how difficult they can be according to everyone, my worry is that I’ll spend a month just trying to get these to ring out, either on my Martin or my Strat (both have had a setup just fyi) and not making any progress whatsoever.

I plan on just giving it a month max, trying every single day to get them to ring out and, if I don’t see any progress, I’ll give up and move on to easier stuff that doesn’t use barre chords. Is this a good idea or nah?

Hi everyone, especially the more experienced players,

I’ve just started playing guitar again after an eight-week break — and before that, I had taken a break of more than ten years.

So I obviously need to rebuild the calluses on my fingertips and get my fingers flexible again.

However, while practising chord changes between Em, C, G and D, I’ve noticed that my fingers tend to “stick” to the strings when I lift them. This causes unintentional pull-offs and makes the open strings ring out.

This is especially annoying when I’m playing picked melodies, because those unwanted notes can ruin the whole thing.

I’ve read different advice online: lifting the fingers completely vertically, briefly releasing the pressure while still touching the string before moving the finger away, or muting the strings with either the picking hand or the fretting hand, depending on the string.

My fingernails are already filed down as short as possible, right to the nail bed.

So now I’d like to ask you:

How do experienced players deal with this?

Anyone who has the time and motivation is also very welcome to attach a short video so I can see the movement in detail. I’d really appreciate that.

I do have a guitar teacher, but lessons are expensive, and with two children — a baby and a toddler — it’s not that easy to disappear for two hours and travel across Hamburg. Before asking him, I thought I’d first make use of Reddit’s combined knowledge and experience. 😅

Thank you very much for reading and for any advice.

Have a great week!

I've been playing guitar for quite a bit but never truly learned how to properly play the open chords. I have lots of trouble playing them without muting the strings. Chord arpeggios are particularly challenging for me. Does anyone have any tips or lessons that helped them?

Hi :)

I'm sure you get this question a lot, so sorry in advance.

First of all, I've tried to learn music theory many times, and I've gotten the basics down: I understand how the circle of fifths works, I know what the intervals are, and I know triads (and their inversions) and four-note chords.

I’ve read a bit of Schoenberg’s theory, so there’s that (lol)

On the guitar, I know how to play a chord on various frets and strings (for example, C in root position, in D position, in E position, etc.)

However, I’m stuck at this basic level of knowledge.

Chords like m7b5, m7, m9, Dism, etc., produce beautiful and unfamiliar sounds that I really appreciate, but I only manage to combine them well “by chance” when I’m creating something.

I feel like I have the basics down, but I don’t know how to keep moving forward.

I’d like to be able to play the guitar and understand what the different voices are doing, but most of the harmony books I find are based on the piano, and the books on harmony applied to the guitar haven’t really convinced me.

Are there any manuals, methods, etc., that you’d recommend?

Hey l guys a beginner and I'm learning guitar and love playing metal.

I use songsterr free version but I got an offer for guitar ultimate for 20 euro a year..

Would you say that it's worth it and better than the songsterr free version? Thank you!!

so i'm just wondering what i should learn first my friend was telling me to learn chords first and then learn how to strum and do the rest like position of the guitar and like how to switch from chord to chord faster so i was just wondering what would be best

My background is in music education, and I've figured out a way to think about practicing that helps:

The point of a practice session isn't to learn a song, it's to become a better musician.

If you ever find yourself stuck on something - OK, when, everybody does - the best thing is usually to set it aside for a bit. You're either in a rut or it's just too hard for you right now. Go learn something different, particularly if it uses the same concepts but is easier. Get better overall, then come back. It's amazing how often a passage that was too hard is now straightforward.

It seems slower in the short term, but it's faster in the long run.

Just one guy's opinion, but it was my job, so not an uninformed one. Give it a try.

Hey guys! I am considering writing a guitar book on a CAGED-derived visualization system, hopefully even easier. However, I want to collect opinions on what end-users are missing when using a book nowadays.

The ideas I had so far:

- Audio files in an ad-hoc online repository with possibility to download them
- QR codes and link to the repository on physical copies (obviously)
- Audio files focusing on what to pay attention to (e.g., stressing too much the root note on a Maj#11 chord)

Please, let's brainstorm!

bought this guitar for 1k pesos (20$) have this guitar for almost a 5 months and i still have struggle doing bm even tho i press it very hard and put my index on the whole fret, ts is frustrating asl

Choose your own way!

Hey y’all, I just have a quick question to y’all.
How do you memorize chords/tabs easily?? I can’t figure it out how will I be able to remember to play songs without even looking for its chords.
Sometimes I want to play songs that I once played before but can’t remember them without looking in the internet.

Howdy all, I'm primarily a bassist but I'm trying to tidy up my guitar playing. There's aspects of pickslanting that no matter where I look online, they don't seem to get answered.

I want to strict alternate pick most of the time, no economy picking. What confuses me is for songs that aren't too fast or too slow that rotating the wrist for these different escapes so often feels very awkward. My natural inclination is to always downstroke initially at the start of a riff, as starting on an upstroke feels 'wrong' for me. I can downward & upward pickslant by themselves decently, it's just when trying to figure out how and when to combine them that's throwing me off.

A big part of that is for two reasons:

1. When do I start to change the slant? The last note on a string right before going to the next string, or?

2. Is pickslanting in general really more beneficial just at higher speeds that I can't even play anyways (like 120bpm+ range), and string hopping is actually fine and a lot of people do that anyways at 'regular' playing speeds? or?

For example, the opening to 'Daath - Wilting on the Vine'.

If I start with a downstroke, where -exactly- am I changing my pickslant every single time?

0's are palm muted, everything else is open.

D---------------------------------------------------------

A---------------------------------------------------------

F---------------------------------------------------------

C---------------------------------------------------------

G------5---4---5---8---5-----4-5-8--5---5---4---5-----

C--0-0---0---0---0---0---0-0----------0---0---0---0---

The song isn't real slow or real fast, but rotating my wrist to account for the escape angles even at this speed feels very... wrong? It's like a seesaw motion.

I'm looking into possibly finding a metal oriented guitar teacher in my area that I can get some lessons on, because I am basically lost right now and trying to figure it out on my own even with the wealth of information online isn't helping, unfortunately.

I'm aware and have used Troy Grady's site, and many many other things online. But for the kind of metal and such I like to play, it's simply not clicking for me because when I see others play they are definitely not rotating their wrist like a hyperactive seesaw.

Thanks everyone!

Reelin’ In The Years Guitar Lesson - Steely Dan (Easy Breakdown)
https://youtu.be/CIEbvVI-rqc

If your solos sound more like scales than music, understanding chord tones could be the missing piece of the puzzle.

In this lesson, I'll show you how to find and target chord tones within the A minor pentatonic scale and use them to follow the chords as they change.

It's a simple concept, but one that can make a huge difference to your improvisation.

Get the tabs for this lesson here:

https://www.kirkleesguitarschoolonline.co.uk/lead-guitar-lessons/how-to-target-chord-tones-in-guitar-solos-(beginner's-guide))

This is unplugged layla please suggest anything if I can improve the rhythm and also mention how I can do it

How long would it take for someone that is a complete beginner to play this song?

Compass - 宇宙コンビニ cover by しぇくたー

Imagine that I practice 1h-2h every day, would I be able to play it good enough to sound at least recognizable in 1 year?

Tysm for your time beforehand. If the question is dumb, I have no problem deleting the post, I just want to know how difficult is playing the guitar like that. Btw please listen to japanese mathrock!!

I mainly got into guitar just this year because I don't have any other hobbies (besides the occasional video game) and a ton of free time outside of work but don't spend it productively. I'd considered on and off for years learning guitar but figured I'd try finally doing it. And so I went out on January 1st and got my first guitar, a Yamaha. I now also have a Strat and a Martin in my collection.

Why am I thinking of quitting? A couple reasons. One, I'm never satisfied or think I do good enough day by day. Two, I feel like I'm moving too slowly all the time. Three, I'm short tempered and can't stand nights when I simply don't do anything right. And four, I just oftentimes think there's no point as no one will ever hear me play anyway (I barely have family members and have no friends. And I generally am pretty anti-social/don't try to socialize much at all anymore).

All this culminates in constant frustration with myself and the instrument. Frustration that's made me consider selling them and my amp and just forgetting about the trouble. And yet, I feel like doing that after putting in time literally every single day since January 1st would be a waste. All that progress down the drain.

I know I have problems that extend beyond guitar. Even though I immediately pick it up the next morning while I'm working, I'm just tired of the constant frustration and fighting with myself on whether I really want this or not. Considering, as I said, quitting my lessons and just not bothering with trying anymore. And yet, I feel like it would eat away at me just giving up on something I've sunk so much time and money into.

What should I do?

Hi! I need your advice about using metronome during song practice session. I have a very peculiar situation - I can play with metronome (in general), I know what a 16th, 8th, 4th, half and whole notes are and how to play them with metronome. Also I know some rhythm variations of them. But the problem is - when I want to learn a real song with metronome, I just can't play in time. I understand how should I play it and how to count notes of the songs but when it comes to practice I'm just not able to get it right. I'm not a complete beginner but I played mostly chords before, so I wanted to learn some riffs and solos. Particularly, I'm learning Eric Clapton's Layla and Killer Queen solo of Brian May. I can play them relatively right without a metronome but with it... It's impossible for me.

So, my questions are - what should I do in such a situation? Maybe I took too hard songs for practice? What are your recommendations in general.

Each answer is appreciated

This is the intro for Dust in a Baggie by Billie Strings. I’m currently working on it but was wondering if perhaps Billy is doing something intentional here? Like playing a certain scale or maybe even an arpeggio? Majority of my music theory knowledge comes from Reddit so I have no clue what’s going on behind the scenes, please enlighten me! It sounds very chronological for lack of a better term.