How long

Hi everyone. I just signed up for Guitar Tricks last night and I am pretty excited about playing again. I am an intermediate level player that has a bunch of holes in my theory. I will definetly work on that while I am here.

I have a question for anyone that has any input. I am going over fundementals 2 and the beginning of the blues route now. I dont want to skip too far ahead, as i know that always gets me into trouble. When should I progress? I mean, if I can nail the stuff in the lesson, but wont remember it in a couple days is that good enough? Should I be trying to memorize certain progressions and patterns? Maybe I should just be practicing my major and minor scales every time I practice anyway.

Any other intermediate level players take the entire fundemental and blues lesssons?

Thanks,

Aaron

I came to guitar tricks a few years ago as an intermediate player. I had been playing for 20 years or so and had 1 year or private instruction under my belt.

Like you, I went through the fundamentals 1 and 2 courses pretty quickly and moved onto the blues course. When I got to the second part of the blues course, I hit a point where it was challenging and had to slow down.

Whether you focus on the holes you have in your theory or not depends on your goals.

At first I was pretty eager to fill the holes in my theory. I was going to learn how to read music, learn the notes all up and down and across the fretbaord. I was going to learn modes and all sorts of scales. I was going to do this thing right this time around.

I learned the fretboard better, learned some new scale shapes, but found it really wasn't making me a better guitar player in my eyes. I found that I got much more pleasure out of digging through the songlist and learning songs.

So I took another look at what it was that I wanted to accomplish and asked a lot of questions here. I focused on the improvisational aspects of the blues course and started working with some backing tracks. I started recording my playing. I had an opportunity to join a band. I ended up in a completely different direction.

I discovered that I enjoyed learning songs. I discovered that I enjoyed learning songs and letting myself "get away" with not getting it entirely note for note. I could get it "close enough" to where I could play it easily and 90% of people listening wouldn't know it wasn't exact. I learned that many people appreciate the personal stamp and making it your own.

So that's where I have ended up. Now I go back and look at different techniques and theory ideas that can help me with what I'm doing. I have found that when I have an application for something, I grasp it better and feel more motivated.


That's my story...doesn't have to be your story. Nothing wrong with digging into theory and enjoying that sort of discovery. On the other hand, there's nothing wrong with learning and enjoying songs and filling in some of those theory holes as you go along.

Do you have any specific goals? Specific goals like "I want to learn song xyz" or " I want to play in an original music band" are better than "I want to be Joe Satriani" or "I want to be an awesome guitar player".

IMO, that is good, strong advice from maggior...particularly for intermediate players. Base what you practice upon what your goals are. And have fun.

Cool. Thanks. I just want to be able to jump in and improvise with certain types of music. I never really learned what chords go with what keys. For now, I will settle for that for the theory.

I want to write my own songs one day too.

Do the more advanced blues lessons have you study scales, or do I need to dig them up somewhere on the site?

Thanks!

The blues lessons focus on the blues scale as I recall. Anders, as I recall, only focused on and used the one shape we all start with. That was what blew me away at first. Here I thought I was hot stuff knowing all of the scale shapes of the blues pent scale, but Anders showed how much could be done with so little in that one single position. He will show you how SO much super cool stuff can be done with so little. He's a monster though...dude has chops too!

I remember it getting to the styles of the different blues players...the 3 kings Albert, BB, and Freddie. Some of it was a bit far out for me and wasn't quite what I envisioned myself doing, so I skimmed over it.

For blues and blues based rock improvisation, the blues course is where it's at. Anders talks about phrasing and how to take a lick, even a simple one, and make it your own and vary it. I learned a TON from him and have gotten lots of mileage from it.

You need to know the basics of the major scale. This will allow you to move chord shapes and scale shapes around to play in different keys. For instance, if you have a barre G chord on the thrid fret, know that if you move it up to the 5th fret, it's now an A chord. With a scale, if you take the first position minor pentatonic and start on the 5th fret, that's in the key of Am. Move it back a couple of frets starting on the 3rd fret, now you are in the key of Gm.

That basic knowlege will give you freedom to move things around and not get locked into specifc keys or positions on the fretboard. Personally, I found the idea of triads and chord inversions to be very powerful. It opened up a lot of things for me.

Chord progressions and keys and how to put them all together...you could study the circle of 5ths and stacking thrids of a scale to make the chords, etc. OR, you can learn songs that you like, that appeal to your ear, and dissect them to determine what makes them work. For instance, the chord change of Em to A sounds really cool to me when played slowly and gently. I believe it's from a Pink Floyd song...which one escapes me at the moment. I could study the chords and try to understand what makes that work and what it is about the sound that I like so much. That could be used for my own stuff.

thanks!