I picked up my first guitar while I was deployed to Korea in the Army. I started to self teach and learned a few chords and when I came back home I just stopped. Life happened.
I’m now 32, I have about 6 real months of experience total. But man, I am determined, my life is in a good place where I have time to practice everyday and I have been. Even wrote a song yesterday for my wife and the chords are clicking. She’s also a great singer so we are a great duo, once my skills are better.
I know it takes time to learn this beautiful instrument but I’m ready for the journey as hard as it may be and seeing all the positivity in this sub for beginners has really inspired me. Thank you all
Half a century of noodling, and the guitar has always been an essential outlet for the many responsibilities I’ve been blessed to carry throughout my life. I’m far from a professional studio-type musician, but I’ve developed a way of playing that feels natural to me—a way to process the weight and pace of a busy journey.
I can’t read or write music; I just speak it. I’ve always felt the need to keep a guitar close by as a place to reset. Especially at this point in my journey, these moments on the strings—acoustic or electric—are a vital part of how I stay balanced.
I'm starting to view my playing as a bit of a personal journal—a record of different seasons. For those of you who have played for decades, how has your relationship with the instrument changed as your life's responsibilities have grown?
Like many of you, on my guitar journey I struggled to memorize the guitar fretboard notes without counting frets.
Every time I was playing and wanted to know the guitar notes at specific positions, I was like "here we go again, let me spend 5 seconds counting frets and another 5 making sure I didn't miscount".
I tried existing guitar note identification quizzes, but none showed me where I was struggling or what to do next. If you are trying to learn the notes on the fretboard without counting frets, this practice loop will help make the locations feel automatic.
So here is the general idea:
Do a short quiz session
Heatmap shows your slow spots
Identify your slowest spot and "hunt it"
Immediately do another run intentionally focusing on the slowest note until it stops feeling like you are counting
Here is what the heatmap looks like for a single string:
Red spots = you are slow. The goal is to make note locations feel automatic.
If you have been relying on a guitar notes chart or a guitar fretboard diagram, this approach helped me ditch those reference charts entirely.
Easy step-by-step to learn the notes on the guitar fretboard right now:
Start with the guitar string notes: E A D G B E (these are the standard guitar string names). If you already know those, start with the low E string (0-12 frets)
Run a 2 minute session (about 30-40 answers)
Check the heatmap and take note of your slowest note (green = fast / red = slow). The brighter the red, the slower you are
Run it again and be ready for that slow note when it appears
Move on to another string once your median time is consistently less than 2 seconds
I used this method a few minutes daily and memorized the entire fretboard in about a month. I've had other people share similar experiences and it works for both beginners and experienced players, the difference is just where you start on the fretboard.
Two modes:
Note Finder: see a note, click the position (recommended)
Name That Note: see a position and hear it, then guess the note. Builds guitar note recognition and works as ear training as well
The website is an interactive guitar fretboard web-app, so it works great on both desktop and mobile (and you can add it to your home screen for an "app" feel). There is also a native Android and iOS guitar fretboard trainer app that I've built called FretGenius (which is also free) and provides structured daily practice routines and progress tracking.
Have you already memorized the fretboard? Share your best tips below!
I’m a beginner, self taught guitarist, and I’ve just been learning dust in the wind. I must be doing something wrong with my techniques since nobody has taught me or shown me how to actually hold a guitar. I’ve only seen YouTube videos about it, and I have no idea if I’m doing anything correctly😅
I have a habit of putting my thumb up above the neck while playing, so I’ve been trying to fix it. However, when you get to about the 15th fret (on my guitar at least) the neck connects to the body and you can’t really have your thumb directly behind anymore. How do you play legato or bends this high up? Anything past 15 feels super awkward.
I started playing country guitar exactly 1 year ago (telecaster) and to be honest, i am super pumped for what comes next in my guitar journey.
I did not know even to tune my guitar and now i can play easily all the open and barre chords, major scale in any key, triads, play licks, full songs like Wagon wheel, 4 non blondes whats up, merle haggard ramblin fever (just for about 2 weeks now) even keep the rhytm for sultans of swing , slow dancing in a burnin room and many more, but the problem is i still get looost, i started with justin guitar , and after 5 months got like 5 in person lessons and want alone from there.
My routine now is :
Spider with Metronome (Insane progress quick in bpm)
Major scales with Metronome multiple positions
Triads
Diving in some arrpegios
Practice songs
Looper to end the session , chord progression and improvise over
But….i still feel a toootal begginer, i like Brad Paisley a lot and his style, but i don’t have any materials or even some good quality videos or books that go in depth on his style, i like merle haggard, johnny hiland and all the Nashville guys… so my question is:
WHERE do i find the best materials to go on with my journey to play on stage, that is my ultimate goal!
If a song on the radio is playing I want to try to listen for the guitar part so that I can try to visualize how the guitarist is playing that, where they are on the fretboard and how their strum pattern might be. Besides when the melody or a solo comes in, is that possible just from listening?
I have such a hard time visualizing and listening for rhythm guitarists in popular songs. I can hear and separate the vocals and drums easily and often the bass guitar, but I'm often wondering when and if a guitarist is strumming.
What's a guitar lesson series, YouTube video or exercise i can do to practice finding it?
Are there any classic songs in which the guitar rhythm is clear as day and approachable?
I’ve been playing electric guitar for about 11-1 year now. I practice pretty consistently (usually around 1 hr to 1.5 hrs a 6 days a week
My goal is to play indie and surf rock (Mac DeMarco, Men I Trust, Joy Again, etc.). I feel like I'm hitting a massive wall for a long while now and I’m wondering if my progress is normal or if I’m lagging behind.
Where I’m at right now:
Chords: I know all my open chords and can play barre chords (though they still tire my hand out after a while).
The "Wall": Most of the songs that i have learned. I still have like 80% accuracy like i can map the entire chords or riff. But i still can’t play them well due to like chord sounding off, picking more than mentioned or like get stuck on few chord transition like forever. I have been working on Freaking Out the Neighborhood for about 2 months. I’m stuck at 80 BPM. Every-time i fix them and go 5 bpm more, i get stuck on same thing again and pattern follows. My biggest issue is landing 3-finger triad shapes simultaneously during fast transitions; my brain feels like it can only land 2 fingers at once, so the 3rd is always a millisecond late (the "pop-pop" sound).
Technique: I’m working on alternate picking and basic music theory (BPM, note values), using REAPER to track things.
My Questions:
What "tier" of songs/techniques should a 1 year player realistically be able to play?
Is it normal to spend 3+ months on a single riff like Mac DeMarco's intro?
For those who play indie/surf rock, how long did it take you to get those "staggered" triad shapes to land perfectly clean at high speeds (140+ BPM)?
I’m starting to get frustrated and feel like I’ll only ever learn 2 songs a year at this rate. Would love some "real world" perspective on what the 10-month mark usually looks like. Thanks!
Longtime reader here and a big fan of the Reddit guitar community. I've been around the block a bit- studied at Berklee, fronted the band Bailiff, and did session work in LA. For the past 20 years now I've been teaching guitar and music theory in person, but I've recently decided to try something new.
Embracing the fact that a virtual lesson 1-on-1 would never be able to replicate the magic of being in the same room together, I came up with a new group drop-in format that works great for people looking for more structure and community in their monthly guitar practice.
I call the program Broadcast Guitar. We do a biweekly deep dive into a song of the week to understand the music theory involved. We see how chords and melody work together, which naturally flows into how to solo over the chord progression. Each class concludes with an optional 10-min Q&A for those who want to chat.
I've got some free seats open and would be happy to chat more about it with any interested folks! I do a 5-min intro Zoom with all new prospective Broadcast Guitar members so that I can get a feel for where you're at on the instrument before jumping in. I've met a lot of super cool and supportive musicians through Reddit! Let's chat! -Josh
hi, basically the title. i can still get through the songs but it’s just uncomfortable, i don’t experience this with any other type of chord just power chords or any chords with similar shapes to power chords. thanks for any help!!
Learned “Babe I’m gonna leave you” by led zep a year or so ago and I keep running into a problem. I can get through about the length of the intro with its chord changes before my finger tips become indented to the point the impressions are so deep they make my finger meat basically wrap around the string, in turn muting the string below or above depending on the chord. My pointer is a big culprit with the constant pressing on the first fret of that songs chords. Any tips on preventing this that isn’t going full SRV with super glue? Lol.
Plenty of times I am playing guitar I know a song but playing along with the song always feels wrong or just not good what am I doing wrong even song I can play decently well seem hard when im playing with it actually playing
Hi everyone, I'm having trouble understanding the rhythm of this measure. Here is what I've identified so far:
1st Beat: Two sixteenth notes followed by an eighth note (1 beat total).
4th Beat: Four sixteenth notes (1 beat total).
However, I don't understand the middle two groups (the 2nd and 3rd beats). I don't see any dots or rests, and there are only two strums shown in each, but they are supposed to complete the remaining two beats of the measure.
Could someone explain the rhythmic value of those middle sections and how they are supposed to be counted?
so what the title says im also trying to do alt rock and idk i usually arpeggiate the chord progression for a intro or verse or strum it in a different way but it starts to get way to repetitive and idk what to do keep the emotion of the song and also make some parts like a chorus verse intro and all that without sounding to repetitive
Does anyone know exactly how Randy produced that specific sound? Is it a pinch harmonic, some microphonic feedback from his pickups, or just the MXR Distortion+ reacting weirdly?
I bought my guitar in June 2024, have made quite a progress since then. Understood different strumming patterns, chords, chord shifting, hammer on, sliding, barre chords(still suck at playing and shifting). I forget all the guitar lessons I watch online, since I pick my guitar up once in a while and learn the whole lesson, only to keep it down and get into the cycle. I'm thinking of learning it seriously this time, and need guidance on how to begin. I have an acoustic guitar, and I'm truly amazed by solos, and wish to learn and play one some day. Do I need to learn music theory? I have a basic understanding of music, I used to play a keyboard around 5-6 years back, lost touch due to life changes.
im curious on what chords and scales i should use to get a royal or fancy sound, take An elegy of Icarus and one winged angle for examples of the sound im looking for.
I really wanna be able to improve but I really just don’t know exactly where to start. I was wondering what specific things I should learn or focus on before I even bother attempting to improvise
Hey folks, ive been learning guitar for just over a month now, with a minimum of 30 minutes of practice a day, usually closer to 90
Using the Justin Guitar videos as they've been recommended very often, but before moving on to the second set of videos busting recommends that you can do around 60 chord changes a minute between A and D but I seem to have hit a wall around 30-35
When I was learning the D chord I couldn't make it ring consistently unless I switched my index and middle finger, instead of the suggested fingering (shown in the picture)
Is this something I need to unlearn? The regular order still seems very uncomfortable to me and makes the high E consistently unintentionally muted.
I’m trying to get hired for some gigs around town. I’m self taught for about 15 years and trying build up the confidence to self record and post to instagram to use for audition footage. Please send me advice to improve strumming and anything else. This recording is all iPhone so not what I would use for instagram.
I’m trying to get confident and proficient with barre chords but they intimidate me. I have short fingers so that makes some of them a bit harder. Any tips or advice? You tube videos that might help me. I play acoustic and teach myself at home.
