Beginner here. I am not scared of learning or taking months do to it but I have read on reddit about people Just playing 2-3 songs After 3 years... I thought It would have taken a few months to learn to play a Song for the First time.

I have a show coming up in a few weeks and there’s one song I really need to be able to play cleanly by then. There’s really fast alternate picking throughout most of the song and I can play it at 90% speed and it’s mostly there but still a little sloppy. 100% speed is a different beast tho. What would be the best way to practice this so I can get it up to 100% speed?

Any practice routines or techniques or advice would be very appreciated.

I’ve been playing guitar for almost 8 years now, and I’ve practiced alternate picking on and off throughout those years. Currently I’m at the stage where I’m able to pick 3 nps 8th note triplet bursts at 220 bpm (equal to 165 bpm straight 16th notes), but I can’t sustain that speed for more than 7 notes at a time. I was wondering where I go from here? How do I train my hands and my brain to stay relaxed for a sustained run? My goal is to be able to play Petrucci solos and get them to sound clean and feel comfortable to play. If anyone has any advice, it is much appreciated!

We all know we need to practice with a metronome.

I'm working on House of the Rising Sun which is 6:8 time. My drumm machine presets don't do this. But this is awesome, and will do most any time signature you need!

https://metronome-online.org/6-8-metronome

I’ve been playing for a while now without really struggeling with any pain or anything, but the last couple of days I starter intensifying both how much I play but also try to learn something harder then I usually play. I have not really been bending much strings beforw now and to no surprise my fingers hurt, but the nail on my ring finger feel ingrown and the area around is red and swollen. Do you think ot really is an ingrpwn fingernail, or just pain caused by intense playing? If so, so you think it is actually possible it might come from the guitar playing?

Edit: I put a comparison photo in the comments

i can play hammer ons and pulls offs decently using most of my fingers it’s just the pinky giving me the trouble. i tried practicing the hell out of a song that contains a bunch of both techniques but it doesn’t feel right.

I have this problem, mostly when playing rhythm stuff (Nile Rodgers and the likes), where my pick will rotate counter clockwise (into my palm) when playing. This is not a problem i have when soloing, only when strumming chords. How so i fix this? Its frustrating me very much

I've just learned two cords and my fingers already hurt and look like this. Is that normal? I've probably not even been playing 5 minutes, but if I'm any lighter on the strings they don't sound.

Just learned a basic scale from a YT video and I realized I don’t see how this translates into getting better at learning songs? Is it to practice finger movement?

Hello! I have been playing guitar for 4 or 5 years now fully self taught. I know my way around almost any song I try to learn at this point. My issues is I never took the time to actually learn anything about the guitar or what I was actually doing. No theory knowledge not even things like knowing 2 5 1, caged, note memorization, how to build chords, etc.

My skill is simply just in copying others already written music and ends there I know nothing deeper. I have had a huge interest in learning jazz for a while now which is really making me realize I need to focus on my theory too. I don’t have a whole lot of time I could spend learning on guitar maybe an hour a day.

I’m looking for a simple step by step free course/book that will teach me music theory and jazz. Preferably these would be at the same time but I’m okay with them being separate if necessary. What courses/books would you guys recommend?

How do others on the site just sit and learn one tune? I continually start a song, get the basics right, then move onto something else i like or heard recently. I don't know whether it's adhd,boredom or just laziness. I'm not an absolute beginner and can play all the basic chords ,I just can seem to say ,yes, im really good at playing any song. Thanks

as a beginner i wanna know how the heck do you do this chord without hurting the pointer finger.

ive been at this for 1 hour.

any tips?

I enjoy listening to Don Ross’s music & just learned he has his own online lesson program. It’s not free but I’d consider subscribing if it’s worth it. Has anyone tried it & if so what was your experience?

Two weeks ago, I asked what you'd like to learn about using your looper pedal, and this video is the direct result of your feedback.

Whether you've taken my Looper Workshop or not, this is the most important lesson I can give anyone using a looper. If your loops have never felt quite right, this one's definitely worth watching.

I've realized that I'm not great at strumming sixteenth-note patterns that require syncopation and/or muting. If the strumming pattern is simple, it's not so bad, but at any level of complexity it's hard.

I don't struggle with counting, but rather the syncing up of my strumming hand with the up and down beats. I might start okay but after a couple of repetitions of a pattern I get out of sync so that I am not strumming in the right direction (e.g. down on the beats and up on the off-beats); then I lose the rhythm altogether. I've read that my hand should be constantly moving up and down like a pendulum, but I struggle with maintaining that and making sure I am strumming/muting/not strumming correctly.

Can anyone recommend any resources that I can study or practice to help with this? I have a Truefire All Access account if there is anything there worth checking out.

Guitar is the instrument i went into the most blind, didnt watch any tutorials etc. I had already played some bass, so i naturally got a kind of bass influenced technique. I often dont play the lowest string since it takes up to much space in mixes (i very often write my own stuff and record it while layering it with other stuff like for example bass). So i naturally mute this string with my thumb, like in bass.

So my question is, will this thumb anchoring technique hurt me down the line? I plan on playing fingerstyle almost exclusively.

Also my strumming technique is flamenco technique i think? Like using the nails on the back of the fingers. And for plucking i usually do it a little similar to bass.

I feel like this thumb-technique works very well for both muting, plucking and strumming atm, but could possibly hold me back in the future or build bad habits? Would love any insight from people better than me

hi all - topic says it all.

I can up and down strum pretty comfortably and consistently from my elbow w/ relaxed wrist, light grip, etc. I can downstrum while palm muting decently enough. upstrumming while palm muting I feel like I can't get the right angle on the pick and it wants to twist in my hand... Also it makes my wrist RSI very angry very quickly. is this just a matter of practice? is there any good resource online that breaks down the body mechanics well?

Ty!

EDIT: I realized a video would give me much better feedback - https://youtu.be/h7xJYVi7u1w?is=q-QLdbwHy1lJWAwx

Also just to add - I don't normally sit like that, I think I did it on reflex for the video.

I grew up on classic rock because of my dad, and I recently decided to teach myself electric guitar so I can eventually play some of our favorite songs for him. Grabbed a Yamaha Pacifica and amp off Marketplace and have been working through beginner stuff online. Problem is, there’s chords, scales, theory, technique, etc., it’s a lot, and I don’t know what order actually makes sense. I don’t want to master everything, I just want to get good enough to play the songs we both love.

For anyone who’s been through this: what’s the actual priority order? What did you wish you focused on first instead of getting distracted by everything else?

i play sixteens notes at around 115 bpm on scales and basic patterns, and I wanna learn a song that will help my practice my speed and maybe even start shredding, what do you think are the best solos to do this?

I dont have a video, only a voice recording and I fully forgot how to play it

Hey guys

I am just in the middle of fixing up my childhood guitar

Still needs a lot of work but getting through it bit by bit!

I want to learn through books and it can be a little bit of YouTube! I was looking at blues you can use but I haven't played guitar for 15 years, is this book a good starting place?

I'm not wanting to be a pro I just want to play some nice stuff at home while relaxing

Thank you guys