Online Guitar Lessons

[kslight]

Where do you go when you want to be a better player? Any youtubers worth checking out? Paid sites? I'm not really interested in million note per second music, but objectively feel like a mediocre guitar player like me could stand to be better when I use it as a writing tool as much as I do. I'm at the end of a trial of "Fender Play" but I've gone through dozens of lessons just for the exercises and its really pretty basic, geared towards year one guitar players that have never had any music training whatsoever. I think I do better with the video format than I ever did just picking up tab books..I've got some tab books but that's not really my learning style I guess. I'm mostly interested in rock-alt-etc type music, and I do some music for film, if I needed to pick a genre to focus on, versus blues or country, etc..

I did take private lessons on another instrument for many years, along with everything else I've studied musically, played guitar for around 20 years, I don't feel like in person private lessons are where I can go money-wise/don't really have the first idea of finding the right teacher anyway.

[losthighway]

Do you know basic harmonic theory? Circle of 5ths? Stacking intervals for the various major, minor, dim, aug, 7th chords etc?

I think that stuff does more for the creative process than any dude having you run finger exercises will bring. But that's also my musical bias.

[kslight]

Do you know basic harmonic theory? Circle of 5ths? Stacking intervals for the various major, minor, dim, aug, 7th chords etc?

I think that stuff does more for the creative process than any dude having you run finger exercises will bring. But that's also my musical bias.

I “know” most of that but has been a long time since I’ve formally approached that stuff, could use a refresh on terminology and could definitely stand to learn direct application on guitar. I know chords and scales on guitar but not as well as i do/did on piano. I learned theory on wind instruments and piano, guitar was like my 5th instrument and pretty much self taught. I largely am a “sit in front of an instrument and figure it out” type of person, and have a lot of jazz background so am comfortable playing by ear, but I’d like to do better than that.

[mwerden]

I haven't used it but I know a bunch of bluegrass folks teach at https://artistworks.com/. They have a ton of video lessons and you can submit videos to get recommendations from A list players. Pretty good idea now that I'm actually looking at it.

[floid]

I've been working through the Mickey Baker book this year. There's a minimalist website that can accompany it, www.jazzandhotguitar.com
Not exactly what you're after, perhaps, but it's the first book course I've actually enjoyed and felt like I got a lot from. Really nice combination of building muscle memory, ear training, and theory.

[losthighway]

I “know” most of that but has been a long time since I’ve formally approached that stuff, could use a refresh on terminology and could definitely stand to learn direct application on guitar. I know chords and scales on guitar but not as well as i do/did on piano. I learned theory on wind instruments and piano, guitar was like my 5th instrument and pretty much self taught. I largely am a “sit in front of an instrument and figure it out” type of person, and have a lot of jazz background so am comfortable playing by ear, but I’d like to do better than that.

Yeah, I'd say for the genres of music you're interested in 'better at guitar' means expanding your palette from a harmonic composition standpoint. Learning songs that clearly have something different happening with chords, guitar melodies, and then doing an analysis of them, where you can go 'Oh the IV chord as a major 7 sounds really nice, and then it's cool how there's this chromatic move later on this or that'. I often get a new song out of uncovering one compositional trick whether it's the Beach Boys, or Depeche Mode.

Jazz is really nice for laying out the whole map. Learning how to improvise over chord changes has paid off for me, even now that I seldom play music where I'm doing it. Just spelling chords, and thinking about how they're sequenced together, what their relationship is etc. can make writing a unique rock song, or guitar part much easier.

[vvv]

Play with others.

[kslight]

Play with others.

I agree, but assembling a few semi reliable cronies into some kind of informal rehearsal routine is frustrating and a job in itself. I have had bands here and there over the years that fall apart. I have some people in town I’ve entertained the idea with, but they also have unreliable or nonexistent band mates or are unreliable themselves so I’m reluctant to potentially fracture our friendship by accepting their offers and getting frustrated myself. I do have others that I work with regularly, usually long distance, we’ve done some things, just not typically live.

[kslight]

I've been working through the Mickey Baker book this year. There's a minimalist website that can accompany it, www.jazzandhotguitar.com
Not exactly what you're after, perhaps, but it's the first book course I've actually enjoyed and felt like I got a lot from. Really nice combination of building muscle memory, ear training, and theory.

Minimalist is right

Thanks for this

[Nick Sevilla]

I've been working through the Mickey Baker book this year. There's a minimalist website that can accompany it, www.jazzandhotguitar.com
Not exactly what you're after, perhaps, but it's the first book course I've actually enjoyed and felt like I got a lot from. Really nice combination of building muscle memory, ear training, and theory.

There should be a warning label before you get hit by that blue!!! OMG I almost got blind LOL.

"Prepare to have the most fun imaginable". Indeed.