Love playing guitar and singing, mostly just chords, thereā€™s a few ā€œtrickierā€ songs that Iā€™ve worked through with finger-picking.

But I just feel like I canā€™t be bothered with exercises in scales and rhythm and think it holds me back.

Has anyone else just skipped the exercises and feel like theyā€™re a competent guitarist? Any YouTubers I should check out?

In a way I think itā€™s made harder by being ā€œintermediateā€ as itā€™s difficult to see where to go next.

  • X0X0@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    In my experience you need a goal to force progress. Ie. Play on a stage / play infront of someone.

    • Varyag@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, I think having a goal of learning songs of a certain difficulty level, and be able to play them in front of an audience is a good motivator for improvement.

  • Varyag@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Actually coming back to the thread to share my own experienceā€¦ is that I havenā€™t played guitar for around the past 10 years, since I started college. I still have all my gear, and just this week I picked it back up, and it felt so good to play again. But most of my muscle memory and finger strenght is gone and I donā€™t remember how to play most songs that I played back in the day. I spent most of my teenage years playing a couple hours a day, but now I feel like a beginner again. So, Iā€™ll say, try doing some exercises as warmups, then go practice the songs that you want to play. At least thatā€™s what I plan on doing.

  • BringMeTheDiscoKing@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Learn more songs. Learn songs you wouldnā€™t normally learn. Learn songs that arenā€™t meant to be played on guitar. A.B.C. ā€“ Always. Be. Learningnewsongs.

  • leadersandlunatics@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Hey, so I think Iā€™m fairly competent- always lots to learn but Iā€™m happy to give you tips. Hereā€™s my channel so you can see my style (self confessed slash fanboy)

    https://youtube.com/shorts/ZebJjCpEddo?feature=share

    Never did a scale or tutorial, always by ear like the ā€œgreatsā€ because I was told learning any other way would impact me. Please let me know whatever questions you have and Iā€™m happy to either answer here or do a video call!

    I have a lot of videos up there so see if you want to move in that direction.

    Thanks

  • ArtVandelay@lemmy.worldM
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    1 year ago

    I like finding songs that I like that make me exercise in ways that would normally be boring. For example, chromatic exercises are super boring, but Iā€™m learning Mike Sternā€™s Chromazone, and it makes technical practice fun.

  • cottard@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Exercises, scales, rhythm, timing, practice, et al can definitely be holding you back. It might help to view those ā€œbuilding blocksā€ as aspects you can work on that limit your playing less. For me, practicing these things allows me to think LESS about scales, timing, etc by increasing my muscle memory and confidence, which allows me to focus on the music itself and get lost therein when Iā€™m playing.

    To use some ambiguous terms, you can hit every note ā€œrightā€, but thatā€™s a very small part of what make music ā€œgoodā€-- thatā€™s more about hips moving and heads bobbing.

  • yumcake@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Follow JustinGuitar heā€™ll make sure you know all the basic through intermediate things you should know, all for free. He will then point you towards some intermediate stuff you can explore that requires payment but you can go to YouTube for that if you want. He will set you up with enough basic guitar theory to self-study what you need next.

    Most importantly, figure out what your goals are and plan accordingly.