Here’s an overview of your 12-month guitar plan:
- Months 1-3: Understanding music theory for guitarists.
- Months 4-7: Chord changes and chord technique.
- Months 8-10: Developing your lead guitar skills (scales, riffs etc)
- Months 11-12: Strumming with rhythm, energy and flow (& creating variety).
Your most-useful video training workshops
Our free music theory for guitarists training workshops are a must-watch for you:
Workshop 1: An introduction to music theory for guitarists
Workshop 2: How to USE music theory to sound amazing on your guitar
Your Strengths & Weaknesses
You are a unique kind of guitarist, the rarest type of all. You want to know how guitar music works and WHY.
You aren’t intimidated by detail and you are happy to take on a challenge. This is a big asset for you (one that you probably take for granted).
Your learning style allows you to access higher and higher levels of guitar technique and insight. This can lead to a deep understanding of the fretboard, scales and chord construction.
Check out our free guide: Music Theory for Guitarists
About your weaknesses
People like you can often suffer from ‘Analysis Paralysis’ and don’t do enough practical ‘hands-on-the-guitar’ actual playing!
Learning a musical concept is only useful if we apply it, so it’s important you balance theory with lots of practice.
In my experience, most ‘theorists’ often don’t have good strumming or rhythmic style.
You’ll get a lot from our free guide: How To Strum A Guitar Correctly
Recommendation 1
Your strength goes hand in hand with lead guitar! If this isn’t something you’ve explore yet, get stuck in. Good music theory knowledge is incredibly empowering for lead guitarists.
Our free lead guitar training workshops will move your lead guitar skills on to the next level:
Lead guitar workshop 1: The 4 Simple Fundamentals For Playing Amazing Lead Guitar
Lead guitar workshop 2: The 5 Essential Lead Guitar Secrets Every Guitarist Should Know”
The Minor Pentatonic scale is where all lead guitarists start and you should begin by learning ‘box 1’, the classic 2-octave Minor Pentatonic pattern.
Check out our free guide: How To Play Lead Guitar
Recommendation 2
Balance your theorist side with practical work. Learn new rhythmic styles. (For example, fingerpicking, string-slapping and percussive strumming techniques.)
Our free ‘Strumming Fundamentals’ videos are a must-watch for you. These free workshops will move your strumming on to the next level:
Video 1: Strumming Workshop 1
Video 2: Strumming Workshop 2
Recommendation 3
Chords go hand-in-hand with strumming. Watch these chord training workshops to open up a world of new possbilities for your chord technique and knowledge:
Chords workshop 1: Click here to watch workshop 1
Chords workshop 2: Click here to watch workshop 2
Beginner chords bootcamp!
- Download my e-book ‘Guitar Chords For Beginners‘ here. It’s over 100 pages of GOLDMINE information for guitar beginners. I hope you enjoy it.
- Check out our free guide 14 Easy Chord Shapes For Beginners to master the basics quickly. Use our Easy Chords section here on the site for extra support.
Intermediate level support – Check out our free guide: How To Play Barre Chords
Your ideal courses
Your perfect National Guitar Academy starting course is TheoryMaster. That is where you should focus most of your time during the next 2 months.
Remember, our courses LeadMaster and TheoryMaster are designed to work together so after 2 months of the TheoryMaster course you should also begin the LeadMaster course.
Nothing is more empowering for a lead guitar player, than an understanding of music theory.
So watch the above workshop videos to get your fundamentals up to speed quickly and then you’ll be primed for the full courses.
Timescales
Be careful not to bite off more than you can chew…
- You can zoom through the courses within a few weeks, but a more sensible timescale is around 3-4 months per course.
- This will give you the time to internalize the things you learn and incorporate them into your own playing. This can take time.
- We need to hear things many times (and appreciate them from many different angles) before we truly learn and ‘embody’ them.
And the beauty of this journey is, there is no rush.
Your guitar is a lifelong friend. It will be there for you in good times and bad. Every stage of learning guitar holds its own charm! So don’t rush to reach the destination, enjoy the journey.
Your next steps:
This week: Watch the music theory for guitarists training workshops:
Workshop 1: An introduction to music theory for guitarists
Workshop 2: How to USE music theory to sound amazing on your guitar
Here’s an overview of your 12-month guitar plan:
Months 1-3: Understanding music theory for guitarists. Take our TheoryMaster course.
Months 4-7: Chord changes and chord technique. Begin the ChordMaster course.
Months 8-10: Developing your lead guitar skills (scales, riffs etc). Take our LeadMaster course.
Months 11-12: Strumming with rhythm, energy and flow (& creating variety). Start the RhythmMaster course.
You are beginning something wonderful and it’s our great pleasure to help you along your musical journey!
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