New Member Introduction — and seeking lesson recommendations

[Steven W]

I’m Steve, semi-retired and living in the mountains of North Carolina, and have been playing not quite 2 years. I have followed Brian’s free videos on YouTube for much of the time I’ve been learning and recently joined as a premium member. I played almost exclusively acoustic in the beginning but am now about 50/50 acoustic and electric (telecaster and soon a strat).

There are of course many, many lessons in Brian’s library that will help me. In fact I learn some useful takeaway pretty much every lesson. Right now I’m choosing lessons from the Rhythm and Lead Combined and the Rhythm and Rhythm Ideas tabs in the search function on the website. But I’m looking for specific recommendations from others who have been here awhile since there is so much available.

I have learned and become proficient in understanding the CAGED system, major and minor pentatonics, major and minor scales, major and minor arpeggios, and can identify and play all the major and minor triads (with more proficiency on strings 1-3 and 2-4 right now). In summary, I’ve been very disciplined and put in time to learn the fretboard.

The biggest hole in my development at this point is putting all this knowledge together to seamlessly improvise for lead and with rhythm playing. So Brian’s lessons and teaching style are great for me they introduce ideas that are easily transferable to different keys and styles of music.

If anyone has suggestions on lessons that really helped put things together and advance in terms of lead, and improvising in the rhythm context, I’d appreciate recommendations. There are of course so many that anything I choose seems helpful. But if anyone has suggestions on some must see lessons, I’m all ears.

I’m glad to be here and plan to use Brian’s lessons as my main learning source for at least a year.

[John H]

Welcome Steve,
I would recommend searching Brian’s vast collection of lessons and finding a few that you enjoy (and feel you can eventually master) and start there. Go to Lessons, Search Lessons and look at the many categories. There are categories ranging from Western Swing to Lead/Solo, Rhythm, Jazz, Bluegrass, Finger-style, Ragtime, Blues, etc. etc. That is half the fun. Additionally, Brian offers Soundslice, backing tracks, tablature, slowed down versions and complete explanations of each lesson. Be sure to record what you can and share on the Forum. Good luck.

JH

[Alan L]

Welcome!

A big breakthrough for me is something Brian (and others) call “playing the changes.” The idea that you are anchored in the chord progression, playing the caged shapes and arpeggios but also connecting that to licks and scales. (Verses what we might call playing the key, just focusing on a single scale.)

I hope that’s not redundant info! But I think that might be what you’re getting at, in terms of connecting rhythm and lead. I like playing the key when there’s a band or track, but playing the changes is more grounding and enjoyable when I’m playing by myself.

Here’s my search results, I recognize a bunch of these from my own studies and definitely worth a look. Hope that helps, good luck!

(Edit, the copied link doesn’t seem to be carrying my search results! Just enter “playing the changes” in the lesson search bar and you’ll get it!)

Guitar Lessons Online – Active Melody

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