For Intermediate Players
When students come to my lesson for the first time, about 70–80% claim they’re “intermediate players.”
In my opinion, intermediate players:
- Understand the fretboard (can find all notes effortlessly)
- Understand chords (triads, barre chords, 7th chords)
- Understand diatonic harmony and how chords and scales relate
- Can play rhythm patterns properly
- Can play major, minor, and pentatonic scales
- Can improvise, etc.
You might ask, “If that’s intermediate, what do advanced players learn?”
Advanced students learn to write music, control dynamics, and craft their tone.
They focus on creating music and expressing themselves through the guitar.
At that stage, there shouldn’t be anything they don’t understand theoretically or can’t play technically.
Surprisingly, about 90% of students who think they’re intermediate don’t know the notes on the fretboard or how a C major and C minor chord differ.
That’s what separates beginners from intermediates.
If you’ve never taken lessons, chances are you have many missing pieces.
That’s fine—I can help fill them in.
So for the first few months, I’ll focus on identifying and filling those gaps.
Some students might think, “I’ve been playing guitar for five years—why should I learn Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star or Happy Birthday?”
It’s probably because you don’t yet understand the fretboard, the Circle of Fifths, or major scale intervals.
When I teach you something, there’s always a reason behind it.
The longer you’ve played, the harder it is to fix problems—but fixing them is crucial.
It will be difficult and sometimes painful, but doing so will take your playing to the next level.
For example, some people play power chords using the index and ring finger, while I recommend using the index and pinky.
That’s not a “problem”—it’s just an alternative technique.
But when I say problem, I mean something that’s fundamentally wrong: bad vibrato, poor right-hand position, random picking patterns, rhythm or timing issues, etc.
The first step to fixing these is for both of us to agree that it’s a problem.
Then, I need your trust to follow my instructions and practice the right way until it’s corrected.
Even if you’re a hobbyist, some problems are worth fixing.
Playing songs is fun—but playing them properly is far more important.
If you can play one song 100% correctly, you’ll be able to play 100 songs correctly someday.
If you play one easy song incorrectly, you’ll never play 100 songs right.
If you can’t walk, you can’t run.
If you can’t run fast, go back to the basics.
Fix your problems. Practice slowly.
I’ll show you how.