One of the more challenging obstacles as a beginner guitarist, or if you’re just new to guitar theory, is figuring out how to determine the key of a song. Some songs stick to standard chords within a key, which makes this task much easier. Other songs, however, are not as straight forward.

While I do enjoy exercises, the best way to improve on guitar (and make it more enjoyable) is by learning songs. All of the techniques you can practice in isolation can also be practiced within the context of a song. With that in mind, below are 5 song intros you can learn to greatly to improve guitar picking technique.

Feeling like your fingers are stuck or just won’t move independently of each other is a common issue for guitar players. We all want to our fingers to glide fluidly across the fretboard. Achieving this takes time and effort. However, there are some finger independence exercises that can help this process along.

In this lesson we look at chord formula basics to help make sense of these names and build an understanding of how chords are made.

Guitar chord inversions allow you to create different voicings for a given chord. These voicings can add a little flavor and variety to the typical chord sound. While “chord inversion” may sound complicated, it’s actually quite simple.

Slash is one of my favorite guitar players and the person who inspired me to pick up the guitar when I was 14 years old. His bluesy hard rock licks accentuated with epic bends have created a rock legend with a style all of his own.

Few concepts in music theory provide an “aha” moment quite like learning about the relative major and relative minor keys. The realization of the relationship between the two brings quite a bit of clarity to the learning the major/minor scale patterns and sets the groundwork for exploring the concept of modes.

The importance of knowing the intervals on guitar can’t be overstated. It allows you to better understand how scales and chords are constructed and gives you a deeper understanding of how music works.

When it comes to soloing, the blues scale is one of the most popular scales used.  It’s used across many genres of music, from blues to rock to jazz and others. David Gilmour uses it extensively in his solos.

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a guitar system to easily allow you to visualize and connect the guitar fretboard up and down the neck? The CAGED guitar system does just that. It lays out the guitar fretboard in a logical manner, allowing you to easily navigate the fretboard.