I would suggest studying how the CAGED system is utilized in each lesson.

Blaise, If you want a more structural approach and being new to the content you could start with the ‘Looking for Courses? tab. The courses include: 1. Essential Theory 2. The CAGED System and the 3. Lead Guitar course where you can progress and tick them off as you complete them. You can also access the courses link under ‘MY ACCOUNT’.

Also EP 498 ‘Creating the Ultimate Practice Routine for Guitar’ will give you a structural approach as it gives a customised practice routine to follow and links to the lessons. This was done to give most of the background knowledge on concepts needed to improvise .

Blaise,

Early in the process of learning guitar it’s hard to know what you need to know. I’m not sure there’s only one structured way to learn. I know that I have learned in many bits and pieces and over time a bigger picture came into view, often with revisiting things I didn’t fully appreciate the first time around.

Laurel’s ideas are excellent. I would also tackle some of the lessons under the lesson category “Beginner Guitar Lessons (Easy)”. Brian often puts some limits on the parameters of the notes and concepts but still creates some great music. Making music out of the knowledge you currently have on hand is a skill I wish I had been more open to. Otherwise, I think we only truly make strides when some of the puzzle pieces start merging into a bigger and clearer picture.

To try to be a little less abstract about it, consider much how information and skill is involved in this process.. There are physical skills of fretting, picking, hybrid picking, fingerstyle, strumming. There’s fundamental music theory and a myriad of fretboard knowledge, ie learning notes, triads, arpeggios, triads and intervals. There’s a long journey developing timing and learning rhythm for lead phrases and strumming. It also takes time to develop your ear to hear chord changes and to hear target notes to make your leads sound melodic as well as to develop some vocabulary of leads and chord progressions and modes.

I think that’s why Brian’s approach of learning gradually through actually playing music is one of the best approaches to get you from beginner to intermediate, even if it doesn’t seem structured.

John

Whole heartedly agree with John’s points above.
When you start on the learning process, you can indeed embark on some or all of the learning points John’s mentioned but you also need to keep your interest up by taking on and being able to play simple but effective melodies.
A good mix of learning theory, scales, triads etc etc as well as simple melodies is so important during those early stages of playing guitar.

Richard

If you just pick a couple of lessons you like and start practising them, learning will happen whether you like it or not. Plus you can impress your friends and family because they never knew you could play so well.

After the courses, there really is no set path. But I think that’s the magic and unique beauty of AM. The compositions come first, and are the star of the show. The technique and theory is “hidden” inside, and you kind of subconsciously absorb it over time.

If you want to narrow things down, you could do a search based on a concept you want to focus on. e.g., finger style, CAGED, or acoustic blues.

What I did was just scroll through and make a list of the ones I liked. When I had some down time in the practice routine I’ll fire up a new one from my list. I find this very engaging and I’ve been here for 4 years. Now my list is mostly fueled by the newest lesson, or things that pop up in the monthly challenge (btw- definitely worth checking out!)

I do occasionally hop over and visit Justin Guitar for technique. I like his practice routine and mindset talks too. Lots of great (free) content. (Though I definitely spend the bulk of my time with Brian!) 🙂

Take a look at lesson EP498. Brian outlines a plan for learning and practicing.

Hi Blaise, You got some useful high-level advice from everybody else. Here’s some low-level advice to learn the compositions quickly: Use the Focus feature in interactive tablature and start with “from measure 1” and end with “measure 2.” Once comfortable with those two measures, change to “from measure 2” and end with “measure 3,” and so on. You’ll learn very quickly. Before you know it, you’d be at the last measure. I hope I was helpful.

Laurel C, Dave O – Thank you for recommending EP498. I have never seen that lesson!