Figuring Out Songs, Improvising, and Where to Go Next
Once you can “figure out” songs by ear and improvise a little, you can keep improving without a tutorial — and this opens the door to the theory, scales, styles, and acoustic fingerstyle from Stage 6 on.
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- Hammer-ons and Pull-offs8 min
- Slides and Vibrato7 min
- Palm Mute and Staccato8 min
- Intro to Fingerstyle Solo9 min
- Figuring Out Songs, Improvising, and Where to Go Next9 min
Figure out chords by ear
Listen to a simple song: first use your ear to find roughly what bass note (the root) is playing, then try whether it's a major or minor chord on that root, and hum along with the melody to check whether it's right. Start with songs that use only three or four chords.
Simple improvising
Over a chord progression, use the pentatonic scale (you can go deeper later) to freely hum or play some melody notes, finding “which notes sound stable and which have tension.” The essence of improvising is just “playing with your ears on.”
Where to go next
Figure out more of the songs you love, keep recording and reviewing yourself, and find friends to play with; if you want a systematic next level, dig into theory, scale positions, and the styles you love (fingerstyle, blues, pop, and so on).
You've gone all the way from “can't even hold a guitar” to playing, singing, and figuring out songs on your own — that's a big step up. From here, Stage 6 on has more advanced theory, scales and the fretboard, style improvising, acoustic fingerstyle, and more waiting for you; and the best way to improve has always been just one thing: play more of the songs you genuinely love and that are just within reach.
- 💡 The secret to improving fastest is always this: play songs you truly love that are just a touch harder than your current level.
Practice checklist
- Pick a simple song and try to figure out its chord progression by ear.
- Set yourself a target song to “have down within two weeks.”