Many guitar players have no idea how to know once they’ve successfully completed the “beginner” stage of playing guitar. When do you officially become an intermediate guitar player? In this guitar lesson, Nate Savage will answer that but going through a list of things you need to do successfully to call yourself a certified intermediate guitarist.
To be considered an intermediate player, you’ll need to be able to do the following:
- Know and be able to change smoothly between your fundamental open chords.
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Know power chords and be able to move them around cleanly.
- Know the basic Major and Minor bar chord shapes.
- Know the note names on the Low E and A strings.
- You’ll need to have all the basic strumming patterns down.
- Be able to play along to a metronome.
- Hear and match Major and Minor chords.
- Hear and identify the keys of simple songs.
- Understand music theory for keys and chords.
- Play through several complete songs.
- Play the Blues Scale.
- Play the Major Scale.
- Play the Major Pentatonic Scale.
- Play the Minor Pentatonic Scale.
- You’ll need to know basic lead technique: Picking, Bending, Sliding, & Vibrato.
- Depending on your goals you may need to be able to read music.
Obviously, there are a lot of things here you need to get down before you can call yourself a true intermediate guitar player. Treat this lesson like your checklist. Go through each bullet point and check them off as you go. By the time you’re done, you’ll be a well-rounded intermediate guitarist!
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