This is Cut Time or in the UK Cut Common Time. It is a 2/2 beat. If it didn't have the vertical line it would be Common Time which is 4/4 and this is seen quite often.

I found this chart online providing a guide for the right level of practice to musically improve with your insturment

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Personally I think the sweet spot is going to be 20-40 minutes as that is generally realisitic for people to fit in within their daily lives. This is also more ...

Sounds very similar to me Newbie. I think the key is to always start slow.

Another thing that I found quite helpful was compiling what I was doing into a Google Sheet which always allowed me to have a quick reference to what I was doing and prevented things getting forgotten along the way.

Someone recommended “The Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles” by Dominic Pedler to me a few years ago and it was the single most helpful book I have ever read in understanding practical music theory.


Just checking out this book now. It looks like something that would be really interesting and ...

Thanks for doing these posts Mark.

The minor pentatonic was one that I learned that got me into lead guitar. When I learned it I thought it was great. But I spent many years trapped in the pentatonic box pattern which limited my creativitity. Definitely try and avoid doing that!

It can seem really hard at first to do this. But like anything, the more you practice, the easier it becomes.

Start simple. Play one strum of a chord per change. Or only use simple rhythm such as only downstrums on every quarter beat.

This way you can start to forget about what you are doing on ...

Get some chords for simple songs that you love and start playing. Like Mark says, speed comes naturally later.

But enjoying making music is the most inspriring things to keep you motivated in playing more and more playing equals better music!

Start with simple chord changes - Wonderwall is a ...

I think my main issue was trying to learn something that was beyone my ability and rushing to get the speed rather than the timing.

I used to always feel that if I could get faster then my playing would improve. As I have grown up, I realise that this is just not true. Timing is everything and it ...

I really want to get more into analysing music and seeing what makes the songs tick. And like you say, The Beatles have such and extensive catalogue of interesting songs that move away from standard diatonics I think this might be the perfect place to start!

Yes definitely something all guitarists should learn or at least have an understanding of.

Many people are scared of making adjustments, especially when it comes to the truss rod. But really, if you know to make small adjustments at a time then you really can't go too far wrong with it. Just ...

The most basic has to just be guitar into amp. This setup has provided me many hours of playing enjoyment in the past!

I think the only next stage would be to have a delay put in the effects loop just to give those lead sounds a bit of extra something and that is really all you need!

Hi Mark

Very warm welcome to the forum. Also from the UK here

Good to have you around!

I always used tabs for learning and now, looking back, I don't think this was as helpful as doing it by ear.

Whilst tabs can definitely be the quickest and easiest way, you do not have the benefit of developing your ear. If you transcribe by ear for long enough then it will become second nature ...

Some of the worlds best guitarists had fat fingers. It really comes down to adjusting your technique - but it is definitely achievable with a standard guitar

For anyone interested in the tab as well - great for learning this.

ACtually you can now just post the youtube link and it will embed it

Some very kind person has tabbed out this lovely acoustic guitar number that keeps popping up on social media.

Give it a go!

I think there is so much flexability with amp modellers and effects these days that the guitar itself become less and less important in terms of tone.

Of course, a lot of people will say that tone come from the fingers (which I do agree with) and therefore having a guitar that works with you and ...

Having a well setup instrument is a must for anyone wanting to learn how to play. All of the comments above are spot on and easy for someone with a bit of experience to overcome. However, the new player might not even realise they are having these issues in the first place.

This is why I think it ...

The best way to improve is to regularly practice. Even if you can just find ten minutes per day that this will vastly improve your playing. I think the sweet spot for newer players would be around 30 minutes per day.

This shorter practice period is far better than just having a single multi hour ...

Following the recent change of design, I have changed the entire forum structure to hopefully make things simpler to navigate and find the topics of interest.

I hope that this will help encourage new and existing users to contribute.

If there is anything missing or anything unclear then just let ...

Back when I was in my early 20s and played guitar every day without fail, often for several hours, I was having to change my strings weekly. This was mainly because my fingers seemed to sweat a lot and I think it corroded the strings.

I always used to go for cheap strings as well and, lookng back ...

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Are you currently a musician?

It really is worth trying out a few guitars first of all. There are so many varieties and styles and these days it doesn't have to be expensive to get a quality instrument at a good price. £500 (or$500) is more than enough to get an instrument that will last a lifetime but at that budget a lot will ...

Wow sorry to hear about this and best of luck in getting it back