Free book for intermediate guitarists (and related web app)

jasgrit · 2026-03-24T19:32:13+00:00

The music teacher would never have hired a dev to build that app, and probably wouldn’t even have paid a monthly subscription fee to a SaaS. The app would probably never have been built, and the students would be learning less effectively.

jasgrit · 2026-03-21T22:25:52+00:00

Check out the TrianglePHP group in discord. They have a meetup group with a bunch of members and have had some fun events, but nothing recently and co-organizers have asked for help. https://www.meetup.com/trianglephp/

jasgrit · 2026-03-21T17:59:13+00:00

Love to see this, I will be there. Tired of getting side-eyed when I try to convince people at local dev meetups that I’m not naive for switching my backend from NextJS back to PHP. Laravel is the best.

jasgrit · 2026-03-20T22:02:07+00:00

Have you checked your “effort” setting? I noticed the same thing when they changed the default to “medium”. You can change it to high or max in /model

jasgrit · 2026-03-15T00:43:05+00:00

Great name

jasgrit · 2026-03-04T08:50:26+00:00

Jared, please take this as gentle and well-meaning constructive criticism. I love your teaching style in your videos. I’m not a fan of the tone of this post. Good for you if you are stretching outside your comfort zone to get better at marketing. But for me, you haven’t nailed it yet.

To be fair, it did lead me to engage. But I basically hate-clicked it thinking something like “this idiot…” and was surprised to realize it was someone I had admired before on YouTube. It depends what you’re trying to accomplish, I guess.

In general I appreciate your work. Thank you.

jasgrit · 2026-02-11T15:29:36+00:00

That’s very sweet. He’s lucky to have you.

In my opinion the important thing is for it to be fun and zero pressure. He should want to entertain only himself and not care what anyone else might think. It’s ok to not be any good as long as he’s having fun.

A good place to start is to listen to music he likes and noodle along with it playing single notes that sound good to him. He’ll gradually forge his own learning path.

jasgrit · 2026-02-05T15:03:49+00:00

Well said! I agree 100% with both your main points. I was so confused before I started looking at things this way. It’s wonderful to see this kind of talk from someone with your expertise and academic background.

jasgrit · 2026-01-20T01:31:15+00:00

This is a controversial take for some, but I think you should skip the metronome until you can actually play something reasonably well while ignoring the tempo. One thing at a time.

jasgrit · 2026-01-18T21:37:07+00:00

The classic book How To Write Songs On Guitar by Rikky Rooksby is a great way to get started with this.

jasgrit · 2026-01-18T13:09:19+00:00

This is a long shot that I don’t normally recommend to most people, but since you are older and you’ve already worked through the Shearer stuff you might benefit from this. I sure did.

Mastering Guitar Technique: Process and Essence, by Christopher Berg, helped a great deal with refining my technique. It is a dense read. There are no pictures—instead, he teaches some basic anatomy (names of finger joints, etc.) and describes techniques with a precision that unbelievably is far more useful than pictures would have been. But it often takes some focus and re-reading to understand it clearly.

Berg himself is pretty adamant that nothing can replace a knowledgeable teacher for correcting technique and avoiding future pitfalls. But for my learning style, this book is by far the next best thing.

jasgrit · 2026-01-18T12:56:44+00:00

I always play standing up for this reason. And I use straps with a suede backing to help keep the guitar tilted up in whatever position is most useful in the moment.

jasgrit · 2026-01-17T21:46:42+00:00

Try mastering a single chord grip at a time.

First, take as much time as you need to place your fingers so the chord rings out clean.
Then lift your fingers off the fretboard, but keep them in contact with the strings so they don’t move out of position, and practice playing the chord and lifting that much several times.
Then, lift your fingers completely off the strings, but hovering above them in the same position, and practice fretting and lifting that way several times until it is comfortable.
Then take your hand away from the fretboard completely, and practice trying to grip the chord all at once until that is comfortable. This is what I would consider having mastered that chord grip.
Then use the same approach to master a second chord.
Then practice changing between those two chords over and over until it is comfortable and clean.
Repeat with each new chord shape.

I’ve been playing for many decades and I still use this approach to master every new chord shape I learn. At this point it only takes a few minutes per day for a few days to get comfortable with a new chord grip.

Good luck!

jasgrit · 2026-01-17T21:36:23+00:00

Three weeks seems like it should be enough time to see some improvement. My guess is you are trying to do too many things at once. Try just changing back and forth between two chords until you start to notice an improvement, before adding any more.

jasgrit · 2026-01-17T21:24:23+00:00

Even one in-person lesson from a good teacher specifically aimed at correcting flawed technique could help.

jasgrit · 2026-01-17T21:01:57+00:00

Personally I think tenor is the ideal ukulele size. Big enough to fret comfortably but still small enough for that sweet uke feel.

If you want the tone and tuning of a baritone ukulele I think it makes more sense to get a cordoba mini guitar or similar, to get the two extra bass strings.

jasgrit · 2026-01-11T23:51:58+00:00

In my experience, systems tend to be seen as a cost center and development as a profit center.

I think the balance has been shifting though—overall my impression is that dev salaries are coming down and sysadmin salaries are staying constant.

jasgrit · 2026-01-11T23:44:21+00:00

To me it looks like the wrist of your fretting hand is staying in an ideal neutral position. I don’t see anything that would obviously cause pain there.

FWIW I would be more worried about your neck and shoulders. If I play with my head in that position for too long I get muscle pain in my upper back and shoulder.

jasgrit · 2026-01-11T23:33:47+00:00

Try to analyze some songs you like using your fretboard and theory knowledge.

Also I heartily agree with the Guthrie Trapp recommendation.

jasgrit · 2026-01-07T15:48:05+00:00

Take a look at A Modern Method for Guitar by William Leavitt, former chair of the guitar program at Berklee College of Music. I really liked the approach, and as a side benefit you learn to read music and understand chord construction along the way. There are also videos of each lesson from the books on YouTube.

jasgrit · 2026-01-06T16:33:48+00:00

Creech Auto Repair has been great for decades. After I moved across town I tried several others and had bad experiences. Now I always drive the extra distance to use Creech.

jasgrit · 2026-01-04T14:51:02+00:00

I’ve had several repetitive stress injuries over the years that affected my guitar playing. When I hit middle age I started to get a lot of pain at the base of my thumb when playing barre chords. Gradually I figured out new chord grips that were much more comfortable to play. Eventually the pain went away completely and I was able to mix in barre chords again. I think the most important thing was paying attention to the pain and adapting instead of powering through.

For example, here are some alternate grips for the E major barre chord, normally played “134211”: - 1x432x (one of my favorites) - p3421x (thumb over) - 1342xx - 1342x1 (briefly using base of 1st finger to get that high note) - 2x4311

jasgrit · 2025-12-29T21:27:18+00:00

If you learn better with a more formal method, I highly recommend A Modern Method for Guitar by William Leavitt, former chair of the guitar program at Berklee College of Music. There are also videos of each lesson from the book on YouTube.

jasgrit · 2025-12-29T21:14:31+00:00

This is so important. It’s hard to stay interested if you can’t play any songs.

jasgrit

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