Your Guitar Playing Level | GuitarTechniqueTutor.Com

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WHAT'S YOUR PLAYING LEVEL?

So, are you an intermediate player or an advanced player?
This is not an issue of ego, nor are the definitions
and descriptions found here, universal. They are not.
The terms intermediate and advanced have particular
meaning for the purposes of this web site. You are not
superior if you are an advanced player nor are you inferior
if you are an intermediate player.

Every advanced player was intermediate at one
time or another.

Many guitarists and instructors correlate these terms
with the length of time an individual has played the
guitar. In life, people have differing priorities and
responsibilities. So, someone playing for five years,
when there's free time after a day's work, family life
and whatever other responsibilities make up that
person's life, clearly may not have the
same fretboard knowledge and understanding
as a person who has made a serious pursuit
of the instrument by working with a good instructor an
d has practiced diligently for 3 years.

So, length of time playing is not necessarily significant.

In my opinion, the only measure to use, for
determining the 'level' of a guitarist's experience,
which should be reflected in their playing,
is what they understand and play. This eliminates
the guitarists who have read a lot and can discuss
overtones and half diminished 7 chords,
but cannot play Happy Birthday by ear in two
different locations on the fingerboard. It also eliminates
the guitarist who learned Leyenda or Jimi Hendrix's
version of The Star Spangled Banner by tabs and
yet doesn't have the slightest idea what they are
playing, other than fret numbers or locations.

Here is the guide I use to determine a guitarist's playing level:

Intermediate:

A guitarist who has enough experience playing to be
able to sight read music they have never seen, and play it
accurately, but perhaps not flawlessly. An intermediate
guitarist understands timing, limited theory and can
sight-read and maintain the music's timing
and has a fair knowledge of the fretboard.
They are proficient from the first to at least the
seventh fret of the guitar and can read and play
in some positionsother than open, with the same
ease and understanding as in open position.

Advanced:

A guitarist who has a great deal of experience
and both fretboard and theoretical knowledge.
An advanced guitarist can sight-read
proficiently, maintain the timing of the music
they are sight-reading, knows and understands
the key they are playing in before they
begin to play, understands the entirety of the
fretboard and possesses the ability to play in many
positions, including those above the
seventh fret and can determine where a passage
of music should be played on the fretboard
, based on understanding the music
on which they are working, knowledge
and understanding of the fretboard, as well as the
principals of guitar technique.

GuitarTechniqueTutor.Com offers every guitarist advice in all aspects
of the guitarist's development and if my schedule permits, private instruction in Airmont, Allendale, Fair Lawn, Franklin Lakes, Glen Rock, Hawthorne, Hillburn, HoHoKus, Mahwah, Midland Park, Montebello, Montvale, New Milford, Oakland, Oradell, Paramus, Park Ridge, Ramapo, Ramsey, Ridgewood, River Edge, Saddle River, Sloatsburg, Suffern, Tallman, Teaneck, Upper Saddle River, Viola, Waldwick, Washington Township, Westwood, Woodcliff Lake, Wyckoff
and their immediate surroundings.

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