Well this will be a short post based on my current experiences on starting to play again after not playing for 5 years... Everything has been difficult and also different on this new starting for me, basically I lost all my stretching on both hands, all my strength and timing specially on the neck hand, and it has been a very hard journey to get back to the playing level I had before stopping playing. I will leave two important advices for beginners and pretty much for everyone. 1 - Before starting any practice session take at least 5 minutes to warm up your hands, you can find plenty of warming up exercises on the web, or you can build your own ones is very important to have your wrists, hands and fingers ready before starting to play anything that may require fast movements of your fingers or of your wrist and picking hand. 2 - Know when to stop, It just happened to me a few minutes ago that I was playing the song Creeping Death by Metallica using a backing track at full speed (205bps) and also playing standing, I was only thinking about playing the song again like I used to play it 5 years ago and I didn't pay attention to the pressure I was doing on my wrists and fingers and after playing it like 3 times on a row I stopped with a strong pain on my left hand due to the force I was putting on placing my finger correctly behind the neck and also a small pain on the wrist of my picking hand due to the speed and endurance required to play the whole song without stopping. So my advice is that even if you see the song, riff or solo you want to play close to be played in the way you want to do it always remember to not force your hands to reach a goal that you may be able to reach tomorrow and take the risk to suffer an injury that will keep you away from playing for weeks, months or even worse. Take care of yourself and happy playing. Alex.

I got some positive responses from last week's poll! Maybe you like seeing me break these backing tracks down, maybe you just like seeing me play, either way, I'm back with another one for you! This week's backing track is in the key of E Lydian! If that sounds scary, it shouldn't, because using the magical powers of relative scales, we can play in a far more familiar key: G# minor! That's right! You can totally use a pentatonic shape over this one, but I will say, you'll be missing out on the most important note that brings all of this together to get that Lydian sound! This one's a bit slower too so it should hopefully be a bit easier to keep up with it! So check out the video and get to playing! Link to the backing track: https://www.skool.com/intermediate-guitar/classroom/acd5dbdf?md=1c2dc04ff9ff4975b989e59f503196a2 Link to the classroom that has scale shapes- https://www.skool.com/intermediate-guitar/classroom/acd5dbdf?md=03ce6b4214fa4195b2e08a239a12f0c8 Have a great week this week! -Ben

Blues music means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, and in some arenas it's just considered "Southern Rock". This "Blues - Shuffle" type - 12 Bar Blues song, is a what some may even call a standard in it's own right. Some people will spend their entire lives attempting to perfect these rhythms. It's easy to understand why. The solo availability, the jam sessions, the recognizable tunes and of course your undeniable ability to catch the beat and throw down with a couple dance moves. But this is no ordinary 4/4 beat or even a waltz in the park... No... This is the 12 Bar Blues rhythm. It demands focus attention and respect. It's music can elevate your mood or go down with you into the slums. Whatever you're feeling, the Blues can be a guiding light Give this a try and let me know that it makes sense to you. Got something to add or want to try it yourself? Please do. I did this as "Live" as possible, and wanted to tread lightly around the hyper specific theory talk. I know you've got what it takes. Listen to me mess it up a few times and then you give it a go yourself and let's see if we can't hone it in together! As our new friend Ted says - Peace ✌🏽 and loud guitars 🎸 🙏🏽 We'll catch you in the comments.

New video in the classroom section, "All About Technique", this time about hammer-ons and pull-offs and ways to practice them! Video Link Here:https://www.skool.com/intermediate-guitar/classroom/1008c20d?md=d5e241f3b5534c6dbf111b47aba8e627 Let's get these sounding clean and loud together! Also, today is the day that the "Music Theory 101" course goes to the premium tier of membership! If you haven't yet, jump on in and join us with full access to all of our courses we already have in there, and any new one's that come out in the future. We're also working on getting some premium backing tracks done too, along with more premium content on the way! On top of that, you'll be supporting the Intermediate Guitar team, which includes myself and @Mike Abalos! We couldn't do this without your support, so if you like the content so far and want to keep seeing more of it, come join us @ https://www.skool.com/intermediate-guitar/plans Thank you, sincerely, to those that have already supported us, you keep us going! Have a great weekend and I will see you next week! -Ben

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