An interesting thing happens when I get a new intermediate guitar student, some of whom still call themselves beginners.
The first thing I ask them is:
“What do you already know?”
They’ll often start by showing me a riff, a song or even a solo.
Then I ask:
“Do you know scales, chords, techniques, arpeggios?”
Usually the answer is yes.
So they begin demonstrating their musical vocabulary:
- the minor pentatonic scale,
- a barre chord,
- a string bend,
- an arpeggio pattern,
- perhaps a Cmaj7 chord,
At first glance, it can seem impressive. Many of these students have clearly put in the hours.
Then I ask them a question that completely changes the atmosphere in the room:
“Could you use what you already know to make some music right now, on the spot?”
With very few exceptions, they freeze.
Make music? I need to learn many more things before I’ll be able to do that!
This is one of the clearest signs of what I call the Intermediate Guitarist Trap.
The Trap Is Not a Lack of Knowledge
It is lack of progress in spite of having enough knowledge.
Many intermediate players’ skills exist in isolation.
They know scales separately.
Chords separately.
Techniques separately.
Rhythms separately.
Theory separately.
But music happens when all these elements are integrated together
This is why many guitarists reach a frustrating point where:
- they know many scales but their solos lack melody.
- they know chords but can’t write a song.
- they know music theory but can’t apply it.
- they can play exercises but struggle to make them sound like music.
- they understand concepts intellectually but cannot create with them.
They have accumulated vocabulary without ever learning how to use it.
What Happens Next Is Interesting
After the student freezes, I usually take a few elements they already know.
Perhaps:
- a pentatonic scale,
- a rhythmic pattern,
- a string bend,
- some vibrato,
- a simple sequence.
Then I combine them into a short lick.
Nothing advanced.
In fact, the lick is often extremely simple, and uses nothing they haven’t already learned before, like the following:
Then I show them exactly how it was created.
In the example above, I’m starting with a sequence on the A minor pentatonic scale, followed by a bend and release. Then I keep going down the minor pentatonic scale, skipping a note on the second beat of the bar and end with an upward bend.
Then I ask them to create a guitar lick of their own.
This is where the magic happens.
The student realizes that just by combining a few of the musical and technical elements he already knew, he can make music.
They have learned nothing new.
The breakthrough came not from more information, but from combining what they already knew in a musical way.
This is one of the biggest lessons intermediate guitarists need to understand.
Horizontal Growth vs Vertical Growth
Over the years, I’ve started thinking about guitar development in two different directions:
- horizontal growth,
- and vertical growth.
Both are important.
The problem is that many guitarists overdevelop one while neglecting the other.
Vertical Growth
Vertical growth happens when you learn new things.
For example:
- a new scale,
- a new chord shape,
- a more complex rhythmic pattern,
- a new technique,
- building speed,
- hybrid picking,
- extended chords.
This type of growth expands your technical and theoretical possibilities.
Some guitarists focus heavily on vertical growth because it feels exciting.
You feel like you’re leveling up every time you pick up the guitar.
And to some extent, they are.
However, vertical growth alone can become addictive.
Many intermediate players spend years collecting:
- scales,
- chords,
- arpeggios,
- licks,
- techniques,
- exercises,
- and theoretical concepts
without truly learning how to use them musically.
This creates what I call musical fragmentation.
Horizontal Growth
Horizontal growth is the opposite.
Horizontal growth happens when you use what you already know in different forms and variations.
For example:
- learning different solos made from the musical elements you already know,
- using the same rhythms in different contexts,
- combining techniques,
- improving timing,
- improving feel,
- playing variations of familiar ideas.
At the same speed level.
With the same materials.
Without necessarily learning anything “new.”
However, if a guitarist focuses only on horizontal growth, progress can eventually stagnate. Once again, this still leads to improvement, but like the “vertical learner” this improvement is limited since you’re never learning anything actually new.
The Problem of Unbalanced Skills
Thus another major cause of the Intermediate Guitarist Trap is skill imbalance.
Many guitarists develop certain areas obsessively while neglecting others completely. Or else, they keep learning new things without becoming fluent in any of them.
Each style of learning leads to a serious problem:
Their strengths are being held back by their weaknesses.
Thus, while in the first lesson with an intermediate guitar student I focus on showing him his true potential, what he can do with the things he already knows, in the following lessons we start identifying weaknesses.
Not all weaknesses though. Only those weaknesses that are holding his strengths back from reaching his goals.
For instance if his goal is to improvise solos, we will not focus on weaknesses like not knowing enough chords, fingerpicking, tapping or sweep picking. We’ll work on those later, if need be.
Instead we’ll focus on the specific things that once fixed, will get him out of the intermediate guitar plateau and take him directly to his goals.
For instance if his timing is weak, we’ll improve that so that he can solo fluently with a backing track.
If there’s a lot of unwanted string noise, we’ll focus on muting buzzing strings so that his playing sounds clean.
If his string bends aren’t accurate we’ll train both hands and ears to fix it so that his otherwise good solos don’t sound amateurish.
So on and so forth.
It is only when the skills necessary to make the music he wants are in balance that we start reaching for new skills (vertical growth).
The Internet Makes the Trap Worse
Modern guitar culture encourages endless vertical growth.
Every day there is another lesson:
- “7 Exotic Scales You Must Know”
- “Play Faster In One Week”
- “The Secret Sweep Picking Pattern”
- “Advanced Jazz Chords”
The internet constantly suggests that the next breakthrough is hidden inside another piece of information.
Sometimes it is.
Often it isn’t.
Very frequently, the next breakthrough comes from:
- deeper listening,
- stronger rhythm,
- better phrasing,
- melodic awareness,
- creativity,
- simplification,
- and above all, skill integration.
Unfortunately, these things are harder to market than “10 Shred Tricks That Will Melt Your Friend’s Faces.”
How To Get Out Of The Intermediate Guitar Plateau
Escaping the Intermediate Guitarist Trap usually requires a change in mindset.
Instead of constantly asking:
“What new thing should I learn?”
You begin asking:
“What practice item should I learn or improve, so that I get closer to my specifically defined goals?”
That shift changes everything.
You stop seeing scales as exercises and begin seeing them as musical raw material. You will also start giving more importance to how they sound, rather than just remembering patterns.
You stop practicing mechanically and start practicing musically.
And ironically, this often reignites motivation.
Because guitar playing starts sounding like music again.
Final Thoughts
Most intermediate guitarists are not as far away from sounding musical as they think.
Often they already possess enough raw material.
The issue is not a lack of knowledge.
The issue is learning how to connect that knowledge together.
This is one of the main ideas behind my Intermediate Guitar Audit, where I break down the skills that commonly hold intermediate players back and explain how different areas of guitar playing affect one another:
Remember:
Sometimes the next level is not hidden inside another scale.
Sometimes it is hidden inside the scales, rhythms and techniques you already know.
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