Beginner VS Late Beginner VS Intermediate - What Are You?

Oh, hello, welcome, welcome. I have been so busy that I didn't have time to do my usual video for the week, my song lesson. But I said, you know what, I've been getting a lot of questions from you guys. I see in the comments and from my students who are part of my course. If you are a fellowship member, if you're part of the, the fellowship type in the chat, let me know you're here. If you are a fellowship person. Glad you're here. Ryan. Hi. James, Matthew, Edward, Jay, John, Nice to see you guys. And today we're going to be talking about what's the difference between a beginner, an intermediate, and even an advanced player? Because so many students are like, Lauren, how do I know when I'm not a beginner anymore? Like you, you always put in your songs beginner. But how do I know when I'm done with that phase of my journey? And I find a lot of programs, they kind of skip out on the late beginner phase. They move people from beginner to intermediate very, very quickly. And some of you know, I have a seven level guitar system and the seven levels kind of COVID beginner to late beginner to early intermediate. So if you do my entire seven level course, by the time you graduate, that you should be in kind of the early intermediate stage of your guitar playing journey. So let's start off with beginner. Okay, so if you're a beginner, you, you just got your guitar, you're excited, you can't wait to learn, all right. And you're realizing when you touch the guitar for the first time that this might be a little bit harder than you thought. Right? Right. I'm going to talk, Ian. I'll let you know what I mean by late beginner. So you're, you're seeing that this is going to be maybe a little bit more of a challenge than you thought. It's not easy as you thought it was going to be. Your chords are going to sound horrible. You're going to learn chords and they're going to sound like this. They're going to sound not so great. Okay. And, and you're going to be struggling and your fingers aren't going to be doing quite what you, quite what you hope to they would do. They will seem to have a mind of their own in the beginner stage. And let me know in the chat if you feel like your fingers sometimes have a mind of their own. So that's really what the beginner stage is all about. You're learning just a very few chords I like to teach G, E minor, C, and D, because with those four chords, you can really do a lot as a guitar player, there's a lot of songs you can do. And we start with very simple strumming patterns. You're most likely just doing down strums at this point if you're at the beginner stage. And for me, for my guitar course, the beginner stage is usually like level one and level two, where we're working on just getting started and building some dexterity in the hands. Now, this is the stage I think a lot of people, they jump ahead on. So for me, that would be levels 3, 4, and 5 are kind of like late beginner. So. So for me, a lot of people consider upstroms like absolute beginner. I think upstroms are more late beginner. So you start incorporating up strums into your play. For me, that's a little bit more of a late beginner stage skill because you have to have a lot of timing dialed in on that down strum first. Okay. So, yeah, it's a lot more difficult than you thought, Richard. Right. So those up strums tend to throw people for a little bit of a loop. But you're starting to get your confidence a little bit. In the late beginner stage, the chords still aren't sounding great. Let me. Let me just be honest with you. You're probably like three to six months into your journey. They're getting better, but they're still muted a little bit. They're not perfect. And that's okay. In the beginner and late beginner stage, it's okay for things not to be perfect because you're still learning and you're really working within frameworks in the beginner stage. Now, what do I mean by that? So students, when we're learning, they're always say, lauren, what's the strumming pattern for this song? Okay, what's the strumming pattern? And I have to give them a very specific strumming pattern. And usually in the beginning stage, we're only using, you know, one strumming pattern, maybe two. But most of the times we're still only using one strumming pattern for an entire song. And as you guys know, for some of you guys that are in my fellowship that have been with me for a while, you know, a lot of times songs use multiple strumming patterns. So in that beginner stage, you're really tied to the framework. You still need a lot of direction on how to get the end result, and that's Not a bad thing. Just you don't know enough about music yet to understand what's going on, but you're starting to get curious. Okay, so that's beginner and late beginner stages for the guitar learning journey. Now we have early intermediate. Okay. So this is where you're starting to probably feel for the first time like a guitar player. Okay. You might be starting to incorporate more syncopated rhythms. Now, a syncopated rhythm is a rhythm that. Where a down strum is missing. For example, down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up. Or maybe you're getting into shuffle rhythms that have like a triplet feel.

Kind of like a blue shuffle. Okay. So those are rhythms you might be getting into. In more of the early intermediate stage, you're still working within frameworks, though. Okay. You still need a lot of direction. Maybe you're starting a little bit to get out of the frameworks. You might even start trying to sing and play at the same time at this stage as well. So that's the early intermediate. That's kind of in my course. Maybe you're starting to do with arpeggios. Okay. You might start incorporating some finger picking. Okay. Kind of learning the basic skills of that stuff. Okay. So at the early intermediate stage, you. You really start feeling like a guitar player. But you. You haven't quite yet broken out of the framework. You still kind of need the frameworks to work from. And the next stage is intermediate, and for me, it's divine, defined by a very specific set of skills. So I hope you guys. You guys see my little diner cup. This is my favorite little coffee cup here. I'm going to take a sip because I need some coffee this morning. I don't know why I like this cup so much. I just like it because it's just like a classic diner cup, you know. So intermediate stage is when you start getting out of the framework for the first time. You're starting to improvise a little bit more with your strumming. And, you know, we're on the. On the early intermediate stage, maybe you're starting to incorporate more strums into the songs. But in the intermediate stage, you're kind of taking it to the next level. Maybe you're introducing percussive rhythms. You know, you're kind of.

Or, you know, again, you're getting into bar chords.

And you're doing all kinds of cool things percussively with your instrument. And for the first time, you're starting to feel like your hand, your strumming, Hand has a mind of its own. Okay, you're starting to feel the music as opposed to always meeting the framework. Like I could give you the framework of a song and I could say, hey, the rhythm for this is 1, 2, 3 and A, 4 and A. And you'll say, okay, I understand the framework, but you start improvising out of that framework, you don't have to play the same rhythm for the entire song. And like I said, we're bar chords. I, you know, there's a lot of teachers out there who teach bar chords to beginners and, and absolutely, I do not think that that is a beginner skill at all. If you're, if you've had trouble with bar chords, let me know in the chat. Bar chords are probably one of the most frustrating things to learn on the guitar. After you perfect your C chord and your D chord, I know lots of people hate those chords too. I always tell people you're going to hate the D and the C chord until you learn the F chord. Then you'll think the C and D chord aren't so bad after all. They'll be your friends. But there's a lot of strength and flexibility that, that is required to be able to play bar chords. So they're definitely not a beginner skill. That's why I stick with open chords. In the seven level system, we don't get into the bar chords until some. After that into some of the mini courses. So that's the intermediate stage. Like you're starting to be creative. I think you're starting to explore the instrument creatively and that's how you know you're starting to get to that intermediate level. Because this, when you play a song that you know a lot of beginners, it has one volume. We play a song and it's loud or really loud, like it's. Those are the volumes for beginner through almost like early intermediate players. When you start getting into the intermediate level, your star songs are having depth. They start having an up and downs in them. They start having more of a flow. You can take the listener on a journey a bit more. And that's why I think, you know, the intermediate stage is very exciting to get to. It takes time. I would say for most people, if you're looking, because everyone's like, how long, how long does it take me to get there? I would say to, to the intermediate stage, it's probably for most people, is going to be about a year for most people. Some people will get there faster. It depends on how much you're practicing. And some people, you know, will get there a little bit slower. Everyone's journey is different, but on average, I feel most people start getting into that intermediate stage about a year into their guitar playing process. If they're playing fairly. Fairly. Consistency. Yeah.

And then there's advanced. And I always call this advanced is lifelong learning. You never stop learning. I've been playing the guitar for over 20 years and. And I'm always learning new things. It's new and exciting. But when you get to this stage of playing, you. You start, you know, I don't know if Jack is on here. I didn't see him yet. But, you know, I have a student, his name's Jack, and he always talks about Florida flow. And I think it's a yoga thing. You get into flow. And I think, I think with music, when you start getting to be an advanced player, there is a sense of flow. You just, you really just feel the music. You can hear something on the radio or you can hear a strumming pattern. You know exactly what's going on. And sometimes I'll be playing something and students will be like, what did you just do? And I'll be like, I don't know. My hand left literally has a mind of its own. And I really think that's when you get to the advanced stages plus performing. You know, I think performing is an intermediate to advanced skill, depending on, you know, what level you're performing at. But performing really pushes you into that next level. And you don't have to perform on a stage. You could even jam with some friends. Playing with others is an amazing skill to have and can really push. Push you to that next level. So if you're a beginner and you're frustrated because I know those beginning stages can be very, very frustrating. It is hard. The guitar is not an easy instrument. And that's why I laid out my seven level guitar course the way I did, because it breaks it up. The first two levels are beginner. Okay, you're just getting started. And then the next three levels are kind of late beginner. And then level six and seven are intermediate now. And then once you do that, I have a bunch of other courses. I have courses on, you know, finger picking, you know, bar chords, power chords. I even have like a lead guitar, you know, one on one course that you guys can learn lead guitar skills and even some music theory. I think music theory starts around the kind of the early intermediate level because you start getting curious about a certain way in music. I'm not a big fan of throwing a bunch of music theory at beginner players. I feel like you have to understand the instrument a little bit and appreciate the instrument a little bit before you really, really dive into some of those. Those advanced, you know, and intermediate music theory topics. So hopefully you guys understand where you are on this spectrum of your journey, Whether you're just getting started or you've been playing for years and you just did your first performance. Okay, there is a spectrum, and I hope I've given you some good guidelines to understand that. If I post a video and it says intermediate, that you're probably going to have to have a certain level of rhythm and strumming skills and you might have to know some bar chords. But if I have a video that comes up and it says beginner or late beginner, you're going to say, oh, I know where I fit in Lauren's framework to say I'll be able to do this song. Because I know that Lauren, when she puts up a song that says beginner, she going to keep it really simple for me and make it easy to play and break it down so that it makes sense. So I'm going to jump over to the chat here for you guys. I see some questions coming in. Yes, there's lots of backing tracks, Edward, to. To practice with. Exactly. Let's see, let's see. Ryan says, when I do this, this sounds a lot like the original House of the Rising Sun. Oh, I must have missed your earlier. Your earlier comment, But I've just recently crossed over to the late beginner. Ian says, that's fantastic. Congratulations. Yeah, let me know in the chat, you know, what level you guys feel you're at, or if you have a question, feel free to ask me and I'll try and take a couple live questions here. Crazy says my fingers hurt from playing. Yes, this is a common beginner problem. My fingers hurt. I. I've actually. I have a live event coming up in three weeks here in Boston, and I've actually been playing the guitar a lot, like one, two, three hours a day, and my fingers are hurting. So you're not alone. Crazy. I'm rebuilding my calluses so that I can. I can play for long periods of time again. So Ryan asked, why are bar chords so tough after a year? You know, it's just a really weird and contorted shape. And I highly recommend, before you go into bar chords, learn power chords, because the shapes of power chords. Look at my hand. Just look at this first finger. Okay. When you're playing a power chord, even though I'm not barring the bottom strings. It looks like a bar chord.

So it gets your hand comfortable. A lot of the issues, usually the bottom finger, most people the bottom, particularly on this F chord.

They don't sque enough on the bottom two strings. So that can be. That can be tough. I often, you know, when I move students into bar chords, I oftentimes recommend that they either start on an electric practicing with them and then bring them to the acoustic or put lighter strings on your guitar so it makes them easier to play. But there is a strength component. There is Jack. Jack. I mentioned the flow here for the advanced lessons, and yes, I've got my. My coffee cup. My morning coffee is here. I'm waking up still. Yeah. Ed, that F chord, it's very tough. It's one of the hardest bar chords because it's right here on the first fret. And this nut up here, it's very, very hard to push those strings down up here. Cheers from Munich. Are you playing 11s or 12s right now? This Taylor, I asked my rep. This Taylor comes standard with 12s, but before my event, I'm probably going to switch them out to elevens. I prefer playing with elevens. I use elevens. Phosphor bronze. I wish I had the strings that I use here. I use D' Addario phosphor bronze, 11s. That's usually, you know, that's what's on my crafter right now. But I know on this guitar, Taylor's come standard with elixir strings. And this is 12, and they are also phosphor bronze. I really like the phosphor bronze because it gives much a warmer sound to the guitar than say, like an 8020 bronze. 8020 bronze has a much brighter sound to it that I don't particularly like, but some people do. It's always a preference thing. So. Yeah. What's the hardest tune you know, and how did you learn it?

Geez. I mean, there's a. I mean, Stairway to Heaven was. It was a challenge, particularly the guitar solo for Stairway to Heaven. Because it's so fast. I mean, I'm, you know, I'm a rhythm person. And over Covid, I. I did a lot of work on my elite guitar playing. I'm an electric guitar playing, and I had learned the solo to Stairway to Heaven before and never quite got it up to speed. So getting that solo up to 100% speed for me was difficult. And I had to practice it for a few weeks, and I had to work on it in Increments and get it up. Another goal song that I've had forever is the intro to Crazy on youn. By Heart. Nancy Wilson is a beast on guitar. I've started and stopped it many, many times over the years. You know, I. I kind of know the basics of it, but getting it up to full speed is. Is quite crazy. So that's still a goal song for me, but one that I've actually accomplished. Beginning to end, it would probably be Stairway to Heaven. The acoustic parts, you know, that was the first song I wanted to. To finger pick. You know.

I can't even remember how it goes. There it is. So there's these interesting different chords. But for me, when I was starting with Finger Picking, that was the song I chose. And not the best song to choose. When you start Finger Picking, it's a pretty intricate song. So that song's great because you learn so much. You learn so much. There's so many different rhythms. There's the finger picking, there's strumming. There's the guitar solo. There's so much you can learn from that single song. You could spend months on that song and learn tons and tons of things. And I have done it with students too. So the chords flow like a river. That's what Jack says. It's exactly, exactly. Carl, I'm glad that you're playing for the fun because, you know, at the end, that's what it comes down to is, are you having fun with this instrument? Right? You have to have fun with it. If you're not having fun, then go find something that inspires you. Okay? And that's what you know in the Fellowship of the Strings. My. My online guitar community, we encourage people, like, if, you know, if you're feeling down, someone will go and post. They're like, no, you got this. Or someone will post a win about how they've been working on that stupid C chord for months. And then like this morning they woke up and it worked and it sounded great. So it's always good to have those. Those moments of inspiration and motivation. So find a song that inspires you. Okay. And learn that. And that's what's going to keep you guys pushing forward. Because that beginner to late beginner stage, it's tough. Let me tell you. It's probably the hardest part of guitar. And that's when the most people give up. Is that beginner to late beginner stage. Because they're just like, you know what? This is too much work. And let me tell you, everything in life is work, okay? Anything worth doing. You have to put the time in. You have to put the time in. Like I said, I've been playing for over 20 years and there's a lot of things that I stick. Still can't do on the guitar. I'm not a Tommy Emanuel. I haven't, you know, advanced my playing skills to, to that level. But I'm very happy with what I can do on the guitar and I'm very happy that I have the ability to, to teach you guys to do things that you find fun in expiring for yourself. So I just want to say thank you guys so much for, for hopping on here today and, and listening to my little poppin lesson on this. Thank you for those who asked the question. Deborah Ryan, Christopher George from Scotland. Hello. Edward Ryan. Matthew. Matthew Lally. Nice to see you. He's a fellowship member. Just wanted to say hello to everyone. Thank you for being here and I'll see you guys in a lesson video real soon. Have a great day, everyone. Bye bye. Get your coffee.