Once you have mastered the other guitar lessons on this site, you can consider yourself an intermediate player. Even if you have played for several years, you may still struggle with maneuvers involving the pinky finger. This group of intermediate guitar lessons is aimed at players who are interested in improving their left hand technique. The exercises are applicable to any type of guitar or style of playing. Most people will find that it takes at least several months to master these exercises. It is usually best to make sure you are comfortable with one before going on to the next, since they do become progressively more difficult.
Left hand development is critical to becoming an accomplished guitarist. If you are in intermediate player and are looking for guitar lessons, you’ll need to continue and even increase your level of practice and dedication in order to become “advanced”. In my 15 years of teaching, the performance of the pinky finger of the left hand has consistently been a barometer by which to measure a student’s progress. Those who don’t spend the time to strengthen and coordinate that finger will simply not be able to play as wide a range of advanced music as those that do. In some ways it is not fair to call these exercises “intermediate” because by the time you are able to do them well, you will find that you are fairly advanced in abilities. However, I do believe that a typical teenager or adult who has spent 2-300 hours playing guitar before attempting these exercises, will be able to attempt them. They will likely feel very awkward at first, but eventually will become more comfortable.

by Brian Roughton