After a considerable period of time and regular guitar practice you will pass the stage of the beginner and move up to a more intermediate guitar level. You’ve acquired all the basic skills and you’re looking forward to take things to the next step. But what does that actually mean, intermediate level? What should you be practicing now to take it even further?

A lot of guitar players start out all excited in the beginning. They learn how to play songs, fingerstyle, some riffs and solos, but then lack the persistence to follow through. They lean back in their comfort zone, practice less and improvement becomes meager. The basics are solid, but it becomes difficult to maintain the same eagerness and passion to grow into an even better guitar player.

So how do you go from the beginner path to the intermediate path and keep walking? How do you keep that same spirit and pace of improvement to get to the next level? Well today, we’re showing you the intermediate path of learning guitar. The path of progress and becoming the guitar player you set out to be.

Here are the keys:

Level up your chords

Work on learning, memorizing and applying new chords. Learn slash chords to create smooth transitions between chords. Work on a vocabulary of jazz chords that are also often used in pop, rock and blues music like Maj7, Maj6, mMaj7, Min6, m7b5 and dim7 chords.

Apply the chords to songs and keep using them so they are fully integrated into your playing. Learn the chords you already know and new chord types in different positions on the neck to become more versatile and free in your playing.