Intermediate Learning Pathway
Take the next step in your guitar journey.
Qualified beginners
Take the next step in your guitar journey after you complete our Beginner Learning Pathway.
3 months
Karl and Sam will guide you through 6 grades of instruction with daily practice plans and assessments.
Finish your foundation
By the end of this pathway, you'll be a well-rounded rhythm and lead player ready to take on any Pickup course.
Take the next step
Once you've built your intermediate foundation, take your skills to the next level with genre-specific pathways.
What you'll learn
In this music-first Learning Pathway, we'll equip you with the skills to become a well-rounded rhythm and lead guitarist.
- Polish your playing with expressive techniques
- Learn how to solo (and sound great doing it)
- Build a rock-solid rhythm guitar foundation
Curriculum
Stay focused with this step-by-step learning program designed by our expert team of music educators.
Your guided learning pathway
In this 3-month program, master educators Karl Kerfoot and Sam Blakelock will break down fundamental rhythm and lead techniques that'll take your playing from 'okay' to 'no way!' . With guided jams, daily practice exercises, and straightforward lessons, you'll know exactly what to work on at every step of the way.
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The 5 T's
To kick off the Learning Pathway, Karl will break down five core guitar concepts that'll inform your playing for the rest of your musical journey.
Each lesson day, you'll spice up your existing guitar knowledge through the lens of Touch, Time, Tuning, Tone, and 'Tude.
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Intro to Lead
In this grade, you’ll build a foundational set of lead guitar vocabulary and start soloing right away.
We won't bog you down with scales here. This music-first grade is all about giving you soloing material and getting you playing ASAP.
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Intro to Rhythm
Rhythm is the biggest weak point of most guitarists.
In this grade, you'll get comfortable with fundamental rhythmic subdivisions that'll help you lock into a groove and make sure your timing is on point.
Grade 4. Intermediate Lead
Here, we'll put the spotlight back on soloing by getting intimate with the major scale, using intervals to dance around the fretboard, and tackling a suite of tasty techniques to put a special shine on your soloing skills.
Grade 5. Intermediate Rhythm
No matter how great of a guitarist you become, you can never neglect rhythm. In this grade, you'll explore rhythm as it applies to various genres and time feels.
Grade 6. Intermediate Guitarist's Toolkit
It's smooth sailing in this grade. To send you off into the sunset and set you up for success, the final grade of Intermediate Learning Pathway features a series of conceptual lessons to take your playing even further.
Grade 1. Leveling Up With the 5 T's
Explore the five conceptual keys to great guitar playing.
We're with you every step of the way in this Learning Pathway. In every lesson, Karl will break down a new concept and run through mini drills with you so you can lock it into your muscle memory. To cap off each day's work, you'll put what you learned in a musical context with a guided jam session.
Day 1. Touch
Develop your feel and focus on how you play notes. This lesson will help you play effortlessly, avoid injury, and hone in on your individual sound as a guitarist.
Day 2. Time
Playing with solid rhythm is what separates the meager from the mighty. In this lesson, you'll explore fundamental subdivisions and what it means to groove.
Day 3. Tuning
Learn how to stay in tune and manipulate pitch. Tuning goes far beyond a clip-on tuner. You'll explore how to use vibrato and bends without sounding like an amateur.
Day 4. Tone
Once you accept the truth – 90% of tone comes from your fingers – you can start honing in on the tone you always dreamed of.
Day 5. 'Tude
Sass up your playing and stop strumming like a dead fish. This lesson is all about learning how to play confidently.
Day 6. How to practice effectively
Our most-requested lesson. You'll learn how to use Pickup music's practice system to stay focused, progress faster, and have fun along the way.
Performance pieces
Perform songs that incorporate the concepts you just learned in a purely musical context. Here, you'll have the opportunity to jam with a live-recorded band of pro musicians. You can submit your performance to the Pickup Music team for personalized video feedback – who said online learning wasn't interactive?!
Final quiz
Cap off the grade with a quiz to make sure you've adequately absorbed the core concepts involved.
Grade 2. Intro to Lead
Welcome to the wonderful world of soloing. Ready to learn how to shred like the greats?
Day 1. Open Em pentatonic
Get acquainted with the most important scale for soloing.
Day 2. Moveable minor pentatonic
Shift your pentatonic knowledge around the fretboard.
Day 3. Major pentatonic
Meet the other side of the pentatonic coin.
Day 4. Blues scale
Make your guitar cry out to the heavens with a b5
Day 5. Instant neo soul
Make your playing more buttery than a stack of flapjacks 🥞
Day 6. Aeolian
Modes?! Don't be scared, it's just a minor thing.
Day 7. Dorian
Swap in a natural 6 to make it funky, jammy, and jazzy.
Performances
Put your soloing skills to the test with three tasteful solos.
Get feedback
Get personalized video feedback on your playing from the Pickup team.
Final quiz
Make sure you're ready for Grade 3.
Grade 3. Intro to Rhythm
Rhythm is, by far, the biggest weak spot of guitarists. Welcome to the most important grade in the pathway.
Day 1. Classic strum patterns
Learn how to think like a drummer and strum your way to success.
Day 2. Blues
The rhythm train is leaving the station. Time to learn the iconic blues chug.
Day 3. Power chords
Think power chords are just for beginners? Think again. These humble chords form the backbone of guitar harmony, and they're great for honing rhythm skills.
Day 4. Intro to fingerstyle
Less pickin', more pluckin'. Learn how to add dynamics to your playing with various fingerpicking patterns.
Day 5. 6/8 time signature
Break out of 4/4 timing and expand your rhythmic knowledge.
Day 6. Funky 16th-note syncopation
Give your playing a fresh injection of groove with fundamental funk rhythms.
Day 7. Same progression in 3 styles
Learn how to add nuance to your chordal playing by attacking the same chord progression in three different styles.
Performances
Demonstrate what you've learned in a musical context by learning original songs.
Get feedback
Get personalized video feedback on your playing from the Pickup team.
Final quiz
Make sure you're ready for Grade 4.
Grade 4-6.
Take your rhythm and lead skills to new heights, then cap off the grade with some core tools.
Grade 4. Intermediate Lead
In this grade, we get into the nitty gritty of lead guitar. You're going to get to know the major scale like the back of your hand and dive into extended techniques that'll drop jaws when you shred your next solo.
Day 1. The major scale
Learn how to navigate the center of the Western musical universe.
Day 2. Single-string C major scale
You don't really know a scale until you can play it horizontally up your neck.
Day 3. Major scale in 3rds
Learn how to break up scales into melodically interesting intervallic ideas.
Day 4. How to think rhythmically
Even in lead guitar, rhythm is king. Today, we explore that concept by focusing on subdivisions in single-note shredding.
Day 5. Double stops
Beef up your single-note lines with dynamic dyads. These intervallic mini chords are used by great soloists in almost every style of guitar playing.
Day 6. Extended techniques
Now that you have the vocabulary, it's time for the special sauce. Bending, vibrato, slides, hammer ons, and rakes will add a new level of singability and dynamism to your playing.
Day 7. Putting it all together
Let's tie a bow on your lead guitar toolkit. Here, you'll work on combining everything we'll have covered so far in your lead guitar endeavors.
Performances
Demonstrate what you've learned in a musical context with two more solos.
Get feedback
Get personalized advice on your playing from the Pickup team.
Final quiz
Make sure you're ready for Grade 5.
Grade 5. Intermediate Rhythm
Did you think we were done with rhythm? Think again! It is the most important element of music, after all. Grade 5 puts the spotlight on groove by examining crucial rhythmic ideas through the lens of different styles and time feels.
Day 1. Must-know 7th chords
Expand your harmonic toolkit with colorful 7th chords.
Day 2. Swing vs. straight
Rhythm is all about subtle differences. Learn how to wield them to your advantage with swung and straight time feels.
Day 3. Intro to R&B, soul, and neo soul
What makes these genres so compelling? Today, you'll learn all about soulful rhythm guitar.
Day 4. Singer-songwriter voicings
Harness the power of full, lush chords to support your singing.
Day 5. 6/8 time signature
Break out of 4/4 timing and expand your rhythmic knowledge.
Day 6. Funk
Tackle a series of iconic funk techniques like muted staccato picking and 7th-chord grooves.
Day 7. Country
For more than just cowboys – Learn how to boom chuck and blend in an alternating bassline.
Performances
Tackle new tunes to apply what you've learned in a musical context.
Get feedback
Get personalized advice on your playing from the Pickup team.
Final quiz
Make sure you're ready for Grade 6.
Grade 6. Intermediate Guitarist's Toolkit
It's all smooth sailing from here. Over the next seven days of lessons, we'll equip you with some key concepts and tools that'll help you take your musical skills even further.
Day 1. Note name drills
Need help locking in note names on your E and A strings? Look no further.
Day 2. Chord drills
Learn how to fluidly navigate chord progressions across your fretboard.
Day 3. Ways to use the number system
Get hip to the most useful way of thinking about chord progressions.
Day 4. Intro to reading music
Take an intensive lesson on the fundamentals of standard notation.
Day 5. Capo applications
Learn how to harness the beauty of open-string voicings in any key.
Day 6. Chord/scale relationships
Extend your lead skills with arpeggios.
Day 7. Intro to shell chords
Make it jazzy with root-third-seventh voicings.
Performances
Demonstrate what you've learned in a musical context with two new tunes.
Get feedback
Get personalized advice on your playing from the Pickup team.
Final quiz
Cap off your hard work and make sure you're ready to move on.
REAL students
Don’t take our word for it, take theirs
What guitarists love about this course
FULL REFUND, NO QUESTIONS ASKED
Improve your playing or get your money back
We’re so confident that we can improve your playing that we’re underwriting your membership with a 60-day satisfaction guarantee.
Your Instructor
Karl Kerfoot
Take your playing to the next level by learning fundamental lead & rhythm concepts from Pickup Music's Head of Education.
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Frequently asked questions
The most structured approach to learning music
