Karl Kerfoot
PRESENTS

Intermediate Learning Pathway

Take the next step in your guitar journey.

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WHo it's for

Qualified beginners

Take the next step in your guitar journey after you complete our Beginner Learning Pathway.

Time

3 months

Karl and Sam will guide you through 6 grades of instruction with daily practice plans and assessments.

Outcome

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.

Make it musical

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
How it works

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.

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.

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.

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 Guitar Concepts

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 Guitar Concepts

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.

Curriculum

Stay focused with this step-by-step learning program designed by our expert team of music educators.

3-Month Plan

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.

Student stories

Learn how Intermediate Learning Pathway has helped real guitarists break through their playing plateau and realize their potential.

“My favorite part about Pickup Music is probably nerding out in the forum with everyone. Just knowing you have a creative community to reach out to if you have any questions or you're stuck in a rut.”

Vicki Huang

United States

"I would highly recommend Pickup Music to pretty much anyone who has been playing for a few years and doesn't feel like they are getting better any more."

James Harrod

United Kingdom

“One of the things that's been the most fun for me has been the SongSquad challenges... connecting with other people in the Pickup Music community on Instagram and just encouraging each other as we're learning songs and practicing.”

Vin Thomas

United States

"Pickup Music really helped me push my musical boundaries."

Wytse Hokwerda

Germany

Hear from REAL students

Find out why 20,000 members all over the world love Pickup Music

What’s in every Pickup Music membership?

Start learning – free trial

1,000+ Lessons

All skill levels

Interactive tabs

Track your progress

Daily practice plans

New lessons every week

Choose a plan that's right for you

Start your free 14-day trial today.
Cancel anytime.

Recommended

Annual Plan

All-inclusive access to every course.

$149.99

/yr billed annually

You save $30 per year.

1,426 people started a free trial in the last 30 days.

Annual plan includes:

See what a Pickup Music membership is all about.

14-day free trial

Guided learning

Know exactly what to practice at every step of your guitar journey.

Personalized feedback

Know exactly what to practice at every step of your guitar journey.

Progress tracking

Monitor your guitar gains.

New releases every week

Never run out of lessons to work on.

Interactive TAB

Follow along with every note.

Multiple HD angles

Get an up close and personal learning experience.

Supportive community

Get into the holiday spirit with step-by-step guitar lessons covering your favorite songs.

Members-only forum

Unlimited personalized learning support from our team of pro guitarists.

SAVE 17%

Unlimited access for less than 1/2 the price of one private guitar lesson per month.

Monthly Plan

All-access to online guitar lessons to level up your playing.

$14.99

/mo

1,426 people started a free trial in the last 30 days.

Monthly plan includes:

See what a Pickup Music membership is all about.

14-day free trial

Guided learning

Know exactly what to practice at every step of your guitar journey.

Personalized feedback

Know exactly what to practice at every step of your guitar journey.

Progress tracking

Monitor your guitar gains.

New releases every week

Never run out of lessons to work on.

Interactive TAB

Follow along with every note.

Multiple HD angles

Get an up close and personal learning experience.

Supportive community

Workshop your playing, get feedback, and perform live in our online practice groups.

Members-only forum

Unlimited personalized learning support from our team of pro guitarists.

SAVE 17%

Save $30

Frequently Asked Questions

If your questions aren’t answered below, please chat with us.

Is Pickup Music right for me?

Do you feel like your guitar playing has hit a plateau? 

Are you stuck in a guitar rut where you're just playing the same old chords and licks?

Are you looking for fretboard freedom?

At Pickup Music, we specialize in:

  • taking beginner guitar players and turning them into intermediate players
  • taking intermediate guitar players and turning them into advanced players

How do we do it? 

  • First, we ask you a few questions to figure out exactly what skill level you’re at. 
  • Second, we ask you to commit to a series of Master Classes and Learning Pathways that focus on specific techniques. These comprehensive week-by-week courses are the best way to get your playing to the next level. 
  • Third, we get you to track your progress on your personalized learning dashboard.

Finally, we give you support and feedback through an exclusive members community and live practice group sessions with other members. This focused approach to learning guitar will help you bust through the beginner basics, break out of the intermediate plateau, and level up your playing.

This guided learning approach is the fastest way to make real progress on the guitar.

What makes Pickup Music better than other guitar lesson sites?

We're glad you asked! So many things:

  • Pickup Music gives you week-by-week guided learning. This is so important for making progress and getting out of the beginner plateau. Instead of just making you watch a video of an instructor talking about how they play guitar, we break things down for you on a daily and weekly basis.
  • Each daily lesson is accompanied by practice exercises where the instructors play along with you - almost like they're sitting right beside you. This eliminates the guess work so you know exactly what you need to focus on to make real and lasting progress with guitar.
  • Our lessons take you beyond the basics. Most online guitar lessons are good at teaching new guitarists the easy stuff. Pickup Music goes beyond that to help advanced-beginners and intermediate guitarists break through to the next level.
  • Our teachers are the best new and modern guitarists in the world. You'll find touring musicians, professors of music, and virtuosos from every genre to guide you through your guitar journey.
  • We have an extensive library with over 1,000 lessons across most genres for every type of guitarist. This means we have the right learning pathway for your unique starting point and preferred style of playing.
  • Pickup Music lessons are jam-packed with features to enhance your learning experience. This includes interactive TAB, multiple HD camera angles, backing tracks, and extensive course notes. All of this is designed to speed up your learning so you can achieve real results in your playing.  
  • We keep it fresh - we drop new lessons every. single. week. Plus, we're always striving to make each new lesson better than the last.
  • Pickup Music is a supportive and welcoming community. This is the place to connect with fellow guitarists, get feedback, and grow together.

What's included in my Pickup Music membership?

Everything! You’ll have unlimited access to every lesson on Pickup Music from every instructor. That means every Learning Pathway, Master Class, SongSquad, Licks Package, 5-Minute Lesson... we could go on, but you get the idea. It's an all-inclusive membership for one affordable price.

How long are the lessons? How long will it take me to complete them?

Pickup Music's lesson plans are designed to suit the amount of time you have available to practice.

Only got a few minutes? Try our 5-Minute Lessons to quickly add a new skill to your toolbox.

Got half an hour? Try one of our Essential Lick Packages or SongSquads to expand your vocabulary in different genres.

Got a couple of days? Try a Master Class with one of our world-renowned artists. Each class is broken up into short, digestible modules focused on one topic. We encourage you to complete the exercises for each lesson video before moving on to the next one because the lessons typically build on each other.

Ready to really commit to a multi-week program? Try one of our Learning Pathways. Over 6 weeks, these detailed courses will take you on a day-by-day journey to master each level in the genre. Learning Pathways include daily practice exercises so you know exactly what to focus on. These courses are the best way to make lasting progress.

Whichever approach you choose, we recommend building the exercises you learn into your daily practice schedule. The best way to improve as a guitarist is through a consistent practice routine rather than sporadic, longer  sessions. Learning guitar is a day-by-day, life-long journey!

I'm brand new to guitar. Is Pickup Music the right choice for me?

Absolutely! We make learning the guitar made fun & simple – the way it should be.

Too many people get frustrated with guitar because they develop bad habits and poor technique. Avoid these costly and time-consuming mistakes by taking Pickup Music's structured and step-by-step approach to learning guitar.

You'll start with Pickup Music's introductory program Beginner Learning Pathway. Over three weeks, we break down everything from simple chords and melodies to rhythm and lead playing. By the end of the program, you'll be able to play any simple pop or rock song (and even write your own).

Most importantly, we make sure you don't get stuck in the beginner's plateau - a common pitfall for guitarists who are just starting out. You'll keep making progress through Pickup Music's guided Learning Pahtways. These programs are designed to quickly take you from a beginner player to an intermediate one who feels comfortable across the whole fretboard.

What the difference between the annual and monthly plan?

The only difference is that the annual plan saves you $30 a year.

Both options come with a free 14-day trial. That means, we won't charge your card for the first 14 days - you can cancel anytime before then.

With an annual membership, we bill you once a year up-front, and you save 17% as a result. We'll send you reminders before we bill you each year so that you don't accidentally forget about it.

With the monthly membership, you pay month to month. It's a subscription, so we bill you each month until you cancel.

Cancelling your plan at any point is very easy to do online - no tricks, emails, or phone calls required. Just click a button on your account page.

Is a Pickup Music membership worth the money?

When you first start learning guitar, it's okay to bounce around with random free lessons on YouTube and searching for TABs online. 

That approach is going to make you an OKAY guitar player, but it's not going to help you take that leap to becoming a serious guitarist - a player who can:

  • Play naturally, without thinking about every move
  • Jam with friends and learn their favorite songs quickly.
  • Blast through that beginner level, break out of the intermediate plateau, and start playing like a pro!

To become a serious guitarist, you need a clear learning pathway to get to the next level. You need to free your mind and unlock your fret board - you can do this with Pickup Music's expert step-by-step instruction. Having this clear learning pathway is  key to making real progress on the guitar.

What about the price? Is it worth it?

Private lessons will cost you about $50 per lesson or $2,600 a year. Going to a music academy will cost you about $40,000 a year.

A Pickup Music membership costs just $150 for the whole year. That works out to 41 cents a day!

Signing up for a Pickup Music membership also means that you can stop wasting your time and effort trying to guess what you should practice next. Our guided programs eliminate the guess work so you know exactly what you need to focus on each day and week to make lasting progress with guitar. This will increase your efficiency and speed up your progress.

Is it easy to cancel?

Absolutely! You can cancel at any time (although we'd be sad to see you go). Cancelling is easy, no tricks. Just go to your account page and click a button.

You won't be charged anything if you cancel during your 14-day free trial.

If you cancel after your 14-day trial, you won't be billed again at your next billing cycle. Your membership will remain active until it expires on the day it was originally set to renew.

Once your membership expires, you will no longer have access to the classes you were enrolled in during your time as a member, but you can easily restart your membership at any time. Just log in to your account and renew a monthly or annual membership to pick up where you left off.

Can I buy lessons individually?

We don’t sell lessons individually. But the good news is you get access to every single lesson on Pickup Music through the one membership. If you’re only interested in one lesson, you could purchase a monthly membership and cancel when you’ve finished it – we have a hunch you’ll want to stick around though :)

Can I cancel my membership at any time?

Yes! All you have to do is click a button on your account page. No tricks, no emails, no calls. It's a straightforward process.

You won't be billed again at your next billing cycle. Your membership will remain active and you'll continue to have access to the site until your membership expires on the day it was originally set to renew.

You can easily restart your membership at any time. Just log in to your account and renew a monthly or annual membership to pick up where you left off.

Note: Once your membership expires, we'll save your progress on your Dashboard if you decide to rejoin at a later date.

How does the 14-day free trial work? What is your refund policy?

Your credit card won't be charged for the first 14 days
When you first sign up to a Pickup Music membership, your credit card will not be charged for 14 days. That means that if you decide to cancel within 14 days of signing up, you won't pay anything.

If you decide to cancel after that, you won't be charged at your next billing cycle
That means: if you’re a monthly member, you won’t be charged for the next month. If you’re an annual member, you won’t be charged for the next year.

We don’t offer refunds for payments that have already gone through. But if you choose to cancel, you will retain full access to the membership until it expires on the day it was originally set to renew.

Will I be automatically charged each month / year?

The membership is a subscription. After the 14-day free trial, you'll be automatically charged monthly or annually (depending on which plan you choose). We send you reminders before your annual subscription renews so you don't accidentally forget about it. You can easily cancel by turning off auto-renew at any time in your account page.

How do I restart my membership?

It’s easy to rejoin Pickup Music and we’d be thrilled to have you back! We even saved all of your lessons for you while you were gone on your Dashboard.

To restart your membership, simply head to this page, select the plan of your choice, and sign up with the email address you used to sign up the first time around.

Get your 14-day free trial.

Try it out