You can play barre chords, navigate the CAGED system, fingerpick Travis-style with embellishments, retune to Drop D and DADGAD, and arrange songs from chord sheets. That's intermediate. Most players never get here.
What changes at advanced
There's no clean line between intermediate and advanced. There's only "playing things you couldn't play yesterday." Some directions:
Fingerstyle: Tommy Emmanuel, Sungha Jung, Andy McKee. The arrangements are dense (bass + chords + melody + percussion all on one guitar). Each tune takes weeks. Worth it.
Solo improv: improvising melody over chord changes. This is where the pentatonic and modal scales (Mixolydian, Dorian) become essential. The Electric Intermediate track introduces these for electric; they work just as well on acoustic.
Hybrid picking: pick in the thumb position, fingers free for plucking individual strings. Pioneered in country, used in pop and rock now too. Powerful for fast riffs that have both bass notes and ringing top notes.
Songwriting: now that you know diatonic theory, write a song. Verse + chorus + bridge. Pick a chord progression. Hum a melody. Iterate. Bad songs are how you learn to write good songs.
Different genres:
- Bluegrass: cross-picking, alternating bass, fast tempos
- Blues: bending strings, slide guitar, the 12-bar
- Jazz: extended chords (7th, 9th, 13th), comping rhythms
- World: open tunings, drone-based modal music
Three habits, still
Read the full guide
A longer write-up with every detail, drill, and common pitfall.
The three habits from the end of Beginner still apply:
- Tune every session
- Practice slow before fast
- Record yourself weekly
Add a fourth: learn from people better than you. YouTube has free masterclasses from Tommy Emmanuel, Justin Sandercoe, Sungha Jung, Jake Edwards. Watch their hands. Slow the video to 0.5x. Steal what you can.
The metronome will be your friend forever
If a passage falls apart at 100 BPM, drop to 70. Get it clean. Bump to 75. Get it clean. Bump to 80. The 30 BPM ramp takes weeks but the playing sticks for life.
You did it
The thing that separates intermediate from beginner: you can hear what good playing sounds like. The thing that separates advanced from intermediate: you can hear what your own playing needs to fix, and you have the patience to fix it.
Welcome to the next stage.