I had much enthusiasm about trying thicker strings on my strat (this one to be specific http://www.guitarcenter.com/Fender-Delux...609-i1147157.gc ). I ultimately went back to 9-42s because I found 4 packs for $15 and I honestly didn't notice a difference between 9-42 and 10-46s (still have 3 packs of 10-46s with no D strings). When I tried to go any thicker, the grooves in the nut proved to be too small, making the open strings not in tune with the notes going up the neck.

After looking for nut files online, I determined I was just wasting time, and would stick with the string gauges already used by thousands of incredibly good players around the world rather than focus on one story about how SRV would use 13s and superglue his finger tips so they wouldn't bleed or whatever nonsense it was that inspired me to try to change up the string thickness in the first place.

I'm a little confused on if you are asking about potential, or just fishing for inspiration to keep playing.

The way I see it, with enough time, anyone (minus a few select imbeciles) can do anything, but no one can do everything. Annoying things like food, shelter, health, and sanity end up being far more limiting than how naturally fast your fingers twitched before you held a guitar. If there's something you're not accounting for, it's how much easier that is to say than it is to execute. It takes a tremendous amount of effort to even suck at playing, and you're in deep trouble if you don't plan to get any joy out of it until you hit world class status. When you've practiced ~50 hours a week for ~2 years and don't seem to be getting any better, then I would start to worry about not having the potential to progress.

Since I don't think that's really what you wanted, I suggest noodling around on a hot tube amp near max volume for awhile, always lifts my spirits :)

Also, I would hope that listening to the music of the players which you wish to someday play like makes you want to practice. How can you have doubts after listening to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9mgW5v0yMU or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ7W1NJkQvU ? Perhaps looking up some blues that doesn't require ultimate technique, but still leaves you going "man, that's awesome!" would be beneficial? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF5YW57oLKY

And finally, this guitar = isolation thing you have going on... many play music with people, for people. If you could make a friend who plays the drums/bass, or convince an existing one to try to learn to, even if you only get together once a month, I'd imagine you would like this much more than exiling yourself to the woodshed.

Are you talking about this page?

http://pbguitarstudio.com/pdf_files/GUIT...le%20System.pdf

If you play the major scale with the position 1 pattern from that sheet, starting with the circled 1 on G, you will be playing G major. If you do not shift that position AT ALL, you could also say you are playing in E minor, in which case the scale would be starting from the number 6.

The minor pattern down lower on the page is the shape that you would use if you kept your starting note in the same spot and wanted to play in G minor. Moving the whole first shape to start on E would have you playing in E major.

http://pbguitarstudio.com/pdf_files/GUIT...system_mod3.pdf Shows all of the notes in both G major and E minor.



If you already knew all that, and there is just some sort of translation issue, my guess would be that you do not understand the purpose of the position systems. The positions are intended to teach your mind, ears, and hands to be comfortable playing the scales up and down the neck, regardless of where your hand is located.

They do not define the notes of the scale. You could add new patterns with some dramatic slides and call it a 17 position system if you so desired. You should never avoid hitting a note you want to hear because "it's not in the position" you are playing in.

I had some questions about online lessons as well. I was wondering...

Is it lifetime access to all of the hidden videos if you buy just one lesson?

Is there an approximate number of how many people take them at a given time? Just curious, 30 total is a different situation than 3,000.

And is there a suggested level of not-sucking that one should achieve before offering money to get help beyond the free videos?

I think you missed two things.

One is that module 1 is exclusively about improving your picking. He is still showing you the same(ish) exercise of picking on adjacent strings, just suggesting some different scales and notes you can play to preserve your sanity while you learn to mechanically pick the same 6 strings for hours/years. There was no intention of teaching you the actual scales.

You also missed and would probably enjoy... the video I can't find that was all about using pentatonic scales to work on your picking. It focused on E minor pentatonic though, http://www.pbguitarstudio.com/pdf_files/...tring_Pairs.pdf - he was applying the same concept to A minor in the video you watched.

It can be very helpful to actually print the lesson sheets, get a binder going with some dividers to sort them by module, and then add in whatever else you feel would help you understand them better, songs you would like to play, etc.

The great Pebber Brown custom-made a video for you and uploaded it in September of 2007. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilJ6Ckj0Ciw&feature=relmfu

You can find a lot more if you search through his uploads on his youtube channel ( http://www.youtube.com/user/pebberbrown ). I would suggest looking up some of his right and left hand technique basics if you haven't, it is very applicable to practicing scales in a productive way.

As for your specific questions...

- F# is the 7th scale degree of G major. Keeping things free of any complex musical concepts that I won't pretend to understand, playing any note in the scale is fair game while in the scale. For the sake of practice, you may not want to start with the F# so you can more clearly "hear" the G major sound, as Pebber explains in the video.

- The G major scale officially starts with G and ends with G. You can cycle through G A B C D E F# G in as many octaves from as low as your instrument allows to as high as it allows and still be in the key of G major (that includes the open low E string, the lowest F#, etc).

- If you mean the same scale, literally just keep playing the same notes in a higher or lower octave/pitch/position/choose your word. If you mean different scales in a musical setting... learn a major scale first.

- G is generally the guitar standard to start with. All of the open strings are contained in the key of G major, and is the relative major of E minor (nice to have the scale tonic on both the lowest and highest open strings). C major isn't terrible, all the open strings are also contained in the key, and has the relative minor of A, both of which contain no sharps or flats. Just go with G though.

As some general advice, if you crave understanding of the things you're working on, head to a library, book store, whatever, and find the most BASIC music theory book you can. There are a lot of great, free learning resources out there, which you can not benefit from without a certain baseline of knowledge. Phrases like "major third" and "aeolian mode" can halt any sense of learning from any source if you just legitimately do not know what they mean.