Hey! We’re Ben & Mike, the creators behind Intermediate Guitar.
There’s an old saying in the guitar world.. Beginners think they’re intermediates. Intermediates think they’re advanced. And advanced players know they’re beginners.
That saying is basically the whole idea behind this space and why we created Intermediate Guitar.
Intermediate Guitar is a community for guitar players at every level to hang out, ask questions, share what they’re working on, and find their next door together.
We don’t do any gatekeeping or judgment in this space, so if that’s what you’re into.. you won’t find it here. Just guitar players helping each other connect the dots.
You’ll hear from two of us around here:
Ben’s Story
Hey, I’m Ben, I’m the guitar teacher.
I was 13 when my dad took me to see Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple, and Joe Satriani.
I’d been playing guitar off and on, but nothing serious. Really I was just a kid messing around.
Then Joe walked out on stage and head exploded 🤯
I went home that night, picked up my guitar, and didn’t put it down for 25 years.
A few weeks later, dad took me to Guitar Center and said I could pick one book. I scanned the wall, found a familiar face, and grabbed a Jimi Hendrix tab book.
I took it home and got to work. I learned bits and pieces of songs, tore the scale shapes out of the index, and pinned them to my wall. That was my “system” 😂
Fast forward to college, and I signed up for the first guitar class I could find. On the first day, I walked in and realized pretty quickly I already knew everything they were teaching.
So I started tutoring my classmates on the side. That made enough money for sandwiches, so life was good. 🥪
Then I signed up for the advanced class.
I walked in with the same confidence.. and walked out pretty damn humbled.
That was my first introduction to modes. The professor was old school. He handed us the information and made us figure it out. He didn’t give us any context, connections.. He literally just theory-dumped on us and went home.
Let’s just say I got my ass kicked.
But I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Because for the first time, I was seeing the guitar completely differently. Shapes and patterns I didn’t know existed. Everything I thought I knew suddenly looked different.
It took me years to realize the truth. It was never that hard. Most of the time, it’s just not taught in an approachable way.
After college I kept playing and kept teaching: music schools, bands, other guitarists in other bands. I moved states and did it all over again somewhere new.
And somewhere in there, I figured something out.
No two guitar players are the same. Everyone shows up with different music, different influences, different reasons for picking the thing up in the first place. But we all want the same thing. And that’s to get the sounds in our heads out into the world.
The more you know, the more you can do that. And the more people you can play with.
Whatever level you’re at, wherever you are in your journey, there’s always a next door to open.
I’ve been playing for 25 years and I’m STILL finding new doors. That’s exactly why we built this.
So WELCOME! I’m happy to have ya here.
Mike’s Story
Hey I’m Mike! I’m the guy who played guitar for 20 years without really knowing how to play guitar.
I’ve played hundreds of live shows. I knew every chord to every song I’d ever played. But I only knew the open chord version of everything. Ask me to find that same chord somewhere else on the neck and I had no idea.
I told people I was a rhythm guitar player because it meant they wouldn’t expect much from me.
I was afraid to jam with others; ultimately, I was afraid to play with musicians who knew more than me. So I’d show up, play my songs, and get off the stage before anyone figured out I was winging it.
One night we were playing a show and a saxophone player from the headlining band jumped up to jam with us, and he wanted to go. Like really go..
I played through my four chords and said thank you 😂
That was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life, and nobody in the crowd even knew.
Then one day Ben said, “have you ever looked into modes?”
I didn’t even know what modes were.
Two lessons later, my guitar life was forever changed, and I don’t say that lightly. I could see the fretboard in my mind.. shapes, patterns, and connections I never knew existed. My fingers couldn’t even catch up to where my brain was going.
I called Ben and said thank you. Then I cried. Three times, actually 😂
It didn’t just change my playing, it changed me. I stopped trying to prove I was a musician and just became one.
But the craziest part was I didn’t learn anything new. I just finally connected the dots between what I already knew.
So that’s what we hope to help you do, too!