All 14 plans
Every plan has a goal, one concept per session, a mid-point checkpoint and a short final exam. Sessions are 5, 10 or 15 minutes, you choose. The plans are inside the Noodle iPhone app.
Beginner
First Chords in 4 Weeks
Hold your first open chords, change between them, and hear the difference between major and minor.
Goal By the end you can play Em, Am, D, G and a steady strum through simple changes, and tell major from minor by ear.
Chords, Ear training, Repertoire, Rhythm, Technique
Fretboard Fluency in 6 Weeks
Learn where the notes live, string by string, and use octaves and intervals to find your way.
Goal By the end you can name the natural notes on every string in open position and find the same note in several places.
Ear training, Intervals, Note names, Octaves
Rhythm You Can Trust in 6 Weeks
Build a steady beat, strum with confidence, and feel notes on and off the beat.
Goal By the end you can keep time against a click, strum in eighth notes, and place notes on the backbeat and off the beat.
Chords, Ear training, Rhythm, Technique
Ear Training Foundations in 6 Weeks
Learn to hear direction, size and character: the building blocks of playing what you hear.
Goal By the end you can hear whether a melody goes up or down, tell several intervals apart, and hear major from minor.
Ear training, Intervals, Note names
Play Your First Solo in 8 Weeks
Learn the minor pentatonic box and use it to make short, musical phrases over a backing track.
Goal By the end you can play a short, shaped solo over a backing track using the minor pentatonic scale.
Chords, Ear training, Improvisation, Intervals, Rhythm, Scales, Technique
Developing
Theory That Sounds Like Music in 8 Weeks
Learn intervals, scales and chords by hearing and playing them, not just by naming them.
Goal By the end you can hear and name common intervals and chord types and see how scales and chords fit together.
Chords, Ear training, Intervals, Scales
Blues, Folk and Rock Styles in 8 Weeks
Try three classic styles and learn the feel, chords and techniques that make each one sound right.
Goal By the end you can play a shuffle, a folk fingerstyle pattern and a rock riff, and get through a 12-bar blues.
Chords, Ear training, Improvisation, Repertoire, Rhythm, Scales, Styles, Technique
Intermediate
Intermediate Breakthrough: Modes, Voicings and Phrasing in 10 Weeks
Hear and play the modes, move to barre and shell voicings, and shape your lines with more intent.
Goal By the end you can hear the common modes, play barre and shell chords in a ii-V-I, and build phrases with sequences and expression.
Chords, Ear training, Improvisation, Scales, Styles, Technique
Advanced
Jazz Harmony for Guitarists: Voicings, Altered Dominants and ii-V-I in 8 Weeks
Move from shells to drop-2 and rootless voicings, colour the dominant, and hear how ii-V-I works by ear.
Goal By the end you can play a ii-V-I with drop-2 or rootless voicings, use altered dominants and a tritone substitution, and recognise these sounds by ear.
Chords, Ear training, Improvisation, Scales, Styles
Fast, Clean and Efficient: Advanced Technique in 7 Weeks
Economy and sweep picking, hybrid picking, legato, bends, harmonics and muting, one habit at a time.
Goal By the end you can play clean, even lines with economy and sweep picking, use hybrid picking and legato, shape a bend, and keep unwanted strings quiet.
Intervals, Octaves, Rhythm, Scales, Technique
Advanced Rhythm: Polyrhythm, Odd Time and Feel in 8 Weeks
Count and play odd meters, cross-rhythms, clave and swing, then use ghost notes and space to shape the feel.
Goal By the end you can play in 5/4, 7/8 and 9/8, hold three against two and four against three, hear a clave and a hemiola, and choose how hard to swing.
Improvisation, Rhythm, Styles
Soloing Beyond the Pentatonic: Modes, Chord Tones and Motifs in 8 Weeks
Hear and use melodic minor and the modes, target chord tones, decorate them with approach notes and build solos from motifs.
Goal By the end you can choose a scale for a chord, aim your lines at chord tones with approach notes, and build a solo from one motif.
Ear training, Improvisation, Scales
Play by Ear and Transcribe: Chords, Licks and Memory in 8 Weeks
Hear chord function, tensions and key changes, pull a melody and a lick off a recording, and keep tunes in your hands.
Goal By the end you can write a progression down from the bass, transcribe a melody and a short phrase by ear, and learn a tune from memory.
Chords, Ear training, Intervals, Repertoire, Scales
Fingerstyle and Styles Masterclass: Atkins, Flamenco, Bluegrass and Funk in 7 Weeks
Travis and Atkins picking, alternate tunings, flamenco compas, bluegrass, neo-soul and funk, one style at a time.
Goal By the end you can play a Travis pattern, hold a melody over a muted thumb bass, keep a flamenco twelve-count, and play a groove in several styles.
Chords, Rhythm, Styles, Technique