What are the criteria to be able to call yourself an Intermediate Acoustic Rhythm Guitarist

Well, I’m no longer a ā€˜beginner’ :thinking:
… and I will never be ā€˜advanced’ :roll_eyes:
So that puts me in that great big messy mass of ā€˜inter-’ …. No! I am not a number! I am a free man! Don’t label me, buddy! :face_with_monocle:

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Just a quick note to say I am a bit overwhelmed by the quality and length of the responses and will get around to replying to you all.

Just a couple of points

Based on my own criteria if I am honest I don’t tick all of the boxes.

Justin has a Grading system so it is reasonable to judge yourself against those if you are so inclined but appreciate many others will have different criteria.

Michael

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Michael, I am happy you asked this question and made the list. I suspect most of us who are still honestly at some level of beginning think about this. I do understand most of the more philosophical comments, and find @jkahn’s analysis helpful (except that as a beginner I do find your list helpful!). Still they don’t address (for me) the situation where I want to do self-assessment before making a decision, say, about joining a class or a community group. We understand that it’s good to play with those who are better than we are, but that has limits.

A personal example: When I started Grade 2, I attended several sessions of a country-style jam at a local grange hall. They stated loudly and clearly that beginners are welcome. And welcome I was! However: I did not have the skills to even participate. Granted part of this is due to the structure of the particular jam, but most of it was me not knowing what I didn’t know. I felt useless, wasn’t learning anything because I could barely participate, and after three times I never returned. It just wasn’t worth the time investment. The interesting thing is that 18 months later, I’m still not sure I could keep up at a beginner level, though I do consider giving it another try! Of course, I’ve got other things going on now… :smiling_face:

Yes that’s one of the many problems with labels, when it’s not something that has an objective measure that is universally agreed upon then they’re of little use. And trying to get broad agreement on something that is hugely subjective (like guitar playing) is never going to happen. It’s much more useful to have an accurate description of what skills are actually required for a given situation than trying to do it via a very arbitrary skill level

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