How Intermediate Guitarists Really Make Progress (And Why So Many Feel Stuck)

If you’re an intermediate guitarist, you probably know this feeling:

You can play a bunch of things. You’ve learned scales. Chords. Licks. Maybe even some theory.

…but somehow you still feel stuck.

And the worst part is: you’re practicing. You’re putting in time. So why doesn’t it feel like you’re getting better?

Here’s the truth:

Intermediate progress becomes quiet.

Beginner progress is loud (new chords, first riffs, first songs). Intermediate progress is more like… the same stuff, but cleaner, tighter, more confident, and that’s harder to notice day to day.

So the goal of this post is simple:

• explain why intermediate players plateau

• give you a realistic system to break it

• and (big one) show how this ties directly into improvisation, if you’ve been trying to learn that too

The Intermediate Trap: You’re Collecting Pieces, Not Finishing Music

Most intermediate guitarists aren’t “not improving.”

They’re improving in fragments.

• half of a solo

• the intro to 12 songs

• 30 licks you can sort of play

• 6 scale shapes you can run up and down

• random YouTube videos that you “totally plan to revisit later”

It feels productive… but it doesn’t stack into something solid.

Because intermediate growth tends to come from one thing:

Repertoire

Not “more information.”

More completed music.

Songs you can play from start to finish.

Solos you can actually perform beginning to end.

That’s when your timing, technique, tone, and musical choices stop being “kind of there sometimes,” and start becoming reliable.

Why Repertoire Is the Shortcut (Even If You Want to Improvise)

A lot of intermediate players say:

“I want to learn to improvise, but I don’t know what to play.”

And their instinct is usually:

• learn more scales

• learn more modes

• learn more “licks”

But improvisation doesn’t really come from knowing more shapes.

It comes from absorbing phrases, rhythms, articulation, and taste from real music.

A full solo gives you:

• timing you can’t fake

• phrasing that actually flows

• how players create tension / release

• how ideas connect across bars (not just a lick here and there)

• how to “land” on chord tones without overthinking it

Repertoire is the input. Improvisation is the output. And the missing bridge for most intermediate guitarists is: extraction (more on that in a second).

Why Intermediate Guitarists Feel Stuck (5 Common Reasons)

1) You’re “practicing,” but not training

If your practice is mostly:

• noodling

• playing things you already can play

• bouncing between random lessons

• doing a little bit of everything…

…it can feel good in the moment, but it’s not targeted.

Training usually means:

• isolating the hard part

• repeating it

• making it measurable

• gradually increasing difficulty

Repertoire naturally forces you into training, because you can’t “kind of” play a solo start to finish. It either holds together… or it doesn’t.

2) You keep adding new material instead of improving the basics

This is the classic intermediate move:

“I feel stuck… so I’ll learn a new scale.”

But the thing holding you back is often:

• timing

• touch

• muting

• articulation

• consistency

• tension control

In other words: the stuff that makes your playing sound “real.”

Repertoire pushes those fundamentals to the surface fast.

3) You avoid the hard 5%

This might be the plateau-maker.

Most pieces of music are like:

• 95% manageable

• 5% annoying

And that annoying 5% is exactly where your next level is hiding.

But if you always restart, skip, or move on… you never pay the toll.

Repertoire progress usually comes from a simple mentality shift:

Loop the bar. Fix the bar. Then reconnect it to the whole.

4) Your improvisation is based on “shapes,” not phrases

If your improv feels like:

• scale runs

• constant notes

• random-sounding lines that technically “fit”…

That usually means you haven’t absorbed the language yet.

Solos are how you absorb language.

They teach you:

• rhythm first

• phrasing second

• note choice as a result (not the starting point)

5) You don’t have a scoreboard

If you can’t point to anything concrete you’ve built, it’s hard to feel progress.

“I practiced a lot” doesn’t hit the same as:

• “I can play 3 solos beginning to end.”

• “I can perform 10 tunes without stopping.”

• “I have 15 phrases I can actually use when I improvise.”

That kind of progress is hard to argue with.

The Repertoire Progress System (The Fix)

This is the system I recommend to intermediate players who want to stop spinning their wheels.

It’s simple, and it’s designed to work whether your goal is:

• better overall playing

• stronger time feel

• cleaner technique

• improvisation that doesn’t sound like scale practice

Step 1: Pick ONE solo as your “language project” (2–4 weeks)

Pick a solo you genuinely like. Motivation matters.

A good choice is:

• slightly above your comfort level

• not “impossible,” but definitely not effortless

• contains things you want in your own playing (rhythm feel, bends, funk phrasing, jazz language, etc.)

If you’re stuck, try fewer projects—just finished ones.

Step 2: Learn it from beginning to end (yes, the whole thing)

No skipping the scary part. No “I basically know it.”

Break it into chunks:

• 4 bars

• 8 bars

• one phrase at a time

And make sure you’re not just learning notes:

Learn the rhythm, articulation, slides, vibrato, muting, etc.That’s where the “this sounds like music” part lives.

Step 3: Use the Completion Ladder (so “done” means something)

This is huge for intermediate players.

Stage 1 — FunctionalYou can play through slowly without stopping.

Stage 2 — Performance-readyYou can play through near tempo with solid timing and decent cleanliness.

Stage 3 — OwnedYou can play it from memory with feel (dynamics, articulation, confidence).

A lot of players “finish” something at Stage 1 and then wonder why they don’t feel stronger.

If you want it to change your playing, you want to aim for Stage 2 (or 3 over time).

Step 4: The Improv Extraction Step (this is the secret sauce)

After you learn a section of the solo, you immediately extract:

✅ 1 phrase

Take one phrase you like and isolate it.

✅ 1 rhythm

Even if you change the notes, keep the rhythm and articulation.

✅ 1 concept

Examples:

• call-and-response

• enclosure (surrounding a chord tone)

• targeting a chord tone on beat 1

• repeating a motif and changing one note

• leaving space

Then you apply it:

• move it to a different key

• move it to a different position

• use it over a backing track for 2 minutes

This is the bridge from “I learned a solo” to “I can improvise better.”

Because you’re not just memorizing.

You’re building a usable vocabulary.

Practice Plans That Build Repertoire (and Improve Improv)

20 minutes a day

• 10 min: solo chunk (loop + connect)

• 5 min: full run attempt (slow is fine)

• 5 min: improv extraction (one phrase over a backing track)

45 minutes a day

• 20 min: solo + “hard 5%” looping

• 10 min: full run attempts + record 1 take

• 10 min: extraction (phrase → variation → different keys)

• 5 min: free improv with constraints

Bonus: Constraints that make improvisation sound musical fast

Try rotating one of these for 2 minutes:

• only 3 notes

• only 1 string

• only chord tones

• only quarter notes + rests

• call-and-response (2 bars question, 2 bars answer)

Constraints stop the “rambling” and force you into phrasing.

What to Stop Doing (Intermediate Edition)

If you’re feeling stuck, these are worth cutting back on:

• learning 10 things at 20% instead of 1 thing at 90%

• calling something “learned” because you watched a tutorial

• practicing scales with no rhythm

• avoiding recordings

• quitting a solo at 80% because the last bit is annoying

If you only change one thing, try this:

finish more music.

If You’re Still Stuck…

If you want to improvise better and feel real progress as an intermediate player, try building your playing around:

✅ one solo

✅ beginning to end

✅ extract vocabulary

✅ track completed repertoire

It’s not flashy, but it works.

And if you want help, I teach one-on-one and group lessons in Takadanobaba (Tokyo) in English or Japanese.

If you bring one solo you love (or even just a clip), we can build a plan to get it finished, and turn it into vocabulary you can actually use when you improvise.

👉 Check my availability here to book a free trial lesson!