---
title: 'How to Actually Get Better at Guitar'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=bIZlfF8H5go'
video_id: 'bIZlfF8H5go'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 954
---

# How to Actually Get Better at Guitar

> Source: [How to Actually Get Better at Guitar](https://youtube.com/watch?v=bIZlfF8H5go)

## Summary

The video presents a humorous yet insightful argument that the single most important practice for guitarists of all levels is to memorize everything they learn—songs, scales, chords, and progressions. The creator, Uncle Stewart, breaks down five key reasons why this approach leads to real improvement, from expanding repertoire to building intuitive music theory knowledge.

### Key Points

- **Expand Your Repertoire** [5:08] — Memorizing songs increases the number of pieces you can play anytime, anywhere, and makes learning new material easier over time.
- **Build Confidence** [7:16] — Playing from memory makes you feel more competent and look more professional, as you're not relying on tabs or lyrics.
- **Actually Learn, Not Fake It** [8:36] — Forcing yourself to memorize every part of a song ensures you face and work through difficult transitions instead of skipping them.
- **Ear Training** [9:51] — When you play from memory, you listen more closely to the sounds you produce, which trains your ear to anticipate notes and recognize intervals.
- **Learn Music Theory Intuitively** [13:00] — Memorizing many songs helps you naturally recognize chord progressions, note relationships, and common patterns without needing formal theory.

### Conclusion

The core takeaway is that memorization is the foundational habit that accelerates every other aspect of guitar playing, from confidence to ear training and music theory. By committing songs and patterns to memory, you transform passive knowledge into an active, usable skill set.

## Transcript

I just don't know how to start these
videos If I'm doing a song tutorial then
I just play the song and then I yell the
name of the song and I say featuring and
then I say something stupid but if I'm
doing one of these like seven tips for
how to solo for non- guitarists or
whatever I I just don't once I get the
balls rolling we'll be fine but at the
current moment in time zero balls are
rolling and I find myself at a loss
people of the world friends and
relatives welcome I do kind of need to
blow my nose should we do an on camera
nose
blow so here's what's really
embarrassing uh well one I just tucked
the used Kleenex into my sock so that
was a strange choice but uh embarrassing
thing number two is that if you notice I
just had the Kleenex right here ready to
go
and okay guys I'm going to make
a very strange
confession I planned that beforehand
before I hit record I was like do you
know what I should do I should blow my
nose on camera that was actually a thing
that I decided was a good idea and then
we'll call the video how to actually get
better at
Guitar whoa that was new is that going
to be a regular thing or what where'd
that come from people of the world
French and relatives my name is St
Alexander lay brown you are here for one
of a few reasons one of those reasons is
probably you've been playing guitar for
a while but you're you're just like but
what do I I don't know what to practice
how do I actually get better I listen to
bands I love and the guitarists are
incredible and they write these great
songs they play these Wicked fire
solos uh I look online and there are
people
going and it sounds so good Midwest emo
that's a term that I learned um there's
a yellow
pad h ah I don't want to do this anymore
I was so excited I was feeling good and
then you bummed me out cuz you kept
watching me basically you are motivated
you are disciplined all of the right
things that a successful guitarist and
musician needs yet you find yourself
plateauing you find yourself not
progressing the way you want because
what am I supposed to do am I supposed
to practice scales people say to
practice
scales but so I practiced a couple
scales and it just was boring and it
kind of felt like a waste of my time I
don't understand what's happening also
like I just Uncle Stewart I just don't
know what to do like I can play the
basic chords I'm even I can even do bar
chords and it's okay like I'm I'm not
great at them but I'm okay at them like
I understand but like what do I do when
I want I actually want to like play with
other people or I want to write my own
songs or I I want to like be a guitarist
and I don't I don't feel like that's
happening what do I do so hang on okay
wait so obviously there there are a
bajillion different things you could
practice like if you want to be a jazz
guitarist you do probably want to
practice a bunch of scales and licks and
stuff like that if you want to play
metal then you you have to like be able
to play fast and do all of that stuff
that I've never really cared about there
are a plethora of different directions
you could go and probably each
individual one of you has different like
specific things it would be great for
you to practice what I'm going to share
with you today is what I believe is the
most important thing that all of you
should be working on I put should in
quotes because I think should is a
terrible
word that was the worst thing I've ever
done on this channel so in my opinion
this is the
only tip that applies to everyone that
whether you're a beginner or
intermediate or Advanced this is a
helpful thing that you would benefit
from if you made it a regular part of
your whole guitar playing routine and
this is what it
is
memorize
everything memorize songs memorize
scales memorize whatever stuff you're
working
on memorize it and you're like Uncle
Stewart I was really hoping you were
going to say something that I was going
to make me go like that's such a good
idea but you said memorize everything
and I'm like I already kind of memorize
everything that's what do you mean
that's not really
helpful yes I understand I have
comprised a list I've curated a list of
five reasons why memorizing everything
is helpful and beneficial and also what
I mean by memorize everything so let's
just dive right into the list reason
number one why it is helpful to memorize
everything is the most obvious one
because it is going to expand your
repertoire the more songs you memorize
the more songs you'll be able to play
the more scales you memorize the more
scales you'll be able to play for
whatever reason you might want to do
that the more chords you memorize the
more chord progressions you
memorize if you have it
memorized then that means you know it
and you can play it in any situation so
that's very broad very general but
that's just the basic thing if you
memorize a bunch of songs you can play a
bunch of songs that is helpful now hang
on because I wrote something else
down oh this is very important along
with EXP exping your repertoire of what
you know if you memorize everything that
you learn it also makes it so much
easier to learn new things so if you
here's what I mean if you play a bunch
of songs but you're just reading the
chords and lyrics off of your phone
that's great I hope you're having a good
time doing it but you're not really
learning that song and you're not really
getting better at learning new songs
instead when you learn a new song if you
maybe look at the chords or the tab for
a little bit and then you put that away
and force yourself to play it all from
memory not only will you keep that song
with you all through the year you will
also get better at learning songs
learning scales learning cords as time
flies and you can tell if I'm not
confident in what I'm saying I do bigger
hand gestures to summarize tip number
one the more songs you memorize the more
songs you know and the better you get at
learning new songs in the future tip
number
two memorizing things gives you more
confidence in your ability to play it if
you read things off the page read things
off your phone whatever you are not
going to feel like it's actually a part
of your skill set you're going to feel
like it's just something that you're
playing in the moment but if you
memorize everything and you know that
you can play it at any time any
place it's it is going to make you a
more confident guitar player which makes
you more competent that's what I always
say more compet more uh more confidence
more compet
impotence con the more that you memorize
the
more to piggyback onto that if you have
to read stuff off of the your phone or
whatever when you're
playing you C you kind of look like a
dork when you're doing that it kind of
makes it seem like you don't know what
you're doing and I don't mean that like
I'm not trying to judge you for doing it
I just think you're going to look and
feel a lot cooler if you're able to do
it all from memory tip number
three when you memorize
everything you're actually learning it
and not faking it again if you have the
chords or the tab in front of you and
you're sitting there reading playing it
you can kind of like skim through the
parts that you don't know that well the
transition from the verse into the
precour or or the bridge back into the
chorus you kind of go like um I'm not
sure let me jump ahead to this part and
you start playing somewhere else if you
really force yourself to memorize every
song you play it forces you to learn
every part of the song now you still
might not be able to play every single
part of the song
Perfectly but you at the bare minimum
have to face each part of the song and
know how to get through it one way or
another and
by you yeah okay I don't need to keep
and then by doing that you do this and
then by doing that you do this and you
don't need to do this but if you do that
then you'll always do this memorize
everything moving on tip number four now
we're getting to the good ones the first
three were stupid those were just to
take up space in this video tip number
four and five are the good ones tip
number
four ear training when you play from
memory so you're not staring at the page
or staring at your phone while you play
you're listening more when you force
yourself to play everything again songs
scales licks cords everything from
memory you cannot help but listen to
what you're playing and you're I know I
know every single person out there is
going what kind of idiot is this of
course I listen when I'm playing
yeah but the truth is you might not be
listening all that closely have you ever
been playing a song you're reading the
tab off the page and you're like like
all right is this
two okay and then you move on with the
song cuz you're like I don't know it
sounded terrible sounded nothing like
the song but I don't know I just I'm
just reading the tab what am I supposed
to do and you just move on with the rest
of the song we've all we've all done
that you play some chord doesn't sound
right but you're like that's what it
says so you just keep going when you're
playing things from memory it's going to
be way harder to do that because you you
have nothing else to look at you have
nothing else to do other than pay
attention to your fingers and the sounds
so you will end up listening more and
more closely to what you're playing you
will then start to anticipate what the
notes and chords are going to sound like
before you play them once you start
anticipating what it's going to sound
like before you play it you're going to
start knowing what notes sound like that
are like way you're just going to start
getting a feel for like oh well yeah if
I play the first fret and then the third
fret it sounds like this and if I play
this note and this note at the same time
it sounds like this without putting in
like hours consciously studying ear
training if you memorize everything you
are automatically going to train your
ears to hear how the different notes
interact how the different chords
interact you're going to start to be
able to figure out songs just by ear
you're going to hear a song and then go
well that sounds like it goes like from
this and then maybe like yeah then to
this and it sounds to me like it goes
right back to this because I was playing
that other song that did something
similar oh and then the next part it
does this then it goes to this cuz I
recognize that a minor 7 sound and then
it sounds like it goes back to G but I
sound like it feels like there's
something different it goes to oh it
feels like it goes to a goes to a g sus
chord you you will start to hear all
those little changes just because
instead of focusing on following
instructions as you play you're going to
focus on what it actually sounds like
and what your fingers are actually doing
actually is the word of the day
apparently because I've said it so many
times there's one more
tip do you think it's going to meet your
expectations or do you think it's going
to be a
disappointment I think it's barely going
to meet your
expectations reason number five why you
should memorize everything if you want
to get better at
Guitar is because if you memorize
everything you will start to
automatically learn music theory music
theory is one of those things that's on
everybody's list man I really should
learn some music theory well no some
people are like music theories for nerds
and I'm not that kind of nerd I'm the
Elden ring kind of nerd not the like
music theory kind of nerd and that's
fair I understand but here's the thing
you don't need to know like well well
the G Major scale is I mean you could
think of it as a G Major scale but
because it has a sharp 11 it's actually
the fourth mode of the D major scale
like you don't need to think about that
sort of thing to use music theory to
your advantage here's what I'm talking I
know I'm just rambling we're at the end
of the video the only people who are
still watching are the people who are
just like I like this guy he seems kind
of dumb if you memorize a bunch of songs
you will start to recognize different
chord progressions and then you'll
you'll start to recognize how those
different chord progressions fit
together and you'll notice What notes go
along with certain chords and you'll
notice oh well this songwriter really
likes to sing an a note when he's
playing a B minor chord I wonder if
those go together and you don't even
necessarily think a note and B minor you
think when he's playing this chord he
sings that note I'm getting used to that
so that must be a note that fits with
that chord and and then you start to go
oh actually this whole scale fits with
these chords oh and and all these bands
really like using these notes and
they're all kind of like right next to
each other here you start to just pick
up on all these little musical Theory
musical Theory no one's ever said that
ever in the history of time all these
little music theory tidbits and you
won't have names for them because you
will just be discovering them on your
own but music theory is just as useful
when you don't know all the terms and
all the formulas I don't know are there
formulas in music theory kind of yeah
there
are by memorizing
songs I personally believe you learn the
most crucial elements of Music Theory
the
intuitive things that like sound good to
you will start to make more and more
sense and then down the line if you
decide to learn the terminology and
stuff that's great it will be easier
because you already will have the
familiarity with how it
sounds and then you can write songs and
you can become the world's greatest
magician musician in the planet of the
Earth would you please be a pal and
forgive me for I don't know the sins of
the past or whatever this video is
really fun I'm really glad we did it
thanks