# What guitar grade would I be?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-guitar-grade-would-i-be/735404>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [October 21, 2015, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-guitar-grade-would-i-be/735404 "2015-10-21T21:27:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Memnon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Memnon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Memnon)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-guitar-grade-would-i-be/735404/1 "2015-10-21T21:27:51Z")

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I’ve been teaching myself the guitar for the last few years and, although I’ve never actually taken a proper lesson, I like to think that I’ve gotten quite good. I’m just curious how good I’d be considered to be by proper guitarists so I’m trying to quantify my skill level. I use a semi-acoustic and I can play the following pieces:

1. [Ocean](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doXEx8XwM7E) and [Under an Indian Sky](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdWJrjpiRiw) by John Butler.

2. [Drifting](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddn4MGaS3N4) by Andy McKee (Admittedly, I can’t _quite_ play this one perfectly yet. I always make one or two little mistakes).

3. [Classical Gas](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHje3Fh4GJo) by Mason Williams (Note: This isn’t me playing, it’s just the closest pure guitar version I could find to what I actually play.)

4. [Bron Yr Aur](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YZ_lIpG1XQ) by Led Zeppelin.

That’s pretty much all I know. I have a very limited repertoire because I only rarely hear songs that grab me enough to bother with.

To give you a vague idea of my limits, here’s a couple of songs I’ve given up on because they were just too difficult for me:

1. [Cavatina](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_8d0DJpbBI) by Stanley Myers (_so_ much harder than it sounds!)

2. [url=[John Dowland: Frog Galliard - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V416osL2Y2c)  
The Frog Galliard by John Dowland.

Given this (admittedly limited information) could any proper guitarists give me a vague idea of roughly what grade I would be at? I’m just really curious. Cheers.

P.S. - I’m not sure if this matters but I can’t read music and I generally use tabs, but I do have a pretty good ear.

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**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2015, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-guitar-grade-would-i-be/735404/2 "2015-10-22T02:37:34Z")

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Seems like you’re a solid player. If you can sell Drifting’s poppy-slappy stuff, the alt-tuned fingerpicky stuff of Jimmy Page, you’re doing fine.

What exactly are you wanting to understand? You could easily gig out or strut your stuff at open mic if you can play that type of material; book a couple and see how it goes.