Author Archive
The Extraordinariness of Acoustic Guitar Playing
Don’t get me wrong. I love playing the electric guitar. Rocking and grooving with a band is awesome. No doubt about it!
But the acoustic guitar possesses certain qualities that an electric guitar just can’t beat and it makes me fall in love with it over and over again.
Whenever I am sitting in my backyard wearing a T-shirt, jeans, flip flops and I am playing my acoustic guitar I feel free and relaxed.
This is where I usually end up writing a song. When I am strumming chords or songs that I love, I fall from one idea into another and then inspiration starts to set in.
The rich sound of my acoustic guitar will enhance the quality of the melodies and chord progressions I create.
Other times I’ll play some nice and easy acoustic blues tunes and enjoy the moment of whatever comes out of my fingers.
The acoustic guitar is the perfect vehicle to express your soul, inspire you and make you happy.
Enjoy the benefits of acoustic playing:
Mobility and Convenience
The acoustic guitar is an instrument with no strings attached, figuratively speaking :) You can take it easily with you wherever you are, unlike an electric guitar (amp, wires and a pedals), a heavy piano or a drum kit (a lot of hassle).
It feels great when you can just carry a guitar bag on your shoulder and you are good to go. Acoustic equals freedom. Read the rest of this entry »
Design Your Room to Improve Your Guitar Playing
photo by Marco Raaphorst
The room where you spent most of your time is of great importance to your playing.
I have noticed that when I put my electric guitar in the living room I tend to play more solos, riffs and licks.
When I put my acoustic guitar in the room I will play more fingerpicking style, blues licks or try to figure out nice chord changes.
Writing songs is something I am also more likely to do on an acoustic guitar.
Our busy “need to get things done” society has such a major impact on our lives, there might be times where your guitar doesn’t see the light of day. When your guitar is not right in front of you in those busy times, it is possible that it doesn’t occur to you to play at all.
A great way to change this awful situation is to design the room you play in. Your room must breath music, inspire you and make you want to pick up that guitar every time you are there.
Here are 5 keys to make this thing work: Read the rest of this entry »
10 Ways to Play the Most Beautiful Open Chord Shapes
photo by Made Underground
A great way to make your chord progressions and songs sound awesome is to use open chord shapes.
I always love to use these chords to add some flavor to my chord progressions. One of my favorite chords is Fsus2.
That chord has got the whole package for me. It’s sounds beautiful, gentle, tight, cool and rough at the same time.
When you move an open chord up the neck the name of the chord changes and the chord gets extended with 1 or 2 notes. This way you can get beautiful sounds.
While you can play barre chords at every fret on the fingerboard, open chords can only be played at certain frets. If you play them at the right frets they sound amazing, if you don’t… well they just sound terrible. So be careful.
Because of all the extended chord names I didn’t bother to name every single one of them. That’s not the point here.
It’s all about incorporating these chords into your songs and chord progressions, putting your creativity to the test, experimenting with all the possibilities, replacing some basic chords for these extraordinary ones, learning to hear what sounds right and what feels good.
Learn these chords and put them into practice.
Enjoy! Read the rest of this entry »
8 Basic Principles to Become a Better Guitar Player
photo by Yuri Samoilov
I had the pleasure of learning to play guitar at a young age. The good old days when I had all the time in the world to practice and play. Lack of time was not an issue back then.
As I became an adult, I fell into the booby trap of our time consuming society. I went along with this rollercoaster ride for quite some time, getting things done and following the mass.
It was getting more and more difficult to find time to practice, write songs or work on any other aspect of guitar playing.
When I started to read books and blogs about efficiency, life strategies and zen buddhism I became aware of the fact that I could choose how I wanted to live, how I wanted to perceive, feel or act.
I realized I had to change my lifestyle if I wanted to fulfill my goals and pursue my passion.
A couple of years ago I found a way again to practice, play, write and do a lot of other great things on a daily basis. It feels great to improve.
I know my way around the guitar but it still feels great to practice and learn new things. It’s something I will never stop doing, just because I love doing it.
In order to become a better guitar player you need some basic principles to keep you motivated, inspired and playing at all times.
Here are the 8 basic principles that will make you a better guitar player: Read the rest of this entry »
The 5 Pentatonic Scale Shapes You Must Know
In order to learn how to solo and improvise in blues and rock you must know the 5 pentatonic scale shapes. A lot of blues players tend to get stuck in the first pentatonic scale shape, but to be truly free and improvise across the entire fretboard you need to know all the shapes.
And it’s not just about that. Every shape gives it’s own sound and feeling to a guitar lick. This is where the magic happens. This is where the coolness and the beauty comes through all these different shapes. They all got their own personality.
Learn all the shapes thoroughly and when you do also learn them in different keys. It is a lot of work, but it is important that you do, so take your time with it. Practice with focus and dedication.
The examples below are all in the key of A, but you can play these shapes in every key, just move the shapes up and down the neck. The red notes are showing the root notes of the scale, so in the scale shapes below they are all A notes.
If you want to play the shapes in the key of G for example, all you need to do is move them 2 half steps down. (a half step is a one fret distance) If you want to play the shapes in the key of E move up 7 half steps, etc, etc.
Good luck and enjoy!
PENTATONIC SCALE SHAPE #1: Read the rest of this entry »
How to Make a Minimalist Recording and Setup
photo by Dan Taylor
What a great joy it is these days to be a musician or a songwriter. Big studios are no more a necessity to record your music.
Better yet, you don’t even need a home studio anymore. All you need is a laptop (with proper software), an interface, a guitar, a mic and you are ready to roll. High quality recordings at your fingertips.
Mobile and minimalist.
Now you can pack your whole studio in and onto your guitar bag. You can put your guitar and mic in the bag and your notebook and interface in the front pockets of your guitar bag. Yes you do need a solid bag with multiple pockets. Composing, recording, editing and mixing your music everywhere you go. It almost sounds like an ad, but it is just to demonstrate how mobile and minimalist you can be as a musician. That is true freedom.
The minimalist musician / songwriter
We are musicians so we do need an instrument to play with and equipment to record our music, but we are aiming for the minimalist approach here as much as possible. Read the rest of this entry »
