I just love figuring out different ways to play a jazz chord progression or just mixing up jazz chords with other styles of music.

It can add nice flavors to a song and give it some extra magic. It’s really fun to experiment with that.

Learning jazz expands your guitar vocabulary to a whole new level if you are ready for it.

In the meantime it’s just fun to play some beautiful jazz chord progressions and it will certainly contribute to your playing skills and creativity as well.

There are also more advanced II-V-I’s than the ones I show here but these are really nice to start out with and get your feet in the dirt. It can be a little bit overwhelming if you learn to play jazz chords and progressions for the first time, but after a few runs you’ll get the hang of it. You’ll be amazed!

The II-V-I is one of the most used chord progressions in jazz standards, so it is an important progression for jazz players to learn. The II-V-I are roman numerals for 2-5-1 and so the chords are built of the second, fifth and first degree of the major scale. The II is from the minor chord family, the V is from the dominant 7 chord family and the I is from the major chord family.

Check out these 5 beauties and memorize each one by heart.
Don’t forget to take a break if you need it. A nice cappuccino will do the job.

For an explanation of how the read the chords below check out 10 Ways to Play the Most Beautiful Open Chord Shapes

Enjoy and have fun!

/ Em9 / A13 / Dmaj9 / Dmaj9 /

Em9 = x7577x
A13 = 5x567x
Dmaj9 = x5465x

/ Am7 / D7#9 / G6 / G6 /

Am7 = 5x555x
D7#9 = x5456x
G6 = 3x243x

/ Bm9 / E13 / Amaj7 / Amaj7 /

Bm9 = 7×7779
E13 = x7x799
Amaj7 = 5x665x

Cappuccino or tea break with some nice biscuits!

/ Em9 / A7#5 / Dmaj9 / Dmaj9 /

Em9 = xx5432
A7#5 = 5x566x
Dmaj9 = x5765x

/ Am11 / D7b9 / Gmaj13 / Gmaj13 /

Am11 = 5x553x
D7b9 = x5454x
Gmaj13 = 3x445x

If you know a nice II-V-I progression please share it in the comments.
Thanks,
Klaus

Click here to download your free copy of "The 150 Esstential Chords" Ebook

Guitar playing and the stuff that comes with it like backing up your audiofiles, writing down your lyrics and music becomes even more enjoyable if you got the right tools for the job.

Or some nice blues backingtracks to improvise over. It makes practicing a hell of a lot more fun.

Let’s take a look at these guitar productivity tools:

- Blanksheetmusic.net Notation sheets for every instrument and vocals

- www.guitarvoice.com Awesome guitar backingtracks. Search by artist, random or genre.

- Crashplan.com Unlimited Online backup storage for all your precious audio files and everything else for only $3 a month

- Audio.online-convert.com Online audio/video/ebook converter

- Mflow is a really good sounding/looking Online Social Music Streaming Tool next to Spotify, Last.fm and Grooveshark

- Audio speed tempo pitch changer (reducing audiospeed while remaining pitch and vice versa)
for Windows: Windows Media Player 12
for Mac: Audiolobe

- Masterwriter.com Songwriter tool used by famous artists and producers including Rob Thomas and David Foster.

- The 150 Essential Chords Ebook I would be a fool not to recommend my own 150 Essential Chord Ebook. A good organized, categorized and easy to read chord book with a nice layout. Free to download.

- Reading sheet music:
A short version:www.musictheory.net
An extended version: www.readsheetmusic.info

- More Tools 21-must-have-online-musician-tools-for-guitar-players

If you know some cool guitar productivity tools, please share it in the comments.

I appreciate it.
Klaus

Click here to download your free copy of "The 150 Esstential Chords" Ebook

Working on increasing your picking speed is not just for the hell fire speed guru wannabe’s.

Once your speed increases your whole style of playing loosens up. Your fingers will feel light and flexible and you’ll gain more freedom in your playing.

Your fingers will float easily across the strings without trying so hard. It’s an important skill to work on and to maintain.

Increasing your picking speed comes with obstacles, victories, ups and downs, lots of patience and hard work. It’s all about practicing and equally important “the right way of practicing”. Just practicing a lot of hours doesn’t necessarily increase your picking speed if you don’t do it the right way.

Every individual has it’s own specific hurdles to overcome, but if you focus on these tips you are already off to a great start.

You can do it too!

1 – Practice slow
Most people know this already but don’t have the patience to go slow. Everyone wants to go fast now not later. But in order to go fast we got to slow down first!

Do not ignore this rule or you will become a sloppy guitar player.

Start out slow and gradually build up your speed. Make sure you play with proper hand position and good posture. Don’t go any faster until you can play each note Clear, Correctly and Comfortably.

2 – Use alternate picking
The most used picking technique to increase speed is the alternate picking technique.

There are other picking techniques as well like economy/sweep picking but alternate picking is the most common one and it creates a certain sound that is different from other techniques.

Alternate picking means you hold the pick between your thumb and index finger with the pointed end facing toward the strings. You strictly use alternating down and up strokes. The first note you play is downstroke, the second an upstroke, the third one a downstroke, the fourth one an upstroke and so on.

3 – Use a metronome
To learn to play accurate and get your speed up to a high level you need to learn to play with a metronome. You can get a metronome at your local guitar store, download a metronome app for your Iphone/Ipad or you can find one online.

Here are some neat and functional metronomes on the web:

Metronomeonline

Bestmetronome

Gieson

4 – Avoid tension
When you try to play faster your fingers probably get more tense. Tension reduces speed so try to loosen up while your playing. Relax those muscles a bit. Be constantly aware of this while you build up your speed. Also avoid any tension in other parts of the body like your wrists, arms, hands, shoulders and back. They all have an effect on your playing.

5 – Practice fast
Once you’re able play slow clear, correctly and comfortably you can try to play faster. Sometimes even a little faster than you think you can handle.

You can compare it to weight lifting. Sometimes you want to try to lift some heavier weights, a bit heavier than you’re used to just to try to exceed your limits. Then you’ll take a short rest and turn to some lighter weights. You’ll notice the lighter weights have becomes easier to handle than before.

The same thing works for practicing speed. Sometimes you need to turn up the BPM (beats per minute) on your metronome and go a little faster than you’re used to in order to exceed your limits.

Note: You still need to practice slow, because practicing slow makes you learn to play clear and accurate. Practicing fast is to build speed.

6 – Analyze your playing
Analyze your playing every single workout. Take notes from your observations. Study your left and right hand. Where do you come short? What and why doesn’t work the way you want it? Be creative, think and come up with exercises or solutions to make it work.

For example: If your ring finger and pinky are to weak to speed up, then create an exercise for just those two fingers to get them in shape.

7 – Video yourself
Another great way to see what you are actually doing (analyze) and how you’re doing (progress) is to video yourself each workout or once a week (if you’re busy). You can really take a close look at your hand position and posture. You’ll see things you probably won’t notice otherwise.

It’s also a neat way to see how far you’ve come and see the difference in your technique and speed over time.

8 – Practice regularly
Increasing speed is not an overnight thing. To play really fast can take months even years of practicing, but if you work on increasing speed you will get results quite fast and within a couple of weeks or months you’ll become much faster and flexible than you’ve every played before which is also great benefit because it will have a huge effect on your overall playing.

So…..
Practice regularly better yet practice daily for a half an hour to an hour to get virtuoso results.
If you don’t have this much time then 15 minutes of daily speed practice will get you great results as well.

Again it’s not just how much you practice but also how you practice. Keep that in mind. But anyway regular practice is a must.

9 – Exercises
Here are some great exercises to build up your speed:

21 Cool 3 Notes-Per-String Exercises to Rock On!

12 Cool 3 Notes-Per-String Exercises to Rock On! Part II

22 2-String Alternate Speed Picking Exercises

Why Guitar Players Need to Be Fit (See the below section of this post)

Now practice and amaze yourself!

If you think this post is going to make you play faster stumble it so everyone can benefit.

Do you know more ways to increase your speed?
Please share it in the comments.

I appreciate it.
Thanks, Klaus

Click here to download your free copy of "The 150 Esstential Chords" Ebook

If you’re new to scale sequences I suggest you check out “6 Basic Major Scale Sequences / Melodic Patterns” first. That’s where I explain why and how you should practice scale sequences.

This is Part II of the previous post and if you got the basic scale sequences under your belt you’re pretty much up for this challenge.

I recommend you play these sequenses along with a metronome: “www.metronomeonline.com” It’s the best way to make progress in accuracy and speed. Start out really slow and gradually build up your speed. Only go faster when you can play each note clear and correctly.

The sequences are for the intermediate and advanced. They are tricky but incredibly fun to play.

Enjoy and improve!

When I first learned to play sequences I didn’t know what all the fuzz was about. Why was it so important to learn all these “sequences” or as some prefer to call them “melodic patterns”?

Anyhow, I did enjoy playing them because after a while I got into this flow and it sounded kinda cool.

Once I really got the hang of it I came to learn the benefits of mastering sequences

Sequences will improve your technique and ability to improvise and create melody on the spot.

Your playing becomes more flexible, creative and it’ll keep you from sounding like someone who is playing scales all the time. :-)

In other words… Want to improve your technique or want to improve your improvising skills?

Go ahead and work hard on these assignments.

Enjoy!

Assignment #1: Memorize the G Major scale and play it using alternate picking.

Assignment #2: Memorize the 6 sequences below (ascending and descending) and play them through the cycle of fourths. (in the key G, C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, B, E, A, D, G)

Assignment #3: Incorporate bits and pieces of each sequence into your improvisation.

Assignment #4: Try to make melodies from the patterns, play with the notes, experiment with timing and rhythm, turn things around, extend or shorten the duration/length of some of the notes, create pauses, etc.

These assignments will keep you busy for a while. Be patient and take your time!

I only learned the first and classic position that most guitar players know, but l did learn it thoroughly though.

I also figured some blues boxes like the “Albert King box” and the “B.B King box”. (they are not official names).

They are just little pieces of postion 2 and 3 of the blues scale. I learned how to connect the minor pentatonic scale and some of these blues boxes together and tried to improvise over these scales in every possible way I could. (by creating licks, applying sequences, learning solos to gain input, building a vocabulary to understand soloing and improvisation, etc.)

Much later on I learned to use the other 4 postions of the pentatonic / blues scale. Then I moved onto the major scale and it’s modes, harmonic minor, melodic minor etc. But not all those scales are important or necessary for every guitar player.

So the big question is: What is the most important scale for you to learn?

Well that all depends on which style you are playing.

If I would really have to name the two most important in general I would say:

1 – Major diatonic scale
2 – Pentatonic / Blues scale

You can use the pentatonic scale for just about every style you can think of and the major diatonic scale is the building block from where it all happens. All your scales, chords and chord progressions are derived from the major scale. It’s where you will build your knowledge of theory, which will also improve your improvising skills.

As I just said, your most important scale is depending on what style you are playing.
So let’s take a look at what scales are appropriate for different styles of music.

Metal: Minor pentatonic.

Rock: Minor pentatonic / blues scale.

Country pop rock:(e.g. Eagles, Lynyrd skynyrd, etc.): Major diatonic scale and major pentatonic scale.

Blues: Blues scale.

Country: Major pentatonic / blues scale.

Easy listening: Major diatonic scale and major pentatonic scale.

Christian music: Major diatonic scale and major pentatonic scale.

Jazz: Major diatonic scale and the modes, major and minor pentatonic / blues scales, harmonic minor, melodic minor, whole tone scale, chromatic scale.

The more you learn about scales the more fascinating guitar playing becomes, but take it slowly and take it step by step and learn each scale thoroughly before moving onto the next one.

You want to become a guitar player who can improvise and solo over these scales and not a guitar player who can play a lot of scales but doesn’t know how to apply them. You want to make music with those scales.

Learn as much about a particular scale as you can.

Have a great one!

Just because you know umpteen billion scales, it doesn’t mean you have to use them all in a solo. ~ Kirk Hammett

Spread the knowledge by sharing this post on Stumbleupon.

Thank you, you’re very kind!
Klaus

Click here to download your free copy of "The 150 Esstential Chords" Ebook

Sure there are a lot of songs you can mention but there are always certain songs that stand out from the rest and which most guitar players want to know how to play when they start out.

I still know how great it felt and what a victory it was when I could play “Sweet child o’ mine” and “More than words” for the first time. The golden days of learning your classics you will never forget.

To give you an idea of what guitar songs have really made a name for itself I put together a list with 20 guitar classics with help and many thanks of guitar players on twitter and in real life.

I appreciate every song you want to add to this list. I know the list is far from complete and not each and every song may suit your taste, but it’s here to give you some inspiration. You might want to learn to play some great classics that have made musical history.

Here they are:

1 Hotel California – The Eagles

2 Nothing else matters – Metallica

3 More than words – Extreme

4 Wonderwall – Oasis

5 Stairway to heaven – Led Zeppelin

6 Sweet child o’ mine – Guns ‘n roses

7 Knocking on heavens door – Bob Dylan

8 Sweet home alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd

9 Wish you were here – Pink Floyd

10 Blackbird – The Beatles

11 Smoke on the water – Deep Purple

12 Under the bridge – Red hot chili peppers

13 Dust in the wind – Kansas

14 Heart of gold – Neil Young

15 Sunshine of your love – Cream

16 Autumn leaves – Joseph Kosma

17 Girl from Ipanema – Antonio Carlos Jobim

18 Smells like teen spirit – Nirvana

19 Give a little bit – Supertramp

20 Tears in heaven – Eric Clapton

Here is one song I really love. It’s not necessarily a guitar classic, but just a beautiful song I often play. Orginally written by the Bee Gees, but this version by Ray La Montagne and Damien Rice makes me fall in love with it over and over again.

1 To love somebody – Ray La Montagne & Damien Rice

What is your favorite guitar classic?
Let me know.

Click here to download your free copy of "The 150 Esstential Chords" Ebook

When I learned my first blues progression it wasn’t something I really got excited about.

It was okay but it didn’t make me want to play it over and over again.

I would rather prefer cool or mind blowing. Later when I started adding a sprinkle of jazz to it things became more interesting.

Blues chord progressions start to change from mediocre to superb.

So why should you learn blues chord progression in the first place?

Well first off, blues chord progressions are the foundation of blues rhythm and essential for accompanying a great blues solo.

Or you could put it the other way around, where would a great lead guitar player be without some awesome accompaniment?

This is where you come in.

So now anytime you’re in front of a lead guitar player you are cool, confident and prepared because you’ve mastered these 3 juicy blues chord progressions.

Being able to play the blues is a great tool for guitar players and musicians in general to get together, jam, explore, evolve and have a great time.

I urge you to practice these chord progressions in every key through the cycle of fourths.

Experiment with playing different rhythms, different key signatures and tempos.

It’s important to learn all 3 chord progressions by heart.

You will develop a great skill you will use the rest of your musical life.

Enjoy!

Major Blues Progression:

/ A7 / A7 / D9 / D9 / A7 / A7 /

/ E9 / D9 / A7 A#dim7 / Bm7 E7#9 /

Chords:
A7 =5x565x
D9 = x5455x
E9 =x7677x
A#dim7 = 6x565x
Bm7 =7×7777
E7#9 = x7678x

Minor Blues Progression:

/ Gm7 / Cm7 / Gm7 / Gm7 G#dim7 / Cm7 / Cm7 / Gm7 / Gm7 /

/ Eb9 / D7#9 / Gm7 Cm7 / Gm7 D7#9 /

Chords:
Gm7 = 3×3333
Cm7 = x3534x
G#dim7 = 4x343x
Eb9 = x6566x
D7#9 = x5456x

Blues Jazz Progression:

/ B7 / E9 / B7 / D#m7b5 / E9 / E9 /

/ B7 / D#m7b5 / C#m7 / F#9 / B7 / F#9 /

Chords:
B7 = 7x787x
E9 = x7677x
D#m7b5 = x6767x
C#m7 = 9×9999
F#9 = x9899x

Spread the blues by sharing this post on Stumbleupon. I appreciate it.

Thanks a million!
Klaus

Click here to download your free copy of "The 150 Esstential Chords" Ebook

I always beg, borrow, steal and create my own nice sweet sounding turnarounds to add that extra magic when I’m playing a blues song. It’s one of the things that makes the blues sound so cool.

Blues turnarounds are played at the end of a section of a blues progression which then leads to the next section or the end of the song.

To get a good impression of how turnarounds are played listen to blues guitar players like B.B King, Albert King, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton and study theirs.

Tip: Every time you play the blues try to play a different turnaround, so you don’t end up playing the same turnaround ten years from now. It’s easy to fall into that trap. Expand your vocabulary!

Enjoy these 6 turnarounds to spice up your blues:

Have a great one!

Although most common in shredding, the licks are found in all genres of music.

The best way to learn how to play these exercises clear and fluently is to practice them with the use of a metronome.

Start out slowly and gradually increase speed.

You can also use them as a warm up exercise in your daily practice workout.

Another idea is to learn to play the licks along with a backing track.

As you do this make sure you focus on correct tempo and timing.

Note: Most of the exercises below are licks, except for exercise 20 and 21.

Repetitive licks are shown by the 2 dots next to the bar line. Repeat what ever is written between those two dots. Repetitive licks are repeated at least 2 times or more.

These 22 exercises will really improve your alternate picking speed if you follow the instructions I just mentioned. You’ll have some nice chops to work with.

Have a great work out!