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Effective Speed Building Guitar Licks Exercises

July 28, 2020 By Klaus Crow 5 Comments

Practicing speed building exercises on your guitar will improve your technique tremendously. The speed exercises will not just make you play faster, but also your dexterity will advance. Dexterity will create flow, easiness and flexibility on all fronts of your guitar playing.

When you practice the exercises for a while you will find that your fingers will feel lighter and move more fluently across the strings and fretboard as you solo or switch between chords. Guitar playing becomes more effortless.

The exercises in this post all have their own challenges that will develop and improve different parts of your technique. Exercise #1 and #5 are your typical 3 notes-per-string super fast lick that sound really awesome once you get them up to speed, but they’re just as nice to practice slowly or at mid tempo, exercise #4 is a nice blues lick, and others will serve different purposes to enhance your skills. Just try each one of them and explore.

Take it easy, take your time, and as always, enjoy the process!

SPEED BUILDING EXERCISE #1 ( A minor )

Below is a nice fast A minor lick scale run that you can play over an A minor chord or harmony / progression (Am – Bdim – C – D – Em – F – G – Am). Start slow, play every single note clean and clear and only increase your speed when you feel comfortable playing at a slow tempo.

Top 25 Easy Pop Songs for Guitar – Last Decade

July 9, 2020 By Klaus Crow Leave a Comment

Today we have a list with 25 easy to play pop songs of the last decade for guitar. These songs are a good match for beginners. Learn the chords and the chord progressions and you’ll be playing these songs in no time.

Most songs in this list have at most four or less open beginner chords. You can play a basic strumming pattern to go along with it.

I’ve put a Youtube link on each song title, the “Chords” link will take you to the chords & lyrics of the song and the “More Chords” link will show you the official transcribed chords if you want to learn more songs of the artist.

If you are more into “all time” songs check out 30 Easy Guitar Chord Songs for Beginners or you might prefer the 30 Best Acoustic Guitar Songs of the 70’s.

Now it’s time for the pop singer songwriters and artists from 2010 to 2020, from Ed Sheeran and John Mayer to Taylor Swift and Billy Eilish. It’s all here.

Pick a song you like, practice the chords, the changes between chords and the strumming. Practice the song in chunks (intro, verse, chorus, bridge) one step at a time, then practice the song as a whole, slowly and at ease, practice regularly and enjoy the process!

Note: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Have great fun!

1 – Perfect – Ed Sheeran – Chords – More Chords

2 – Love on the weekend – John Mayer – Chords – More Chords

3 – Watermelon sugar – Harry Styles – Chords – More Chords

4 – Memories – Maroon 5 – Chords – More Chords

5 – I took a pill in ibiza – Mike Posner – Chords

6 – Riptide – Vance Joy – Chords – More Chords

7 – Tennessee Whiskey – Chris Stapleton – Chords – More Chords

8 – Señorita – Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello – Chords – More Chords

9 – Believer – Imagine Dragons – Chords – More Chords

10 – Something just like this – Chainsmokers & Coldplay – Chords – More Ch.

11 – Slow hands – Niall Horan – Chords – More Chords

12 – Rolling in the deep – Adele – Chords – More Chords

13 – Budapest – George Ezra – Chords – More Chords

14 – Shallow – Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper – Chords – More Chords

Improve Your Guitar Skills Anywhere and Anytime

June 18, 2020 By Klaus Crow 6 Comments

We all have tons of excuses to justify the times we don’t practice. We need to work, maintain our relationships, play with our kids, finish up tasks, exercise, eat and sleep. How in the world is there any time left?

How can you improve your skills amidst all of this, stay motivated and keep learning and growing when there are times when you can’t pick up the guitar?

Well, there are many places and times throughout the day where you can do some really valuable exercises to make huge changes in your guitar playing. I’ll first show you WHAT you can do, and then HOW and WHEN can you get better at playing guitar everyday, anywhere and anytime! Let’s check it out.

Learning to Know the Notes on The Guitar

You can start by learning the notes on the guitar. Memorize where every note (all 12) are located on the guitar neck on every string. Start by memorizing all the “F” notes on all strings. Say out loud: The F note is located on the Low E-string, 1st fret | F on the A-string, 8th fret | F on the D-string, 3rd fret | F on the G-string, 10th fret | F on the B-string, 6th fret | F on the high e-string, 1st fret. Try to visualize where the note is located on the neck while you’re naming the fret and string. Then pick another random note and repeat the exercise. Keep doing that until you know all 12 notes from the top of your head.

Next, learn to name all the scale notes of each key out loud. Start with the C major scale: C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C, then the G major scale: G – A – B – C – D – E – F# – G, next the F major scale: F – G – A – Bb – C – D – E – F and so on. Just pick any key in random order, until you’ve gone through all 12 keys. You can also do this with the natural minor scale, and every other scale. Just like the first exercise try to visualize where the notes of each scale are located on the strings.

You can also memorize all the chords you can derive from each major scale in every key. C major scale chords = C – Dm – Em – F – G – Am – Bdim , F major scale chords are: F – Gm – Am – Bb – C – Dm – Edim, G major scale chords: G – Am – Bm – C – D – Em – F#dim, and so on.

10 Essentials to Learn Rock Guitar

May 29, 2020 By Klaus Crow 11 Comments

Rock guitar has an irresistible attractive force to guitar players . The dopamine that releases from strumming power chords that are heavily distorted or conquering a great rock solo while playing it along with the original song, a jam track or with a real band gives you that primal, powerful, and godlike blissful feeling all at the same time.

There is an abundance of creativity in rock music and there are so many different styles, genres and techniques, you can dedicate your whole life time learning rock guitar, but if you know two power chords you’re in the game.

It’s an endless source of fun and inspiration you can indulge in. So what do you need to know to learn rock guitar? What is essential to study and master to become a real rock guitar player?

Here are the keys:

1 – Power chords
Power chords are rock chords that you need in order to play rock songs. They are your basic building tools for rhythm rock guitar and super useful when it comes to playing with distortion. Power chords give you control over your distorted sound without turning it into noise and going all over the place. You do this by playing only the root and fifth note of the major scale. Power chords are fairly easy to play and are great motivator for beginner rock guitar players.

2 – Learn one rock song at a time
This is a no brainer, but by learning to play rock songs you learn to play rock guitar. It’s the songs that make you learn the skill. Learn to listen to the overal song, then just the guitars, the drums, the bass, and the keys. Listen and learn to play it piece by piece. First the intro, then the verse, the chorus, the bridge, etc. Start with easy rock songs and work your way up. Here are some of the best tools to figure out guitar songs and solos. Songs are the key to learning the craft.

3 – Learn rock guitar solos
Rock guitar solos are the best. Just like songs, soloing skills are learned by learning solos and transcribing solos. You start with the easy ones and gradually build your way up to the more challenging ones. You’ve got to take it step by step.

4 – Guitars, amps and pedals
The sound is an important aspect of rock guitar. The use of distortion and overdrive through amps, rock pedals and guitars is the way for rock musicians to create that dirty explosive sound and express their musical creativity. It’s a vital part of rock music. There are many different kinds of distortions and overdrives and depending on your style of music and personal taste you will find through experimenting what sound suits your needs.

5 – Rock licks.
Licks are short melodic ideas, which can seen as the words, phrases and lines that make up part of the story and the style, to bring tension and release, and can be used for your solo. You can string them together or use them as short fills throughout the song. Licks are also used to learn new techniques and soloing approaches. Collect as much cool licks as you can and learn how to express yourself in unlimited musical ways.