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Archives for April 2016

The 1 Minute Guitar Practice Session – Seriously!

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May 14, 2019 by Klaus Crow

Photo by Joshua Wells

The 1 minute guitar practice session - SeriouslyMost of us lead busy lives and struggle to find time to practice. That’s why I regularly aim for short guitar workouts. These simple and easy-to-do practice sessions will get you charged and back in the saddle before you know it.

There are times when you’re really into the habit of practicing. You keep it up for days, weeks or maybe even months and then suddenly something comes in between and you have to skip a few days.

Now you pick up where you left off and get back to your guitar habit, but then another thing comes along that needs to be taken care off and again you skip a few days.

Strike number three and all your best intentions are flushed down the toilet. Weeks go by without serious practice. It almost looks like you forgot how great it felt to improve on your guitar and surrendered to daily life of getting stuff done. So it seems.Continue Reading

The Fundamental Scales to Play over a Minor Key

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March 29, 2021 by Klaus Crow

The Fundamental scales to play over a minor keyAccording to scientific american it seems that over the last few decades popular music has changed it’s course from major to minor keys.

A minor key means the song is in a key or mode based on a minor scale. The song usually has a more darker, melancholic or sad mood.

To be able to improvise over a minor key you need a minor scale. There are a lot different types of minor scales. Today we focus on the most important scales played over a minor key.

The two most used and fundamental scales are the natural minor scale and the minor pentatonic scale.

CHORDS
We can use the chords built from the natural minor scale to play these scales over.
The chord formula for the natural minor scale:
minor – diminished – major – minor – minor – major – major
Often notated as Roman numerals: i – ii – III – iv – v – VI – VII

For example we’re going to play chords in the key of “A” minor.
Apply the notes of the A natural minor scale: A – B – C – D – E – F – G to the chord formula.
You get the following chords: Am – Bdim – C – Dm – Em – F – G

You can use these chords to build any progression. A popular and common chord progression is Am G F G (i – VII – VI – VII) Continue Reading