Klaus Crow, Author at GUITARHABITS

Should You Play Guitar With a Pick or Your Fingers?

Should You Play Guitar With A Pick or Your Fingers - 1 A question I get a lot from students is, “Do I have to learn to play with a pick? Can I not just use my fingers?” And some ask it the other way around.

Everybody has their preferences. Some guitar players find it difficult to maintain control over the pick. It slips away between their fingers, the pick doesn’t hit the strings like they want to and they don’t like the sound of it.

Others can’t get their fingers to do what their supposed to be doing and they can’t stand how stiff the finger muscles move. It’s all part of a beginners frustration. It’ll pass.

So which one do you choose, what is better and do you really have to learn both?

When I started playing guitar, I spent the first six years solely using my fingers playing rhythm guitar, fingerstyle and classical guitar.

At the age of 14 I found an awesome guitar teacher who showed me the world of electric guitars, blues and rock n roll. That’s when I started using the guitar pick excessively and learned different kinds of picking techniques throughout the years.

Nowadays, I enjoy both ways of playing very much and wouldn’t want to miss out on either of them. Both pick and fingerstyle have great benefits and give extra dimensions to your guitar playing.

Let’s take a look at both techniques, the pros and cons and how they can serve your playing, so you can decide if you want to choose one over the other or benefit from both worlds.
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The Brilliant Benefits of The Blues Scale

By Klaus Crow 6 Comments

The pentatonic scale is a great scale to start out with when you’re learning to play lead guitar. But once you got that under your belt you can quickly move on to the blues scale. Even for guitar players who have kept their chops limited to the pentatonic scale for years, it will be enlightening to see how the blues scale can help out.

Although the blues scale doesn’t look that different from the pentatonic scale, the benefits are tremendous and can have a great impact on your soloing and creative expansion.

Let’s take a look at some of the reasons that make the blues scale such an important and valuable scale. We’ll show you how to play the pentatonic scale and the blues scale in different positions. And further we’ll explain how it can benefit, grow and open up your playing.

Top 30 Easy Guitar Rock Songs For Beginners

By Klaus Crow 3 Comments

There’s nothing like strumming a good rock song. It’s that thrill when you play the songs you’ve always been listening to. You feel it when your fingers are blazin’ across the strings through the gain of the amp. Total bliss!

But what songs do you pick when you’re in the beginning stage? There are plenty rock songs out there, but most of them are pretty challenging to play to say the least.

To tackle this problem I selected 30 easy rock songs for beginners so you can start practicing. Don’t forget to turn the amp up and play that electric guitar loud and dirty.

To be fair, it is recommendable that you own some beginner skills and try out some easy acoustic guitar songs first. You need to know a few basic chords and easy strumming patterns. Having said that, I know you are here for rock ‘n roll so some easy guitar riffs might excite you as well. I don’t want to overload you with material but I just want you to know it’s here if you need it.

Now let’s get rocking!

You Need to Keep Time and Lock In With The Beat

By Klaus Crow 1 Comment

You Need to Keep Time and Lock in With The Beat-2 Keeping time comes naturally for one musician, and can be a challenge for the other. While a lot of musicians think they can keep time, a lot of them might not be as tight on the beat as they would like to think. The tips in this post will get the job done.

If you’re sure and confident you can keep time, you still might want to read on. For many guitar players this skill can still be improved and perfected.

Whether you are playing with a fellow guitar player as a duo, accompanying a singer or playing in a band, it is really important to keep a steady beat.

It’s not the first time a guitar player joins a (new) band, and will be confronted with his or her lack of timing when playing with more experienced musicians. The guitar player will have a hard time locking in with the groove and keeping things tight. To avoid such an undesirable scene, it is wise to master this skill while we’re at it.

Let’s dive in.
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