GUITARHABITS

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The 5 Minute Guitar Workout

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Photo by Akram
There are days when I can’t get myself fired up to start practicing.

Sometimes it’s because I think I’m entitled to a break for whatever ridiculous reason or because I’m feeling kind of tired and I’m also burdened with the thought that there is so much else to be done.

They’re all pathetic excuses so I don’t have to get off my lazy ass.

But I found a really easy way to take care of those excuses and to be honest with you it works brilliantly.

I call it “The 5 minute guitar workout”

Let’s take a closer look:

When you’re sitting in that comfy chair of yours or you’re looking at your busy schedule your mind is already going into defense mode and you’re like… “No no I have no energy left or time to play guitar for 20 or 30 minutes, let alone more than that.”

The thought of such a long guitar workout can sometimes be too much of a stumbling block.

Now replace that inner dialog and tell yourself you’re only going to practice for 5 minutes. No more. Just 5 minutes. That sounds easy doesn’t it.

That sounds even quite reasonable.

And you know what… It’s just that little push you need to get started. It’s the number one most important aspect of practicing: “Getting started.”

Once you’ve started the rest takes care of itself. And it’s okay to practice for only 5 minutes but you’ll probably end up playing longer than that, because once you’re playing you’ll get in a flow, a meditative state and you’ll be enjoying the ride.

I found that it works every time, because it’s only 5 minutes whatever the real outcome may be.

It’s so effective that I made 5 minute workouts for everything and I spread those workouts randomly throughout the day and week.

I’ve become in love with my 5 minute workouts.

Here’s my list:

– 5 minute scales workout

– 5 minute speed picking workout (working with a metronome)

– 5 minute soloing improvisation workout

– 5 minute playing, memorizing and enjoying songs workout

– 5 minute music theory workout

– 5 minute transcribing songs for my students workout

I also have other 5 minute workouts that have nothing to do with guitar playing whatsoever, but anyway here you are:

– 5 minute meditation workout

– 5 minute running workout

– 5 minute reading workout

Thanks for your 5 minutes. I appreciate it.
Klaus Crow

8 Ways to Play a 12 Bar Blues Shuffle in The Key of E

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Photo by Pablo Docal
Today I’ll show you 8 different ways to play a 12 Bar Blues shuffle. Blues shuffles sound really cool and the basic ones are not that hard to play.

In the first example I wrote out the entire 12 bar blues. In the other examples I just wrote out the alternatives to bar 1,2 and 9. More you don’t need, the rest of the bars is played the same way as those 3. Just play them in the right order. You’ll see what I mean once you’ve tried the first 12 bar blues.

The shuffle blues is one of the most common used rhythms in blues and so used by all the great blues artists like Clapton, BB King, Albert King, Robert Johnson etc. For those who are just starting out in blues, this is the backbone of blues rhtyhm guitar so I suggest you get your hands dirty. :)

If you want to read more about the origin of the blues shuffle and blues in general check out
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues

Enjoy!


12 Bar Blues Rhythm #1
e:-------------|-------------|-------------|-------------|
B:-------------|-------------|-------------|-------------|
G:-------------|-------------|-------------|-------------|
D:-------------|-22-44-22-44-|-------------|-------------|
A:-22-44-22-44-|-00-00-00-00-|-22-44-22-44-|-22-44-22-44-|
E:-00-00-00-00-|-------------|-00-00-00-00-|-00-00-00-00-|
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Back to Simplifying and Playing Guitar

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Photo by Jeremy Jenum
I’m a big fan of efficiency and for quite a while I’ve been caught up in the internet efficiency mode.

But as I get older and wiser :) I come to realize the internet is not always as efficient or effective as it seems.

A lot of the tools on the internet like socialmedia, apps and cloudbased stuff that is supposed to make your life easier, (easier for you to communicate, network, save and share) will eventually leave you with just more work and more things to do. It doesn’t make your life easier, it makes it busier.

So I decided to quit facebook, quit twitter, quit saving my stuff online. Back to simplifying. And you know what? It feels great! Back to playing guitar and spending quality time with the family. That’s all there is to it.

Okay I could dive a little deeper and talk about those nice late morning cappuccinos, how I spend my days with coolest guitar workouts and that kind of stuff, but I’ll save that for later posts. Patience… please!

And then I also decided to give up goals. Meaning: Learning a certain skill or working on a project (how small it may be) with a deadline in mind. No more of that. Nowadays I wake up and just do whatever comes my way and do it passionately and mindfully. With the emphasis on “mindfully”.

That doesn’t mean I don’t have a saying in how I spend my days, I certainly do, but my days flow more naturally and best of all…. I get more done without having the intention to do so. Try it and you’ll be pretty amazed. Just live in the moment and be open and openminded for whatever or whoever shows up on your path. You’ll come out as a better guitar player because of it.

I’ll leave you for now with a beautiful quote by Lao Tzu:
“The world is ruled by letting things take their course, it cannot be ruled by interfering.”

5 Beautiful Ways to Play a II-V-I Jazz Chord Progression

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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!

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