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How to Create Good Guitar Habits That Work

You want to read this post.

So, what new guitar challenge(s) are you going to commit to in the year ahead? What fresh guitar routine are you going to follow and what are you going to do to make it really work and last?

Creating good solid guitar habits is a challenge in itself. First of all, you have to ask yourself the important questions and providing them with hard and truthful answers in writing:

Do you really want to become a better guitar player or is it just a nice idea?
WHY do you want to become a better guitar player? Two good reasons please!
Do you want to put in the work to become a better guitar player? or just really not?

Once you’ve answered these questions you want to ask the follow up questions:

What is it that you want to get good or better at?
What gives you the most satisfaction and reward?
What could you really do to become a better guitar player?
How could you create a habit that works and sticks?

With the last question I can help you with. Read on!

Reach Your Guitar Goals Effortlessly!

By Klaus Crow 3 Comments

Where do You Start?

Guitar playing is all about reaching a goal. You can be simply playing for fun or want to be an accomplished guitar player, there is always a goal to achieve. You want to learn something new.

Now, maybe you are reading this as a novice guitar player, an intermediate or advanced guitar player. Perhaps you’re looking for new answers as a long time player who is stuck and misses the fun, excitement and growth of the early days, it all good.

Follow the guidelines below and you will reach your guitar goals from any stage in your playing gracefully.

There are 21 keys to make this happen. Read and answer them thoroughly and you will walk the smooth and easy path, break out of the slump, regain the spark and magic of practice and accomplish all your guitar goals effortlessly.

Yes effortlessly, as long as you follow the rules :)

Have fun!

How to Record a Song at Home

By Klaus Crow 6 Comments

Have you always wanted to record you own songs? Do you want to record a cover song from your favorite artist? Well this might be the time for you to take your song from the guitar onto the recording tracks and bring it to life so you can share your creativity with the world.

Recording songs is a beautiful and inspiring part of being a musician. There is so much to learn from it and it’s such an enjoyable and fulfilling process. You are now able to sit in the producer’s chair and share your music with just one click away. How great is that?

Do you first need help writing a song check out Why and How to Write Songs on Guitar – Complete Guide!

Prepare

Before you start recording your song make sure you can play (and sing) your song from start to finish. Practice your song as much as you can, so you are ready when you hit that record button.

It’s not necessary to have every detail of the song figured out yet, but the more prepared you are, the easier the recording process will be.

You can also practice your song with a metronome beforehand so when it’s time to record you are used to the feel of a click track (more on that later). A good practice of the song also makes the edit process much easier.

Equipment

To record your song you need to have a couple of things:

A fast computer/laptop
Audio interface
DAW
Microphone
Popfilter
Studio monitors

Microphones can range from $100 dollars to thousands of dollars, but with today’s budget microphones you can get really good high quality recordings.

Why and How to Write Songs on Guitar – Complete Guide!

By Klaus Crow 11 Comments

Why would you want to write a song?

Songwriting is both an art and a craft where you can express your musical creativity, your heart and soul into the ultimate form of a song.

It’s a great learning process for guitar players and all musicians. You’ll discover music on so many new levels and learn to think differently on how to approach your instrument. When you write your own songs you will also learn to transcribe songs faster, and understand and play music in a more proficient way.

I’ve got a lot of guitar students who started writing their own songs and many of them were surprised with how much they enjoyed it and found they could actually write a song. Try it and you might find yourself on a new path you never expected. There is only something to win here.

How to write a song

There are many ways to approach songwriting. You can write a personal story and sing about the struggles and challenges you go through in life. The side effect is highly therapeutic. Many artists do this.

You can also write in a narrative style and bring your own concepts and characters to life through your lyrics. Think about the message you want to get across.

To learn a certain style of songwriting study the professionals. Listen and read the lyrics of your favorite artists, learn how they approach their song writing and convey their stories. Watch interviews on Youtube on their songwriting process. The same goes for the use of chords, chord progressions, melody, rhythm playing, and other musical arrangements. Study, analyze, hear and feel them.

Song Structure

For writing a song you can use different components like an intro, verse, chorus, bridge, instrumental solo and outro. These components or sections are then repeated in some way. The most common forms are:

ABAB : Verse – Chorus – Verse – Chorus
AABA: Verse – Verse – Chorus – Verse
ABABCB: Verse – Chorus – Verse – Chorus – Bridge – Chorus

Around these sections you can create an intro, a guitar solo or an outro.

Tip: Listen to your favorite song writers and figure out what song structure they use and which ones you prefer.