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Top 10 Guitar Practice Hacks

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Sure you know it, practice is key to becoming a better guitar player, but the tricky part is that practice is often associated in our brains with hard work, difficulty, and struggle. Understand that it’s just the programming of your mind talking. It doesn’t have to be like that. Practice can just as easily be associated with fun, flow and fruitfulness. So let’s take a look at these 10 Guitar hacks to make practice a delight and easy to tackle.

1. Fun and process
First, allow yourself a few minutes to think about what piece of music ( a song, solo, progression, chords or exercise) you would like to practice. Choose something that will really excite you. Write it down.

Now get into the childlike (creative) mindset that you are going to enjoy the process, and not think like an adult who is too often result and goal oriented. The latter might be the very obstacle that will keep you from starting in the first place.

Know that you don’t have to practice for anybody, anything, or any other reason than the incredible joy that guitar playing will bring. Just be in in it for the process!

2. Sacred space
Find a space where you won’t be bothered and disturbed. You need quietness and uninterrupted time to focus and enjoy the pleasant process of practice. Tell your family or friends at home not to disturb you in the next 45 minutes.

3. Prepare to follow through
Print out your favorite song, exercises, scales, solos and lay them out on the table or put them on your music stand. You might want to restring your guitar for a better feel and sound. Get everything ready like picks, tuner, metronome, capo or an amp and pedals. Don’t forget to put the kettle on for a hot cup of tea or make yourself a nice cappuccino to enhance your mood. If everything is all set and ready you make things easier to start practicing right away.

4. Lower the action
A word on the technical side. A lot of guitars have poor or high action which makes playing more difficult and challenging to make your notes sound good. Go to your local guitar shop and see if they can adjust the action of your guitar to improve the comfort and playability of the guitar.

5. Resistance
If you feel any resistance toward practicing, know that it’s just your mind playing tricks and trying to distract you. Your mind is designed to play the devil’s advocate, but that doesn’t mean it’s right. Your resistance doesn’t care if practicing is good for you, or that it will make you grow as a musician and make you deeply happy and fulfilled. Resistance doesn’t care less. It doesn’t give a crap about you. So don’t listen!

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How to Play, Locate, Memorize and Practice Bar Chords

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Once you know how to play bar chords, the next step is to learn how to instantly find, recognize and play every bar chord type all over the neck.

For that to happen you first have to locate, memorize and practice the four essential bar chord shapes (E major, E minor, A major and A minor) all over the fretboard in the most effective way.

  • The E major shape bar chord indicates a barre (first finger) with an E major (shape) chord played with your 2nd, 3rd and 4th finger.
  • The E minor shape bar chord indicates a barre with an E minor (shape) chord played with your 3rd and 4th finger.
  • The A major shape bar chord indicates a barre with an A major (shape) chord played with your 2nd, 3rd and 4th finger.
  • The A minor shape bar chord indicates a barre with an A minor(shape) chord played with your 2nd, 3rd and 4th finger. See diagrams below:
E major shape – E minor shape – A major shape – A minor shape bar chords

Major Bar Chords (E Major shape)
To find and recognize the names for all the E major shape bar chords you only have to memorize the natural notes on the low E-string, so no sharps (#) or flats (b). (See the neck diagram below).

Memorize the frets and their natural notes:
|1st fret = F | 3rd fr = G | 5 fr = A | 7 fr = B | 8 fr = C |10 fr = D |12 fr = E |

These are 7 natural notes and on each fret starts a bar chord with the same name. For example, when you play an E shape bar chord starting on the 3rd fret where the G note is located on the Low E-string, your chord also is called G major. When you play the E shape bar chord on the 8th fret you’re chord is now called a C major chord and so on. See diagrams below (The chord shape moves up and the chord name changes with it).

Move the entire chord shape up to any fret to change keys.
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How to Create Unshakable Guitar Habits

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Guitar habits, we want them, we need them, and we have to give them a place into our daily lives in order to reap the rewards of our efforts, to discover the boundless possibilities on the guitar neck, to learn the endless shapes and sounds and fulfil our vocation to the musicians life.

Guitar habits give you purpose, structure, growth and fulfilment. Its the habit that changes your life instantly, Its all about the process. You have to learn to enjoy not just the beauty and victory of your practice efforts, but also the struggle of the challenge you face. You have to enjoy the practice itself. Cultivate pleasantness in finding your way to make the guitar sound the way you want it. Be mindful, calm and focused on tiny improvements. It’s all about the tiny improvements that add up and move you towards an accomplished guitar player.

The Guitar habit sticks when not the goal but the proces has become your greatest friend. When you find a way to enjoy the process to the fullest, and learn to love and appreciate every aspect that comes your way you have created a friend for life. A beautiful, deeply embedded, musical and rewarding friend. The guitar habit.

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How to Play The Major Scale Guitar Guide for Beginners and Intermediate

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The major scale is often called the MOTHER OF ALL SCALES, because all other scales, modes, intervals, chords and harmony in western music can be derived from it. It’s your main reference for all things making music.

If you want to makes sense of what you are actually playing and learn to understand, analyze, create, and be able to play any chord, progression, solo, song or anything else that involves your guitar playing you need to know the major scale. It’s equally valuable for the rhythm guitar player and lead guitar player.

The major scale is also a perfect warming up and dexterity exercise to start your guitar practice with. Two for the price of one.

MAJOR SCALE SOUND
We all know the famous “Do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do” melody you learned in preschool. This is the actually the major scale we are talking about here. And it’s important that you know what it sounds like, recognize it, and know how to sing it along.

MAJOR SCALE CONSTRUCTION
The major scale contains 7 notes starting with the root note (1) and the scale is followed by the octave of the root note: 1(root) 2 3 4 5 6 7 + 8 (8 is the octave and is the same note as the root, only an octave higher, so 8 equals 1). Every other western scale, chord or progression formula is compared to and can be derived from the numbering system of the major scale: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

WHOLE HALF NOTE SCALE FORMULA
To form a major scale on a single string we use the Whole-Half step formula: “W-W-H-W-W-W-H”, where “W” = Whole step (2 frets) and “H” = Half step (1 fret). So going one fret up the neck is a half step, and going up two frets equals a whole step. You can construct a major scale on any note, and on any string using this formula.

For example: Let’s start on a G-note (Low E-string/6th string, 3rd fret), now go up a whole step to an A (note), then up a whole step to B, up a half step to C, up a whole step to D, a whole step to E, a whole step to F# and finally up a half step to G. So the notes of the G major scale are: G A B C D E F# G ( 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8/1).

If you want to know how to find any note on the fretboard check out
Learn the Guitar Fingerboard Thoroughly in 16 Days

OPEN G MAJOR SCALE
An open major scale means you are playing a major scale that also uses open strings. It’s the perfect scale for beginners, but also the intermediate player has to have this one memorized. See TABS below.

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