Practice Archives - GUITARHABITS

How to Apply Kaizen to Guitar

February 10, 2019 By Klaus Crow 8 Comments

The word “Kaizen” is a combination of the words “kai” (change) en “zen” (for better), which makes “change for better”. The philosophy behind it is all about the act of continuous improvement.

The term originally comes from the book Kaizen by Masaaki Imai, through which Kaizen was first introduced to the western world.

Kaizen is widely known as a systematic approach for business improvement, but it actually refers to any improvement, one-time or continuous, large or small in all areas of life.

So yes, it can also be applied to guitar practice, to hone, improve, and perfect our skill continuously every day.

The improvement isn’t necessarily focused on large scale changes, and huge wins, but more on smaller, incremental and immediate changes.

So, instead of thinking how to make a big, giant step towards becoming a brilliant guitar player, and start buying expensive guitars, equipment, and executing an extensive practice regimen, you focus on the smallest improvements you can make in your guitar playing right now.

A continuous process that is less intimidating, doable, long lasting and definitely adding up.

The New Guitar Regimen: Feel Great, Superfit and Improve Your Playing Faster

December 5, 2018 By Klaus Crow 10 Comments

To improve your guitar playing you have to practice regularly. That’s a no-brainer. To make sure you actually do that you must have time, motivation, energy and focus.

Time is one thing (if that is not enough), but motivation, energy and focus are equally important and really need to be in place to make your guitar regimen rock solid.

For some this may look unattainable, but it can be done.

Let’s take a look at the key ingredients to make this work:

Prepare
Yes, prepare, prepare, prepare!
1 – Write down in your calendar at what days, what times and for how long you’re going to practice (30 or 60 min).
2 – Schedule another 30 min extra time before practice (I’ll explain in a minute).
3 – Inform family and friends your practice time is sacred and they can’t disturb you while you’re at it.
4 – Find or create a quiet and private practice space, where nobody will find you :)
5 – Set up your equipment, your guitar(s), sheet music, and necessary tools (pick,capo,tuners,etc.) the day before practice, so you are ready to roll.
6 – Make sure nothing comes in between you and your practice regimen. Make it so.

Table of Contents
Next, write out the table of contents for your practice workout. How are you going to spend those valuable 30 to 60 minutes of full blown practice?

Make sure it contains everything you love to play and things that drive you to get better and better. Choose, print and write down the scales, licks, exercises, chords, progressions and solos you want to work on. Get your nice blues jamtracks ready for improvisation, find some ear training exercises, and music theory to study, and above all, select the songs you love to play.
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Top 30 Best Electric Guitar Rock Songs of the 70’s

November 21, 2018 By Klaus Crow 6 Comments

The 70’s really was the area of great electric guitar rock bands. Strong riffs, beautiful solos and solid rock songs were emerging from the ground. It was a great decade for the guitar.

As students for life we are still reaping the fruits today when we are practicing and playing the songs from that time and learning from the minds of those creative guitar players.

To get started we’ve got a list of 30 legendary electric guitar rocks songs from the 70s. As always the list is to inspire, explore and motivate. It’s in no particular order and definitely incomplete ;) If you’re more into acoustic, no problem, check out the Top 30 Best Acoustic Guitar Songs of the 70s.

Please share your favorite electric guitar rock song from 70’s in the comments. I really appreciate it.

Each song title contains a YouTube link to the original song. The “Chords” and “TAB” links provide the sheet music and the “Official Chords/TAB” link will show the official chords and tablature.

Enjoy the songs and keep on rocking!

1 – Hotel California – The Eagles – Chords – TAB – Official Chords/TAB

2 – Layla – Derek and the Dominos – Chords – TAB – Official Chords/TAB

3 – Stairway to heaven – Led Zeppelin – TABS – Official Chords/TAB

4 – Comfortably Numb – Pink Floyd – Chords – Official Chords/TAB

5 – Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen – Chords – Official Chords/TAB

6 – Free Bird – Lynyrd Skynyrd – TAB – Official Chords/TAB

7 – Sultans of swing – Dire Straits – Chords – Official Chords/TAB

8 – The Boys Are Back in Town – Thin Lizzy – Chords

5 Cool Blues Shuffle Riffs

October 11, 2018 By Klaus Crow 2 Comments

Playing “walking blues lines” is a common thing for bass players, but also guitar players do not shy away from a nice walking blues shuffle riff.

The blues shuffle riff is a popular sound and often used by guitar players like T-Bone Walker (Going to Chicago, T-bone Shuffle) and Stevie Ray Vaughan (Cold shot, Pride and joy, Travis walk).

While blues rhythm guitar suffices with a standard 12 bar blues shuffle, a cool shuffle riff is often more fun to play and interesting listen to.

Also for the blues lead guitar player it’s great to solo over a blues shuffle riff. The combination of a cool lead solo improvisation and a nice blues shuffle riff will lift the music to greater heights.

Today we have 5 Cool blues shuffle riffs to get your hands dirty. Starting out with a nice & easy shuffle riff gradually leading up to more challenging riffs. A video lesson and tablature is provided for each shuffle riff.

Enjoy!

Cool Blues Shuffle Riff 1