Practice Archives - Page 19 of 32

How to Teach The Youngest Kids to Play Guitar

The guitar is an attractive looking and beautiful sounding instrument. Also to young kids. And once the kids get excited about the guitar try stopping them.

I used to teach kids to play guitar from the age of 9, but my wife and I found a way to simplify things and start earlier for younger kids who can’t wait that long. We began teaching our own kids to play guitar from the age of 5. Along the way we discovered the best approach to teach these young students how to learn this challenging instrument and have fun at the same time.

Although our kids chose to learn the guitar without our meddling, we are aware of the influence we have as parents since we are both guitar teachers and the house is full of instruments. There is almost no escaping ;)

Melody and Riffs
We always start to teach easy and short melodies from familiar songs they love to hear. A big motivator! The practice of those simple melody lines, using only one string in the beginning, really contributes to the dexterity of their playing.

A nice touch to the experience is playing the electric guitar from time to time. We turn on the amp with a fat distortion and let them play the famous intro riff of Smoke on the water by Deep Purple. (Don’t worry, they also love to play it on an acoustic guitar). They can start off practicing that melody on just one string:

After a while they can learn the original riff which is played on two strings:

6 Free Quality Guitar Apps for iOS and Android

By Klaus Crow 7 Comments

Today we’re going to look into some quality guitar apps that will help you move faster towards your guitar goals, so if you’re not already reading this on your mobile device you know what to do. Grab your phone, your guitar and check out these great free apps.

I always try to find effective and easy interface guitar apps that you can really use as a guitar player and musician. If you like these apps you might want to check out some of the earlier posts as well 6 Cool Guitar Player Apps for iPhone and iPad and 10 Awesome Guitar Players Apps for iPhone and iPad

Enjoy!

1 – Riff Meastro
Riff Maestro is a free riff learning app for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android. You can load up your favorite songs, set loop points, slow down riffs and pick ‘em out note for note until you’re a maestro yourself. If you want to transpose songs to a different key it requires you to upgrade and buy the additional feature. Riff Maestro

2 – Songtree
Songtree is a collaboration app that let’s you sing and play over original or cover songs, create your own musical idea or unfinished song and get other musicians to play along or finish it. It’s for iOS and Android but you can also work with it on your Mac or for Windows. Check out the website here: Songtree

3 – Wiretap riff
Absolutely love this app! Wiretap Riff let’s you capture your musical ideas quick and easy. It’s got a built-in peak meter, and you can tag, trim, name, group, save and share your riffs from the app. A high-quality recorder app for Android and iOS.

4 – Chordbank
Chordbank let’s you learn and look up thousands of guitar chords and scales and accompanying lessons to really get it all under your belt. Android and iOS

5 – Soundcloud
Soundcloud is a popular audio distribution platform where you can upload, record, promote, and share your originally-created sounds. It attracts more than 175 million unique monthly listeners. A free account gets you started where you can upload up to 3 hours of audio and then share them with your listeners. Follow others. Like and comment on music. The more active you are in the community, the more you’ll grow your fanbase.

6 – Coach me
Coach.me is a goal Tracking, habit Building & motivational Coaching app. Although it’s built for any kind of habit, I use it for my guitar goals and it keeps me reminded and triggered of what I need to practice daily / weekly and stay committed. It’s a great tool for busy people. It definitely works for me! It’s available iOS and Android but there’s also a desktop version to make sure you’re fully covered.

Do you know any great guitar apps for both iOS and Android? Please share them in the comments. I appreciate it.

Have a great weekend!

The Absolute Importance of Building a Repertoire

By Klaus Crow 8 Comments

You’ve been a guitar player for several years. You’ve got some skills in your pocket. And then comes that moment (it always does), at home, at someone else’s place, in a guitar shop, at a party, or some place where a guitar is spotted and someone knows you can play, and the inevitable question pops up: “Hey can you play something for us?”.

A lot of guitar players will scratch their heads and say “Uhh, No I don’t think so.” or “Well, maybe another time” because they don’t know what to play and their obviously not prepared.

Deep inside, they’re disappointed, they missed an opportunity and wished they could’ve come up with something cool to play with conviction and confidence. Wow, that would’ve been awesome!

Well for those who can relate to this. It’s time to change this. Let’s get ready and prepared. This is going to be a fun and exciting journey.

Building a repertoire does not only come in handy when you’re in the company of people who love to hear you play. The benefits are manifold.

Let’s dive in!

Should You Play Guitar With a Pick or Your Fingers?

By Klaus Crow 8 Comments

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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