GUITARHABITS

How to Play The Many Graceful Minor 7 Chords

April 17, 2020 by Klaus Crow

The Min7 chord is a beautiful way to enhance the minor chord. It gives it some extra colour and depth. It sounds kind of contemplative and a bit more sophisticated than your standard minor chord. It’s a graceful chord.

The minor 7th chord is used widely in every style of music and today we’re going to learn how to play it in a different set of varieties and build it from the ground up.

We’re going to look at “open” Minor 7th chords (open strings involved), moveable Min7 chords (no open strings involved) with the root note starting at the Low E (6th string), A-string (5th string) and the D-string (4th string), and finally some more beautiful sounding min7 chords you might not have played before, but are an asset to your chord vocabulary.

MIN7 CHORD CONSTRUCTION – MUSIC THEORY

A minor chord consist of the root (1), flatted third (b3) and fifth (5) notes (1 b3 5) of the major scale. The minor 7th chord (min7) consists of the root (1), flatted third, fifth and flatted seventh notes (1 b3 5 b7) of the major scale. That means only the b7 is added to the minor chord.

For example, if you take the notes of the C major scale = C D E F G A B C
The C minor chord (Cm) consists of the notes: C Eb G (1 b3 5)
The C minor 7 chord (Cm7) consists of the notes: C eb G Bb (1 b3 5 b7)

Another example: A major scale = A B C# D E F# G# A
The Amin chord consists of the notes: A C E (1 b3 5)
The Amin7 chord consists of the notes: A C E G (1 b3 5 b7)

This way you can build or analyze any Min7 chord:

Note: In the chord diagrams above: the black dots above the nut are open strings, and the letters in the dots indicate the note names.

3rds Intervals over 5 Major Scale Shapes/Positions

By Klaus Crow 3 Comments

March 25, 2020 by Klaus Crow

I hope you are doing okay with everything that is going on now. These are crazy times, but we have to make the best of it. We have to help each other out while keeping a safe distance, be considerate of others, smile to people to relieve a bit of their burden, but with all that don’t forget yourself along the way. Being kind to yourself too. Have a bit of fun. Try to enjoy the present moment.

For those of you who stay at home, you might have some more time on your hands now to enjoy the guitar, develop a nice practice routine, and make some good progress. Well, here’s a great guitar workout for you…

Practicing melodic intervals really developed my skills to solo and improvise over major chord progressions. Just by going through the scale intervals on a regular basis you are training the muscle memory for your fingers and acquiring the vocabulary for your creative mind to help you shape your musical brain and come up with melodic ideas. It’s an exercise that is not to be underestimated.

In this lesson we are going to learn “melodic intervals in 3rds” following the major scale. We’ll practice these 3rd intervals over 5 different scale shapes/positions across the neck, so we’ve got a great workout for you! Don’t worry we’ll take it step by step.

Make sure you know the major scale in 5 shapes/positions before you start this lesson, but on the other hand you can also skip that for now if you just became excited to dive into this lesson. You can always come back to that later. I can imagine you want to try at least the first exercise to know what we’re talking about here. I totally understand.

Another upside is that the exercises will train your ear to recognize 3rd intervals. This will improve your aural skills, which is a important part of becoming an accomplished musician (Try to sing along the notes as you play the exercises). The practice of playing the intervals will also increase your dexterity. A win-win situation in many ways.

Top 30 Best Rolling Stones Songs for Guitar

By Klaus Crow 4 Comments

March 14, 2020 by Klaus Crow

Growin’ up as a kid my oldest brother played me the records of the Rolling Stones, John Mellencamp, John Hiatt, Stevie Ray Vaughan and many other great musicians. I am forever grateful he did. He showed me a world I would indulge in every minute of the day.

The Rolling Stones and The Beatles (the latter I came to appreciate later on) both shaped the music of the 20th century. The Stones’ classic albums Sticky fingers and Exile on Main street are still a source of inspiration for true rock ‘n roll musicians today.

As new guitar players and students dive into the 21th century and become practicers of the instrument they will be influenced by great bands, artists and musicians. It’s important they know music that breathes authenticity, real instruments and pure timeless art. The sound and feel that comes from those Rolling Stones records is what that music compasses.

Searching videos for this post was a great joy with moments of bliss. Listening and watching the Stones’ live performances and video clips made me pick up the guitar instantly. That’s what good music does. I hope it does the same for you.

I always point out that these lists are in no particular order, nor are they complete. I create them to inspire you to practice, play, create, nourish your musical soul and bring out your inner artist.

The song titles in the list below contain a YouTube link to the song, and the Applemusic Spotify and Amazonmusic logo’s direct you straight to the song in the associated apps. The Chords links show you to the chords and lyrics of the song.

Enjoy the hell out of it!

1 – Angie – – – – Chords

2 – Satisfaction – – – – Chords

3 – Wild horses – – – – Chords

4 – Paint it black – – – – Chords

5 – Brown sugar – – – – Chords

The Art of Practicing Guitar ( The 10 P’s)

By Klaus Crow 4 Comments

February 6, 2020 by Klaus Crow

Practicing is an art in itself. To improve and succeed in practicing, becoming a better guitar player and keeping it fun at all times there are rules to apply. Today we’ll dive into the 10 p’s to understand and learn the art of practicing guitar.

PONDER

Guitar playing always starts with a thought. The more you ponder thoughts on how to create a good and nice guitar practice for yourself, the more you’ll be practicing. The idea of playing guitar, the feeling of the joy it will bring, the image of you playing that song you really love, that amazing guitar solo or riff that slides through your fingers. The thought and emotion can trigger you to act. Thoughts create action.

Now, think for a minute what you love about playing guitar and what you really want to learn. Create a vivid image of you practicing that song, solo or riff and how it makes you feel. Think of the guitar you are playing and what you want your practice space to look like. Think good vibes.

PREPARE

The next thing to do is to put everything you need for practicing in the right place. Get your guitar out of the guitar bag and put it on the guitar stand in absolutely clear sight. Place it in the room where you spend most of your time. In sight is in mind.

Structure and arrange the entire place in a such a way that it attracts and pulls you right to the guitar. Make it so that you can not escape it, and playing guitar will be inevitable.

PRIORITIZE

If you want to succeed in playing guitar you need to prioritize it. You have to make time for it. Schedule a fixed time to practice daily or regularly. Look forward to your precious practice session and put reminders everywhere, in your phone, on your calendar, in your computer, and stick reminder notes on the fridge, in the bathroom, anywhere necessary.

It’s not that I’m saying you don’t want to play guitar, but life is busy for most people, and your obligations and to-do lists often take your eyes and mind off the things that matter most to you. There’s always just another thing that needs to come first, and the list is endless. It’s just a cunning trick of the mind, and you have to trick your mind into playing guitar to make time for the good things in life. Prioritize!

« Previous Page