GUITARHABITS

Top 30 Best Electric Guitar Rock Songs of the 70’s

April 2, 2020 by Klaus Crow

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.

Note: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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

How to Play Guitar and Improve When You Feel Too Tired

By Klaus Crow 6 Comments

May 12, 2019 by Klaus Crow

You are busy, you’re making late hours, you’re weekends are full, and you’re just too tired. The moment you finally can sit down to relax, it’s hard to pick up the guitar. You really love playing, but at the end of the day you’re worn out.

Feeling tired after a hard days work is a reality, no doubt about it, but somewhere in that tired feeling there is also a part of the story you are telling yourself. Often when we feel too tired to do something and we do it anyway the story and the feeling disappears.

Especially when you start doing something that will make you feel better when you do it like exercise or playing guitar.

So, along with this knowledge you also need a trigger that makes you want to pick up your guitar.

Again, it all has to do with the story you tell yourself.

The moment you come home from work and sit down, start to be aware of your thoughts and the inevitable excuses your mind is going to make up to escape practicing.

Stop those thoughts immediately! They are just lazy thoughts, banish ‘m.

It could also be that you aren’t thinking about practicing at all, because of everything else in your life that comes first, like making dinner, errands, kids, homework, temptations and distractions.
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5 Cool Blues Shuffle Riffs

By Klaus Crow 10 Comments

May 12, 2019 by Klaus Crow

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

How to Play Captivating Diminished 7th Chords

By Klaus Crow Leave a Comment

May 12, 2019 by Klaus Crow

The diminished 7th chord is used a lot in jazz music but also in pop music you keep bumping into them. Songs like “Michelle” by the Beatles, “Who says” by John Mayer, “Friends in low places” by Garth Brooks, “Road trippin'” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, “My sweet lord” by George Harrison and “God only knows” by The Beach Boys are just a few of many popular compositions using diminished chords.

Diminished chords are considered “dissonant” because of their tonal instability. They create a sense of tension and drama, and have a strong drive toward tonal resolution, meaning that, they want to move to a more final and stable sound (consonance). This is why they are often used in music, they can make a song more captivating, stirring, and charismatic.

The Dim Chords
There are different types of diminished chords: There is the diminished (dim) chord, the half diminished chord (m7♭5) and the diminished 7th chord (dim7). The diminished chord itself is not used very often, the half diminished and diminished 7th chord are more commonly used.

Dim Chord Analysis
Compared to a minor chord (1 – ♭3 – 5), the diminished chord has a flat 5th (♭5), the half diminished chord adds a flatted 7th (♭7) on top of that, and the diminished 7th chord adds a double flatted 7th (♭♭7).

Here are the chord formulas:
Major chord = 1 – 3 – 5
Minor chord = 1 – ♭3 – 5
Diminished chord = 1 -♭3 -♭5
Half diminished chord = 1 -♭3 -♭5 -♭7
Diminished 7th chord = 1 -♭3 -♭5 -♭♭7

Let’s take C as the root for example:
C major = C – E – G
C minor = C – E♭ – G
C dim = C – E♭ – G♭
Cm7♭5 (half dim) = C – E♭ – G♭ – B♭
C dim7 = C – E♭ – G♭ – B♭♭ (or simply “A”)

How to Play Diminished 7th Chords
The diminished 7th chord is made up of minor third intervals. That means all the notes are three semitones (3 frets) away from each other. This specific feature of the chord makes it possible to move the chord 3 frets up the fretboard each time and the chord will remain the same.

We start with a dim7 chord shape played on highest four strings. As you can see below from left to right, we move the diminished chord shape 3 frets up each time. Start the chord shape on the 1st fret, then move up to the 4th fret, the 7th fret and finally the 10th fret. Of course, you can move it up as far as you like. Continue Reading

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