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20 Famous Practice Quotes That Will Rock Your Playing

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May 12, 2019 by Klaus Crow

20-Famous-Practice-Quotes-That-Will-Rock-Your-PlayingI love gathering quotes of wise, smart, successful, creative and musical human beings. They always inspire me to get more out of myself, to think differently, grow and expand my horizon, or sometimes remind myself of the obvious.

Today I will share with you 20 beautiful quotes that will take you back to the drawing table and motivate you to practice diligently to realize your true potential. After all, practice is the vehicle that will lead you to your desired outcome.

Tip: Read all the quotes carefully. Take two or three quotes, write them down and hang them up on your wall, set it as a background on your computer or iPhone. Make sure you see these quotes everyday to remind yourself of the importance, joy and rewards of practice.

Read, ponder and act!

1 – “The only thing that’s holding you back, is the way you’re thinking.” ~ Steve Vai

2 – “You’re not born with certain skills, you have to acquire them” ~ Ry Cooder

3 – Copying one person is stealing. Copying ten is research.” ~ Chet Atkins

4 – The best way for a student to get out of difficulty is to go through it ~ Aristotle

5 – “If I don’t practice for a day, I know it. If I don’t practice for two days, the critics know it. And if I don’t practice for three days, the public knows it.” ~ Louis Armstrong

6 – “The most crucial ingredient by far for success in music is . . .what happens in the practice room.” ~ William Westney

7 – “There’ll come a writing phase where you have to defend the time, unplug the phone and put in the hours to get it done.” ~ James TaylorContinue Reading

Top 30 Best Intermediate Guitar Fingerpicking Songs

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November 29, 2021 by Klaus Crow

There’s something hypnotic and soothing about playing fingerpicking songs. Beautiful melodies and harmonies are all integrated in fingerstyle arrangements. Once you’re in the flow of fingerpicking you can play on and on and on. A perfect moment to forget about everything and just be one with your guitar.

Of course, in order to get there you first have to practice. But also practicing in itself is a joy. Overcoming the obstacles and challenges in a fingerpicking song can be really exhilarating. The hard work pays off and gives you a song to play for the rest of your life.

Guitar playing is a win-win situation. You play for yourself but you also make other people happy if you play for them. Fingerpicking is just magical.

Intermediate Guitar Fingerpicking Songs

Today we have 30 beautiful fingerpicking songs for the intermediate guitar player. From pop fingerpicking hits to classics and golden oldies.

If you’re a beginner, first start here: Top 20 Easy Guitar Fingerpicking Songs For Beginners.

Now on the intermediate fingerstyle songs. Each song title contains a guitar video lesson. The “Chords” link shows you the chords and lyrics to the song and “Tabs” will give you the tablature notation for the song.

Pick one and start your practice session now. Enjoy!

Video lessonArtistChordsTabs
1 BlackbirdPaul McCartneyChordsTabs
2 The boxerSimon and GarfunkelChordsTabs
3 Tears in heavenEric ClaptonChordsTabs
4 Every breath you takeThe PoliceChordsTabs
5 Never going back againFleetwoodmacChordsTabs
Video lessonArtistChordsTabs
6 Dust in the windKansasChordsTabs
7 More than wordsExtremeChordsTabs
8 Landslide FleetwoodmacChordsTabs
9 Good RiddanceGreendayChordsTabs
10 Fire and rainJames TaylorChordsTabs
Video lessonArtistChordsTabs
11 Let it goJames BayChordsTabs
12 Stop this trainJohn MayerChordsTabs
13 Leaving on a jet planeJohn DenverChordsTabs
14 Stairway to heaven Led ZeppelinChordsTabs
15 BloomThe paperkitesChordsTabs
Video lessonArtistChordsTabs
16 Nothing else matters MetallicaChordsTabs
17 Just BreathePearl JamChordsTabs
18 Safe and soundTaylor Swift. ftr. The Civil Wars.ChordsTabs
19 Tenerife seaEd SheeranChordsTabs
20 Street spiritRadioheadChordsTabs
Video lessonArtistChordsTabs
21 Road trippinRed Hot Chili PeppersChordsTabs
22 Homeward boundSimon and GarfunkelChordsTabs
23 Shape of my heartStingChordsTabs
24 YesterdayThe BeatlesChordsTabs
25 I won’t give up Jason MrazChordsTabs
Video lessonArtistChordsTabs
26 Let her goPassengerChordsTabs
27 Classical GasMason WilliamChordsTabs
28 Silent LucidityQueenrycheChordsTabs
29 You’ve got a friendJames TaylorChordsTabs
30 I see fireEd SheeranChordsTabs

The Intermediate Path to Learning Guitar

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September 4, 2023 by Klaus Crow

The-Intermediate-Path-to-Learning-Guitar

After a considerable period of time and regular guitar practice you will pass the stage of the beginner and move up to a more intermediate guitar level. You’ve acquired all the basic skills and you’re looking forward to take things to the next step. But what does that actually mean, intermediate level? What should you be practicing now to take it even further?

A lot of guitar players start out all excited in the beginning. They learn how to play songs, fingerstyle, some riffs and solos, but then lack the persistence to follow through. They lean back in their comfort zone, practice less and improvement becomes meager. The basics are solid, but it becomes difficult to maintain the same eagerness and passion to grow into an even better guitar player.

So how do you go from the beginner path to the intermediate path and keep walking? How do you keep that same spirit and pace of improvement to get to the next level? Well today, we’re showing you the intermediate path of learning guitar. The path of progress and becoming the guitar player you set out to be.

Here are the keys:

Level up your chords

Work on learning, memorizing and applying new chords. Learn slash chords to create smooth transitions between chords. Work on a vocabulary of jazz chords that are also often used in pop, rock and blues music like Maj7, Maj6, mMaj7, Min6, m7b5 and dim7 chords.

Apply the chords to songs and keep using them so they are fully integrated into your playing. Learn the chords you already know and new chord types in different positions on the neck to become more versatile and free in your playing.

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Your First Pentatonic Scale

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May 12, 2019 by Klaus Crow

This tutorial has been conceived for beginner guitar players who want to go beyond strumming chords and start playing scales all along the fretboard.

Learning how to play scales is a great way to expand your musicality and exercise your fingers agility; one of the easiest scales to learn at the beginning of your lead guitar adventures is definitely the scale pentatonic.

We’re going to see the pentatonic scale in open position, that means that the shape of the scale uses some open strings. This decreases the complexity of the fingering and makes easier to play great melodies.

What is a Pentatonic Scale
In the word “pentatonic”, “penta” means “five”, in fact a pentatonic scale is composed of 5 notes (in this tutorial we’re not going to investigate the historical origin of this scale, you can find an interesting article on that here)

We already know the major scale. In the key of C, the major scale is:

C D E F G A B

By definition, a major scale pentatonic is like a major scale, without the 4th and 7th degrees. Thus the C major scale pentatonic is composed of the following notes:

C D E G AContinue Reading