GUITARHABITS

How A Metronome Will Improve Your Playing

July 28, 2020 by Klaus Crow

Practicing with a metronome seems like a boring and useless thing to do, but the opposite is true. Practicing with a metronome will develop your ability to keep time and become a tight and solid guitar player. This is one thing that your really want to be good at if you’re aiming to becoming a good musician.

It will also develop your dexterity, improve your accuracy and increase your speed. Enough reasons to check out the metronome. You can look for a metronome online, an app on your phone, or get yourself a real quality metronome that keeps you focused on your practice without getting distracted. You can also choose a good digital metronome which is really accurate and easy to set up.

The metronome practice below consists of two parts: Rhythm (chords and songs) and Lead (scales and licks). Practice everyday for 20 to 30 minutes and your playing will really shape up.

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Three Chord Songs – C major, G major, and F major

By Klaus Crow 4 Comments

September 4, 2023 by Klaus Crow

When you are at the beginning of your guitar learning journey, one of the best ways to practice is by learning songs you like and playing them until they sound perfect. This approach is fun and allows you to perform in front of your friends as soon as possible. You just need to know a bunch of chords and some simple strumming patterns.

In an another tutorial I listed 10 songs that you can play with just the C major and G major chords. The next chord to learn is F major. Why? Because F major is the fourth chord in the Key of C and one of the most common chord progressions is I-IV-V, or C-F-G. There are thousands of songs that use these simple three chords.

F major barred “133211” is not always easy for a beginner so we can always play F major like this “XX3211” if necessary. The I-IV-V progression is known as the “Rock N Roll progression” so many of the examples below will fit into the rock and pop rock genre.

When dealing with two chord songs we are actually a little limited, especially when using only C and G, however by adding F major in a whole world of new music is opened up to us. One thing not mentioned in the last article was transposition. If we have a song in the Key of D using the chords D major and A major, it is easy to transpose that song to the Key of C were the chords will be C major and G major.

Since we are sticking to the Key of C some of the songs below may be slightly transposed, it all depends if it was possible. Sometimes a song just doesn’t sound right when transposed. So below are 10 songs that are perfect for knowing the chords C, F, and G.

KUMBAYA

Another simple traditional spiritual song, first recorded back in the 1920’s. This simple folk song is a perfect example of how these three chords work together. The fourth (F major) and fifth (G major) are used to create a musical tension and bridge before returning back to the root (C major). It is truly amazing how much western music is based off of how these three chords sound together!

TWIST AND SHOUT

This song was not written by the Beatles, but they are certainly the band who made it popular. This was the last song recorded on their album Please Please Me because their producer George Martin knew John Lennon’s voice would take a beating. He definitely gave it is all while singing this song!

The 1 Hour Essential Guitar Practice Workout

By Klaus Crow 6 Comments

April 16, 2022 by Klaus Crow

The 1 hour essential guitar practice workout

We all lead different lives and are at different stages of our lives. This means some have more time to play and practice guitar than others. Today we’re going to set out a 1 hour practice workout for those who have time to practice one 1 hour a day or every other day.

If you have only one hour to play over the entire week, it is better to practice every day for 5 to 10 minutes than get it all done in one hour on a Saturday morning.

This workout combines the most important elements of practice, but you are free to alter it to suit your specific needs, change the duration of each section or add some additional elements to different days of the week to make the workout more fun and playful.

The 1 hour workout is a guideline to keep you focused on a good practice routine that moves your playing forward without getting distracted.

Grab your phone and set a timer for each section to keep your eyes on the ball every step of the way. Attention, Concentration and Action is the key to steady progress.

Make sure you got your guitar and gear (amp, cables, picks, capos, music sheets, music stand, laptop, cappuccino or tea) all set up before you start practicing.

Let’s check out the essentials for a one hour workout:

How to Teach The Youngest Kids to Play Guitar

By Klaus Crow 12 Comments

March 29, 2021 by Klaus Crow

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:

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