GUITARHABITS

How to Play Guitar With a Band or Group

May 14, 2019 by Klaus Crow

How to play guitar with a band or group Playing guitar with a band or group requires certain skills, knowledge and attitude for things to work properly and make the overall sound coherent, rocking, and above all, a joy to listen to.

Depending on who and what instruments you are playing with, you’ve got a role to fill and really need to look for the right ingredients to make a difference and be part of something great.

Let’s take a look at some of the most important things you need to work and focus on when playing with others.

Be cohesive
Be a part and value to the band or group. Don’t try to stand out by outplaying everyone in the band. To make a band sound great you want to make it a whole, not four musicians and an ego-maniac.

Make sure your amp volume is appropriate and levels with the other instruments. Try to find the right balance.

Don’t fill every second with riffs, fills and solos, leave space for your fellow-musicians and let the music breath now and then. Be a team player.

Listen carefully to what others have to say. Talk about it. Learn from constructive critism. It can be tough to swallow, but these are the moments when you grow the most as a musician. Respect the opinion of your fellow musicians. Keep things cool. Be supportive and appreciative. Continue Reading

The 1 Minute Guitar Practice Session – Seriously!

By Klaus Crow 3 Comments

May 14, 2019 by Klaus Crow

Photo by Joshua Wells

Most of us lead busy lives and struggle to find time to practice. That’s why I regularly aim for short guitar workouts. These simple and easy-to-do practice sessions will get you charged and back in the saddle before you know it.

There are times when you’re really into the habit of practicing. You keep it up for days, weeks or maybe even months and then suddenly something comes in between and you have to skip a few days.

Now you pick up where you left off and get back to your guitar habit, but then another thing comes along that needs to be taken care off and again you skip a few days.

Strike number three and all your best intentions are flushed down the toilet. Weeks go by without serious practice. It almost looks like you forgot how great it felt to improve on your guitar and surrendered to daily life of getting stuff done. So it seems.Continue Reading

The Fundamental Scales to Play over a Minor Key

By Klaus Crow 4 Comments

March 29, 2021 by Klaus Crow

According to scientific american it seems that over the last few decades popular music has changed it’s course from major to minor keys.

A minor key means the song is in a key or mode based on a minor scale. The song usually has a more darker, melancholic or sad mood.

To be able to improvise over a minor key you need a minor scale. There are a lot different types of minor scales. Today we focus on the most important scales played over a minor key.

The two most used and fundamental scales are the natural minor scale and the minor pentatonic scale.

CHORDS
We can use the chords built from the natural minor scale to play these scales over.
The chord formula for the natural minor scale:
minor – diminished – major – minor – minor – major – major
Often notated as Roman numerals: i – ii – III – iv – v – VI – VII

For example we’re going to play chords in the key of “A” minor.
Apply the notes of the A natural minor scale: A – B – C – D – E – F – G to the chord formula.
You get the following chords: Am – Bdim – C – Dm – Em – F – G

You can use these chords to build any progression. A popular and common chord progression is Am G F G (i – VII – VI – VII) Continue Reading

The 8 Second Most Important Guitar Chords For Beginners

By Klaus Crow 6 Comments

September 4, 2023 by Klaus Crow

The 8 Second Most Important Guitar Chords For Beginners

I noticed that a lot of beginner guitar players appreciate the easy step by step approach of learning new chords. That’s why I decided to chop things up a bit into a series of easy to follow chord posts, so you don’t get overwhelmed by the infinite amount of chords that are spread around the internet.

In one of the previous post I showed you The 8 Most Important Open Chords For Beginners. Today I show you “The Second 8 Most Important Chords For Beginners”. This way you can expand your chord vocabulary in the appropriate order that works best for learning new beginner songs and expanding your beginner path.

In Part I we learned the C, A, G, E, D, Dm, Am and Em chords. Today we learn the A7, B7, C7, D7, E7 and G7 chords. We call these dominant 7th chords (dom7). They are often used in pop music and essential chords in blues music. Also the F chord and Bm chord are a great follow up and common chords in every style of music.

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