GUITARHABITS

6 Vital Reasons Why and How You Should Learn Guitar Licks

May 14, 2019 by Klaus Crow

A guitar lick is a phrase (a short musical idea) made up of a series of notes that you can use and incorporate into your soloing and improvisation. You can also see it as a small part or fragment of an entire solo. Good licks can add magic, excitement and drama to your solos.

Learning, memorizing, dissecting, rebuilding and incorporating licks into your playing is such a great investment in your guitar learning process. It will enhance, expand and upgrade your soloing in many ways.

The variety of licks is infinite. They come in all shapes & sizes, styles, moods, tempos, timings, keys and levels of playing, so it’s important that you learn why and how to use them.

Let’s start to take a look at the 8 vital reasons to learn guitar licks: Continue Reading

5 Easy Jazz Chord Exercises

By Klaus Crow 3 Comments

September 4, 2023 by Klaus Crow

Guest post by Matt Warnock (jazz guitarist and educator)

Learning how to play jazz guitar chords can seem like a tough hill to climb. There always seems to be new chords that you need to learn, and each of these chords has myriad variations and fingerings to work out on the guitar. But, while there are a lot of options when learning jazz guitar chords, you don’t have to learn every shape before you can begin making music.

By starting with a few easy jazz chord shapes, one popular jazz rhythm, and five classic jazz progressions, you’ll build your confidence with jazz chords in no time. This lesson will help you do just that, build your confidence, have fun learning jazz chords, and expand your jazz chord knowledge all at the same time.

Easy Jazz Chord Shapes

To begin your study of these easy jazz chord exercises, you’ll need to get a few chord shapes under your fingers. Each of these chords uses three notes, only the most essential notes, to make them easy to finger on the guitar.

Take a few minutes to become familiar with these chords, and then move on to the next section where you’ll add rhythm and harmonic movement to these shapes. If you aren’t 100% comfortable with any of these shapes, not to worry, as you’ll be working them throughout this lesson, so you’ll become more comfortable with each shape over time.

Top 10 Most Important Scales for Guitar

By Klaus Crow 9 Comments

June 25, 2021 by Klaus Crow

Scales serve many purposes. They will help you understand music, how to solo, improvise, analyze chords, chord progressions, songs and many other applications that will benefit and expand your musical ability.

You need to learn and practice scales thoroughly and then use them as a tool to create music. The amount of scales out there can be overwhelming for a lot of beginner and intermediate guitar players. So do you need to learn all the scales from this top 10? No, you only need to learn the scale(s) relevant to your style of music.

A lot of musicians only use one or two scales throughout their entire musical career. Depending on your skill level and musical aspirations very few or many scales will get you where you want to be.Continue Reading

Top 10 Best Low Budget Electric Guitars For Beginners under 300 Dollars – 2021

By Klaus Crow 12 Comments

March 28, 2021 by Klaus Crow

These days you can buy a pretty decent guitar for an affordable price. Low budget guitars are getting better and are really popular. Almost every major guitar brand has a low budget series to serve beginner to advanced guitar players.

If you don’t want to spend a lot of money on a Fender Stratocaster you can take a look at it’s more affordable younger brother Squier also by Fender. Gibson also has a cheaper companion, Epiphone guitars, which are much easier on the pocket and they rock!

You have to take into account that these are low budget guitars, so there will be compromises in terms of materials, pickups and hardware. The experienced guitar player might require a higher standard. That being said, if you have between a 100 and 300 dollars to spend and you do want to learn to play guitar than these guitars are really worth the investment.

They are perfect guitars for the beginner but also for the intermediate or advanced guitar player who is looking for a low-cost backup guitar on stage, one to bring on a holiday, a party or a guitar to modify to personal needs. An excellent choice for all kinds of players, styles and goals.

Here are some the best low budget electric guitars that can take your playing to the next level in 2021:

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

Enjoy!

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