GUITARHABITS

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The Almighty 1 2 3 4 Combinations Workout

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May 15, 2019 by Klaus Crow

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The 1 2 3 4 exercise is a notorious warmup exercise that many skilled and famous guitar players have adopted in their regular workout.

It’s the perfect exercise to develop dexterity and increase your speed.

In the beginning it tends to be a little bit boring because of the monotonous movements, but after a while your fingers get accustomed to the stretch and finger placement and you’ll start feeling the rush of getting up to speed. You’ll notice your fingers become more flexible and capable and eventually you’ll get hooked on the exercise.

Also playing chords, fill ins, licks, arpeggios and everything else on the guitar becomes a lot easier, even effortless, depending on how much you practice.

This is the Almighty 1 2 3 4 Combinations Workout:Continue Reading

10 Important Reasons to Keep Exploring Music

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May 15, 2019 by Klaus Crow

Photo by Pittaya Sroilong
Nowadays it’s a lot easier to explore and listen to new artists, bands and music styles because of Pandora, Spotify, Last.fm and Youtube.

I listened to Last.fm for some time and I really loved it. It made me familiar with a lot of singer song writers I’d never heard before.

I’ve always been curious for new musical styles. I still remember listening to my first Slayer album when I was about twelve.

I must confess it didn’t really strike me at first, nor did it the second and the third time, but I wanted to know why the other guys were digging it so much. Was it just attitude or was there something I did not yet hear or understand? I discovered the more I listened to it, the more I learned how to listen and that’s when the music opened up to me. Eventually I became addicted to the genre.

I bought “Chaos A.D.” from Sepultura and I was in love with it straight away. I loved the dark guitar riffs and the bombastic brazilian drum fills of Igor Cavalera. It was all about rhythm and then I went on to Obituary, Death, Pantera, Metallica and Megadeth. The music became more melodic. It’s funny I started off listening to the most loud album at that time and it got softer along the way.

My brothers introduced me toContinue Reading

Graceful 3 String One Octave Arpeggio Workout

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May 15, 2019 by Klaus Crow

Photo by Ethan Prater
I like to incorporate one octave arpeggios into my improvisation solos, because of the way they sound and feel. I prefer them over 2 octave arpeggios.

When I play an occasional one octave arpeggio in my improvisation it just sounds nice and fresh and could be something I made up on the spot.

But when I play a 2 octave arpeggio (without reorganizing it in anyway) you can really hear that I copied that straight away. It sounds too pre manufactured. It’s like playing a complete major scale or blues scale in your solo. You don’t wanna hear that.

Don’t get me wrong there are guitar players who play amazingly beautiful solos with 2 or 3 octave arpeggios but they are often extended arpeggios with extra notes or re-organized arpeggios.

So I do recommend to practice 2 octave arpeggios to expand your guitar vocabulary, knowledge of music theory, improve your dexterity and gain new ideas.

But today is all about 3 string one octave arpeggios. These are my favorites. I already wrote a post on one octave arpeggios which is a much bigger workout, but I always practice and memorize things in different ways. And I really love this workout.

Here are some tips:Continue Reading

How Musicians Can Really Benefit From Meditation

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May 15, 2019 by Klaus Crow

Photo by Sebastien Wiertz
Meditation has proven it’s usefulness among a lot of great guitar players and songwriters like John McLaughlin, Steve Vai, John Frusciante, Paul McCartney, Sheryl Crow and many others.

Once you’ve experienced the benefits you are more than willing to sit down on the floor for a couple of minutes a day.

Meditation can improve the quality of your life and musicianship in a tremendous way.

But yes I know, the hardest part is to get started everyday. It seems there are always more important things to do than sitting down with your eyes closed doing nothing. Well nothing could be more further from the truth.

Meditation will give you the inspiration and answers you need for all your tasks, projects and hard questions. But it will also make you twice as efficient and effective rather than being just productive. By stepping back your mind will see things a lot more clearly and the good stuff shows up.

I use meditation to find inspiration for writing songs, blog posts, teaching guitar students, life solutions, creating new ideas, happiness and balance, peace of mind, overcoming guitar obstacles and difficulties, finding focus for guitar practice and in the past I’ve used it for stage anxiety and finding answers to what I really want in life.

There are a lot of different ways to practice meditation and there is no wrong or right or just one way to do it. Most of them boil down to the same thing when you focus on the essence and leave out any religious rituals or other traditions.

I use three approaches at different times throughout the day or week:

# BREATHING MEDITATION
# MANTRA MEDITATION
# INSPIRATION MEDITATION
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