GUITARHABITS

Free Quality Guitar Lessons

8 Ways to Play a 12 Bar Blues Shuffle in The Key of E

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Photo by Pablo Docal
Today I’ll show you 8 different ways to play a 12 Bar Blues shuffle. Blues shuffles sound really cool and the basic ones are not that hard to play.

In the first example I wrote out the entire 12 bar blues. In the other examples I just wrote out the alternatives to bar 1,2 and 9. More you don’t need, the rest of the bars is played the same way as those 3. Just play them in the right order. You’ll see what I mean once you’ve tried the first 12 bar blues.

The shuffle blues is one of the most common used rhythms in blues and so used by all the great blues artists like Clapton, BB King, Albert King, Robert Johnson etc. For those who are just starting out in blues, this is the backbone of blues rhtyhm guitar so I suggest you get your hands dirty. :)

If you want to read more about the origin of the blues shuffle and blues in general check out
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues

Enjoy!


12 Bar Blues Rhythm #1
e:-------------|-------------|-------------|-------------|
B:-------------|-------------|-------------|-------------|
G:-------------|-------------|-------------|-------------|
D:-------------|-22-44-22-44-|-------------|-------------|
A:-22-44-22-44-|-00-00-00-00-|-22-44-22-44-|-22-44-22-44-|
E:-00-00-00-00-|-------------|-00-00-00-00-|-00-00-00-00-|
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Online Tools For Guitar Players Worth Checking Out

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Every now and then I’m on the look out for new handy tools online that makes the life of a guitar player easier, more efficient, effective and more comfortable.

Guitar playing and the stuff that comes with it like backing up your audiofiles, writing down your lyrics and music becomes even more enjoyable if you got the right tools for the job.

Or some nice blues backingtracks to improvise over. It makes practicing a hell of a lot more fun.

Let’s take a look at these guitar productivity tools:

– Blanksheetmusic.net Notation sheets for every instrument and vocals

– www.guitarvoice.com Awesome guitar backingtracks. Search by artist, random or genre.

– Crashplan.com Unlimited Online backup storage for all your precious audio files and everything else for only $3 a month

– Audio.online-convert.com Online audio/video/ebook converter

– Spotify is a really good sounding/looking Online Social Music Streaming Tool next to, Last.fm and Soundcloud

– Audio speed tempo pitch changer (reducing audiospeed while remaining pitch and vice versa)
for Windows: Windows Media Player 12
for Mac: Audiolobe

– Masterwriter.com Songwriter tool used by famous artists and producers including Rob Thomas and David Foster.

– The 150 Essential Chords Ebook I would be a fool not to recommend my own 150 Essential Chord Ebook. A good organized, categorized and easy to read chord book with a nice layout. Free to download.

– Reading sheet music:
A short version:www.musictheory.net
An extended version: www.readsheetmusic.info

– More Tools 21-must-have-online-musician-tools-for-guitar-players

If you know some cool guitar productivity tools, please share it in the comments.

I appreciate it.
Klaus Crow

22 2-String Alternate Speed Picking Exercises

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Photo by Jason Rogers
A lot of the cool licks that are used in solos are played on just 2 strings. Usually on the high E and B string.

Although they are most common in shredding, you can find them in all genres of music.

The best way to learn these licks fast, clear and fluently is to practice them with alternate picking and the use of a metronome.

Alternate picking means you hold the pick between your thumb and index finger with the pointed end facing toward the strings. You strictly use alternating down and up strokes. The first note you play is downstroke, the second an upstroke, the third one a downstroke, the fourth one an upstroke and so on.

Start out slowly and gradually increase speed. Use the licks as a warm up exercise in your daily practice workout.

Beside the metronome you can also learn to play the licks along with a backing track.

As you do this make sure you focus on correct tempo and timing.

Notes:-All of the exercises below are licks, except for exercise 20 and 21.

-Repetitive licks are shown by the 2 dots next to the bar line. Repeat what ever is written between those two dots. Repetitive licks are repeated at least 2 times or more.

These 22 exercises will really improve your alternate picking speed if you follow the instructions I just mentioned. You’ll have some nice chops to work with.

Have a great work out!



EXERCISE #1 (in key of D major or B minor)
e:---------7--------|------------------------------------|
B:--7-8-10---10-8---|------------------------------------|
G:*----------------*|------------------------------------|
D:*----------------*|------------------------------------|
A:------------------|------------------------------------|
E:------------------|------------------------------------|
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The Ultimate Motivational Guitar Practice Workout

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Photo by Robert Bejil
Practicing is the whole key to becoming a good guitar player, but a good practice workout is not just about playing songs, riffs and solos.

It consists of some important elements.

Of course like a lot of guitar players I also started out practicing songs, riffs and licks of my favorite guitar heros, it’s why I started learning guitar in the first place.

But to let your skills and creativity reach it’s full potential there is a lot more to learn.

It doesn’t matter whether you play rock, country, jazz, blues or classical guitar, practicing all the aspects below on a regular basis will motivate you and make you grow into a good skilled guitar player.

Be sure the include every aspect into your overall workout. You don’t necessarily need to put everything in one workout, but spread out over a day or week.

You’ll benefit for the rest of your guitar playing life!Continue Reading