Klaus Crow, Author at GUITARHABITS

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

How to Teach The Youngest Kids to Play Guitar 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:

smoke on the water - easy riff

After a while they can learn the original riff which is played on two strings:

smoke on the water guitar riff Continue Reading

Top 25 Contemporary Singer Songwriter Acoustic Guitar Songs

By Klaus Crow 9 Comments

Contemporary Singer Songwriter Acoustic Guitar Chord Songs

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy

What a title huh? Well, today I would like to share a list with beautiful acoustic guitar songs from contemporary singer songwriters. We all know the songs of the great singer songwriters like Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen, so I thought it would be nice for a change to put together a list with the next generation of singer songwriters.

Don’t get hung up on the order of this list, nor the incompleteness. I know that the amount of singer songwriters that can be added to this list is infinite, so I hope you put your recommendations in the comments below. There is one rule though, they need to be guitar players :)

The list is here to inspire and give you some wonderful songs to explore, to listen to, study and practice.

Some of the artists in this list you might already be familiar with, others may be new to you. A good reason to check out these great songs, guitars and voices. Get yourself a cup of coffee, pick out your favourites, and start playing!

Note: Each song title contains a YouTube link. The “Chords” link will take you to the chords and lyrics or tabs and the “More Chords” link will show you the official transcribed chords if you want to learn more songs of the artist concerned.

Enjoy!

1 – Scientist – Chris Martin (Coldplay) – Chords – More Chords

2 – Daughters – John Mayer – Chords – More Chords

3 – Cannonball – Damien Rice – Chords – More Chords

4 – New york New york – Ryan Adams – Chords – More Chords

5 – Strong enough – Sheryl Crow – Chords – More Chords

6 – Falling Slowly – Glen Hansard – Chords – More Chords

7 – I’m yours – Jason Mraz – Chords – More Chords

8 – Trouble – Ray LaMontagne – Chords – More Chords

9 – A team – Ed Sheeran – Chords – More Chords

10 – Better together – Jack Johnson – Chords – More Chords

11 – Dream catch me – Newton Faulkner – Chords – More Chords

12 – Cinder and smoke – Iron and Wine – Chords – More Chords

13 – Wildfire – Laura Marling – Chords

14 – Heartbeat – Jose Gonzalez – Chords

15 – Follow the sun – Xavier Rudd – Chords

16 – So beautiful – Pete Murray – Chords

17 – Good man – Josh Ritter – Chords

18 – Sideways – Citizen Cope – Chords

19 – Black river – Amos Lee – Chords

20 – Free – Donavon Frankenreiter – Chords

21 – Diamonds on the inside – Ben Harper – Chords

22 – Sunshine – Matt Costa – Chords

23 – I love the rain the most – Joe Purdy – Chords

24 – One moment more – Mindy Smith – Chords

25 – Another day – Bertolf – Chords

30 Day Singer

Do you want to learn to sing (better)? 30 Day Singer is one of the most popular online singing courses. The course is great for beginners, but also provides advanced techniques for experienced singers.

There are lessons for perfect pitch and intonation, getting better tone, learning to sing higher, steps to better phrasing, mastering vibrato, belting, and lessons that teach you different styles of singing from pop, country and R&B to classical.

The instructors are best-in-class educators coming from Julliard, The Voice and other top music institutions. This course has everything you need to learn to sing. Start Now!

Do you know a great guitar song from a contemporary singer songwriter. Please share in the comments. I’d really appreciate it.

Don’t forget to practice!

Chord Progressions For Minor Pentatonic Soloing

By Klaus Crow 2 Comments

The minor pentatonic scale is the most used scale for soloing and it is used in a wide variety of music styles like pop, rock, country, metal, blues and more. It’s a great scale because it’s fairly easy to play which makes it a perfect beginner scale for soloing, but it also has the functionality to develop, expand, and improve your skills to high levels of advanced playing.

Once you know how to play the minor pentatonic / blues scale and how to use it for soloing purposes, you want to know over what chord progressions you can play the scale. There are a few ways to go about this.

Let’s dive in!

MINOR KEY CHORD PROGRESSION

Like the natural minor scale, you can also use the minor pentatonic scale to solo over a song or chord progression in a minor key. We will use the chords derived from the natural minor scale to build your minor key chord progression.

Here’s the formula to find the chords to your progression:
I=minor, ii=dim, III=major, iv=minor, v=minor, VI=major, VII=major

For instance, if you want to use an A minor pentatonic scale to solo over a song or chord progression in the key of A minor you start with filling in the notes of the A natural minor scale to the formula.

For example:
A natural minor scale (A Aeolian mode) = A B C D E F G
Formula for finding the chords = minor – dim – major – minor – minor – major – major
Chords for the progression: Am – Bdim – C – Dm – Em – F – G
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