Klaus Crow, Author at GUITARHABITS

Top 20 Easy Guitar Fingerpicking Songs For Beginners

Fingerpicking also referred to as fingerstyle, is one of the many guitar techniques that is part of the complete guitar skill set and incredibly fun to learn.

Fingerpicking is a technique where you pluck the strings directly with the fingertips, as apposed to strumming where you move your fingers in a sweeping action across the strings to play some nice and easy guitar songs in a more rhythmic fashion.

Fingerpicking Basics

There are some basic fingerpicking principles for how to place the fingerpicking hand. The traditional way to approach the strings is as follows:

Use the thumb for the Low E, A and D string (6th, 5th and 4th string)
Index finger for the G string (3rd string)
Middle finger for the B string (2nd string)
Ring finger for the high E string (1st string)

See image below:

how and where to place the fingerpicking hand

Make sure your fingers are curved when you place your fingers onto the strings. When you pluck the strings your thumb goes downwards and the fingers are going in an upwards movement. Now you are ready to practice some fingerpicking patterns.

6 Free Quality Guitar Apps for iOS and Android

By Klaus Crow 7 Comments

6 free quality guitar apps for ios and android Today we’re going to look into some quality guitar apps that will help you move faster towards your guitar goals, so if you’re not already reading this on your mobile device you know what to do. Grab your phone, your guitar and check out these great free apps.

I always try to find effective and easy interface guitar apps that you can really use as a guitar player and musician. If you like these apps you might want to check out some of the earlier posts as well 6 Cool Guitar Player Apps for iPhone and iPad and 10 Awesome Guitar Players Apps for iPhone and iPad

Enjoy!

1 – Riff Meastro
Riff Maestro is a free riff learning app for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android. You can load up your favorite songs, set loop points, slow down riffs and pick ‘em out note for note until you’re a maestro yourself. If you want to transpose songs to a different key it requires you to upgrade and buy the additional feature. Riff Maestro

2 – Songtree
Songtree is a collaboration app that let’s you sing and play over original or cover songs, create your own musical idea or unfinished song and get other musicians to play along or finish it. It’s for iOS and Android but you can also work with it on your Mac or for Windows. Check out the website here: Songtree

3 – Wiretap riff
Absolutely love this app! Wiretap Riff let’s you capture your musical ideas quick and easy. It’s got a built-in peak meter, and you can tag, trim, name, group, save and share your riffs from the app. A high-quality recorder app for Android and iOS.

4 – Chordbank
Chordbank let’s you learn and look up thousands of guitar chords and scales and accompanying lessons to really get it all under your belt. Android and iOS

5 – Soundcloud
Soundcloud is a popular audio distribution platform where you can upload, record, promote, and share your originally-created sounds. It attracts more than 175 million unique monthly listeners. A free account gets you started where you can upload up to 3 hours of audio and then share them with your listeners. Follow others. Like and comment on music. The more active you are in the community, the more you’ll grow your fanbase.

6 – Coach me
Coach.me is a goal Tracking, habit Building & motivational Coaching app. Although it’s built for any kind of habit, I use it for my guitar goals and it keeps me reminded and triggered of what I need to practice daily / weekly and stay committed. It’s a great tool for busy people. It definitely works for me! It’s available iOS and Android but there’s also a desktop version to make sure you’re fully covered.

Do you know any great guitar apps for both iOS and Android? Please share them in the comments. I appreciate it.

Have a great weekend!

How to Play and Use Power Chords

By Klaus Crow 3 Comments

The primal feelings that derive from strumming power chords on a guitar that’s plugged into a great sounding amp or distortion, is what makes you wanna play the instrument over and over again. Add a drummer and bass player on top of that experience and superb feelings of euphoria will unfold.

Power chords are indeed powerful and that’s why they are mainly used in rock music, metal or any type of music that consists of electric guitars and distortion. However during the 90s a lot of rock bands started shifting the power chords to the acoustic guitars due to the MTV’s unplugged series, which set the stage for a new area on the acoustic guitar.

The power chord is a fairly easy chord to play, especially on an electric guitar or when played higher up the neck. It’s a moveable chord shape, that can be played in every key just by moving it up and down the fretboard (explained later).

This is why a lot of guitar players love to play rock music. The use of just one chord shape moving around the guitar neck throughout the entire song makes playing rhythm guitar quite accessible for the eager rock beginners.

The Absolute Importance of Building a Repertoire

By Klaus Crow 8 Comments

You’ve been a guitar player for several years. You’ve got some skills in your pocket. And then comes that moment (it always does), at home, at someone else’s place, in a guitar shop, at a party, or some place where a guitar is spotted and someone knows you can play, and the inevitable question pops up: “Hey can you play something for us?”.

A lot of guitar players will scratch their heads and say “Uhh, No I don’t think so.” or “Well, maybe another time” because they don’t know what to play and their obviously not prepared.

Deep inside, they’re disappointed, they missed an opportunity and wished they could’ve come up with something cool to play with conviction and confidence. Wow, that would’ve been awesome!

Well for those who can relate to this. It’s time to change this. Let’s get ready and prepared. This is going to be a fun and exciting journey.

Building a repertoire does not only come in handy when you’re in the company of people who love to hear you play. The benefits are manifold.

Let’s dive in!

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