Klaus Crow, Author at GUITARHABITS

Once you know how to play open chords like C, A, G, E, D, Em, Am, Dm and different chord forms like sus2, sus4, dom7, min7, add9, etc, it’s time to learn barre chords, also known as bar chords.

Beginner students often ask if it’s really necessary to learn barre chords. Well if you want to become a better guitar player? Yes!

Although you can play lots of songs with just open chords, your playing will also be limited at the same time.

With barre chords you’ll have much more versatility in your playing. New doors will open and cool tricks will come out of the bag. Also switching between chords will become real easy and not to mention a lot of popular songs are played with barre chords.

Learning barre chords can be a little bit overwhelming at first, because they’re hard to play and probably won’t sound that great in the beginning.

When you play a barre chord you might not hear all the notes yet or even any notes at all, but regular practice will get you there. It will take time and effort, but it will pay off big time.

The barre chords are a lot more challenging but also a lot more beneficial, because you can move one barre chord shape all across the fretboard and play the same chord shape in 12 different keys.
I’ll tell you more about that in a minute.

Bar Chord Shapes

In this post I’ll show the four most essential barre chord shapes. While there are many other barre chord shapes, these are the ones that you will probably use most of the time. Also a lot of other barre chords are derived from these shapes.

40 Thought Provoking Questions For Guitar Players

By Klaus Crow 11 Comments

Photo by Bigstock photo
Thought provoking questions can make you realize what you’re missing out on in life, what you are grateful for or what things are still left undone.

I always ask myself stimulating questions from time to time to make sure I’m on the right track and staying true to myself and the people around me.

Are you still being honest with yourself? Are you sure you know where you stand?

Let’s take a look at some guitar-player-life-examining questions to trigger your thought process.

Print the questions and write down your answers in a notebook. Are you content or are you going to make a change?

Let’s find out!

1 – Where do you want your guitar skills to be a year from now?

2 – What music gets you excited and why?

3 – What would you do if you knew there would be no way you could fail?

4 – Why aren’t you playing guitar as much as you would like to?

5 – Are you thinking outside of the box? if so, are you also acting outside of the box?
Continue Reading

What is The CAGED System? (The Keys to The Fretboard)

By Klaus Crow 24 Comments

Photo by Bigstock photo
Whenever you try to deepen your guitar knowledge and you buy a guitar music theory book or look up something on the internet you keep bumping into the CAGED system.

There comes a point when it’s unavoidable, that means it’s time and probably something worth knowing about.

Let me rephrase that “definitely something worth knowing about”.

So then, what’s all the fuzz about the CAGED system?

Well, if you want to be serious about guitar playing and you want to understand how the guitar in relation to the fretboard works, the CAGED system is an absolute valuable tool. Let’s take a good look and see what this is all about.

The CAGED system gives you a logic overview of the fretboard. It makes it much easier to find your way around the neck and understand how chords, chord shapes and scales are related to each other as well as a lot of other things on the guitar. (arpeggios, triads, licks, etc.)

The CAGED system is derived from the five open major chord shapes: C, A, G, E and D. Each chord shape can be moved up on the fretboard. To do so we first have to take the 5 open chord shapes and turn them into closed chord shapes. That means there are no open strings in the chord. By barring the fret and then playing the shape next to it you can easily move the chord up and down the neck and play each shape in all 12 keys.Continue Reading

Top 3 Inspiration List for 2014

By Klaus Crow 12 Comments

Photo by Bigstock photo
I always have many things I want to learn, accomplish, try and experience.

And starting a new year always gives that extra boost. As if you’re starting from a clean slate.

I don’t set a specific time or date to reach a certain goal to avoid stress or complicated situations. I just give in to the feeling of what I want to create or experience at any particular moment.

It’s just more fun than trying to discipline myself to accomplish something, forcing myself not to procrastinate and then doing something I don’t really feel like. I’d rather go with the flow. I get things done, but they are the right things at the right time.

Of course there’s also a way to make things fun that don’t seem to be fun in the first place. This requires some creative thinking. Sometimes I’ll try to come up with things that will make a task more challenging, exciting, enjoyable, easier, comfortable, entertaining and off I go.

I do make lists of all the things I want and don’t want in my life. And because there are many things I’d love to do, I always write them down to make sure I don’t forget each and everyone of them.

Once I have written down all the things I want to do in the new year I select a top 3 of the most important ones that definitely have to be part of my life. All the other wishes will flow gently around the top 3 waiting for their turn.Continue Reading

« Previous Page