GUITARHABITS

Free Quality Guitar Lessons

5 Beautiful Ways to Play a II-V-I Jazz Chord Progression

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I just love figuring out different ways to play a jazz chord progression or just mixing up jazz chords with other styles of music.

It can add nice flavors to a song and give it some extra magic. It’s really fun to experiment with that.

Learning jazz expands your guitar vocabulary to a whole new level if you are ready for it.

In the meantime it’s just fun to play some beautiful jazz chord progressions and it will certainly contribute to your playing skills and creativity as well.

There are also more advanced II-V-I’s than the ones I show here but these are really nice to start out with and get your feet in the dirt. It can be a little bit overwhelming if you learn to play jazz chords and progressions for the first time, but after a few runs you’ll get the hang of it. You’ll be amazed!

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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

Finding Solid Confidence on Stage

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Photo by Niklas Hellerstedt
As is our confidence, so is our capacity. ~ William Hazlitt

When I first started out playing on stage I was quite a shy person.

Sometimes I could be totally the opposite but many times I was just a wreck because of a lack of confidence.

I usually wasn’t at ease.

Through the years I discovered with trial and error why I always felt this nerve racking. I eventually learned to be totally happy, at ease and enjoying the experience on stage. So can you.

Here are the keys to find solid confidence on stage:

Know your material
Make sure you know your songs by heart. Know your chords, progressions, keys, scales and solos thoroughly, from top to bottom, inside out, 110%. Practice as much as possible. Get it down! If you really know your stuff you are half way there. Continue Reading

9 Effective Ways to Increase Your Guitar Picking Speed

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Working on increasing your picking speed is not just for the hell fire speed wannabe’s.

Once your speed increases your whole style of playing loosens up. Your fingers will feel light and flexible and you’ll gain much more freedom in your playing.

Your fingers will float easily across the strings without trying so hard. It’s an important skill to work on and to maintain.

Increasing your picking speed comes with obstacles, victories, ups and downs, lots of patience and hard work. It’s all about practicing and equally important “the right way of practicing”. Just practicing a lot of hours doesn’t necessarily increase your picking speed if you don’t do it the right way.

Every individual has it’s own specific hurdles to overcome, but if you focus on these tips you are already off to a great start.

You can do it too!
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