Today I announce the arrival of my brand new guitar course:
50 COOL BLUES LICKS IMPROVISATION

“The Road To Playing Cool Blues Licks,
Mastering The Blues Scale, Improvising and Getting Motivated”

I’ve worked on this for quite a while and yes now it’s coming!

As a guitar teacher, guitar player and blogger I see a lot of guitar players are using the pentatonic scale for soloing and improvisation and that’s great because it’s a very practical an important scale that can be used for a lot of styles like blues, rock, metal, pop, country, etc.

For me it was also the first scale I learned, but after some time I noticed I got stuck soloing in just one position/shape for too long. I knew a few ways to break out of that shape area, but that was pretty much it. I felt limited.

I did know how to play the other pentatonic shapes but it was hard to make nice melodies or phrase fluently with all the other shapes. Somehow they didn’t seem to work really well.

Until I started learning the blues scale shapes and how to use them for improvising. It opened up a whole new world of possibilities. I was able to solo across the entire fretboard, it felt so natural and easy to do. It completely changed the way I was playing.

So over the years I got a lot of questions from the readers of guitarhabits about licks, the pentatonic / blues scale and improvisation. I thought, why not make a complete tablature Ebook with everything that combines those lessons I’ve learned over the years including video support and MP3 play along tracks. And so I began that journey…

With “50 Cool Blues Licks Improvisation” I will teach you a lot of awesome cool blues licks that you can use for your own solos and improvisation, but there’s more…

I want you to learn what’s behind the licks, how to break them up, turn them around, make up new ones, create different combinations and learn to play everything in every key like a real pro.

And those tools will be the perfect recipe for the chapters that follow, where you will learn how to play the 5 blues scale shapes all explained slowly in close up with effective exercises, tips, tricks and improvisation examples to master the blues scale inside out.

If you think this is for you, this is the time to really take your improvisation skills to the next level.

I know you are used to my free guitar lessons and they will sure continue to be, but because of the hosting, traffic and other costs that came up with the making of “50CBLI” and to keep the Ebook, play along tracks and more than 190 minutes of video lessons online for download I have to charge a rather small price of $29 dollars.

If you want to get out of your rut and advance your guitar playing check out the website to find out more:

WWW.50COOLBLUESLICKSIMPROVISATION.COM

Best regards,
Klaus Crow

Click here to download your free copy of "The 150 Esstential Chords" Ebook

But there is more to it than that.

What determines whether you will succeed and become successful as a guitar player is the philosophy and the lifestyle that gives you the insight and motivation to lead you and keep you going into the right direction.

In fact, the latter is even more important than being talented, knowing music theory or playing with descent equipment. Don’t get me wrong having the best of both worlds is a privilege, but these 8 steps are crucial for making it happen.

Let’s get you started:

1 – Name it
Before you can become a successful guitar player you got to know what you want. Do you want to be able to play a particular song really well or do you wanna nail a whole repertoire of 30 songs?

Do you want to become a blues guitar player, a jazz player, a classical guitarist, a singer songwriter, a performer? Do you want to teach, be taught or self taught? Do you want a band, a gig or a record deal? Do you want to be a hell raising fast or melodic lead guitar player or do you prefer to be an awesome rhythm guitar player?

Write it down on a piece of paper. If you’re not sure, then write down what you don’t want and you’ll be close to knowing what you do want. Make a top 3 list of things you want first and then finally choose one thing you want most. Number two and three come later. First focus and what you want the most and start with that.

You have to name it before you can claim it!

2 – Visualize
Visualize the picture of the end result of where you wanna be or what you want to accomplish. If you want to be able to play a particular song, then visualize yourself playing that song perfectly. See a detailed picture in your mind of yourself playing and performing that song smoothly and confidently. See how your fingers easily slide across the fretboard, doing exactly what you want. Think of the image, feel it and believe it when you’re practicing. You have to believe it before you can achieve it.

If you want to play in a band, record your own album and perform on stage, see yourself doing that and imagine how it would feel. Keep that picture alive every day. What would you do, what steps would you take and what would your life look like if you were doing all of those things? Live your life as if you already have achieved those things. It will become a self fulfilling prophecy.

3 – Practice
With all of our busy lives it’s hard to find any time to practice. You need to pick a fixed time to practice. Go to a private space where nobody can disturb you, sit alone and work on your guitar goal. Whether it’s learning a solo, memorizing a song, developing dexterity, improving your improvisation, creating a melody, studying music theory, make sure you focus on just that and nothing else. Eliminate all distractions and work hard at it. It’ll pay off!

4 – Action Plan
Write down in 10 steps how you can get from A to B. What is necessary for you to be able to play that piece of music or to get a record deal. Once you’ve written down the 10 steps. Make the steps easier. Break each step down into another 3 to 5 steps, so you have a real action plan. The smaller the steps the easier it is for you to take necessary action for each step. So make the steps as small as possible. Now take the first step today, yes today! and the next tomorrow and so on. Stop thinking and start doing. “A path is made by walking on it” ~ Chuang Tzu

5 – Limits
The only thing that people will stop from achieving their dreams is thinking in limits. Believe that there are no limits to what you can achieve. The limit exists only your mind. Whatever you hold in your mind will tend to occur in your life, so let go of all limiting beliefs.

6 – Receptivity
Be open and aware of opportunities and people who come on your path. If you believe in your dream and you are open to whoever and whatever comes on your path, you will attract the right people who want to help and the right circumstances will appear. You will attract all that is necessary to fulfill that dream. Be mindful and receptive at all times.

7 – Kindness
Practice kindness towards yourself and everyone around you. Practicing kindness will make you feel good, it makes the other person feel good and the people who are witnessing the act of kindness. Therefor it creates a great positive energy whenever a room is filled with your presence and it reflects on whatever you do. Practicing kindness is very contagious and inspiring, people react kind towards kindness and that builds and lifts the energy to a higher level for whatever is happening at that moment.

Being kind to yourself is as important as being kind to others. Whatever you are trying to accomplish or whatever you’re working on, be kind to yourself. Don’t beat yourself up if things don’t go as planned or didn’t work out the way you hoped. Be easy on yourself. Say to yourself “I can choose what I think and I choose to be free of worry, I choose to think positive thoughts, be calm and easy on myself”.

Our emotions are shaped by our thoughts and what we do and how we do it is heavily influenced by our emotions so be kind towards yourself and others, whether you’re performing, practicing, studying, making a record, rehearsing with a band, talking with people, listening to people, working with people, learning from people or teaching people. Practice kindness!

8 – Intuition
Listen to your heart or intuition and let go of your ego mind whenever you need to make an important decision. Sometimes its difficult to know whether your heart of your minds speaks. When you sincerely let go of your ego, you will know what to do and what steps to take.

If you’re stuck, meditation, walking or running outside can do amazing things. And when you do don’t try to think of a solution, just let it go and empty your mind. Only then inspiration and answers will come.

NEWS

GUITARHABITS PRESENTS

“The Road to Playing Cool Blues Licks,
Mastering the Blues Scale, Improvisation and Getting Motivated.”

“It’s The Licks… And What’s Behind The Licks”

A Full Video Guitar Lesson Course Including Ebook And Play Along Tracks.

MORE DETAILS COMING SOON!

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Today I’ll show you the two most important scales in western music. The “Major Scale” and the “Pentatonic Scale”. If they are not in your vocubalary yet, be eager to learn. If you know your scales you can learn how to solo, improvise and much more. We’ll start with…

The Major Scale.
The major scale is the mother of all scales, because all the other scales, modes, intervals, chords and harmony in western music can be derived from it. If you want to learn anything about music theory you need to know how to play the major scale.

And why would you want to learn music theory? Because you’ll be much faster in learning to understand everything about guitar playing. Yes you’ll become a better rock, blues, metal, country, jazz guitar player. If you know music theory you know the short cuts to playing and transcribing guitar solos, chord progressions and improvising. It makes the life of a guitar player a lot easier.

INTERVALS:
The major scale contains 7 notes starting with the root note and the scale is followed by the octave of the root note: 1(root) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8(=1)(=octave)
To form a scale on a single string we use the formula: W-W-H-W-W-W-H
W = Whole step.(2 frets) H = Half step.(1 fret)

For example: Let’s say we start on a G-note (Low E-string 3rd fret), now go up a whole step to an A(note), then up a whole step to B, up a half step to C, up a whole step to D, a whole step to E, a whole step to F# and finally up a half step to G. So the notes of the G major scale are:G A B C D E F# G
The major scale in the video lesson and the tabs below contain the same notes, only it’s a two octave major scale: G A B C D E F# G A B C D E F# G

The Pentatonic Scale.
The pentatonic scale is so important because it is widely used in Rock, Blues, Metal, Jazz, Fusion, Country and many other styles. Just about any pop, rock, blues guitar solo you hear on the radio is played using the pentatonic scale. And what is quite nice is that it’s not such a difficult scale to learn.

INTERVALS: The pentatonic scale only contains five notes starting with the root note and finishing with the octave of the root note. These are the notes compared to a major scale: 1 b3 4 5 b7 8(=1)(=octave) The interval formula is: 1 1/2, W, W, 1 1/2, W
Note: 1 1/2 = 3 half steps.(3 frets) W = Whole step.(2 frets)

For example: Let’s say we start on a A-note (Low E-string 5th fret), now go up a 1 1/2 step to an C(note), then up a whole step to a D, up a whole step to E, up 1 1/2 step to G and finally up a whole step to A. So the notes of the A pentatonic scale are: A C D E G A
The pentatonic scale in the video lesson and the tabs below is a two octave pentatonic scale:
A C D E G A C D E G A

Now let’s take a closer look at the tabs below.
For the major scale I’ve chosen the G major scale. Once you can play the G major scale you can play it in any key, just by moving up the scale a half step up each time.
If you move up the G major scale up a half step you are playing a G# major scale, move up a half step again and you’re playing an A major scale, move up a half step to A#, up a half step to B, up a half step to C and so on:

G – G# – A – A# – B – C – C# – D – D# – E – F – F# – G

Example see tabs below:
Note: Every scale starts and ends on the root note. Every red note indicates a root note.

Now and then I learn some new country licks and incorporate them into my playing. Country licks always sound so fresh and uplifting. It’s really nice to have a couple of these under your belt.

Today I’ll show you two gorgeous country guitar licks in the video lesson above. You can find the tablature in the post below. You can play the licks slow or fast, they sound great either way.

Sometimes I use these kind of licks at the end of a song. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be a country song. It can be a folk song or anything that has the same vibe as long as it sounds good to your ears.

Country guitar players often use a technique called the hybrid picking technique that involves picking with a pick and one or more fingers alternately or simultaneously.

I won’t be using the hybrid picking technique today, but I will play the licks with just a pick.

If you want to dive deeper into this style of playing then check out some these country guitar virtuosos:
Albert Lee, Brent Mason, Ray Flacke and Jerry Reed. They are the masters of country guitar.

Have fun ya’ll!

If your standard for the production of a song is too high or the level of guitar playing to allow yourself to team up with good musicians, then there is no end to it. I think a great deal of perfectionism is caused by insecurity.

But learning from the lessons of Taoism, Zen and by listening to a lot of authentic music I have let go of that. Maybe it also comes with getting older. Who knows?

But I think most of all just by letting go and embracing imperfection. Letting go of the future and the past. Letting go of worrying about others, beliefs and prejudice.

Even letting go of thinking itself at any particular time of day will set me free from perfectionism. It can be as easy as that. And just being open to whatever comes along.

I am not saying I’m a master of these things but it is something that I practice on a daily basis and it comes with great rewards.

I also started listening and observing the beauty of imperfection in everyday life. In people, conversation, communication, sounds, music, nature, action and inaction. It’s there all the time.

Perfection is only in our minds. It doesn’t exist. Life is all about imperfection and isn’t that beautiful?

Let’s take a closer look at the beauty and benefits of imperfection:

- Imperfection leads to completion.
Perfectionism leads to countless delays and holds you back from getting the job done. You need to learn to let go and settle with good and keeping it real instead of perfection. Dare to let go. Be bold!

- Perfection lies in it’s imperfection.
Imperfection is beautiful… and it’s honest. And that honesty is something you can feel. It’s what many great artists are and were being noted for.

Just listen to the music and vocals of Bob Dylan (who said his records were never perfect), Tom Waits (who’s distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding “like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car), Ryan Adams (who’s being accused of having trouble finding the edit-button), Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Neil Young and many more.

When you listen to those recordings you feel like you witness the moment they recorded it and not after they polished it. The music sounds like life being lived with all its ups and downs, true intentions, flaws and shortcomings. It breaths authenticity. The imperfection is what keeps it interesting and alive.

- Imperfection flourishes your creativity.
If you’re obsessed by details you are likely to overestimate the importance of those details. This is were perfectionism can be suffocating and stressful. It gets in the way of your imagination and allowing extraordinary things to happen.

Imperfection on the other hand allows your inspiration to wander freely in any direction for you to create brilliant ideas and thus be more spontaneous in everything you do.

- The Art of the imperfect.
Finally I want to leave you with an amazing TED-talk about limitations and imperfection. We can all learn from it.

“Perfection is the willingness to be imperfect.” ― Lao Tzu

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Once you’ve got a good technique and finger dexterity everything you play becomes easier from rhythm playing to soloing and everything in between. Life on the guitar gets better.

I’ve written down 5 exercises that will help you build up speed but also to get a good grip on your pentatonic scale so you can learn to play them inside out.

Go through each exercise slowly a couple of times before you try to speed up.

Set up a slow tempo on your metronome and when you feel comfortable enough gradually increase the tempo. Play as accurate as possible and keep your notes clear and clean.

Try to avoid extra sounding notes that aren’t supposed to be there by muting the strings you don’t want to hear with either your left hand or right hand.

Practice with focus and dedication and reap the benefits.
Have fun!

(The Tao Te Ching is a book about how to live a virtuous life and it’s amongst the most translated works in world literature)

When I finished reading I meditate on the wise words of Lao Tzu so I can put it to practice in my daily life.

I use the app Insight Timer for meditating, because it’s got some nice bells to start and finish my meditation session and it shows all the people from around the globe meditating with me at the same time which is really inspiring.

Then I do some Yoga just before the kids wake up.

It’s a really nice morning ritual and although I’m quite consistent, I don’t force myself to do these things everyday.

It just feels naturally because I love doing it. Just like playing guitar.

I don’t have a ritual or routine for guitar playing. I just play throughout the day any moment I feel like it.

And I’ll practice what I’m obsessed about at that particular moment. One day it might be Blues or Jazz and the next day I’ll play and sing songs of Ryan Adams on my acoustic.

Now that I mention this. I just came from the supermarket and heard a Ryan Adams song on the radio “Chains of Love” It’s nice to hear good music on the radio. After I finished writing this post I’m gonna transcribe that song and play it. Oh I can’t wait. Sorry let’s get back to where I was…..

Other days I’ll play scales, triads, intervals and licks for weeks in a row because I love to enhance my guitar vocabulary and develop the ability and freedom to play whatever I want across the entire fretboard.

But hold on a minute… No goals… Goals make me anxious and they create stress.

Just whatever feels good at the moment I’ll surrender myself fully to that. And that could be the same thing for a long time or different things for a shorter period of time. It doesn’t matter as long as I’m having fun. Productivity will find it’s way.

Oh yeah, and then I have a couple of other hobbies, like spending time with my wife and kids, teaching guitar, running, blogging, cooking, walking, reading, writing, bicycling, gardening and growing my own vegetables. Did I mention playing guitar? Well I probably forgot a bunch of stuff.

The point is, there was a time that I believed it wasn’t possible to do all these things, because there weren’t enough hours in the day.

But I discovered that my limited thinking held me back from doing a lot of things that I loved. And why shouldn’t I do everything that I like? Hey I might draw, paint or make a buddha if I feel like it or I’ll try to fix my own guitar amp. I know I have two left hands, but I might enjoy it en learn something out of it. Why not? It’s called spontaneous living.

So how do you create more time to play guitar, enjoy gigs, transcribe songs, workout, put together your dream repertoire, jam with your friends or a bunch of other great things that life has to offer.

Well here are a few of the keys:

- Wake Up. Yes try to wake up earlier. WAIT! don’t skip this one yet. It’s a tough one..I know, but hold on. If you read this post you might change your mind and change your life. Try to think outside of the box for a second.

- Watch Less TV. So obvious, but so tempting when you feel lazy or tired. The moment you give in on watching TV takes just a second. If in that same second you ignore that thought and replace it for something that you’d love to do instead.. and then go for that.. without hesitating.. you’ll gain 30 minutes to an hour of free time easily.

- Turn it Off. You really don’t need your smartphone. Turn it off more often or better yet turn if off entirely. Yes yes you can take it with you for emergencies but just turn it off. Believe me, you can do without. Try it for 10 days in a row and you’ll be surprised. You’ll be wondering why you wasted so much of your precious time for a useless addictive habit.

- No News. Stop reading or watching the news. If it is really important people will let you know about it and sometimes it’s better if they don’t (after all the world didn’t end on december 21, 2012)

- Simplify Your Tasks. Chunk your tasks into smaller ones. Break them down into concrete steps and make it easy for yourself. Small step are easy to manage. And try to do everything in the most efficient way possible.

- Be Effective. Eliminate unnecessary tasks. Only do what is really really important and leave out the rest. Don’t just assume or except that everything is important. It’s not! Think really carefully about what is important and what is not. Dare to eliminate.

- Think Outside of The Box. Do things differently. If something doesn’t work for you, change it.
One of my favorite quotes: “If you do what everyone else does, you are going to get what everybody else gets.”

- Phonecalls. Stop answering every single phonecall. Let people leave you a message on your answering machine or send you an email. On the other hand if you need to know something don’t spend all your time on google searching for it. You’ll waste hours in no time. Preferably pick up the phone and call someone who knows how to do what you want to do. Get used to it.

- Declutter. Get rid of stuff. Less stuff and less clutter means less organizing, cleaning, maintaining, repairing and distraction. Stuff and clutter is unconsciously time consuming.

- Make Less Commitments. and reduce obligations to free up your time. Rather visit people spontaneously or make a commitment not to long in advance.

- Learn to Say No. Be polite, but clear. Respect yourself by saying no if time doesn’t allow it or if you don’t feel comfortable with it. Just tell people that it’s not convenient at the moment or be politely honest if you dare.

- Outsource. Try to automate or outsource dull or repeating tasks in your life. Let other people do for you what they can do better and let people benefit from your talent or skills in return.

- Stop Procastanating. Start doing what you always wanted to do. Live your dream by doing it. It doesn’t matter if it’s a really small dream or a major big one. Just take the first step.

Everyday a small step and you’ll come closer to living your dream and doing what you want to do. As long as the path your walking is fun and enjoyable. Don’t wait for the perfect time or the perfect surcumestances. There aren’t any. Just do it now!

An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox. – Lao Tzu

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