Since I don’t want to leave the songs on the shelf (I’m certainly not planning to) and start putting the songs out in the world, I thought I begin to share one with you. I just took my guitar right out the case and started playing and singing. Afterwards I added the lyrics and some clips to convey the emotion and feeling of the song. I hope you like it.

Enjoy!

New Song: “Stepping Away” ~ Klaus Crow

 Hi there, Join Guitarhabits and receive Free Quality Guitar Video Lessons, Top Content, Tips, Tricks, Resources & (bi)Weekly Guitarhabits’ Backpack Email full of good stuff.   
SIGN UP HERE: https://guitarfirstchord.com/sign-up-guitarfirstchord/  
Support my work here: https://guitarfirstchord.com/donate/

You want to read this post.

So, what new guitar challenge(s) are you going to commit to in the year ahead? What fresh guitar routine are you going to follow and what are you going to do to make it really work and last?

Creating good solid guitar habits is a challenge in itself. First of all, you have to ask yourself the important questions and providing them with hard and truthful answers in writing:

• Do you really want to become a better guitar player or is it just a nice idea?
• WHY do you want to become a better guitar player? Two good reasons please!
• Do you want to put in the work to become a better guitar player? or just really not?

Once you’ve answered these questions you want to ask the follow up questions:

• What is it that you want to get good or better at?
• What gives you the most satisfaction and reward?
• What could you really do to become a better guitar player?
• How could you create a habit that works and sticks?

With the last question I can help you with. Read on!

Create a guitar habit that is easy to stick to

One of the challenges of sticking to a solid guitar habit is overcoming the thinking mind. Your mind will grab any excuse not to practice and will say things like “I don’t have time” or “I don’t feel like practicing now”. The most stupid excuses ever.

So what if you’d only practice for five minutes? Yes, five minutes is the golden rule for overcoming your lazy mind and to get you started. It’s all about getting started, the rest will play out by itself. Five minutes is easy and anyone can do that.

If you stick to five minutes that is great, if you practice more that is great too. Initially it’s about building the habit.

More often than not you will be playing more than five minutes, that is a bit of the key, but don’t tell your brain. Either way it’s all good. If you do play just five minutes you have won the day and you’re on the path of creating a good habit.

Fun and accountability with fellow musicians

A perfect way to make sure you keep showing up to your practice session is creating a Whatsapp group, or Facebook group with fellow musicians and daily checkmark your progress. Encourage and remind each other to practice guitar. Accountability is a strong tool in creating a solid habit.

I created a whatsapp group with musician friends and we checkmark our practice everyday. Every time I check my whatsapp I see someone who has already practiced before me and know there’s work to do. It’s fun and it keeps me on track. It feels great to support the group and at the same time I’m supporting my own guitar journey. We just copy/paste the names and marks and add our own checkmark after each practice.

Dave ✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
Joan ✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
Dereck ✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
Andre ✓✓✓✓✓✓✓
James ✓✓✓✓✓✓✓

Practice what makes you feel alive

Now write down three things that would get you excited to practice. What would be really fun and enjoyable to learn? What makes you tick and what kind of music makes you come alive? What would be a great guitar goal to achieve this year? What songs, musical knowledge or skills would get you to the next level and feel good about yourself? How would that feel at the end of this year?

Think about it, ponder on it, write it down and make a plan of action. Writing down is a really strong vehicle to getting things out of your head and into the real world. Writing things down creates momentum and makes you want to take action. Start taking this first small but big important step.

Create the perfect guitar environment

You also want to set up your place in a way that makes the practice fun, alluring, easy to start with and always in clear sight drawing your full attention. Clear out any damn obstacles that prevent you from practicing. Think of ways to accomplish this.

Some great examples:

• Set up a private place that is yours to practice.
• Put your guitars in the perfect spot looking nice and shiny with a set of fresh strings.
• Have your lesson material all set and ready.
• Make sure you can practice without bothering anyone or being bothered.
• Clear all distractions like phones, tablets, computers and TV.
• Put a calendar on the toilet wall and checkmark your practice.

Track Your Progress

Tracking your progress keeps you going. Write down what you’ve learned today and write down what you’re going to learn the next day. It will only take 2 minutes, but you can check your progress and you know where you are heading.

You can follow your perfect plan and you won’t be practicing aimlessly. Review your progress every week. Are you still on track and heading towards your ultimate goal? Revise your practice plan accordingly, make it better and more solid each time.

Stay Inspired

You need to fuel to burn. Stay inspired to become a better guitar player. Go to a gig once in a while, see your favorite artists or support your local bands. Watch great guitar players and bands on Youtube. Read autobiographies or music magazines. It’s all great fuel.

And last but not least, play regularly with other musicians or start your own band. It’s fun and both are super good ways to learn new things, improve your game and stay eager to practice. Fun is the big motivator!

You decide

Now you can do two things: Click this post away, read or watch something else and forget all about what you just read in two seconds or make a change and start creating a good guitar habit that will make you become a better guitar player in the year ahead. You decide.

Happy new year to all of you! May 2022 bring you good health and utmost joy. While some things are beyond our control there is a lot we can do ourselves to improve our health and overall happiness.

As a practicing musician (and a human being) it’s important to maintain a good physical and mental state, so I like to do whatever I can to work on my health and strengthen my immune system and of course this comes in phases. Life works like that. It’s high tide and low tide, its Ying and Yang. It’s all part of the game, as long as you get back up again and go for it.

For music and guitar goals it’s the same thing. I set out goals where some survive and others don’t and that’s okay. It’s the intention that matters.

For me goal setting makes me happy, that’s why I do it. It’s not the result I’m after to be fulfilled, it’s the writing down of things that I want to do, the process, the workflow, the effort and everything that occurs from that.

I write down my goals. Writing down goals makes the probability of executing them much higher. Writing them down in detail on a weekly or even daily basis will make that probability huge.

My Previous Guitar Goals

One of my guitar and music goals for 2021 was “improving my guitar skills”. Now I must admit that’s a little vague, because if learned one new guitar lick I would’ve reached that goal. So I’m going to make my goals more specific this time.

Another one of my goals was “writing songs”. Now that one I have accomplished. I’ve written 12 songs in the last year. I’ve written the music and lyrics, but I haven’t recorded them yet, so you can guess what’s coming.

I’ve performed before a live audience only once in 2021 which was a great joy, but any effort or attempt to start a band or musical group has not come off the ground because of all the covid restrictions.

For all my other goals in the categories “health”, “mind”, “work”, “family and friends” I did well. In the category “health” it was on and off, but I always bounced back. I regularly drink water (much more than I used to do), I stretch a lot, I have times were I don’t eat after 7 or 8 p.m. and I work hard to get my 7 to 8 hours of sleep.

I also spent a lot more time with my kids in 2021. I played a lot of soccer with the boys, we did a lot of family trips and now I’m teaching all three kids to play drums (They prefer drums over guitar. Haha!)

Now let’s take a look at some awesome happy guitar and music goals to have a vision and aim to realize some good stuff for 2022.

New Guitar and Music Goals 2022

Guitar and Music

• Learn to improvise over a new jazz song every two months.

• Learn Logic Pro inside out

• Record, produce, mix and master 12 songs

• Learn one new drum technique each week (on the Roland Td-17 which I absolutely love, I so do my kids! )

• Learn 2 new songs on bass guitar each month ( I just bought a Sterling by Musicman Stingray, really happy with it.)

Work

• Batch stuff

• Do more things that move the big needle

• Apply the 80/20 principle as much as possible

• Love every aspect of what I do

Health

• Wim Hof Method

• Adding small incremental healthy habits everyday

• Yoga / Stretch

• Drink enough water

• Learn to cook new healthy recipes

• Get 7,5 hours of sleep

• Run

• No food, snacks or treats after 8 p.m

• Meditate

• Live in awareness

• Name 5 things I’m grateful for everyday

• Think love, talk love, do love, be love in everything and with everyone you encounter.

I hope you have some good intentions for 2022 and go after your goals to live a more passionate life! I’d love to know your guitar, music, health, work and overall happiness goals are for 2022. Please share them in the comments. I’d love to read them!

Have an amazing new year!!

Warm regards,
~Klaus Crow

For most guitar players the hardest thing about practicing is getting started. I mean getting started EVERY DAY!

I don’t mean getting started when you’re in the mood or getting started when you are inspired, but I mean getting started every day. Ready or not.

I hear you saying, ‘Yes but I don’t have that kind of luxury, I am self employed and work late hours, I have so much homework everyday, I have three kids and a pet.’ I don’t have any time left.

You know what? We all do, and I know many people who are really really busy and still make time to play guitar.

The Rules

First of all, you have to make it a priority. Write down “Practice guitar 5 min” on your calendar every single day. Every single day!

Second: You have to find and make time to practice and let nobody take that time away from you. Come on! Make time for things YOU love.

And third: It’s about applying The 5 Minute Guitar Practice. The biggest hurdle to make time for practice is not time itself. It’s the THOUGHT of having no time or the THOUGHT of having no energy. It’s a resistance auto response in the brain.

Resistance Mode

When something seems challenging or seems like a lot of work the mind immediately sets off in resistance mode. It tries to convince you, in anyway it can, that you are too busy, too tired or too whatever.

Excuses will arise in all shapes and sizes, “I first have to check my inbox”, “I will pick up my guitar later in the afternoon or first thing tomorrow, “It’s been such a long day I deserve some time to relax” or “I am just so tired right now, because of this or that”.

You also might think you don’t have time to practice for an hour, 30 minutes, 20 minutes or even 10. The thought of such an amount of practice time can be too overwhelming for the mind and it will drop the idea of practicing straight to the garbage can.

But you know what? These are all cunning excuses of the mind. Don’t listen to these lies. Don’t believe them. You are being deceived! It’s a defense mechanism that tries to prevent you from taking action.

Your brain wants to reserve energy in anyway it can. You don’t need a defense mechanism to stop you from playing guitar! On the contrary, guitar playing will generate energy. Lots of it.

Getting Started

Once you get started with 5 minutes of practice you will see the mind was wrong. You are now practicing, it feels good and you have overcome yourself. You are making changes that will create lasting benefits.

In fact, you will probably play LONGER than just 5 minutes because you are now no longer thinking about time or tiredness anymore. Your mind has become occupied by the process of practicing guitar.

You are enjoying yourself and before you know it you are practicing 10 minutes, 20, 30 or more. It doesn’t matter that you do, but it wil happen. In the end it’s all about GETTING STARTED.

And what if you are really too busy or too tired? As little as 5 minutes of guitar practice won’t make any dramatic difference in your busy schedule or your energy level.

BUT… 5 minutes of guitar practice every day will make a huge difference in your playing overtime. Immeasurable!

Results

WHY? Because becoming a better guitar player is all about creating a CONSISTENT HABIT and making small, incremental, effective changes every single day.

Okay, so now that you’ve picked up your guitar and started practicing make sure you make the best use of your time. Learn something new, practice something that improves your playing, work on something with full focus, dedication and observation. Make the most of those 5 minutes.

Learn a new chord and apply it to a song, practice a new scale and start making melody with it, indulge in a new blues chord progression and memorize it, study it, own it, start the beginning of a new song, learn a new cool blues lick or make your hands sweat from a great picking workout. Make small new improvements each practice session.

Just practice for 5 minutes ever single day and overtime you will see the results and enjoy the sweet fruits of your labor. It works!

You are the only one who can allow yourself to become a better guitar player.

Practice those 5 minutes!

Follow me on Instagram and reach out to me in the comments below. I’m real! :)

Have you always wanted to record you own songs? Do you want to record a cover song from your favorite artist? Well this might be the time for you to take your song from the guitar onto the recording tracks and bring it to life so you can share your creativity with the world.

Recording songs is a beautiful and inspiring part of being a musician. There is so much to learn from it and it’s such an enjoyable and fulfilling process. You are now able to sit in the producer’s chair and share your music with just one click away. How great is that?

Do you first need help writing a song check out Why and How to Write Songs on Guitar – Complete Guide!

Prepare

Before you start recording your song make sure you can play (and sing) your song from start to finish. Practice your song as much as you can, so you are ready when you hit that record button.

It’s not necessary to have every detail of the song figured out yet, but the more prepared you are, the easier the recording process will be.

You can also practice your song with a metronome beforehand so when it’s time to record you are used to the feel of a click track (more on that later). A good practice of the song also makes the edit process much easier.

Equipment

To record your song you need to have a couple of things:

• A fast computer/laptop
• Audio interface
• DAW
• Microphone
• Popfilter
• Studio monitors

Microphones can range from $100 dollars to thousands of dollars, but with today’s budget microphones you can get really good high quality recordings.

The same goes for budget audio interfaces. For 200 dollars you can get a high quality budget audio interface that comes with a DAW and all kinds of instrument and FX plugins. Check out in the post below for high quality affordable equipment and plugin recommendations.

DAW

DAW stands for Digital Audio Workstation. This is the recording software you are going to use on your computer. Mac users can use Garageband (free) or buy LogicPro to takes things a step further. A lot of professional musicians use LogicPro (Mac only) to write and create their music.

Windows users (and Mac) can download Ardour (free), buy the really affordable Cockos Reaper or go for more popular DAW’s like Cubase, Image-Line’s FL Studio and Ableton Live.

And then there is Avid Protools which is the industry-standard recording and post-production software.

Create a Guide Track

First you want to create a click track that you can follow and play along with. The click track determines the tempo for the song. Take some time to play along with the click track and set the right tempo for the song.

Using a click track makes sure all the instruments are following the same tempo and stay on beat, so they can be edit later on in the process.

Instead of a click track you can also use a drumloop. A click track can sometimes feel a bit rigid to play along with, so a drumloop solves that problem.

You can also create a scratch track and record instruments as a guide for other instrument to play or sing along with. For example, you might want to play a quick guitar guide track for the bass player to support his recording session. You can always overdub this guitar part later to record a good track and delete the old one.

Recording Rhythm Tracks

Once your guide track is set and ready you can start recording the basis for your track. Normally you first start with the rhythm tracks consisting of drums, bass and guitar.

You can record real live drums at home if you have a drumkit. If you don’t have that luxury you can use drum loops or program drums yourself which is also the easiest way. Advanced technology has made the quality of sampled instruments really good, so it’s no problem to get high quality drum kits, loops and drum elements for your song.

Overdubbing

Once you have the drums, guitar and bass ready you can start overdubbing by layering sounds on top of the original ones, adding extra guitars (electric, acoustic, 12 string, different brands and amplifiers) and guitar parts (rhythm, fingerpicking, riffs and solos) keys, synths, vocal harmonies, etc.

In the music production process most of the time is spent in the overdubbing stage where a lot of creativity, fun and experimentation is going on.

Arranging

Arranging a song can be challenging but you can make a song as simple and complicated as you want it to be. If you’re just starting out keep things as simple as possible.

Learn from the masters. Put on your favorite songs and carefully listen to the song arrangements, vocal harmonies, effects and production. Listen to each individual instrument and how it falls into the musical landscape of the song. Learn and listen as much as you can.

Finding Musicians

If you dare to take on the challenge you can record the whole song yourself, programming drums, recording the guitar, bass and piano tracks or you can find musicians from your area who can help you out.

If you don’t know any musicians or you lack the skills to do it yourself you can also find musicians online and collaborate or hire a professional musician who’ll record the track at a reasonable price.

Finding Instruments

If you are doing most of the recording yourself you want to have great drum, bass and keys sounds. Most DAWs already have great build-in instrument plugins you can choose from but if you want to step up your game you can check out some of the recommendations below in the post.

Editing

You want to edit each instrument track right after recording, so the next instrument you record will fit and match perfectly. First compare your duplicate tracks and pick the best recording for the song.

Fix any timing issues. You can do this manually or with use of a time-stretching plugin.

Clean up the recording track by cutting out all kinds of unwelcoming buzz, hum, or hiss noises between audio sections.

Mixing

Mixing can go two ways. You can learn to mix the song yourself or you can hire a professional to mix your tracks for you. Hiring a professional engineer with years of experience who uses high quality equipment can really make the song stand out and lift it to a much higher level. If you do hire a professional it’s important the engineer understands your vision for the song.

You can also learn to mix yourself which is a skill an art that takes a lot of practice and time to learn. You also need the appropriate equipment or mixing plugins to get the right results. If you just want a nice song and not for commercial use you can learn a lot by yourself and mixing can be great fun.

For mixing you need at least grasp the basics of mixing like level, panning, dynamics processing, EQ, and time-based effects.

Mastering

After the song is mixed and exported to a single stereo audio file there’s the final stage of processing we call mastering. Here you enhance the overall track through additional compression, EQ, tape and tube saturators, limiters, and other signal processors. Again, you can learn to do this yourself or outsource it to a professional. If recording remains your hobby and getting your song on the radio is not your priority you can skip the mastering and enjoy your final mix instead.

Sharing and Promoting Your Song

Once your song is finished you can upload it to online streaming platforms like Spotify, AppleMusic, Soundcloud and Youtube. You can use a website like Distrokid to make life easier for you and manage all these platforms in one place. You can then promote your songs via Social Media or build your own website and share your music with your friends and the rest of the world.

Action

Setting up your own home studio might sound a big step, but it’s easier than you think. Just take it one step at a time. You probably already have a computer, so you can start with a DAW, a small interface, a microphone, monitors or headphones and you can start making music. Along the way you can expand your setup anyway you like.

Have fun creating music!

High Quality Affordable Equipment:

Note: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Large Condensator Microphones:
Audio Technica AT2020
Rode NT1-A
Blue Microphones Bluebird
sE Electronics 2200a II
AKG C214

Audio interfaces:
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2
Presonus Studio 24c
Audient iD4 MkII
Steinberg UR22C
IK Multimedia iRig HD 2

Studio monitors:
KRK Rokit RP7 G4
Genelec 8010A
IK Multimedia iLoud MTM
Mackie XR624
Adam Audio T5V

Head phones:
Audio-Technica ATH-M50x
Sennheiser HD 206
Sennheiser HD 25
Sony MDR-7506
Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro

Popfilter:
Nady MPF-6
ASFSS6-GB Dual-Screen
Stedman Proscreen XL Popfilter
Avantone PS-1 PRO-SHIELD
Blue THEPOP Universal pop filter

VST Instrument plugins:
Specatrasonics Trillian (bass guitars)
Toontrack EZdrummer (drumloops)
Spectrasonics Keyscap (pianos and keyboards)
Spectrasonics Omnisphere 2 (synthesizer)
FXpansion Geist 2 (drummachine)
Vienna Symphonic Library (strings)

FX plugins:
Klanghelm MJUC (Compressor)
DMG Audio Limitless (Limiter)
FabFilter Pro-Q 3 (Equalizer)
Audio Ease Altiverb 7 (Reverb)

I wish everybody an awesome new year from the bottom of my heart. A new year means a new start with new opportunities, new goals, new challenges, new ways to be creative and new chances to really improve and upgrade your guitar game!

I personally love the beginning of a new year. For me it’s a moment to think about who I want to be, what I want to accomplish and how I want to redesign and improve the quality of my life.

I know, not everybody does new years resolutions, but I see it more as a way to set positive and true intentions for 2021, creating a new start that makes you feel good about yourself, to challenge yourself and to set your dream goals in motion and have something to look forward to. Yes, you can do that anytime of the year, so why not right now?

I always start with writing down my goals. Some goals have been on my list for years, they are continuous goals, but I have certainly achieved some of my new goals as well. I’ve got goals for music, body, mind, work and family. You could also create categories like happiness, fun or whatever you come up with, but for me these are already integrated into the other categories.

I like to have some continuous goals, some end goals, new exciting goals to challenge myself, goals to have fun with it, and goals to feel alive.

Think about the person you would like to be at the end of this year. What would you like to have accomplished? What would make you feel good? What skills would you like to develop, improve and acquire?

Let’s get specific here. What are you guitar goals? Do you want to learn new songs? Expand your chord vocabulary? Improve you licks, soloing and improvisation skills? Learn to write songs? Practice more and really make more time for your practice and schedule it? Don’t let these thoughts just wander in your mind. Write them down on paper.

Research tells people who write down their goals are much more likely to achieve them. So write them down. Believe me, it’s fun, and it will pay off!

Here are some of my goals, intentions and challenges for the year:

Music:

Improve my guitar skills (soloing and improvisation, licks and intervals) write songs, record songs, do daily or at least regular vocal exercises, learn and memorize a repertoire of songs, Play and jam with other musicians and friends, and hopefully perform before a live audience again.

Health:

Wim Hof Method, run, no snacks or treats in the morning and after 8 p.m, drink 2 liters of water per day, daily stretching/yoga, and sleep at least 7 to 8 hours.

Mind:

Discipline my mind, read more, meditate, live in awareness throughout the day as much as possible, learn to see the beauty and the joy in everything that I do including chores, tasks, and things I normally don’t like as much, and let go of control.

Work:

Wake up early to do work, outsource things to other people that can do them better and faster than me, or to turn it around, do more of what I do best.

Family and friends:

Quality time with my family. Listening and talking with my kids about things they enjoy. Pause and observe my kids when they are being kids. Let them be free to explore their own journey. Spend quality time with my wife. Spend one on one time with each of my kids. Schedule more time with friends.

I hope you accomplish your goals, intentions and challenges in the year 2021. I would be great if you could share some of them in the comments. I’d appreciate that and I’d love to read them.

Have a great year and stay safe!

I was all ears and loved every minute of it. While listening to his wisdom and beautiful melodies something struck me.

It was one of those wake up calls when suddenly you can see things very clearly. I had a strong urge to change some things in my life again. I needed to get my priorities straight and get back to what is most important in my life. I have done so.

Sometimes with everything that life has to offer, you get lost or off track. You are distracted or tempted by things that look interesting and sound amazing at first. Before you know it you are in over your head. You taste, but end up tasting too much of it. It does not fulfill you anymore.

It does no longer match your identity. Times are changing and so are you. You grow, experience, learn many different things that can change the course of your life. You might become confused about your current situation. You might doubt your job, your lifestyle, the way you play guitar, the band you play in, the music you play, your role as a musician, what you need to practice, how you spend and manage your time, what you want in your life and what you don’t want in your life.

You might ask yourself: Is this the right path? Is this the way I want to continue? You can’t figure it out and you are too afraid to let go of it. You might have started out with something that has grown and grown bigger. You are attached to it for whatever reason. The bigness of it all will make it seem more important than it really is and that can be quite misleading.

The time you invest in something creates a certain value but at the same time it can become a burden.
Maybe your values have changed over time, you might have new dreams or you wanna change or adjust your lifestyle. Maybe you underestimated or overestimated the choices you made or you are just being busy without any sense.

When you find yourself in a situation like this, it can be difficult to find a real honest answer and make a decision about it.

What you should do is observe and listen. Open your ears and eyes to whatever is out there. Pick up signs. Be open to whatever comes your way. There will be a moment when somebody will tell you a story, you hear a song on the radio, you watch a documentary or something in real life will happen that leaves you with a clear answer. At that very moment you will know what to do.

Here are some ways to speed up that process, get you back on track and continue to being your true self:

1. Read stories written by people or about people who inspire you. Read books, blogs and magazines you love. Reading will expand your horizon. It can help you find a way out.

2. Listen to people who can be objective. People who are wise or honest in your opinion.

3. Do something different from what you normally do. Try it for a day, a weekend or a week.

4. Take a long walk outside where it’s quiet. Alone! ( Not to the mall. )

5. Meditate or take some time to relax. ( e.g. drinking tea without the distractions)

6. Write down your questions and worries on paper. Write down pros en cons. Write down your wishes and dreams on 43things.com Write down anything that comes to mind. When you write, things often become clearer.

7. Socialize with friends, family and strangers.

8. Be honest to yourself and others. Let go of your ego. Your ego will stand in the way of beautiful things, improvement and real growth.

9. Play or listen to the music you truly love.

10. Stop worrying about what others may think of you. Don’t let others decide for you.

11. Be fearless, be bold, be courageous to do what you think is best for you.

12. Don’t follow, but lead your own way. Even if it is a lonely way. It will be rewarding.

13. Make a decision. Let it cool for a week or 2. If you still feel it is the right thing to do, act on it.

14. If you make a mistake, learn from it. Don’t regret it. Move on. Better things will come. Every mistake is a lesson learned.

Sometimes you have to do what you don’t like to get to where you want to be. – Tori Amos

All you really need is an instrument to play and then you need to get going, working your way up to becoming a better musician. A very efficient and fulfilling way to do this is becoming a minimalist musician.

Stop focusing on all the stuff you think you need to improve your playing. It will not. Practice improves performance.

A lot of stuff will only distract you from reaching your goal. As a musician it is tempting to keep buying the latest gadgets, hottest gear or recording equipment, but in many cases it will eventually end up somewhere in a corner. I don’t say you shouldn’t buy gear or recording stuff, but keep it basic and to a minimal. The less stuff you use, the more authentic you will be as a musician. If you do buy some recording equipment, use what you buy, use what is is meant for. Don’t leave the dust to settle. You know who you are. :-) Write songs and record them. Brilliant ideas won’t stick in your head forever. They deserve to be recorded and put on paper. Buying is the easy part, actually recording is a different matter. It’s great fun but you also need some persistence. Keeping things simple makes it easier.

Being a minimalist musician is about sticking to the essentials, being focused on your music with the least distraction, feeling good about yourself and trying to become as authentic as you can possibly be. Play, write, perform and record authentically. Don’t strive for perfection, strive for authenticity.

Here are some suggestions to becoming a minimalist musician:

– One acoustic guitar is all you need.
Make sure this guitar sounds amazing and plays nice and smooth. It needs to be comfortable for you so it is easy to spread your ideas out on the fingerboard.

– One electric guitar. Buy an all round guitar like a stratocaster or a guitar that fits your needs and particular style. Too many guitars is too much hassle.

– Use minimal effects.
Maybe just a reverb or chorus. Maybe your amp already has a reverb.
The less effects you have, the less dependant and distracted you are, the more you can concentrate on real music.

– 3 channel amplifier.
Go for a 3 channel amp with sparkling clean, bluesy distortion and an overdrive that rocks the hell out of you. This way you don’t need extra fuzzes, super monster X blaster distortions and blah blahs. Keep it basic.

– Use a cable instead of a wireless system.
Wireless systems are messy. You need to switch batteries all the time and if something is broken you need to figure out where the problem lies. Again it’s more stuff.

– Focus on guitar playing. When you practice you practice, when you write you write, when you record you record. There are so many things that can keep you distracted from what is essential. Time is lost easily. Make sure you keep away from distractions. Turn off the internet, TV, mobile phone, etc, Stay focused.

– Memorize songs, chord progressions, scales, etc.
Try to memorize what you learn as fast as possible so you don’t need a book or laptop in front of you all the time. Memorizing music makes you a better musician and a more flexible one.

– Make sure you know your repertoire. Learn your music thoroughly so that you feel good about playing in front of an audience. It also gives you more confidence with every new piece you learn. What is a musician without a repertoire?

– Wear easy clothes that you feel comfortable with.
As a musician you don’t need much more than a good pair of jeans, a t-shirt and some sneakers or flip flops. Whatever you’re wearing make sure you can move around easily on stage and feel flexible when you need to jump, sit, kneel, turn around or whatever.

– Always keep your stuff in the same place.
It’s great to you know where your (minimal) stuff is, so you don’t need to look where you put that damn capo or your collection of picks every single time. Keeping things in the right place makes life a hell of a lot easier.

– Make sure you feel lean and fit. Work out. You need to be in good shape mentally and physically to practice, record and perform. You fingers also appreciate some good warm up exercises before you get started.

– Compact gear setup.
Again, If you use minimal gear you don’t have to carry a lot of stuff around everywhere you go. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just bring your guitar with you and one or two other things so you don’t have to worry about anything else besides playing great music. Strive for a minimal setup.

Possession isn’t nine-tenths of the law. It’s nine-tenths of the problem – John Lennon