Last time I made a lesson on how to use a guitar capo, I left out an important bit of information: how to transpose properly so that you remain in the same key as the rest of the band.
Today that’s what we’re talking about.
Random Fact: Did you know ‘capo’ also means a mafia boss? Ok.. back to guitar.
So the rule of thumb that I get into in the video is basically this:
If you move the capo UP X number of frets, you need to transpose your chords DOWN by the same number of semitones. Follow that? Each fret is a semitone, right? so in order to maintain the balance, if you go up with the capo, you need to go down with your open chords.
This might be a bit confusing, but keep in mind you’re not actually changing keys. The only sense in which you’re changing keys is in that you’re changing to the open chord formations of a particular key. The whole idea is to remain in the same key right?
Hopefully that becomes more clear in the video. Any questions… you know what to do.
One of the questions I’ve been asked now and again is ‘What chords sound good together?‘
Well, there are a couple of ways for me to answer that question I suppose. I could show you specifically, and I could teach you the reasons why chords sound good together so you can figure that out on your own.
In a way, I’ve done both. Today’s beginner lesson shows you all the chords that work well together in the key of C. Simply, they are: C, F, G, Am, Dm and Em. In the video you’ll see that you can put these in literally any order and they’ll sound ok.
In the lesson I actually randomly play these chords in any order, to demonstrate that although it doesn’t end up sounding like any song you know, there aren’t any clashes -- these chords all work well together.
Over at OneFourFive.com I’ve take the time and gone into much more detail which chords work together which each other, but rather than giving you all the specifics, instead I teach the concept of I IV V and how to apply that to finding all the chords in any given key, in a matter of seconds. I’d recommend checking that out if you haven’t already.
Leave a comment below the video and let me know if this was useful for you or not. If so, I can make some more videos showing some of the other common keys as well.
The open D chord can actually be a lot of fun. For the purposes of this lesson, I’m assuming that by now you at least know some of the basic open chord formations… so this lesson is going to expand ever so slightly upon that knowledge. We’re only talking about the open D chord, but this handy little guitar tip can be thrown into literally just about any song you’ll ever come across that has a open D chord in it!
I use Dsus all over the place. Technically the sus I show you here is a sus4.
Quick Theory Lesson:
Wherever you see (sus) it is short for suspended -- it means you’re raising the the second note in the chord (in this case F#) a semitone to G, which is the fourth of D. F# is the third note in the scale… normally you need a root note (D), plus a third (F#) and a fifth (A) to build a chord. Suspending changes the third to a fourth. Confused? I hope not. But you can learn some guitar theory here.
Back to the lesson…
These simple little tricks you can play on the E string, while playing an open D chord, can really add dynamics to whatever song you’re playing. Enjoy…
A lot of you beginners have mentioned to me that you’re at the stage where you’re working on chords, so I thought that today I would bring you a handy little video which very simply focuses on open chords, how you play them and what they sound like.
I’ve included a chord chart beside each one I teach right inside the video.
The major chords that are covered in here are: A, B, C, D, E, F, G
The minor chords that are covered in here are: Am, Bm, Cm, Dm, Em
I fully realize there are a LOT more chords out there, but with the handful I’ve just listed you can play probably 90% of the songs that are out there. Cm doesn’t even need to be in that list, I kind of threw it in because it is just like Bm, but moved up 1 fret.
If this lesson is about the right speed for you, you might consider checking out Jamorama. Their entire course is chock full of these types of examples, though done much more professionally than I’ve done here! =)
Last time I made a lesson on how to use a guitar capo, I left out an important bit of information: how to transpose properly so that you remain in the same key as the rest of the band.
The open D chord can actually be a lot of fun. For the purposes of this lesson, I’m assuming that by now you at least know some of the 
