In this video lesson you’ll learn how you can cut your bar chords down to size, and still get a great result.
The cool thing about this is that it takes a lot less finger strength to make the chord (you’re not actually barring it), and in addition, you’re getting a totally different and unique sound now from the something you already knew!
The basic idea here is that you take the exact same notes you were playing in whatever bar chords you’re using, but now you just hack the chord in half and only play the top 3 or 4 strings on your guitar.
This really gives the chord a higher sound, which can really help cut through the rest of the band, and it can stand out very nicely from another guitar player who is using the same chords, but perhaps is playing them as open chords instead.
Practice these two patterns -- the major pattern and the minor pattern, and get used to thinking about the root note being on the first string instead of on the 6th string.
The other pattern in there that I realized I didn’t show too clearly is just an open D form, but moved up. The root note for that one comes off the second string.
Here’s a good song to practice your bar chords on: All Along The Watchtower. Many different artists have done versions of this song over the years. It’s a pretty cool jam tune, so if you’ve got a friend who plays guitar as well (or bass), why not rope them into a jam session, and you can trade off on the rhythm and practice your improvising?
The chords for All Along The Watchtower basically go A -- Bm -- A -- G, so the most challenging part is getting the rhythm right.
Any other songs you’ve always wanted to learn? Leave a comment below and let me know which ones they are!
Today I’ve got another easy finger picking pattern for you and your guitar. I used a very simple and mellow chord progression in this lesson, and there are literally tons of different directions you could go with it.
I tried to give you a couple of different ideas on how you can change up the progression, but I really encourage you to get creative with this one and go nuts on it.
Start with the E Minor Diatonic scale (or G Major -- same difference) as that gives you the root notes you can use from the key of G. Basically any of the notes in those scales on the lowest three strings will qualify.
Keep your drone notes the same all the time -- the open G (3rd string) and the D on the 2nd string. These two notes are the I and V of the key of G, a perfect fifth, and therefore go well with every other note in that scale, which is the reason why its easy to be creative with this one.
In addition to mixing up the root notes, try mixing up your picking pattern once you get the hang of the one I showed you in here. Try alternating different strings, or use the two strings at a time method I showed in the video.
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.
In this video lesson you’ll learn how you can cut your bar chords down to size, and still get a great result.
