Personally I love just grabbing my guitar… and noodling.
I’ll pick a key, whatever strikes my interest at that moment, and start noodling just for enjoyment… and often times, I’ll end up coming up with a cool progression or something that could be turned into a song.
This lesson will give a few of the nuts and bolts that can help you build a framework for creating progressions or songs on your own. You need to know what guitar chords work together, and you need to know what scale you’re working with, and you need to have some idea of how those work so that you can use them to start getting creative.
Today’s topic is the difference between major and minor chords. Perhaps you’ve noticed this before, but the difference is only a single note! That note is the 3rd. The other two notes in the chord are the root note, and the fifth -- those notes are the same regardless of whether you’re making a major chord or a minor chord. So the difference between major and minor is quite minor, really.
Anyways, this is a handy bit of theory to know, but even better is seeing the thirds pattern and how it can be used on the guitar. Major thirds and minor thirds are some of the sweetest sounding harmonies you’ll hear, so it really pays to learn how to use those intervals on your guitar.
If you’re not familiar with the scale degrees, and how they can be used like numbers, you might want to checkout my lesson on Unlocking I IV V, as it explains that in detail.
This video is really just an introduction to thirds, but stay tuned -- I’ll be doing more on this topic in future lessons.
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.
Here’s a good old classic rock tune for today’s lesson: Fortunate Son. It’s got a great intro riff that will be instantly recognizable by anyone you play this for. Did I mention its also easy-peasy? Most of the riff is built on inverted third intervals (whew that’s a mouthful!). What I mean by that is the root note is on the B string, and they’re adding a third up from that root note (4 semitones), but dropping it an octave, thus inverting it (normally the lower note is the root, but in this case the lower is).
Take a look at the Em7 chord (barred, root on the 5th string -- 7th fret) and ignore the bar part. That is the first formation in the riff, right? The notes that are being played are B (4th string, 9th fret) and G (2nd string, 8th fret). The root note is the G, and we’re in the key of G. If you count up from G 4 semitones (G#, A, A#, B) you hit B. B is therefore a major third of G.
If you can figure out the theory behind this, you can start to see broader applications for the patterns that are being used in this riff (different keys, songs, etc). Let me know if you’d like to know more and maybe I’ll do a whole lesson on this topic.
You can also check out Blues Guitar Secrets as I know that course gets into the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of blues guitar, as opposed to just the ‘what’ which is pretty cool.
One other quick note. If you want to see the video larger, don’t forget you can click the button in the bottom right corner of the video player for full screen. You can also click on the HD for high definition (much better quality picture and sound).
Thus, without further ado, I’d like to present Fortunate Son (drum roll please….)
Leave a comment below and let me know what you think of this lesson. Do you like learning songs & riffs? Prefer something else? Have a favorite song you want to learn? Remember, GuitarTipsWeekly is very much a work in progress and I’m experimenting with different things to see what works best, but in order to do that I need to hear back from you as well.
