Hey Friend,

Today's exercises are various chord changes between A major and B minor, the I and IIm chord in the key of A major. The exercise files are two individual downloads - one is the PDF of the lesson, and  the second an MP3 for you to hear how the chords sound. These are straightforward, so no need to dwell on them. Just download and start practicing.

Last night I started listening to an interesting Livestream by Steve Krenz. I know for most of you that name doesn't ring a bell, but Steve has been around for quite some time.

He's a Nashville studio musician and recording artist, and years ago, he created a DVD course called Learn & Master Guitar. After years of success, Gibson Guitar became involved and the course evolved into Gibson's Learn & Master Guitar. Check it out here if you're at all interested in a full course.

I bought this course years ago when it was just Steve, and it was good then. They re-shot a lot of the videos with him playing Gibson guitars when it was re-released. Gibson also put quite a few lessons online with Steve teaching.

Steve now does a weekly Livestream from a Nashville guitar shop. He talks gear, playing different styles and brings in guest artists. 

Anyway, one of the archived streams is on chord substitutions. This is where you take a basic progression and swap out basic chords with ones that give the progression a more interesting sound. He called the lesson "The Money Chords" because it focuses on chords studio musicians use to create a unique sound and vibe for a song. Downloads are here.

This lesson ties in nicely with what we've been doing here. Now if you're just starting out, this will be a bit more advanced, but the chords aren't necessarily any more difficult than what I've been teaching. They do use some different chord forms, but that just highlights what I've been saying about getting a wide range of sounds out of chord play.

Steve's lessons are live on Tuesday nights, if you're interested in checking them out. Enjoy!

Peace~

Dave