Hey Friend,

Continuing with the song idea I've been working on...

Here are the exercise files if you missed them. 

The second chord that has worked its way into my brain in this song idea is along the same lines as yesterday's - equally scary to see named, but not too bad once you play it.

The chord is Eadd11(no5)/A, and as you can see, there's something a bit different than any other chord we've talked about (notice the 'no5' part?).

Again, in the key of E major, this is an E chord, except that we lose the five note (B) from the chord. Remember, here are the notes for the E major chord: E, G# and B

If we wanted to, we could easily get that five note back by barring the first four strings with our index finger. That would give us the B note on the first string, seventh fret.

But in order to maintain the airy feel of the chord, we let the first string ring out open, which doubles up on hte E note

We GAIN the 11 note on the fourth string, seventh fret, which is A. 

The E chord is constructed using the E major scale. Here it is:

The notes for the Eadd11(no5)/A are:

You can see the power chord shape here. In fact, if you moved the shape down to the fifth, fourth and third strings, you would have an E5 power chord. Because we're working over the first four strings, the tuning is a little different due to the second string. Instead of the resonant, clean-sounding power chord, we get a little dissonance to give the chord an expectant feel with the A note.

Going into the next chord, it's just a regular E major chord. I want you to put on your analytical ears and just listen to the change between the Eadd11(no5)/A chord and the E major chord. Try to isolate each note in your mind so you can actually discern the note changes.

Notice how the feeling changes. You go from having a sound that leaves you wanting what comes next. It's kind of like a cliff hanger chord - you are inclined to move to a chord that feels like the phrase is complete. That's what the E major chord does.

Using chords in this way creates movement in a song. The chord progression draws you along, naturally pushing you to want the next chord in line.

We are all designed to want balance and completeness. None of us like to feel like something is incomplete. This is burned into our human DNA. 

When you learn how to create chord progressions that serve the feeling of the song, you can very effectively build stories that take people through whatever emotion you want them to feel.

Alright, we'll finish out the last chord tomorrow. 

Peace~

Dave

P.S. You saw just one power chord shape in the Eadd11(no5)/A today. It ended up NOT being a power chord, but the shape worked to create something sonically interesting. There are other power chord shapes you can use to experiment and see what kind of new sounds come out of it. I've shown a handful more power chord shapes in Easy Power Chords. Check it out here.