Subject: More Guitar Questions From You...
You are getting this e-mail because you subscribed to it on www.learn-to-play-rock-guitar.com. If you don't want to receive these e-mails any longer, go to the bottom of this message and click on "unsubscribe." Hey there Friend, Are you ready for more question and answer? Let's get started.Continuing in the vein of guitar chords, I received a request from Seun, who would like "to know how to play chords from the neck to the last fret of the guitar." Seun, I'm going to point you back to the five basic chord shapes: C, A, G, E and D These chords can be moved from their open position up the neck to any fret and give you the ability to play every major chord. What do I mean by that statement? It's probably best to start with an example. Place your fingers on the guitar in the D chord shape. Your index finger goes on the third string (G) at the second fret (the A note). Your middle finger is on the second fret (the F# note) of the first string (e) and your ring finger is on the third fret (D note) of the second string (B). Chord Relocation Program If you strum those three strings together, you have successfully played a D major chord in the open position. If you keep your fingers in the same shape and slide them up the neck to a different location, you will end up playing another major chord. Which major chord it is in the new position is determined by the notes being played on these strings. If you'll recall, that was the D note in the open position. Slide the shape up two frets (yup, slide each finger up two frets) and you'll be playing an E major chord. This is because the new location of the fingers give you the notes that make and E major chord - E, G# and B. The E note is the fifth fret on the second string, the G# is on the first string, fourth fret and the B note is the third string fourth fret. Now it's not important at this time to know the notes that go into each chord (although I wouldn't discourage you if you wanted to learn them all!). You really don't need to know anything more than the chord shape, but in the interest of education, I'll continue to feed you whatever extra information I can to help you become a better guitarist. The same process can be used with any of the basic chord shapes. You can simply maintain the same shape and fingering and move the shape up the strings to play the next major chord. Slip Slidin'... I know you're clever, so you're probably wondering how to know whether to slide up one fret or two (or five, and so on). This is where natural notes and the major scale come into play. The C major scale contains all the natural notes (no sharp or flat notes). Once you learn the pattern that makes up the C major scale, you can use the spacing between each note to determine where the next major chord belongs on the neck. At that point it's just a matter of remembering the position for each of these chord. In case you need a little refresher, the natural notes in the C major scale (and key) are C, D, E, F, G, A and B. You have to memorize the pattern that specifies each interval (space) between consecutive notes, but it's pretty simple. I've covered it before, but at the risk of sounding like a broken record or skipping CD (I know, retro), here it is again: Whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step You can go all shorthand on it like I do with "whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half," or even further with this: W W H W W W H A whole step is equal to two frets on your guitar. A half step is equal to one fret. Let's apply this to the C major scale. On your B string, place your index finger on the first fret. This is the C note. Slide it up two frets (a whole step) and you're at D. Slide another two frets (whole step) and you're at E on the fifth fret. From the E note to F is a half step, or one fret. Move your finger up another two frets from the F note and now you have the G note (you should be on the eighth fret now). Two more frets up (a whole step) is the A note, another two (whole step) and you're at the B note on the twelfth fret. Finally, slide up one more fret (the thirteenth fret) or half step to complete the scale on the C note. Of course, the five basic shapes aren't the only ones we have, but they're a good start to get you familiarized with playing chords in different positions on the neck. Does that make sense? I hope so. When I started understanding some of these basic ideas, things really started clicking for me with my guitar playing. As always, if you need me to explain this in a different way to help you understand, make sure you send me an email by replying to this message. Songwriting This leads me to a question from Brandon. He writes, "My goal is to have enough knowledge of guitar to be able to write my own songs." All this talk about chords can be extremely helpful to you, Brandon. Songs are the result of three things - melody, harmony and rhythm. Chords are considered the harmony part of this equation. But chords are created from the notes that contribute to your melody. And rhythm can be affected by how you play the chords in your song. So chords are a fundamental that can really help you create some very interesting song ideas and compositions. When you know the chords that fit together well within a particular key (there's a pattern for that), you will find that pattern for the chords follows the same pattern for the major (or minor) scale.. Something not so apparent is that the notes of the scale are also the notes used to create each of the chords that work in that key. So all these components work together in a cohesive manner to help you compose music that sounds right to our ears. Have you ever noticed when you play a wrong note in a song? Your ears intuitively know when a note doesn't fit in the context of the song. The more you work at learning notes, scales, chords and how they work together, the easier it will be to find melodies and chord progressions for the songs you create. Guitar is a great tool for songwriting, and you probably already know enough about melodies and basic chords to start building out your ideas. Without trying to sound overly simplistic, I think if you can play one chord, you've got enough knowledge to start writing. I can't tell you how many times I've had songs grow out of sitting down and playing one chord. I hope some of that helps, guys. Have a great weekend! Peace~ Dave Dave "Eddie" Vance is a rock guitar enthusiast and gear nut. He has been playing guitar for over 30 years and enjoys tormenting the neighbors every chance he gets. When he's not slaving for the man, you can find him rocking out with his B.C. Rich Bich guitar, a cold beer and some sweet tunes. He also runs Learn-To-Play-Rock-Guitar.com, but you knew that already! Follow Learn To Play Rock Guitar:I welcome your feedback! Did you like today's message? What other topics would you like to see covered in my e-mails? Please let me know at: dave@learn-to-play-rock-guitar.com As always, please feel free to forward this email to a friend! I review products before recommending them. If you buy a product based on my recommendation, I will receive a commission. However, my emails also contain links that don’t require any investment on your part and are jam-packed with "juicy, guitar learnin' tastiness". We don't rent or share your name with anybody. Feel free to forward this issue to any friends you think would enjoy its contents. They will thank you. So will I.
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