Hey Friend,

I thought today, since it's FRIDAY(!!!), I'd take a little departure from the straight-up chord instruction and give you a little peek into the possibilities  that await you as you get more and more familiar with all the various chords and voicing. Get ready for some fun!

So far, we've been covering many of the standard basic chords everyone learns as beginners. I've been introducing you to many of the shapes and neck locations for these chords - I know I'm going outside the normal curriculum of most guitar teachers, but there tends to be more growth when there's a lot of stretching involved...

... and you know how much I love pain and torture... ;-)

You're getting a solid introduction to versatile chord position and shapes so you're not locked into any one position (like down in the first three frets). By showing all these extra chords, my hope is that you learn and grow faster in your guitar skills than most other folks.

Which brings me to today's share.

As you know, I like to keep my eyes open for interesting approaches to making music. I've been fascinated with Jazz voicings and how I can incorporate them into the songs I'm writing. The problem is, I'm not as familiar with what I'm playing from a technical standpoint. What I mean is, I find these interesting chord sounds by accident. 

I do this by placing my fingers on the fingerboard in shapes I know, and then I start moving my fingers, one at a time, to different positions, or to another string, strumming after each change to see what the sound is and if my ears latch on to something interesting in that sound. It's not scientific or planned - it's just me experimenting.

Ideally, I'd be able to dig into a course in chord theory to really get a handle on what it is I'm playing. I think about taking an online class at Berklee School of Music all the time, but unfortunately, my money's going elsewhere right now. Now if everyone I write to every day decided to get a copy of Easy Power Chords, it would be  a different story... sorry, couldn't resist the shameless plug! 

That said, I read an article about a Berklee grad who plays metal guitar, but uses what he learned at Berklee studying Jazz guitar. Dude's name is Dave Davidson (I like his name) and he periodically writes a column for Guitar World Magazine. 

His newest is titled "Incorporating Jazz Chords Into Metal," and has an accompanying video where he demonstrates the technique. When he plays each example at full speed, it's a little tough to fully appreciate what he's doing, but in the video, he breaks down a couple progressions and explains what he's doing.

I won't lie - he gets technical, but your ears will be able to discern what he's doing and make sense of it, even if he's talking above most of our heads. Don't worry, there's no arrogance there - he's just explaining  everything based on theory. 

Check it out, listen to what he's doing and see if it resonates with you. You might like the idea or hate it. But there's really useful stuff there, even if you have to tuck it away for a while until you're more comfortable on the fingerboard. Oh, and send me to Berklee - buy a copy of Easy Power Chords! :grin:

Peace~

Dave