Sweet Little Guitar Chord Positions

Earlier this week we discussed bar chords and how they are sometimes inappropriate to the musical setting. Of course for many learners they are also an important hurdle on the learning curve.

For these two reasons it can be useful to have some alternatives to playing bar chords. In this lesson I'm going to share a few little closed chord positions I've learned. These positions can be moved up the neck to play any chord and they leave more space for other instruments in a band.

A Major Chord Shape

This first set of shapes is based on the familiar open A chord shown in the diagram below.

Notice the positions of the root, third and fifth notes in this shape. All three occur on closed strings, you can create any major chord with these three notes. So simply by moving the three fingers up the fret board you can play other chords: B at the 4th fret, C at the 5th, D at the 7th and so on.




Major 7th and Dominant 7th Shapes

The A chord shape can be easily modified to create major 7th and dominant 7th chords with the fingerings shown below. Again, these shapes can be moved up the fret board to play other chords.

Another Major Chord Shape

Now, look again at our original open A chord, notice that the three bottom strings also provide the three notes needed for a major chord - the root, third and fifth. So if you move these three notes up and down the neck you can play all the major chords with this shape too.

Here's the fingering you can use to do this.

Now, you have two different ways of playing the chords up the neck that sound slightly different - these are known as chord voicings.

You can alter this second voicing to create some useful additional chords with the fingerings shown below.

Minor Chord Shape

To end this lesson here's a three note minor chord voicing that I find very useful. It is played on strings 2, 3 and 4.

I call this chord the Steal My Kisses chord because I learned it when I learned to play that Ben Harper song. The note on the second string is the root note, so when you play it with this string fretted at the fifth fret you get Em, at the eighth fret you get Gm and so on.

This lesson has shown you how you can play any chord by taking a portion of the standard open A major chord and turning it into a closed chord position - a fingering that leaves no open strings.

Now you have seen how this is done, why not take some other chord shapes you know and see what you can do with them. Hint: the open D major is another shape that works well like this.

Learn acoustic guitar with 153 step by step video lessons, acoustic jam tracks, ear training and music reading software. From beginner through to advanced player with Jamorama Acoustic complete learning system.

Learn more about alternatives to playing bar chords...
Bar Chords: Do You Have to Learn Them?
5 Alternatives to Playing Bar Chords

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5 Alternatives to Playing Bar Chords

So you're having a hard time learning bar chords? Don't despair, as discussed in Bar Chords: Do You Have to Learn Them? you may not have to play bar chords at all, there are many other ways to create effective music with your guitar. In this post, we'll take a closer look at some of the alternatives you have to playing bar chords.

You can use these alternatives if you don't feel ready to learn bar chords yet, or simply as a temporary fill in so you can play the songs you want to while you take the time you need to perfect your bar chord technique.

1. Maximise your open chord knowledge. There are many possibilities to create interesting open chord fingerings. Explore some chord dictionaries or learn how chords are built and make up your own open fingerings around the neck.

2. Learn to transcribe songs to keys that are open-chord friendly, e.g. E, A, G or D. Then you can play all your favourite songs with open chord positions.

3. Learn to use a capo. A capo transposes for you so you can play almost any key with the basic open chord positions.

4. Learn to play power chords. Power chords use only two or three notes and can be played all over the neck without a bar. They are an easy way to get familiar with chord positions further up the neck that you can use later for your bar chords.

5. Learn small closed chord positions. There are many two, three or four note chord positions that can be used instead of a full bar chord. In a band these are often more effective than the bar chord because you leave more space for other instruments in the harmonic mix.

Conclusion

If the mention of bar chords inspires fear and anxiety in you then relax with some of these alternative playing techniques. You can use them to express yourself musically without the bar chords.

In the final post of this series on Friday you can learn more about the small chords mentioned in item 5 above.

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Guitar Joke: A Strat walks into a bar

Seems like there aren't a lot of guitar jokes around, but here's a funny one I came across the other day, A Strat walks into a bar...

Do you have a guitar joke? Please share it as a comment by clicking the comments, or Post a comment links below...

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Bar Chords: Do You Have to Learn Them?

Bar chords are a sticking point for a lot of guitar learners. Most of us find them hard to learn and we usually pass a long stage wondering if we will ever master them.

Some of us decide we will never be able to learn them and give up, thinking that we could never play our favourite songs without this skill. But this is unfortunate, because maybe bar chords are not essential to becoming a guitar player...

Do You Have to Learn Bar Chords?

Do you really have to learn bar chords to become a guitar player? The answer is no, you don't really have to.

Of course, not learning bar chords removes some playing options, but many others have built careers as respected musicians without playing bar chords, so why not you?

Bar chords are useful because they allow a guitar to create a rich harmonic background including many of a chord's notes. This rich, thick sound can be useful to fill the space in a small group.

But there are other techniques that allow a player to focus on more subtle aspects of the music. If you develop good skills in this area you could even find yourself ahead of fellow guitarists that play bar chords.

As famous blues guitarist, singer and songwriter Keb Mo put it in an interview with Acoustic Guitar magazine,

"... my problem is that guitar players are notorious for playing too much and too big in band situations. It's so easy with a guitar to play too much or play the wrong things, too thick.

In that mid range, the keyboards, the vocal, all that stuff is in the same range, fighting for a place to exist. Playing subtle rhythm guitar is such an art.
...
So when a guy doesn't have that sensitivity, I start flipping out, when he starts playing big power chords, too much on the bottom strings, compromising the textures that are coming out of the whole band, not finding those little sweet spots that help deliver the message."

So, you know what to do, don't worry about the bar chords and start looking for those "little sweet spots". Later this week Not Playing Guitar will bring you more ideas on playing alternatives to bar chords and little chord positions that could be right in those sweet spots...

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Online Guitar Applet - Ear Training Tool

Beginner guitar players interested in developing their ears to recognize the sounds of chords should be interested in the Online Guitar applet from Apronus.

When I recently tried this web software I admit I was sceptical because of the fretboard layout. The chords are not in the same place as on the guitar fretboard. It seemed to me that this was not a good idea as it won't do much to help guitar students learn chord positions on their guitar neck.

But I tried playing a couple of song progressions using the applet and I found it was quite easy to pick out the desired chords using the mouse. The sound is good on my laptop PC and makes it easy to hear the different chord changes. After playing with the applet for a while I found myself actually enjoying picking out some of my favourite songs and I got a whole different perspective on them compared to the guitar.

So, why are the chords not laid out like a real guitar neck? Here's what Michal Wojcik, the creator of Online Guitar applet has to say.

"Chords on our online guitar are located in the special ergonomic order. In this order tonics, dominants and subdominant chords are close to each other for most scales, so it should be convenient to play simple accompaniment for known songs. We hope that this makes our online guitar a useful tool for people interested in playing guitar that want to discover chords for songs by themselves."

The important thing to keep in mind is that the Online Guitar applet is really an aid to figuring out a song's chords by ear. It could even come in handy as a song writing tool to make up new songs of your own. And in these uses it isn't really limited to only guitar, it could be useful for students and players of any instrument.

One small thing that could be improved in my opinion is to use small letter 'm' to denote the minor chords as is more usual in musical notation. The capital M used in the tool makes me think of Major which is a little distracting. But this is only a minor point and not a real hindrance.

I think the keyboard controls would actually be a better way of playing the chords but I was only able to give this a limited try. Some of the keys on my keyboard didn't produce any chord, maybe due to the AZERTY layout of my keyboard...?

In conclusion the applet is a useful little ear training tool. I think I will use it to try picking out chords to songs I want to learn, it could be a nice way to get a quick first match on the chords to play.

Try out the Online Guitar Applet for yourself. Please leave a comment to let us know how you enjoy using it and if it helps you.

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7 Ways to Make Guitar Practice Fun

Does your guitar practice feel like a tiresome series of drills, exercises and long repetition of mistakes? If so then finding ways to inject some fun into your practice will benefit you.

When you enjoy practice you'll do more of it and improve faster. When practice seems like a dull and uninspiring activity you are unlikely to look forward to it. You'll find excuses to put it off and one day you might discover you're not practicing any more at all.

Here are seven ideas that can help you to make your guitar practice more fun.

1. Variety is the Spice of Life

There are many guitar methods in book, CD and video form and they cost relatively little. Whatever you're working on don't hesitate to get several tutors on the same topic. The change of exercises and different perspectives of several sources will make learning and practice more fun.

2. Practice in short bursts

Limit your practice sessions to 15 or 20 minutes maximum. When the time is up, stop and do something else. You can do several short sessions per day, but by keeping them short, you'll maximise concentration and minimise boredom.

3. Limit Repetition

Don't repeat any exercise more than 3 to 5 times maximum. Focus on doing the best you can those few times and then you're done. Move on to something else.

4. Plan in Advance

Spend a little effort to plan interesting practice activities. I recommend you set aside a dedicated time for this each week, 15 to 30 minutes should be enough for most of us.

5. Playtime

When you plan your practice you'll want to include a maximum of effective activities to move you forward. But don't cram your practice time 100% full, leave a little space to goof around with a song you like, explore some idea or just see what weird sounds you can get out of your guitar.

6. Backing Tracks

Practice with jam tracks or play along to video lessons. You get more involved and the practice is more like making real music in a band.

7. Practice Partners

Backing tracks are convenient for working at home any time you want. But practice with live musicians is another good way to improve your skills and have fun at the same time. If you have a guitar teacher as if they can suggest another student with similar musical interests you could practice with.

Learning guitar is supposed to be fun. Don't fall into the trap of putting yourself under too much pressure to be better, enjoy what you can play today and better will take care of itself with time. The more fun you have the more likely you'll stick with the guitar and reach your playing goals.

Do you have a favourite trick for making your guitar practice more fun? Share your experience in a comment by clicking the link below. Thanks, Gary.

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Custom Music Paper with Staffnotes

How do you note down your current guitar lessons and practice tasks? I recently discovered Staffnotes, a free tool that let's you print customised pages where you can mix music notation and your written notes.

Staffnotes is a web page created by Dan Comerchero that lets you position elements on a page using the mouse. You can choose from music staff, tab lines, lines for writing notes and a guitar neck or piano keyboard diagram. Once you've chosen the elements you want and arranged them on the page you simply click the print button to print your custom music and notes paper on your printer.

Here are some useful things you can use Staffnotes pages for:

• Plan your practice by listing chords and licks to work on with practice points in the notes area
• Track your practice progress by adding notes as you work through the tab or music score you planned
• Take notes during your guitar lesson
• Write notes on music theory next to the notes illustrating it
• Capture ideas for your next lick, solo or song
• And if you're a music teacher Staffnotes is ideal to create lessons for your students

Time Saving Tip

Here's a little tip to save you time re-creating your page layout each time you want to print more sheets. Install yourself a PDF printer driver (free PDF printer drivers). Then you can print your Staffnotes layout to a PDF file and print further copies easily from the saved file without going through the layout process again.

Staffnotes is a simple tool that makes it easy to create pages where you can keep music notation and your notes about it in one place. No more will you lose that sheet where you wrote down the stuff your guitar teacher told you about that piece of music you are working on...

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Line 6 BackTrack: Record Your Guitar Practice

A short while back I wrote about 8 Reasons Why You Should Record Your Guitar Practice which showed the benefits of recording your practice sessions. I recently came across the Line 6 BackTrack portable recorder which is an ideal tool for this. The BackTrack makes it easy to record your entire session and mark important points to review and keep at the touch of a button.

"Inspiration is spontaneous, and BackTrack(tm) is your guitar’s instant replay button. Easy to use, BackTrack captures everything you play without ever hitting record.

Always on, BackTrack begins recording as soon as it detects a signal through the sensitive mic or the quiet 1/4-inch input. Just set it and forget it for total inspiration control.

Pressing the “Mark” button designates what you just played as special and separates it for easy review. The Forward and Reverse buttons provide instant recall of marked and non-marked ideas."

The BackTrack includes 2GB flash memory that offers up to 24 hours recording time and 8 hours battery life. This should be plenty for most practice sessions, and the unit includes a USB interface so you can easily transfer the audio to your computer for storage or editing.

The Line 6 BackTrack comes in two versions with 1/4" jack only at $88.00 (£58.05) or with both the jack and a built-in microphone for acoustic recording at $149.99 (£98.00).

Mark your good parts to keep a record of the new things you've learned. Mark your weak points to help you work on them and improve. The Line 6 BackTrack is an ideal practice companion that should help you to easily record and store your guitar progress.



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Ear Training - GuitEarIt Review

This article reviews, GuitEarIt, a computer game that trains you to recognize guitar chords by ear. I got this game as a free bonus with the Jamorama guitar course and I have found it a fun and effective way to build my ear skills. Read the review to learn how GuitEarIt can help you improve your ability to recognize guitar chords by ear.

Learning to recognize chords by ear is an important part of learning to play guitar. It will help you to identify the chords in your favourite songs so you can learn to play them. You will also be able to join in with a jam session or play along with a band more easily when you can recognize chords and chord changes by ear.

What Is GuitEarIt?

GuitEarIt makes training your ears fun by turning it into an easy to play game. It's a software program for PC or Mac computers that will give you practice recognizing chords on the guitar by ear. GuitEarIt can be bought on its own or you can get it as a free bonus when you buy the Jamorama guitar course.

How Do You Play and Learn?

GuitEarIt plays you a series of chords strummed on a guitar and proposes four multiple choice options for the sequence of chords that was played. You have up to four guesses to identify the correct sequence of chords and you score points according to the number of guesses you take to identify the chords - the fewer guesses the more points you get.

Your objective is to score enough points to move on to the next level where you'll be trained for more guitar chords played in more complex progressions. As the games get progressively harder you get better and better at recognizing more varied chords.



Who's It For?

GuitEarIt is very easy to install and play and can be used by any guitar player wishing to improve chord recognition skills. The game requires no guitar playing skill so it is suitable for complete beginners as well as more advanced players. It is very easy for children to use too.

You'll get most benefit from GuitEarIt if you use it regularly - a little session every day being ideal. It takes only five minutes to play a game so this shouldn't be too hard even for time pressed guitarists.

Conclusion

GuitEarIt is a simple yet very well designed game that really works. Regular practice has brought me noticeable improvement in my chord recognition skills. At only US$29.95 it's a good investment in your guitar playing and musical skills. It's worth knowing that you can also get it as part of the Jamorama guitar learning course, for only a few dollars more than the price of GuitEarIt you get a whole multi-media guitar learning course too.

Learn more about GuitEarIt.
Learn more about Jamorama.

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Guitar Soloing Tips

Today I'm sharing a great post I came across that shows you how to make an amazing improvement to your guitar solos. In his article and video demonstration, brought to us by Guitar Noise, Tom Hess explains how to improve your phrasing and melody to make better guitar solos. In Hess' words...

"There are lots of ways to make guitar solos. Most guitarists focus on ‘what to play’ versus ‘how to play things’. Fact is, the nuances of phrasing (’how’ the notes are played) often matter MORE than the notes we actually play."

The article and its accompanying video show you three specific techniques you can apply today to pack more emotion and nuance into your playing. You'll also learn a valuable practice approach to develop your phrasing and feeling further.

Enjoy the tips... And why not come back and leave a comment to let us know how you got on with them... How to Make a Great Guitar Solo.

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Learning and Memorizing Songs

A month or so ago Street Musician posted some useful tips on learning the words to songs by heart. Street Musician's intense approach involves saturating your brain with the song for a short period so that the words and their structure are burned into your brain for ever.

The other day I came across an unusual way of looking at song structure and words. It uses a flow chart, more commonly associated with process descriptions in business and engineering. Joey Devilla posted a Hey Jude flowchart for the words to the famous Beatles song.



Who knows, maybe this way of looking at things could be just the thing to help songs stick in your brain... What do you think, could flow charts be the next big thing in song learning? Or maybe you have an alternative method that helps you memorize songs easily? Please leave a comment to share your experience...

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I-IV-V Chord Progression Guitar Lesson

The I-IV-V chord progression is probably the most common in popular music. It is the basis of the blues progression and is also used in many rock, pop, folk and country songs. In this lesson we'll take a look at some example I-IV-V chord progressions that use easy open guitar chords.

The I, IV and V chords in the major key are all major chords. In the following examples you'll become familiar with the sound of these major chords in D major, G major, A major and C major keys. You'll also get the opportunity to practice the chord changes using beginner guitar open chord positions.

The examples use a slash to denote each strum and use only a simple four strum rhythm pattern so you can focus on the chord changes of each progression.

Examples in Key of D Major

   D         G         D         A
||: / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / :||


   A         G         D         D
||: / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / :||

Examples in Key of G Major

   G         C         D         G
||: / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / :||


   G         D         C         G
||: / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / :||

Examples in Key of A Major

   A         E         D         A
||: / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / :||


   A         D         A   E     A
||: / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / :||

Examples in Key of C Major

   C         F         G         F
||: / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / :||


   C         G         F         G
||: / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / :||

Conclusion

Knowledge of widely used I-IV-V chord patterns helps you to learn to play songs on your guitar. When you know how to play and recognize progressions based on these chords you will be able to easily play many songs and develop your ability to recognize them by ear.

This lesson has shown you eight examples of I-IV-V chord progressions to practice. When you've mastered these progressions have some fun as you make up some more of your own. Remember that you can play with the rhythm patterns and timing as well as the order of the chords.

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