Here are 2 very commonly used chord shapes. The Am7 shape can be a little tricky. Notice the ellipse around the 3rd finger in the chord diagram. It should be laying flat on the neck playing those 3 notes as a bar. If you move this chord down 2 frets (towards the tuning pegs) , it becomes a Gm7. Practice shifting from the GMaj7 shape to the Gm7 shape. Do this slowly remembering that clean tones are what you want to hear. Click on the … [Read more...]
Some Thoughts on Improvisation
April 8, 2009 by 1 Comment
Literally, volumes have been written on the subject of improvisation. These are some of my thoughts on what I find to be one of the most pleasurable and satisfying aspects of playing music. Be Musical: Being musical is a very difficult statement to try to quantify for everyone. The reason of course is that there are so many different types and styles of music that it is almost impossible to make a definitive statement about what being musical means. But … [Read more...]
Guitar Lessons: Learning the open chords, part 2
April 8, 2009 by 1 Comment
Like in part 1, in this lesson we will work on shifting between chords. These shifts are a little trickier but with some practice you will be playing these chords in no time at all. Click here if you're not sure how to read the chord blocks. Click on the diagrams for an MP3 audio example. 1) We'll start by playing the A Major, A Major7 and A7 chords. Play the A Major chord. Strum it trying to have each string ring cleanly. Now remove your first … [Read more...]
Guitar Lessons: Learning the open chords, part 1
April 8, 2009 by 3 Comments
Learning the open chords need not be a difficult task. In fact, if you look at the similarities between some of these chords you will see that often only one finger needs to be moved to play a different chord. These lessons are designed to help you see these similarities and get you playing the open chords cleanly and help you to memorize them. Click here if you're not sure how to read the chord blocks. Click on the diagrams for an MP3 audio … [Read more...]
Basic Music Theory Lesson 7: Chords, Harmonizing the C major scale adding the 7th note
April 8, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Just like we did in lesson 6, we are again going to harmonize the C major scale except this time, rather than just using triads (3 notes) we are going to use 4 notes. To harmonize the scale, we simply take the 1st 3rd, 5th and 7th notes of the C scale and spell them out. C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C C E G B Then we start again from the 2nd note in the scale and count the 1st, 3rd , 5th and 7th notes from that point. C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C D F A C … [Read more...]
Basic Music Theory Lesson 6: Chords, Harmonizing the C major scale with basic triads
April 8, 2009 by 2 Comments
In this lesson, you are going to have to start using some of the concepts learned in lessons 1 - 5. What we are going to do is "harmonize" the C major scale. To harmonize the scale, we simply take the 1st 3rd and 5th note of the C scale and spell them out. C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C C E G Then we start again from the 2nd note in the scale and again count the 1st 3rd and 5th note from that point. C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C D F A Again from the 3rd note in the scale, count the 1st 3rd … [Read more...]
Basic Music Theory Lesson 5: Chords, basic triads
April 8, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Hopefully in lessons 1 through 4, you have seen that there is a "logic" or "formula" that can be applied to work out major scales in all the keys. While memorizing all the scales in all the keys is useful, in my opinion, it is more important to memorize the logic behind how they are derived. Similarly, there are formulas that can be applied to determine or construct any chord in any key. What is a triad? A triad is a combination of three notes … [Read more...]
Basic Music Theory Lesson 2B: Minor Scale Construction
April 8, 2009 by Leave a Comment
The minor scale (also called Aeolian) is a major scale with its 3rd, 6th, and 7th degrees flattened. As we saw in lesson 2 (major scales part 1), the placement of tones and semi-tones is what gives each type of scale its individual sound. If we take the C Major scale and flatten the 3rd, 6th, and 7th degrees, we get the following placement of tones and semi-tones. If you were to start on any note and apply this order of tones and semi-tones ( T, ST, T, T, ST, T, T) you would end up playing … [Read more...]
