Easy Chords To Build Off Of The Open F and Dm Shapes 

While learning new chords can often be daunting, even the trickiest chord shapes can feel not so scary when you’re able to relate them to shapes you’re already comfortable with. Any chord shape can be mastered with enough practice and elbow grease, but you might be surprised to learn just how many chord shapes are out there where you’ve already put in the bulk of the effort without even knowing it

  A lot of guitarists will either jam on a scale or play chord shapes they already know. Scales and chords are often taught as separate entities, and many guitarists never think to blend the two. However, this kind of thinking can be pretty limiting. Within each scale lies all of the chords in that key. If you learn how to find chords in a scale, It can be easy to incorporate them into otherwise s

It can be difficult to keep track of all of the different types of chords, as well as their relationships to each other. However, understanding different chord qualities is important for songwriting, improvising, or just all around being a musician. I’ve found it helpful to think of different chord types as a spectrum, much like the color spectrum. Below is a simple version of this spectrum that c

Why Are Inversions So Important? After getting past the beginning stages of guitar (open and barre chords, strumming patterns, learning songs) playing rhythm starts taking a back seat. For many, lead guitar becomes too appealing to ignore. Improvising and learning solos is a no-brainer when compared to repeatedly strumming the same chords over and over. Did You Know That You Can Improvise with Cho

  We spend a lot of time and attention on learning how to play improvised solos. When we think of improvisation in music, the first image that likely comes into our heads is of a soloist tearing through scales and arpeggios. It makes sense that the focus is on improvising solos; not only are improvised solos integrated into otherwise pre-composed to a degree that other would-be improvised elements

Sixth chords are often overlooked. They sound great and can add some wonderful color to a chord progression, but, like many other chords that break-away from tonal music’s standard pattern of nothing but stacked thirds, they don’t get much attention. Guitar methods and class curriculums often exclude them, teachers seem to sometimes forget about them, and many guitarists just never get around to r

  Have you ever been having fun jamming with some friends, only to have one of them yell “Let’s try a blues in D!”. Then you watch in abject horror as everyone else effortlessly jumps into a set of chord changes you don’t know and no one takes the time to explain to you? Teary-eyed, you watch your friends tear through some righteous blues licks as your unplayed guitar grows in your lap. When I fir

  While learning new chords can often be daunting, even the trickiest chord shapes can feel not so scary when you’re able to relate them to shapes you’re already comfortable with. Any chord shape can be mastered with enough practice and elbow grease, but you might be surprised to learn just how many chord shapes are out there where you’ve already put in the bulk of the effort without even knowing

  When you first learn to play guitar, the focus is generally on big open chords that use all or most of the guitar’s strings. However, something that may surprise you is that some of the notes in many of your open chord shapes aren’t really necessary. This is because all of your basic major and minor chords actually only have three unique pitches in them. As a result, any basic major or minor cho

  Although power chords are a staple of many guitarists’ toolkits, many players remain unaware that power chords can be far more versatile than they are generally given credit for. By altering just one note on a common power chord shape, you can create an entirely new chord that still retains many of the sonic qualities that have made power chords so beloved. Additionally, it’s easy to