Transcripts
1. Guitar Chords Basics Intro Skillshare: Hello, my name is Sasha and welcome to guitar chords basics. In this mini course, you will learn how to play basic major and
minor guitar chords. On top of that, I
will show you how you can practice chord changes. And I will give you some different
strumming pattern ideas and exercises.
2. Open Chords Major Minor Explained: In this lesson, I want to
make you familiar with basic open guitar chords. We already had
power chords which contain two unique nodes. And the courts I
will show you now contain three unique nodes. So we are adding another node to the root node and the five, and it is called the third. And there are two kinds
of thirds you can play, a major third or a minor third. And depending on which of
these you are playing, the chord can sound more happy. More set. So you can basically play
every chord in major or minor. I will show you the courts
that are most common. So I won't show you every
court in major and minor. Of course I will show you all the important
major open chords and some of the minor chords
which are pretty common. Alright, so let's start
with the first chord, and this is the E chord, which you already know as
power cord. So the E5. And what we're doing now
is adding a third and an E chord is very common
in major as well as minor. So I will show you
both versions of it and we start with
the minor version. So instead of playing only
the lowest three strings, you can simply play all strings. The important node or the important string
here is the G string. Because this is what makes
the chord sound sad. And then the other two strings, the P and the E string, our chest top of notes. So we have to be already here. And the open E string, we already have which
to open low E string. Okay, so that's
an E minor chord. What's really important
here is that you shouldn't lay down your
fingers like this. Because you have to
hear the open G string. If you lay your
fingers down like this, you won't hear it. That's very important
in general when you play open chords, okay? And when we want to play the
E in major, E major chord, then we have to add our index finger on the
first fret, G string. And the ring finger and middle finger are under
precision as before. And here you can also
play all the strings. But the important note
is again the G string, but in this case
the first thread instead of the open G string. So also make sure to not lay
down your fingers like this. Okay, that's an E major chord. E minor. Happy, sad. Okay, Let's continue
with an a chord and I will show you also the minor and major version of it. Let's start with the minor
version because it's pretty similar to
the E major shape. So first put your
fingers like this, like you would
playing power cord. Then you add the index finger
on the first fret B string. And then you have
an a minor chord. You can also play the
open E string down here, because it's also
just a doublet note. Okay, so it's the same
shape as the E major, just one string down below. So E major, a minor. This is a shape that
is pretty easy to memorize when we want
to play in a major. We have to move the third, which is here, one thread
up to the second fret. So instead of playing
in this position, we have to move our fingers
and play the chord like this. So all the fingers are
on the second fret. Index finger on the D string, middle finger on the G string, and wing finger on the B string. Then you can play from the
a string down all strings. So a major, a minor. Okay, next chord is an E chord, which we already know from
the power courts as well, from the open positions. And that will also show
you the minor and major. Let's start with D major, because it's pretty
simple if you already know that D power chord. So this is the D power chord
and foreign D major chord. You simply have to add your middle finger down here on the second
fret high E string. And it's also very
important to you that you don't let your fingers
down like this. So make sure to always use
your fingertips for the court. Okay, now when we
want a D minor, we have to move this node, the second fret on
the high E string down to the first fret
on the high E string. So then the court
goes like this. So index finger on
the first thread, high E string than wing
finger on the third fret, B string, and middle finger
on the second fret, G string. Okay, So D major, D minor. So the next chord is C major. And this is the
first chord which is not based on any power cords. So it's going to be
completely new for you. And this open chord
you will mostly need in an major shape. So I will only show you that. Okay, So this isn't
C major chord. So put your index finger
on the first fret, B string, your middle finger on the second fret, D string. And your wing finger on
the third fret, a string. So you have a string, D string. The G string is open, so you have to be careful that your middle finger is
not laid down like this. So always use the fingertips. And you also have the B string. And what you also can play is the open high E string because
it's also doubled note. This Court's probably needs
a little bit of practice. And as I said before, the most important thing
is that you don't lay down your fingers like this because
you always have to here. G string in this court. Okay, so the next chord is a
G chord and I will show you the major version of it because the minor version
is not pretty common, at least for a beginner. So G major. This is also a chord where
you need all six strings. And we start with our pinky down on the high E
string, third fret. Then wing finger on the
B string, third fret. You have an open G
string, open D string. Then the index finger on
the second fret, a string. Then you put your
middle finger on the third fret. Low E string. Very important here is the wing finger that
you're also tones, lay it down like this
because you have to hear the a string and if you lay
down, you won't hear it. So make sure that every single node is winging when you play
the card like this. What you also can do
with this chord is just releasing the index finger
and plate-like this. So just the ring and pinky and the middle finger
here on the third fret. And you're muting the a string automatically when you
put your finger here. And then you have
a G power chord. Because then the court only contains the root
node and the fifth. If you add the index
finger on the second fret, a string, you have the
third, major third. Okay, so I think this also needs a
little bit of practice, but you will get there. Okay, So the last chord
I want to show you for now is the F chord, also only the major version? Okay, So we start down here
with the index finger, which grabs the first fret
on the high E string, entropy string at the same time. So it's kind of a power, so it's called bar. When you play multiple strings
with one finger like this, then you have to put
your middle finger on the second fret, G string, and then the ring finger on the third
fret, D string. So there are actually no
open notes in this card, but I have to include it because it's a pretty
common cart. You will need. Same here as on the
previous cards. Makes sure that every
node is ringing and that you don't let your
fingers down like this. So always use the fingertips
except after index finger, which is, which is playing two nodes on to
individualize strings. Okay, So now take your time, get familiar with the courts. And in the next lesson, I will show you some tips how you can properly change between
different courts.
3. Practicing Chord Changes: Alright, so after you
have learned each card, the next thing you want to
practice is to change between those cards because that
is what happens in songs. There are a few cards and you have to change between them. And you want to have the
changes as quick as possible. And in this video
I want to show you four chord changes
which you can practice. Alright, so the
first one is simply from G major to a D major. This is a chord change which
happens very often in songs. And it's also pretty
simple chord change because the node on the ring finger here
on the third fret, B string stays the
same on both courts. So when you are on the G, just have to release
your pinky and the middle end index
finger and put the middle and index finger
down on the te precision. Then the same back to the CI. With the ring finger, you have
some kind of anchor point. We don't have to
release your whole hand from the fretboard when you
change between the courts. So you can simply play these
two chords back-and-forth, just how we want it like this. So the next chord change is
from C major to a minor. This is also a pretty
common chord change. And these two carts sharing two finger positions
which are the same. So you only have to move your
ring finger if you're on the C here down to the
second fret, G string. So here you also don't have to release all your fingers
from the fret board. It's way easier if you just
move your wing finger. You can also practice
this chord change like the change before, like this. Okay, so now on the
third chord change, it gets a little bit
more complicated. And this is from D major
to a major, E major. This chord change.
You have to release all your fingers when you
change between the courts. But the notes are not that
far away from each other. And that makes it a
little bit easier. And you can also do it
in the other direction. So we can start with the E major, like this. So feel free to be creative. The most important thing
here is that you get a smooth transition
between each chord. So the fourth core changing
pattern is simply playing all the courts that
I've shown you in the previous lesson in a row. And that means you
start with E, a, and T court's first major version and then
the minor version. Then you go to the G, C, F. Okay? So you really have to
practice these core changes a lot because
you want to have a very smooth and quick
transition between each card so that you are able to play your
favorite songs.
4. Strumming Explained: Alright, so in this lesson, I want to show you a few
different strumming patterns and how you usually play them. Strumming has to do
with the right hand. So it basically means
strumming a chord. Until now what we usually have done is playing cards like this. So we only use downstrokes. And that's a great way
in a rock with context. But let's say we want to
play a more slow song, more palette style song, which also uses more open
chords like a G major, D major, C major. So let's play these
chords in eight nodes, just like I've played
the power chords before. Okay? So it also sounds good, but not in every context. And basically, this also
was a strumming pattern. It's straight eighth
notes, downstrokes. But there are a lot of more
options that you can do. The simplest option that
I want to show you now is simply instead of playing
only downstrokes, you play down and
upstrokes like this. This sounds much
smoother and I simply played downstrokes,
upstrokes alternated. The first stroke is a
downstroke on the one. On the end. We do an
upstroke and that's general. And all numbers we
do a downstroke and on all ends
with an upstroke. So lag 1234, and let's
say only on the G chord. Okay, so that's a pretty simple eighth notes
strumming pattern. I will show you a few more
different strumming patterns in the following exercises. But before we go into
that too important tips. So the first thing is
that you don't have to play the full court when
you do an upstroke. So in this example, we
have an open G chord, which takes all six strings. And when you do an
upstroke, it's enough. If you only play like
three or four strings, mostly the highest strings. Like this. If you would play
all the strings from the highest to
the lowest string, it would sound a
little bit weird. It's Willy enough here. If you only play a few of them. On the downstroke, of
course you play all. And on the upstroke, just a few. General, the
downstroke is always more emphasized
than the upstroke. At least in this example when we play straight eighth notes. Another tip is that you
should hold your guitar pick very relaxed when you do up
and downstroke strumming, that you're sliding very
smooth above the strings. Alright, so now I have fun with the following
strumming exercises.
5. Strumming Exercises: Right.
Sascha Rebbe
