Transcripts
1. Intro: And guitar players lean
towards lead licks and solos as the f that can add that extra spark and interest to a song, which can definitely be true. But Cords can offer so much more than a lot
of people realize. With some really simple changes, you're able to unlock a
huge variety of tones, moods, and musical possibilies. There are a great way of
developing technique, expanding your knowledge of theory and helping you discover that extra sic special when you delve into the
world of songwriting. Hey everyone. My name is Mark. I'm a full time
musician, instructor, and I'm the co founder
of a multi award winning music Charity that helps
people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds, access music and discover
their creative potential. I'm a top teacher
on Skillshare and I've been teaching on
this platform since 2020 with over 20,000 students having now
accessed my classes. This class is aimed
at those already have some basic
guitar knowledge. If you're a beginner, you
can play a few open calls, then this class will really help expand your knowledge and your ability more towards an
immediate level of playing, then there will be
a range of ideas and tips on how you can maximize your musicianship and also gain some new understanding
along the way. If you're at the very beginning
of your guitar journey, then I recommend checking out
my beginner guitar class. This will take you from
the absolute basics right through a wide
range of songs, scales, calls,
exercises, theories, songwriting, and so much more. But if you've already got
that groundwork done, then it's time to explore
the wonderful world of guitar calls a lot more. We'll start with a set of beginner friendly calls and then gradually see how subtle changes can unlock the fret board, develop finger independence, and demonstrate
the huge array of options that are
available to you when you start to combine these
elements and techniques. Approach will help
broaden the types of songs and styles that
you're able to play, but also arm you have a
ton of knowledge that can be used for composing
your own music. There will be suspended
chords, sevens, inversions, and we will look at how we can utilize each of these to add that extra bit of interest and intrigue to the call
progressions that we're playing. I'm a firm believer
that everyone has unique creative expression, and much like all
my other classes, there will be plenty of
opportunity here for you to start to discover
and explore yours. If you wish to check any
of my other classes, there will be links
around for you to visit, a lot of them follow on
nicely from each other. So there's plenty for you
to get creative with. Qatar chords are a thing of beauty with endless
possibilities. I look forward to sharing and exploring them with
you. Take you.
2. Class Project: The class project.
This is an opportunity for you to share what you've
been creating and achieving, but also a chance
for us to learn from and be inspired
by each other. I'd love for you to take
any of the calls or call progressions that we work
through in this class, record them and the upload to somewhere like
SoundCloud or YouTube, and then share that link
with the community here. Or if you don't wish to
share everything publicly, you can just e mail
me that privately. This is a supportive community
we're building here, so hopefully you don't
feel too much pressure. Either way, it'd
just be great for you to take part in
this class project. Cause recording yourself is another brilliant way for
you to learn and develop. If you can do a
video, that's great, or if you just wish to do audio, that's no problem at all. The next level of
this class project, if you want to go there is to write your own care progression. Everyone has unique creative
ability and expression, and this is a chance to
start exploring your be as simple as taking a chord progression that
you already know, then changing the
order of those chords, mixing up the strumming pattern, finger picking
instead of strumming, and then you are literally
writing your own music. So wherever you're
happy to share, I hope you get involved, it'll be great to hear
what you're up to. I love hearing what
students create. Reach out to me if you've
got any questions, just jump into the next video.
3. Open Chords: With this class, I'm
assuming that you already have some basic
guitar called knowledge. If not, I've got a
complete beginners guide to guitar that you can go and check out if you need to. But to make sure we got
everything covered, let's have a quick
little look at what a called actually is. That's when we're taking
three or more notes and we're playing them
together at the same time. Most commonly, you're
going to hear calls referred to as major and minor. If we was to take a D
major ca, for example, That major cold would be
constructed with the first, the third, and the fifth
note of that scale. The first, also known as
the root is here at open D. If we then go down to the second threat
of the E string, we find that F sharp, that's the third
note of that scale. And the fifth which completes our major cold is the second
threat of the G, our A note. A third finger is just
reinforcing that d, plan another D note there. We have a D major. Now, to make any major
called a minor cord, we take the third
note of that scale. In this example,
it's an F sharp. We flatten it a half
step or one threat. That F sharp becomes
an F. That D major with one note difference
now becomes a D minor. The F sharp has been flattened
to become an F. We're going to start with four
very beginner friendly cords in this class, a C major. A minor. F major, and G major. If you're not too
familiar with these cads, the call boxes are
coming up we'll have a quick little look them. C major, stretched across
free threats with an open G and an open high E. We move one finger down
to form our A minor. A third finger goes to
the second fret of the G. We come across to an F major. We're not playing any
other open strings here. We're just putting
out the D G and B, and then a big change over
to our full bodied G major. Quick thing to pick up
on with the F major. Very often, you'll see that high E incorporated
within that cord. And also, a very common
shape is to bring that third finger up
and our little finger just plays where the
third finger was. That's actually an F
major seven over C, but we're going to talk
more about that later on. So these four calls
that we've got, we're playing in the
key of C, C major. Every cod that we've
just played is constructed from the notes
that exist in the key of C. C D F A C. Each of those coords have got a combination
of those notes. So we know these cods are going to work
beautifully together. If we just single
strum them again, let's pick up on the first tip when you're working
on call progressions. We want to look for
something called an anchor. When we move from that
C major to A minor, you notice how our
first and second finger do not leave the fretboard. Makes our job so much easier. Because only our third
finger has got to move and slit underneath
that second finger. When we move to the F major, our first finger hasn't
left the fretboard. We formed those
three strings, D, g, B, but our B was
already in place. A minor over to F. Now, when we jump from the F to
the G, there's not an anchor. But we still want
to make sure we leave our fingers as close to
the fret board as possible. See a lot of guitarists early on in their journey,
which is no one's fault. It's natural to pull
their fingers far away, reshape everything, and then
come back to the fret board. But if you think, the
further you go away, the furver you
have to come back, you're just giving
yourself extra work to do. Miss all those
miniseconds that stop our play and become as
fluent as we want it to be. F major over to G. Keep those
fingers nice and close, and look out for that
anchor whenever possible. Another great
example is D major. Up to an A major. A first finger has it
left the fretboard. See how it stays on
that second threat of the G. We can then move from A major to E. First finger is not in
the same position, but it's on the same string. I only has to move
back ever so slightly. That combination is beautiful
for utilizing an anchor and also making minimal movements to ensure everything's
nice and fluid. Another good example, E
minor, down to A minor. Second finger didn't leave
the threat board. D minor. Up to G major, third finger
didn't leave the fretboard. Always look out for
these little moments. It's a great first
tip to throw you because it will do wonders for increasing the smoothness that you're able to put coal
progressions together. So get comfortable with
those first four alts. Single strums are
fine. Now let's take it a little bit further
with a strumming pan.
4. Strumming Pattern: Let's start to add a strumming pattern
to this progression, to make things a little
bit more interesting. If this early stage
is a bit basic oia, feel free to jump on
to the next lesson, if not, let's practice those
calls a little bit more. So a C major, we're
starting with that. We're going to add a down,
down, up, up, down up. Nice and fluid with a wrist. We don't want to be too
tense, nice and loose. The last strum signals that
we need to get to the next. If that F to G is a bit hard. It's the hardest
jump and change in this progression, you
can just single strum. For now, and gradually build towards being able to
feel that strumming cut. Another option with this F. You can just slide it up. And we can still form
that G major cord. This is what this class
is going to be full of. A lot of these
suggestions that are hopefully filling
some gaps for you, and making you realize
possibilities that are out there. We don't just need
to be confined to that open G major shape with something else so close by that gives us a different
tone, a different mood. Also means we have to do
less with our fingers. That F, cause we're
moving the whole shape, there's no open strings. That means we're not
changing the cold if there was open strings there, and then we moved up and
get a very different feel. Because it's free notes, free strings that are fretted. If we just move
everything along one, using our chromatic scale, which is a great
thing to know if you don't already,
that'll pop up now. We've gone from F to F sharp. And then if everything
moves again, we've gone to G, and that could be moved up
the whole fret board. G sharp. A. Move all
the way up here. We've got D, the whole fret
board is available to us. So that F to G. Lovely. And then back to see. No, it's our first finger didn't
leave the fretboard. Just as to slide back on that B string. Get
comfortable with this. And in the next lesson,
we're going to start to explore a ton more options
that are available to us, and we can see how we
can really start to add some interest and intrigue
to these basic ds.
5. Sus & Add Chords: We're now going to
look at suspended and add chords in
the open position. We're going to look at
some examples of these, and then we're going to add
them to the core progression that we've started to formulate. First up, a suspended chords, or you'll just see these
written as SS cords. We're going to use
the D major scale to help us with this example. So a great shape to learn, if you don't already know it is our second finger onto the
fifth that of the A string. And then we play this
D major scale shape. Don't weigh too much if
you don't know this year. I'm just using this
major scale as an example of how these
calls are formed, but it is a great one to learn
if you don't already know. We go fifth, seventh on
the A string, fourth, fifth, seventh on the D string, and then fourth sixth
seventh on the G. A nice stretch across three
threats, one finger perfret. L we spoke about earlier. If we was going to
form a major cord, we would take the
first, the root. That's our D note. We
then found our third, 123, that's our F sharp,
and then our fifth. One, two, three, four, five. That's our A, D F sharp and A. And they exist a D major cold. They make a D major cord. A SS called, a suspended cord is removing one of those notes and replacing it
with another one. So a D SS two, which is the first one we're
going to look at, would remove that F sharp, which was found here, second
threat of the E string. We would take that finger off. And instead of an F sharp, we're playing an E. E was the second note 12 of
our D major scale. D E. Instead of F sharp, we play E. Everything else remains the same
in that called shape, and the notes apart from
the F sharp becomes a E. D major D two. We could also make a DS four. The fourth note of D major, one, two, three, four, is a G. D A F sharp G. Instead of F sharp, we
replace that with a G, which is one fret up, one semitone up
from the F sharp, F sharp to G. D S four. Even that on its own is a lovely progression and it is commonly used in a lot of songs. You can stay one called but add a lot of variety and
interest for the listener. And every cord has
those possibilities. We're just using D
major as an example. So when you're ready, go and
have a little experiment with other shapes that you know and see what you can create. Now let's look at an ad cord. So rather than replacing a note like we did
with the SS Cord, we are adding a
note to that cord. Unless you see major this time
as an example to help us. So we can move that shape, that DMajor scale shape. If we move that
back two threats, a root note starts on the
third, instead of the fifth, we go D flat or C sharp, that
we're working backwards. We'll say D flat, and
then C. And you keep the same distance between the frets that we did
in this D major shape, you've then got C major. And this is another
chromatic possibility. That's why it's so good to learn your scale shapes, because
once you've learned one, you can just move that shape
up and down the fret board, and whatever your starting
point is, your root note, if we went to the 12th threat of the A string,
we've got A again. Keep that same separation,
that same distance. We have the A major scale. So the chromatic scale, if you don't already know it,
it's great to learn. It's basically every node
that exists on the fretboard. And once you know
that, you can start to learn where the notes
on the fretboard are. And once you know these root
notes, these positions, these shapes, is very easy to move from one key to another. So we've moved
this D major scale back to a C major scale. We take the first,
third, and the fifth, C A G to make a C
major. They exist here. C E G. We then reinforce the
C with the first finger. And we reinforce the
E again with an open E. If we add a D
note to that cord, we are making C d two. D is the second note
of the Cg scale, C D, and rather than replacing a note like we did
with the SS coords, we're adding a note. I can take that
second finger off. We have an open D. O E
still exists down here. We have a C d two. When it's played
like this, though, with that basi note
added to the cord. It can sound a little muddy. We can make that two a nine. So instead of
playing the D here, the open D, we can play a D
that's in the higher octave. So if you imagine we've
finished that scale, C D E A C, we started it again. We carried on that scale, sorry. The next note would be D. C DG DC D or D also exists there. So if we add that higher D, one, two, three,
four, five, six, 79, instead of two,
We've got nine. Second finger comes back down to play that second fret of the D. And we've added the third
fret of the B string. CD nine. A lovely way to play CD nine, which
is very common. Is like this brings out that high sparkle in
the cold as well. Any oasis fans would have seen these calls used
a hell of a lot. And that's C nine, if you
want to form that for me, so we've changed from
our second third finger on the A and D to our
first and second. Then an open G. And then the B and the E on the third threat. C addi moves beautifully up
to a G major cod, by the way. Think of anchors. We
spoke about it earlier. Third and full finger. Don't have to leave
the fretboard. Other a nice little combination for you to experiment
with there. We've got a C ad
nine here or here. Now let's form a C ad 11. I don't know about
you, but especially when I was first
learning guitar, things like C ad 11, when you'd see that
written down can seem quite overwhelming
and complicated. But hopefully, by looking at it in the way that
we have just done, and you realize that you're
just adding one note. You're taking a major
cold and adding one note to what's
already there, or replacing a note that already exists in the
coord with another. It hopefully doesn't
seem as complicated. So if our C major cord
was formed by this, we could add our
little finger to the third fret of the D.
There's an F note there. Still in the same
sort octaive range, that would actually
be a C add four. The other notes stay the
same, but we've added that F. If we want to make that
in the higher range, so it's a C ad 11, lay your first finger flat. So instead of that open E, we are adding an
F. Lovely C ad 11. Less muddy, got that
nice high ring to it. Another little thing we
could do while we're there, you could relax that
first finger again, so the high E is now muted. We don't want to t for open. O first finger lays flat just to take that
node out again. And if you put
your little finger back on that third
threat of the D, we've now got C S four. Can you see what that would be? We've got our root note C. We've still got our G note, the fifth note of that scale. But instead of any E
notes existing in there, we've muted that high
E, and we've replaced this second threat
with the third fret. So that E has become F. We've now got C F
and G in that cord. It'll be a C S four. So, there's already a
lot of options there. Hopefully, you can see by
applying SS and add cods to your call progressions to the cod you already know
in the open position, there's a lot to play with. Let's now add them to
the call progression that we looked at
at the beginning of this class and see our SAS and add cods start to bring
everything to life.
6. Expand The Progression: We're now going to
play some ad and some sus chords into
our progression. We want to make each bar that
we play slightly different. So each time we go
around those set of four chords that we've
initially put in place, we are going to
make these slight changes to how they're played, how the chords are formed. And it's these subtle
differences in music that help keep a
listener's attention. They might not even directly notice what it is
that's changed. It might not be incredibly
obvious to the listener, but it is these small movements, these small differences
that are retaining people's interest and sparking
their curiosity Also, for our own interest
and creativity, it's really important
to be able to have the ability to make
those changes. You can just play whatever the progression is the
same way every time. There's nothing wrong with
consistency and continuity, but to have the ability
and the option to be able to change things up is a
wonderful skill set to have. We know how the
progression starts. A down down up down up with those first four
basic open calls. We're then going to
add the C at nine. We're going to do an A S two. With the F, we're going
to make that an F major seven over C. And
then we're going to slide this whole
shape up so we get g over D. And we've got the option of bringing
out that higher E, which brings out another ge, sh G. Or if we open that E is G six over D. We've added
the six no at the scale. Use that shape we used earlier. One, two, three,
four, five, six, G A B C D E. G six over D. Don't worry if you
can't keep up with all those changes, I'll
play through that now. Let's start with our
normal progression. And the C N nine. A SS two. Page seven C. Slide. Noice how that strumming
pattern change slightly to accent the D that
comes in on the C nine. On the t. That's when
we go to the SS two. As full bodied F major
seven over C. Sliding up to the G over D or G six over D. Starting to
add a bit more intrigue. Let's do something else. Let's
change up the F even more. We're going to place
our little finger onto the third thet
of the E string, the highest E. We are
playing an F ad nine. I'm going to keep it
on there when I go up to our G. This time, we've got an open
B within the G, though, and there's
a reason for that. I want to take that
little finger. Bring it onto the
third threat of the B, and then bring out that high E. We're essentially starting to bring out lead parts
within those cords. That B string and the high E have got their own
melodies occurring. Let's try and pull him out a little bit more to accent that. Oh That slide up it's a nice option. A little fingers now on the A, you could do a bit of a rundown. You could do a run up
in that first position, so after you've added
the little finger. Run up on the B. Go perfectly C nine. See how those subtle
changes can make a big difference to what was a standard called progression. I particularly love those
little counter melodies that start to occur
within a string pan. Just by putting fingers
on and taking some off. Simple changes keep
as challenged as a player and can keep
a listener's interest. Don't think you have
to do this every time that you're writing
a chord progression. Some tunes are very repetitive, and there's comfort in that. That's fine. But this
is a great option and ability to have.
More often than not. Small changes like this
will be happening in tracks without the
listener even realizing. We started to pick the chords
a little bit more there. When we was accenting
those higher notes, great option to have
with the guitar pick or finger picking. Love a great option to have within your
call progressions. We're not gonna go into that
in a lot of detail now, but I do have a
finger picking class if you want to learn
more about that style.
7. Order Of Chords: Okay, we touched on
this a bit earlier on, but we're going
to expand on what ds work in a particular
key of music. We're going to focus on
a major key for now. If you're aware of all
this knowledge and theory, then obviously,
feel free to skip, but stick with me if you don't. We're going to take
the C major scales. Let's just start by
quickly covering the notes again that
exist within C major. They are C D G A
and C order notes that exist within C major. Now, each of those notes will
have a corresponding cord. And that is called
the order of cords. And each of these
cords are made up from the notes that exist
within that major scale. Those cords will only contain the notes that exist
within the scale. We know that we need free
notes to start to form a cord. And if we was forming a major,
we would take the first, the third and the fifth, C E and G in the
case of C major. And if we wanted to
make that a minor, we would flatten that third, see it would then
instead of an E, we would have an E
flat or a D sharp. C major goes back. To C minor. So after C in that scale, a root note C, we then had d. So there would be a cord
that corresponds to that. Again, comprised of the notes that exist within
the C major scale. Now, usually a D major, we touched on this
a bit earlier, would have the notes
D, F sharp, and A. D major. Now an F sharp doesn't exist
within the C major scale. So to make this cold work
within the key of c, we would flatten that F sharp, one semitone to become F. Remember earlier, we
said D major becomes D minor when the F sharp
is flattened to F. So the D noe that exists
in the C major scale, the cad that would
be constructed from those nodes
would be d minor. So after C, we would
have a D minor. The order of calls follows
like so in a major king. Major, minor, minor, major,
major, minor, diminished. And then we're back to
our home, our major root. Now, diminished might
have sounded a little bit scary if it's something
you've never covered before, but we'll break that
down in a second. So let's just go
through this together quickly. In the case of C major. Start with our C major called, we would then have a
D minor The next note of C was E. That
would be a minor. Again, comprise of the notes
to exist within C major. E major would have
a G sharp in it. But we would flatten
that to a g, and then fix within this
key, so it would be e minor. We didn't have an F major. A G major, A minor, And then a B diminished. So far, we have just flattened
the third in a major cord, which turns it into a minor. In the case of a diminished, you have a flattened third
and a flattened fifth. In the case of B, that would
be a B root note, a D. And the F. Doesn't sound too pleasing A. It's not a chord that
you'll hear that often, especially in your kind of alternative in the
definitely pop music. It's not going to
appear a lot there, but classical and jazz, you will hear diminished chords. On its own, isolated, it can sound a bit nasty. But if you treat it
as more of a passing, it links and resolves
to the C major, it's home quite nice. Makes a brief little appearance, creates that bit of tension, and then resolves to
its home C major. So that's a good thing
to get familiar. We've try and memorize
those order of calls. The major, minor
minor, major major, minor, diminished, then back
to your home, your major. Each of those calls
are adjusted to ensure that they fit within the
key that we're working in. That's how each of
the notes that are taken from the
scale can then have a corresponding that
means if you play any of those cas C minor F g, and then you play some lead. Around the C major scale. All of those notes
are going to work and compliment each
other beautifully. And this is applicable
in every major key. So try that for yourself. Take the D major scale, shift that shape up too. We know we have D, that's
going to be a D major chord. Next note is E, so
that would be a minor. Then we have an F sharp, that'd be F sharp minor. G A would both be majors. We have a B note,
that'd be a B minor, then a C sharp, C
sharp diminished, and then we're back to D. So challenge yourself.
See if you can start to form those cords
in another key. Let's jump into the next video.
8. Explore The Fretboard: Let's start to open up the
fret board a lot more. There's a ton of areas that
we haven't covered yet. And there's a great
shape that we've been working on that
allows us to do that. So we originally looked at the F shape that just
had free fingers. And we spoke very briefly
about the fact that we can move up and down, as long as we don't
have that open E that will change the a lot. If we just kept to
that standard free, following achromatic scale,
starting on F, we get a F, F sharp, G, G sharp, all the way up and
down the neck. Now, let's make that the four bodied F Major seven oversea. And we haven't really
talked about why it's got that oversea
element in it. It's called a slash Cd.
Whenever you see that, so F Major seven overs, you get that little slash. It's called a slash
Cord or an inversion. So to break that down a little bit more, let's
form that shape. So instead of our free finger F, we've gone to our four finger F. I'm gonna cut out
that high E for now. Let's not worry
about that just yet. We played out F Major Cord initially with free.
Our F note was there. That's the root
note of that cord. It's the basis note
as well that's being played at the moment. F major. We've put a third finger up onto the third fret of
the A. There's a C note. Now, C already existed in F. If we wanted
to take the first, the third and the fifth
to make a major cord, using that same shape
we used earlier, F A, C, one, two, three, four, five. F A and C, make an F major cold. So C is already there. We've now put C in the base. So that basest no, the kind of heaviest no on there isn't the root no anymore. It's the C, the C that
exists in F major. So rather than just
being F major, it's F major over C. We're playing an F major
over the C. Other than F, we know that A and C make
up our F major called. We've used C, so that's the second other
note that's there, so it would be a
second inversion. If we add A in the base, and F major called
with an open A, that would be the first
inversion because after F, we have our A, the third node, and then we have
C, the fifth note. First inversion would be A, sounds a bit muddy like that. Second inversion would be
the C. A nicer way to play F major first inversion
so that A was in the base rather than F would be A F C. Quite a stretch, but
a beautiful call. We're going to talk
more about inversions and these kind of shapes
in the next lesson. We don't always call
these inversions because it might be a different
note that's in the base. It might be a note
not from the scale, or not from the cold
that's in that base, so we have to be careful
when we call it inversions. That's why sometimes
they just be referred to as slash Cords because there's
another note in the base. We can call it a slash Cd. If it's from that cold already, so the A or the C
in the F example, it would be called an inversion. So we've got our F major over C. If we open up to the high E, F Major seven over C. E is the seventh note
of the F major scale. 1234 567f A, B flat, C A F Major seven over C. So let's start to unlock the fretboard with
that shape then. We're going to move
our F major overs. We can just move
that up and down the entire fretboard like we
did the free inger version. And we've got the major Cord
and one of those positions. F major seven over C, move that up two G over D. Move it up another two A over
E. E is in the base nae. Move it up to here. C over G. Well just follow a
chromatic scale. So we've just got the
major shape for now. Sounds nice, but for
a bit of variety, we're going to want to know
what the minor shape is. So stay there, we're playing
at C over G at the moment. To make this shape minor, our second finger comes off
and our first finger make sure that it's
pulling out the note that's behind it
one semitone down. So we will go in this example
from the ninth T eight. We just take that
second finger off. C major. C minor, C major over G, C minor over g. If we didn't want the
inversion element, we could do its free fingers. We've just got the C major. First finger make sure it plays the eight fret of
the G. C minor. Let's make it the inversion. That minor shape. Keep the same threats distance applicable up and
down the fret board. W. Let's try and
combine a couple. So we move down to
the A string there. We're starting to form
power cords and bar coords. The great thing about
these inversions that exist within that bar cord, they're basically
a simple version. If we was playing
that C major over G, you think instead of
that first finger just playing the B string, it could bar every string. That inversion exists
within your standard barc. They can be quite
tricky to play. So often, as an option, early on, guitarists
might play this instead. As so important as
bar as are to learn. Great having your locker. This might be easier for
some people, or vice versa. You've learned
your bar as first, but you want something
that isn't quite as booming. Hasn't
got that base. So you play your inversion, your F shape inversion
that exists in between. And then we move that
down like we did just then to the A stream that
is playing the root. In this example, the root is F. We've moved from
that major, C major, down to F. The reason I'm
doing this is so that we have more options available
to us when we go back to play in our original
progression of C major, A minor, F major, and G major. There's the major
shape for that bar. To make it minor, our second
finger sits in between. Our third finger comes up, if that's how you choose
to play that bar. It rests up, so instead
of the ninth, sorry, the tenth of the G being
played, is now the ninth. F minor. F major, major third exists there. F minor. The minor
third exists there. On the lower string.
So the root play with the low E. If we want to
make this shape a minor, we'll just take our
second finger off. Remember in our inversion shape, a second finger came off. First finger pulled
out that minor note. Same thing when it's the bar. Second finger comes off. First finger has to do
a little bit more work. Pull out that minor
ft. Major minor. We can now use these
inversion shapes to start pulling together the cold progression
that we first used. Let's do it all in
inversions first. Now, let's put out some
buckles. Let's move up for you. As always remember, you've
got chromatic possibilities. I'm using this C A
minor F as an example, so we've got a backbone or structure to what
we're working on, you can shift every
one of those up a semitone down a semitone. So up one threat or
down one threat, and you are creating a whole
new major or minor cord. So there I slid
all the way up to the 15th threat and I played our bar coord
here for our C major, and then I slid
back to an A minor. Quick thing I want to mention, are relative minors and majors. They are keys that contain
exactly the same notes, and this minor shape is a beautiful tool for
linking them together. If I'm playing an A minor,
It's relative major. The key that shares exactly the same nodes
is one finger away. A little finger comes across. We now have C major again. Do you recognize that shape? If we was to take
that all the way back to the beginning
of our footboard, instead of playing it with
our first second and third, we play it with our
second third and fourth. That is our C major shape. And it can just be
the fret board. Looks incredibly tricky. If you just looked at it
isolated on its own like that. If it was to start like
that, seems a bit daunting. But if you was playing
the minor barked, your one finger away from
playing the C major. The cord that is
definitely going to work. They share the same notes. C majors relative
minor is A minor. And that's applicable anywhere. If I'm playing an E minor, I know that G major, the relative major is there, it's one finger away. They're going to
work beautifully. Just like how we moved
that major shape, the C major from the open
position all the way out to anywhere you want
on the fretboard as long as you maintain
that distance, finger the same principle
with the minor shape. We're playing a
minor here. Note how these three fingers are playing what we'd usually
have in our first position. When you play a
standard A minor, open A minor in the
first position, we use our first
second and third. If we play a second third and
fourth, and as we move up, the first finger comes into
play to remove the open note, that is just the A minor shape moved up and down
the fret board. So let's utilize that
with this progression. We know we're staying
with C major. We're going back to A minor. We're then going to
F. G. This time, play the C major as
a bar B to A minor. Subtle differences. Back to your C shape. Maybe pick that a bit. F s. See there, we just covered
so much of the fretboard. Are just working their way back, making those changes
to each bar. Hopefully keeping the
listeners attention. The progression we started
with is developing, the options you
have are expanding. Now look at inversions
in a lot more detail and see how many beautiful
possibilities they present to you.
9. Inversion Focus: B we're now going to focus
entirely on inversions. We spoke a bit about
these previously, mainly with the F over C shape, we then moved up
the fretboard and we introduced the
minor element as well. We're going to focus a lot
further up the fretboard this time and going to play
some more complicated shapes, but they add a ton of beauty to this progression
and just give you a load of possibilities to think about
when you're starting to hopefully formulate your
own called progressions. So let's move all the way up
to the 12th and 15th fret. We're going to start with a
C over G second inversion. So our root is going to exist here. That's going to be our Cn. It's on the 15th fret of the A, and our third finger is
going to go above that onto the 15th fret of the E. This
is where our G comes in, so we're going to now
form the C major over G. Second finger is on the
14th fret of the D string. First finger stretches back
to the 12th fret of the G. C over G, second inversion. Love that sound already. Beautiful mood to it. We're now going to shift this
shape back and play an A minor over E.
Second inversion. Slight difference here,
very similar shape, but the minor element
is introduced, where the second finger is only one behind
on this C shape. When we move back,
your second finger moves two frets behind the root. No. We are now playing
the tenth fret of the D. Third and full fingers are on the 12th fret
of the E and A. First finger stretches back
to the ninth fret of the G. A minor over E. Lovely. Already here how this has got such a
different feel to it. These kind of chords
are used a lot in low fight and Neos, that sort of music. Really
nice option to have. We then shift into an F over A, first inversion and little
finger can stay where it is. That's playing our A note. First finger now bars across the tenth fret of
the D and the G. We've gone from that. A
minor over E to F over A. F nodes down here. C note, which comprises that F chord, as well, exists
on the tenth fret the D little finger plan
the 12th fret of the A. Lovely. Then we resolve with a G
over B, first inversion. We're gonna bring back
that shape that we started with tenth fret of
the E and A stream, ninth fret the D, and then
the seventh fret the G. Let's play that together. Really nice. Slight little wobble to the notes
applied there, which I think adds to that
mood that we're creating. Let's experiment a
bit more and move up the fret board and cover some
slightly different areas. We spoke earlier about not keeping each bar
of music the same, adding those slight little
changes, subtle movements, and differences to really keep a listener's attention.
We can do the same here. We'll start with the
same chord. This time, our A minor over E,
second inversion. It's going to exist
there. We've gone up to the 17th fret of the A and
the D and the 15th of the G. I see that, okay, there. Really creeping up
the fret board now, but I love the
difference that brings. Then we're going to
move back into an F over A, first inversion. The A is on that 12th
fret of the A string. The F chord is formed
there on the 15th, 14th, 13th. Love that shape. And then we just shift
that whole shape up to get G over B. F over A, first inversion, G over
B, first inversion. Sparkle those cords
have to them. Love it. Altogether. He And then to resolve this, we're going to use
a different C cord. We've got an option
there to just play a standard C major bar, but we're going to replace
that base note with an E note here and then keep that bar element rather
than with our third finger. It's going to be of
our first finger, and the third comes over
to the 17th fret of the A. So altogether,
we've got 17th fret of the A string, third finger, and then first
finger goes across the 15th of the D and the G. That's C over E,
first inversion. This now link both of those
progressions together. We'll start with the basier one that works down the fretboard, and then the second time
around, we will creep up. And we're gonna add
some little notes to link them together as well. Nothing too fancy, but it hopefully just glues
everything together. See what a difference
we've started to make from that initial C major, A minor, F major, G. Very, very similar
principles are applied to the chords that we're
creating, slight little changes. We've shifted to a
different part of the neck. We've played those inversions. We've got a whole new mood. So those little linking
notes I was doing there. I'm just sliding back on the 12th fret of the
G to the F note, tenth fret of the G. F exists
within the K of C major. We know we're working
within the K ofC major, so that's going to be a
lovely complimentary note. Then I just played
the normal A minor over E. I then went into my F, and then I just slide back one, introduce that E note, so we're continuing
that idea of running down the neck before I play that last G over D. Then when we come back to
that first shape, and then I slide
to the B note on the 14th fret of the G. We know B is going to exist within our key, so that's
going to work lovely. I play a higher A minor shape. We go back to F over
A, a little pull off. There's a G note there on
the 15th fret of the high E. My first finger is
barred down to the 12th, so that high E comes through. Again, a note that we know
is going to resonate lovely. We know we then shift this
whole shape up two frets, and then the last
note I slide into. I'm going from the 15th fret of the B to the 17th fret of the B. That's an E note, and E exists in the C major that
we're going to resolve on. So that's quite a nice
little trick sometimes. If you take a note from the
cord you're about to go to, if you slide into that first and then resolve on the cord, you've got that introductory
note that's going to make everything glued
together beautifully. Last thing, let's remove a lot of the basier element out of those progressions and give ourselves another
feel altogether. If we just play the C
without that lower end, we've got a C ovary, 14th fret of the D,
12th foot of the G, 13 fret of the B,
lovely sparkle to it. And then we slide back to our A minor over C. We're
on the temp fret of the D, nine for the G,
temp for it to B. One subtle little change. Our first finger
comes to now bar, the D, G, and B
on the temp fret. We've got our F over C. We then slide that whole
shape to G over D, and then back to our start, that nice little hammer on
hammer on both fingers, 13th for the B, 14 for the D. We could then move that
progression up the fret board, starting with the same position, slide into the 17th
fret of the G, B and E. We've got
an A minor over C, move back to the 14th of the G, 13th of the B and E.
We've got an F over A. Hole shape shifts
up two frets. We've got a G over
B first inversion, and then we can
resolve on our C over G and the 17th fret
of the D, G and B. Another couple of things
for you to follow and experiment with
there and hopefully highlighting how many
options are available to you when you are looking at a standard cord progression, and you've got this
whole fretboard available to you and all these
wonderful pasta bellies.
10. 7th Chords: We're now going to look
at seventh chords. These are a great thing
to be aware of and a great option to have when you look at composing
your own music, and you want to add
a little bit of a different mood to everything. Very commonly found
in things like jazz, and you can probably
hear that straight away. Now to form a seventh chord, we are just taking the
seventh of that scale and adding it onto our
major or minor chord. We add initially a C major. We play that in the bars shape. C major, being made up of C A and G. If we want
to make that seventh, the seventh note of C major, C A, B, we are adding a B
note to that major cold. So instead of this
bar shape here, we would bring our second finger into play on the
fourth fret of the B, and instead of barring
on that fifth threat, put your third finger
onto an angle, tip of the finger plays
the fifth fret of the D. Little finger plays the
fifth threat of the B. Root note is on the third
fret of the A steel, and we are pulling out the A, D, G and B string. If you want to add
a bit more sparkle, You can bring out that high
E. It's play another gene. C major seven. As always, chromatic possibilities
with this shape. Once you've got that C
major seven, move it back. You have B major seven. B flat major seven. You move it up, C sharp. D, D sharp. A major seven all the way
up and down the thread. So let's learn the minus
shape of the seventh. We're in this bar shape again. We now want to flatten our third note our
A to make a minor. C minor. Lovely. We've looked at that before. We want to make
that a minus seven. We are bringing in
the seventh note, which was B, but we are flattening that
seventh note as well. So it's B minus seven
when we've got that flattened seventh
and flattened third. Instead of just the minus shape, we take our little finger off, and we've now brought in
that third threat of the g. Minus seven, C minus seven. Chromatic possibilities. C sharp minus seven D minus
seven D sharp minus seven, slide all the way up
here. A minus seven. We can also bring out our
seventh on the lower strings. So if we move everything
up from the C, we move it up to a G
major to begin with, A If we want to make
that a G major seven, but using the low E, we put our second finger onto
the full fret of the D. Third finger is on
the fourth fret of the G. Little finger comes across
to the fifth fret of the A. G major seven. Down here, this is your major seven with the root
on the A string, we move the root
onto the E string. That is your major seven. Again, if it's chromatic. Possibilities. We want to
make a minor seven up here. We take our little finger
and our second finger. There is a G minus seven. Third finger is on the
fifth ft of the eight. Root is still being played by the first finger on the
third fret of the E, and then we need our
first finger to really pull out the rest of the
strings and bar everything. So we can pull out all
the notes that we need. From pies. So we now know the seven shapes that can move up and
down the fretboard. Any note that we choose, we
can then play the minor and the major seven for it
on the low E or the A. Let's turn our progression
into a seventh progression. So we've got a C major seven. We're then going to
play an A minus seven. We're then going to
play an F major seven. And then for G, there's a
slight difference here. In a G major scale, seventh note is an F sharp. So to make this fit
within the KFC, what we're doing, we need
to flatten that seventh, to make it an F note because we know F will work in the k of C. So G becomes G dominant. You will see this
written as G seven, G dominant or a
dominant seventh. Again, that is so that the notes work within the key
that we're playing. So you think back to that
order of cords earlier, that just had major, minor
minor, major, major minor. Diminished. When we add a
seventh to this progression, we've got Major seven
minus seven minus seven, Major seven, then the fifth cord is a, a dominant seventh. So this position, very
similar to the minus seventh, but our second finger is playing that full threat of the
G that pulls out a Be. We are now playing
dominant seven. Really lovely Cord. And that means it will fit within the key that
we're working in. So from our F major seven, we go to our Gin. Let's try that together. Nice, but I think that F sounds a bit too
boomy, too basic. So let's move up to the
major seven on the A string, and put out our F
major seven here. Once we've played that a
minus seven, will go up. And then our dominant shape on the A string where the
A string is the root. We slide up and we take
our second finger off. Major seven shape,
we slide out to the G. Take that
second finger off. Pull out that F note we
spoke about a minute ago. That is your shape
for the dominant seven when your A string
is playing the root. F ma seven dominant seven. Let's try a
progression like that. Definitely prefer that
F up on the A string allows everything else
to come through a lot clearer. Works up here. We know it's all in
tune, but just sounds a bit muddy and a bit boomy
with those lower nodes. To many of them going
on, I think. Pulls out a bit more clarity
when we're there. Then that lovely G dominant revolves resolves back
to the C major seven. I've added a little bit of a tweak to the strumming pattern. The idea is pretty much
the same with the down, down, up, down up, but I'm relaxing all of my fingers so I bring in
that percussive element. I mute the strings. To add a little bit of a
different rhythm, a bit more of a
push and slightly tweaked feel to everything. One last option. Let's
have a look at that B diminish that we spoke about with the order of
cads earlier on. Because we've added
a seventh note to those order of cads, the major seven minor minus seven major seven
dominant seven, then you have a A minus
seven, which would be. Your last, B, if we're adding
a seventh note to that, that becomes something
slightly different as well. We was referring to it as
B diminished earlier on. If we add the seventh
note, one, two, three, four, five, 67 of
the B major scale. It would be A sharp, but we need to
flatten that to an A, so it fits within
the key of C. We've added that A to our
diminished shape. This will sometimes
be called half diminished or B minus
seven flat five. That latter version literally tells you everything
that's going on. It was a minus seven shape. We've got the minor element
in the minus seventh, and we flattened the fifth
note of that scale as well. A B minus seven flat five. We had B diminished. And now B minus seven flat
five or B half diminished. Same principle can apply. Maybe sounds a little
bit nasty on its own, but resolves to the home
called to C major seven. Really nice, particularly when you play it higher up the neck. Let's work through each
of those seventh calls. C Major seven D minus seven minus seven F major
seven dominant. A minus seven. A minus seven, flat five. C major seven next o. Something I think sounds really nice is to take
that B diminished. And if you're resolving, resolve on the C
major first inversion that we used in our previous
versions progression. Really lovely feel to it. And there we go. You have
every chord available now, not just as the major and minor, but as the seventh
chords as well. And back to the
first progression we started in this class, the C A minor F&G, and see how it's got such
a different feel now. Have fun playing around
with those seventh calls. Another good development
for your technique. It's working your fingers
in different ways, and it's allowing
and enabling you to create different styles
of music, and fun.
11. Combining What We Know: It's been quite a journey from those early open calls
that we started. We have all the way
up to our inversions and our sevenths and
everything in between. So it's a bit of a recap. Let's just see how we can take that first position
that we worked on and gradually add each element that we've covered
into our progression. Like we've covered before,
that makes it more creative and challenging
and interesting for us, but also as those little bits of diversity for the listener. To start with the open calls
with some SS and some ads, and gradually just bring in those bar inversion elements to sevenths and end somewhere
higher up the threadboard. And hopefully, that
will give an example of how all these can combine together to create
that extra element of interest and intrigue. Whether you have
one chord or three or four chords in a progression, hopefully you can now see how many options are
always available to you. You don't have to be
standing in the same position to be playing the same.
12. Your Turn: We've covered quite
a lot in this class, and I hope that you're
feeling confident, create if you've learned
something new along the way. And to take that a step further, it would be great if you
could take the coords that we've been practicing
the progressions that we've been working
on and see if you could create your own
call progression, your own piece of music. That could be as simple
as taking the C major, the A minor, the F and the G, that we've been playing
quite a bit in this class, and changing the
strumming pattern, changing the order
of those coords. Maybe the G comes first, and then you'll go to
the C, then the A minor, then the See where that kind of thought
process takes you, because songwriting can
be as simple as that. Being influenced by something
else that you've learned, a popular track, something that you really adore listening to. We're always absorbing
influences from all around us, particularly when we're
looking to create something and have a
creative outlet like music. Whenever we're listening
to tunes that we love, we're taking
something from that. And the next time we pick up a guitar and we start to play, subtly, that's gonna come out. Even if we don't realize it, those things that we've
been absorbing are going to come out in
the way that we play. And you add your
own twist to it, and you'll be writing
your own music. If you want to. There's
no pressure here. This is completely
optional lesson. Maybe you'll just take the call progression that we've
already worked on. In the first position,
you might move it up the threat board and add a
different strumming pan. That's cool. This is just a chance to
be creative, to be free, to hopefully enter a
nice free flowing state where you can be creative and see what your inner creative, unique, creative
voice can express. And don't worry about just
sticking in the KeyC. Trust your ear and see
what you think is nice. There's so many
different cold shapes that we've learned today, even if we went for those
major seven shapes. Chromatic. If we went
for the inversions, the F shape inversions, we know there
chromatic, as well. Move that to any situation, any position on the neck, and then just see what they sound like alongside each other. Major seven shape there, a D sharp Major seven,
slide it up to. Bring in the minus
seven. What does it sound like if you then went
to one of the inversions? Works quite nice. You're going
to stumble across things all over the neck all over the fret board that
sound beautiful. Someones that don't, but
music is subjective. So what someone else thinks
isn't that pleasing? You might think
sounds beautiful. So trust your ear, believe in
yourself and get creative. You could also see this
as part of class project. We spoke very early on
about you recording a call or a call progression
that's within this class, uploading that and
sharing it with us all to learn and be
inspired by each other, if you want your choice. This could maybe be an
opportunity for that. Start to see what you can
create when you fiddle around on the fret board and stumble across some beautiful ideas. And then if you want, you
could record it and upload it. Importantly, just make
time in your practice and you're playing to have
fun with no pressure. No ultimate outcome or goal, enjoy the process
of playing guitar.
13. Outro: You've made it to the end, a massive thank you for choosing to work through all
of this content. And most importantly, a big well done for everything you've
played and created. Hopefully, you've gained
some fresh knowledge along the way and refined skills
that you already had. We've unlocked a
lot of doors for guitar cards here and cover some great tips that
will help improve your technique and
overall plan aability. But it doesn't end here.
So keep pushing yourself, keep challenging yourself and
see where you can take it, and ultimately what
you can create. I say this a lot, but believe in your creative
ability and start to discover your own
self expression. That note if you want to take
part in a class project, that'll be brilliant if
you want to upload that privately or publicly,
that's absolutely fine. I'm available for any questions related to this calls,
to music, to guitar. You just want to reach out
and say, hi, that'd be great. I seriously love hearing from students and hear it and
seeing what you're up to, so please, feel free
to e mail me anytime. Hit me up on the socials, or start discussions, leave
comments, whatever you views are also huge. So please consider leaving one. I would greatly appreciate it. And it's a massive help
for me discovering what students have taken from the class,
what's worked well. What suggestions you have for could be included or improved. It really is a massive help, so it'll be brilliant
if you could leave one. It also helps other people
discover the contents, so yeah, it'd be huge if you could consider doing
that. Thank you. I've got other classes.
If you want to continue your journey and
continue learning in this way, I've got a finger pick
in one, which might be a cool element to add to your calls and your
call progressions. Have a little look
around, and hopefully, you'll find something
that you're interested. Also got a newsletter where I'm regularly giving
away a few freebies, regular tips, advice, guidance. It's an opportunity to ask
me questions, to reach out, to see what I'm up to, to get heads up on new content
that's coming out. So there'll be licks around
if you want to sign up, and I make sure that
everyone who does sign up gets a free
guitar course as well. I love putting this
content together, so a massive thank you for
sharing this time with me, and I look forward
to hopefully seeing you in another one
soon. Take care.
Marc Barnacle, Music Instructor
