The Complete Guitar Chord Masterclass - Advanced Chords

2. What is "Spread Voicing?": Welcome to the first official lesson in this course. Now, we're going to jump right in and talk about a type of chord called a spread Voicing chord. Spread Voicing is often used in Neo Soul music or even some ambient music. So you might see some of your favorite TikTok or Instagram guitarists using this method. But the question is, what is Spread Voicing chord? Well, when we look at the three notes of a Chord, we see how close together they are. And even when we're playing different inversions of that chord, there are always within a one octave space. Now, as the name suggests, spread Voicing is when we flip the notes in a way that they extend beyond one full octave. So the three notes of our Chord are now larger than an octave. Now, when we flip inversions in our usual way, will never get this combination of notes. What we're going to do is we're going to take the middle, note, the three. We're going to bring it all the way to the top. So our order now is 15.3 on top. It sounds something like this. We're going to look at spread Voicing Shapes for major and minor chords on the sixth string, the fifth string. And then how to do spread Voicing sus chords, which makes some really cool sounds. 4. Spread Voicing 201: Now let's take a look at the major and minor spread Voicing shapes starting from the fifth string. Now, if you're thinking about the last lesson and saying, I wonder if these are gonna be like the Bar Chords. Again. Well, you'd be absolutely right. We're using root fifth and third from the bar chord shapes now on the fifth string set. So if we're thinking about the major Bar chord shape, I want root, fifth and the third with my pinky, one-by-one. The root is going to be my first finger on the fifth fret. My ring finger will grab the fifth by playing the seventh fret on the fourth string. And then again, I'm going to skip a string to get that Spread sound in there. And my pinky will grab the seventh fret on the second string. Now, for the minor shape, we know that from major to minor, we just need to lower the third by one fret. Well, our third is on top. So all we really need to do is with the middle finger, move that seventh fret on the second string down to the sixth fret. Major. And minor. Again borrowing from that minor bar chord. So altogether we've got sixth string major and minor, and fifth string major and minor, which is really cool. That's the only for chord shapes and we need to Play major and minor spread Voicing chord starting from any note on the fretboard. 5. Spread Voicing 301: Let's talk about sus chords in the context of spread Voicing because they sound really nice. We know that in a sus chord removing are three around either up to four or down to two. And this is how we make sus4 or SAS to chords. Now in spread Voicing are three is on top of the chord, which means it's pretty easy to move around to be a sus chord. So for example, I'll play the fifth string major Shape. Now my three is on top, and I can move it either up or down to a, to the way I'm doing that is raising my pinky or using my first finger to Bar. Now at this point, I would need to use my fingers to grab individual notes. If I'm using a pick, I would have to readjust my fingers to grab that shape and still mute that third string. From major. We've got sus4 or SAS to. You could also do the same thing. The minor shape on the sixth string, it's the exact same thing. I've got my major Shape. I can put my pinky down to raise the third. Now I've got a sus4 as a spread Voicing chord. Or to grab that second. To move this down, I would have to adjust my fingers. However I need to to reach that Shape. I'm currently using my middle finger, pinky, and first finger on the SAS to 7. Substitute a Chord: The b5: Let's talk about a chord substitutions. This is the first time that we're taking our normal melodic key here with all the chords. And we're borrowing something else, we're making a different chord fit into the key. This is a flat five substitution. Now, on the surface it seems like we're going to change the fifth of our key to a flat chord, but it's not quite that simple. There's one more step to it. When we talk about a flat five substitution, what we're actually replacing it with is the flat five from the natural five. Okay? So if I'm in the key of C, my five dominant is going to be a G chord. So the flat five is going to be in relation to that. The flat five of my G is going to be right there. It would be a D flat seven. So I've got my root seven. What if I replaced and interesting? And that's where things get really interesting. So find out that it ends up being really a half-step above the root. It's a half-step up and a seven. So I just used it to Play my way into the natural seven. And then add some tension to your chord progressions. Now, your job is to figure out where you think this fits best in a song. If you've written a chord progression and you go, oh my goodness, I think this is the most boring thing I've ever written and I want to throw it in the trash. Hold on. Don't do that quite yet. Let's try tossing in a flat five substitutions and see if that ****** things. You can either add it in as a whole nother chord or are you could share the amount of beats. You've got another chord taking up. For example, if I'm playing C to G7 to D-minor, maybe that G7, I'll split in half and make one of those, the flat five. So it would sound something like this. Oh, that's interesting. 8. Substitute a Chord: Secondary Dominants: Now if you're playing with musicians, you may have heard them talking about Secondary Dominants. What are they? They're actually really similar to the flat five substitutions we just talked about. A secondary dominant is the dominant to the dominant. So it's the same exact concept, just not flat. So again, in the key of C are dominant would be the G7, right? Wanting to resolve to see the secondary dominant is dominant to the dominant. So the fifth from G, D, right there, G dominant, that's your secondary dominant in the key of C. Now, what the secondary dominant does is it kind of predicts your true natural dominant chord. So it wants to resolve to the G. When we hear that the G, that resolution is dominant, our brains know it wants to resolve to the sea. So you're kind of building up this tension that when you do resolve it back to your route, it's twice as nice. So let's play E minor to G dominant to a C. Alright, I've got my E minor dominant resolution. Now what if I add in a second daughter? Oh, that's nice. That's really nice. And you can kind of here, even though the notes aren't fully in there, you can kinda hear a leading tone, right? So, which is really cool. So we've got flat five substitutions and the very similar cousin, Secondary Dominants 10. Major 6th Shape: We've got triad Chords and seven chords and SAS to Chords and sus4 chords. But in the seven notes of our scale, there's one note we haven't talked about yet, and that's the six. So in these next couple of lessons, we're going to talk about six chords. And specifically now we're gonna talk about the major sixth. Now, the major six borrows from the major scale. So we'll think about our Ionian or the notes in our key. And we're going to use 135.6. So let's talk about the shape for both the sixth string and the fifth string. When we're playing a sixth string, six chord, we're going to start with our middle finger. And just like our other Chord examples, I'll use the fifth fret as our example for it. I'm gonna take my middle finger and I'm going to put it on the fifth fret of the sixth string. Now, my first finger is going to grab two strings away on the fourth fret, the fourth string. So I've got a little jump right there. My pinky is going to grab the sixth fret of the third string. Now the only other thing I need is my ring finger to grab also the fifth fret of the second string. What I've got is my root, third and fifth. So 135.6 right there when we think about our scale, 123456. So this would be an, a major six chord from the fifth string. The shape is a little different, and this is weird. We're going to start with our pinky. So we're only going to Play the four strings that were pressing down. Again, I'll use the fifth string as my example. That's my route and I'm going to put my pinky right there. Now I'm going to put my middle finger, the fourth fret of the fourth string. So we've got a major third interval right there. My ring finger is going to reach behind it also grabbed the fourth fret of the third string. So I've got these right here, and then my first finger is left to grab another fret, third fret on the second string. Now, the firstname and the last note, our octaves. The middle two are the third and the six. So we've got root, third, root. You'll notice we don't have a fifth this time around. We know it's a sixth chord because it's got a six in it. And we know what's major because we've gotten the major third field going on. We just don't have a five. So this would be a D major sixth. We can compare that with the D major sixth Shape from the sixth string, which is much higher. So same Chord, just notes in a different order and they each sound uniquely their own. They're similar, but different, which just gives us more options to play the same chord 11. Minor 6th Shape: Now it's time to look at the minor sixth Shape from the six and the fifth string. Now, something to notice about all of these tensions and Extensions is that we're keeping the rules about the triad chord the same. The triad chord is the substance. All of the tensions and Extensions add character to it. So the rule for the triad chord moving from major to minor is exactly the same. We're going to take our three and we're going to lower it, but we're going to keep the tension the same. So now we've got one flat 35 light from a minor scale and the same six. So here's how we would Play that. I'm still going to put my middle finger on the same root fifth fret of the sixth string. My first finger is going to grab the same six as we did for the major chord. Now behind that I'm going to put my ring finger on the flat three. That's the fifth fret of the third string. It's got kind of an eerie, haunting dissonance to it. My pinky is going to tuck behind and grabbed the five, which is on the fifth fret, second string. And again, that's a movable Shape. Now from the fifth string, I'm still going to use the fifth fret, but this time I'm also going to use my middle finger, fifth fret of the fifth string. My pinky is going to grab the seventh fret of the fourth string, almost like I'm playing a power chord and I don't know what to do with my fingers. So that's rude. And now the first finger is going to grab the six on the fourth fret of the third string. All that's left is the flat three, and that's up to my third finger, which we'll grab this time. Right there. The sixth fret of the second string. You'll notice this is actually a minor spread Voicing. We're just adding in the six like that. So I've got sixth string, minor sixth, and fifth string. Minor sixth, Shapes 14. Minor 9 Shapes: Okay, Let's talk about minor nine. Now. We'll do the same thing from the fifth string and from the sixth string. Now, minor nine, we would change the primary substance of the chords, so the three and the seven would be different, but our root and our nine are staying exactly the same. So again, we'll start from the seventh fret of the fifth string. And before we start, I should tell you, minor nine are my favorite type of ninth chord. And ninth chords are maybe my favorite type of chord. So this might be my favorite chord. We're going to take our middle finger again and start from the seventh fret of the fifth string. Now, this time our first finger, it's going to have to reach to grab the minor. Third. A little bit of a stretch. The ring finger is going to come down on the same fret as the root to grab the minor seven. So I've got root minor third minor seven. My pinky is going to talk right behind that ring finger and grabbed the same nine that we had as the major chord, except now it's minor. So root 379. And I think that is such a nice chord. Now for the sixth string, we're doing the same thing, except I'm going to grab my route on that seventh fret now with the third finger. My first finger is still going to move down to frets to grab the minor third. My pinky is going to come up here to grab the minor seven. So it's actually the same exact shape we just did for the fifth set of strings, just with different fingers. Now, my middle finger is going to tuck between and grab the sixth fret of the third string. That's the nine root, 37.9. So we've got fifth string minor 9.6 string minor nine 15. Dominant 9 Shapes: Now, like with seventh chords, There's also a dominant variation of a ninth chord. We'll remember with major, we had 135.7 minor. We add one flat 35 flat seven, right? We lowered the three m7. With dominant. We keep the major chord 135, and we lower the seven. Now on top of that, we're going to put the same exact nine. So here's how we would Play that from the fifth string and the sixth string. From the fifth string. I'm going to put my middle finger again on the seventh fret. So this will be an E dominant nine chord. And since we need a major third, my first finger is going to grab the major third right there. Now this was our major nine Shapes, but we need the seven to drop. So I'm going to lower it by a fret and flip my fingers around. So now I've got room major third and flat seven. And I'm putting the nine right on top. This right here is a very bluesy chord. Now from the sixth string, it's very similar. In fact, let's take a look at our major nine from the sixth string. So I've got root, third, fifth, seventh. And then nine. Now what I need to do is flat my seven. So I've got my ring finger still free, and I'm going to use that to move that fourth string down by a fret. There are two ways to Play this. You could either keep that finger Bar or you can adjust your fingers so there's one per string 17. 11th and 13th Chords: Now there are also 11th Chords and 13th Chords, and these have their own unique shapes too, but we understand how they work. For an 11th chord, we're taking that 13579 and we're extending it to the 11. For the 13th chord, we're doing the same thing, but adding on top the 13. So it just keeps going. Now, obviously, we don't have seven fingers, so they've gotten their own unique shapes as well. But what we're doing is we're using the modes, the major mode and the minor mode to figure out what these notes are, we start from the root and we count up 123, 456-789-1011, 12.13 18. Combining Chord Steps: Now let's pause here and let's talk about combining Chord Steps. The chord below is an E minor seven flat five, and a first inversion. Now, when you're looking at chord charts, very rarely are you going to come across something as long as this. And so the idea is if we can figure out how to Play this chord, we could figure out how to Play any chord. So we need to focus on the main part of the chord, which is really the root note. And whether it's major or minor, Everything else is just an add-on. This is an E minor chord. Easy enough, so I'll play an E minor chord up here. Okay, now it's an E minor seven. So I'm going to change this to fit that seven shape. It's a cis. To remember everything in the chord can be taken in steps, and it really just tells us what to do. This E minor seven is a cis to chord, so my three, it's going to move down to the two of the scale. There are tumor Steps. One is it's a flat five. So now my five is going to move down by one, right there. And so far we've got an E minor seven to, with a flat five. Last thing we need to do is make it a first inversion. Now my E is on the bottom. It needs to leap frog to the tongue. So what I'm going to do is play My happened to be lucky enough. Or maybe I planned for this that the E is the open first string. So I can play that. Chords can look really overwhelming. This is the point. Chords can look really overwhelming, but they're not focused on the first part and then take them step by step. And as long as you know what each step means, like we've covered, you should be able to break down any chord in the world 20. Sliding Chords: We're going to talk about a really simple concept called sliding Chords. And as the name suggests, we're just sliding Chords to make other chords. Now, it's kind of like the inversions that we talked about where we have different ways to Play a Chord up the neck, but it's a little different in that are chord changes. Each time we slide up. One of the first things we should learn on the Guitar ever is half-steps and whole-steps and how those fit in-between the notes. So as a really quick refresher because they're important, will remember that every single note is a whole step away from one another, except B to C and E to F. That's important because we're going to start sliding our Chords either half-steps and whole-steps. I'm going to use a as an example. Now I know an, a chord. That's fantastic. But I also know that there's a whole step between a and B. So if I take my chord and slide it up by a whole step, in theory, I should have been chord. This is a B chord as an a Shape. I know B2C is a half-step. So if I slide it up by half-step, now I've got a C chord right there. Now, like the Inversions, these are all kinda second inversion shapes. We can combine things like that and think about them like that. But really what we're talking about is just sliding Chords. And it's helpful because I can play a C chord or a D chord by sliding up my C. That's really interesting. Now, the biggest pitfall when we're sliding Chords is the open strings. Again, using the C as an example. I've gotten to open strings that didn't slide with my fingers. So if I wanted to Play something like a D-sharp, then I slid that chord up. That is not pretty. Maybe you can work that into a song. I probably wouldn't. So the biggest thing we need to think about is what the open strings are doing. And if they don't fit, just finding creative ways to mute those tones. But that gives us a really cool way to Play. D-sharp 22. How to Play Blues Chords: Alright, we're starting by talking about Blues Chords. And honestly the rule for playing blues songs is pretty simple. We're going to think about the chords in a key and will remember that these chords are major minor, minor, major, major, minor minor. Now, typically the fifth of a key is dominant, right? It's just a seven. What we're doing when we're playing Blues is we're going to turn all of the major tones into seventh chords. So 1,747.57. Now we'll get this inherently bluesy sound. As an example. Let's play a little song that uses 14.5, and I'll take it from the key of G. So I've got one for fall. When we're playing a typical song, we've got 1457 back to one, but what if we made them all seven Chords? Well, we might have Blues music. 1747. But wait, what if we use a little bit of chromatic motion? We can jump a little out of key here. So let's take a look at 174757, maybe on the way back down to really add to that Blues ENS will take dramatic steps down 5-4. Now, we've got a Blues style going. 23. How to Play Jazz Chords: Let's talk about playing jazz style Chords. The big things here with Jazz are going to be tensions and Extensions and chord substitutions. Okay, that's jazz music. In a nutshell, there's a joke that if you ever play a wrong note, just call it in jazz and you won't get away with it. So this is kind of what we're doing here. So for jazz, maybe I'll start with six is go into nine. They're really similar chords. Okay? I'm bringing in that flat five substitution right there. So that would carry from here, here back to my one. So what I'm playing is a nine on my one. A flat five substitution. Then down to a six as my five. Something about jazz that I've always enjoyed is that it really brings in these other chords as substitutions that kind of wake up your ears. Something in your brain goes, oh, that's not right, but it fits. It's also right. So it's a great way to keep your audience engaged, even if you're playing other genres. Throwing in some jazzy shapes like that or jazzy rules can be a great way to keep people engaged and listening 28. Progression 2: I - V - IV - VI: Now a common one in pop music is any combination of 145.6. So for this one, Let's take a look at 1564. In the key of C. This would be C, G, a minor, and F 29. Progression 3: I - IV - V - VI: Now for the sake of being thorough, let's look at another one using the same chords. This would be 145.6. So in the key of G, that would be 1456. Now it's good to pause here and ask, well, if so many of these chord progressions are the same, why do we have different sounding songs? And that's a really good question. Things that make songs different. Our rhythm, what kind of strumming pattern we're doing or what the drums are doing behind a song and especially melody. What's being sung or played over these Chords? 30. Progression 4: I - II - IV: A fourth really common chord progression is a one to four. So in the key of C, This would be C, D minor, and F. This one might fit best as maybe a punk song as well. 32. Progression 6: I - MbVII - I: Our final chord progression is really just one movement back and forth, and we're going a little out of key. It's got a strong majestic feel to it, almost like a superhero movie kind of thing. We're moving from the one to the seven to one, but we're adjusting the seven here. The seven we're going to Play flat and major. So from our one plant from E, this is R1, right here, are seven, now comes right there. So again, kinda that majestic feel like we've been talking about tossing in some jazz elements to kinda keep your audience alert. That's a really interesting one that breaks the key, but not in a way that sounds bad.