Beautiful Chords … with Simple (percussive) Technique
Hey guys, let me show you how to play beautiful chords with this simple percussive technique. The percussive guitar is one of the most exciting things you can learn that will spice up chords and melodies; however, it could be challenging at first.
In this guitar lesson I am going to do my best to show you the two most simple percussive approaches I know on guitar:
Thumb slap: Strike the bass strings with the thumb.
Thumb slap & Strum: Same as thumb slap but with a strum on the top three strings (G, B, and E).
The chord progression we are going to learn today is lovely and straightforward to play. We will learn two shapes, a minor shape for the B minor chord and a major shape for the G, D, and A major chord. The chords will be played with two notes only.
I hope this lesson helps you with percussive technique. Remember that you can still play the chords without the percussion, just in case you like the chords but don’t care about the percussion 🙂
Fur Elise by Ludwig van Beethoven | Bass and Melody
Hey guys, let me show you how to play this awesome piece by Ludwig van Beethoven called Fur Elise (For Elise). I really love this music and I am super happy to show you how it’s played.
In this very first tutorial we are going to play the simplified arrangement with bass and melody perfect for beginners. We will then add the chords and more complicated arpeggios.
Guys this piece of music is pretty long so I am still thinking about how I am going to arrange the whole thing. The B section before the coda is pretty difficult to arrange on guitar and from my experience all my private students only learn the first part and the coda, leaving out the long and challenging B section.
Let me do the work 🙂 … in the meanwhile enjoy this beautiful part one played with bass and melody only.
You can listen to the me playing the part in the video below.
Hey guys, let me show you this fantastic minor chord progression in A minor key using extensions and different voicing. This is the perfect guitar lesson if you want to learn more about how to spice up chords in A minor/C major key.
In the lesson, you will notice that the B section is played in C major key. This is a pretty standard modulation between minor to major as we are modulating to the relative major of A minor (a minor 3rd up from A minor key).
In the first part of the song, I am going to show you simple extensions such as add9, suspended, and 6th chords. In the B section, we will work on different voicing.
I love the chord progression. Simple but beautiful.
Chord Noodling … Go from Basic Chords to Cool Chords
Hey guys, let me show you this awesome concept called “Chord Noodling”. In this approach we are going to add notes around the chord shape in order to spice things up.
We already talked about adding notes around chords many times but chord noodling is a slightly different concept as we can only add notes around the chord shape we are playing and not up and down the neck.
In this lesson we are taking the B minor key as an example but you can apply chord noodling on any chord or key.
Guys, I receive a lot of email, facebook messages and YouTube comments asking me how I decide which notes I add to the chords. There are a lot of different possibilities and it is all about making a choice. There isn’t a magic rule that I follow. I just keep trying until I find the notes that I like and I stick to it 🙂
How many chords do you need in a chord progression? In this fingerpicking guitar lesson I am going to show you how to create amazing music using three chords only.
The thing is, one chord isn’t enough! Two chords could be good but you really have to find a way to spice things up or the music will sound repetitive. Three chords is the best place to start with.
In this lesson I want to show you how adding more musical elements can be way better than adding chords. For me musical elements could be a different plucking pattern, short melody within chords or even just pausing on a chord.
I hope you enjoy this lesson guys! Eventually you will be able to use this concept for your own music 🙂
Hey guys, welcome to the lesson 10 from the Fingerstyle Chords Program vol.1.
In this lesson I am going to show you how to use the basic chords we learned in C major key to create beautiful sounding chord progressions.
We will also use additional notes from the C major scale to make the chords even more interesting and fun to play.
The goal for this lesson is to show you how we can create beautiful sounding chord progressions with simple triads and then add notes from the C major scale to spice things up.
The D minor is one of my favorite key on guitar. There are so many beautiful chords available that sometimes you don’t know where to start. In this lesson I am going to show you a sad chord progression played with beautiful chords.
Another awesome thing about the D minor key is that most of the chords sound amazing when played with the E open string. A D minor chord will become a Dm9 and a Bb major a Bb#11. The cool thing about it is that we only have to add the E open string to the basic chords we already know.
If you find the chords too stretchy to play I recommend that you really practice slowly. One chord at a time will be enough.
Hey guys, let’s keep going with the Technique lab Vol.2 dedicated to the Travis picking technique. In this lesson, I am going to show you how to play the Travis picking thumb movement on three strings. This is just an introduction to the three strings movement before we try something more challenging.
The exercise is in C major, and it should help you understand the thumb movement on three strings. We will start with the thumb only before adding a super simple melody on the top two strings.
Overall this is a straightforward exercise that introduces a challenging approach.
Hey guys, let me show you how to play a beautiful sounding chord progression in E. I have been experimenting with a lot of different keys and E minor has always been the most difficult to play with.
The thing is, E minor is probably the most played key on guitar. From beginners to advanced guitar players, we all love this key.
After playing around with the chords, I came up with this chord progression that I want to share with you. The goals are always the same guys. Try to combine fretted notes with open strings.
One of the cool thing about this lesson is that it is entirely based on power chord shape, which will be played melodically.
Awesome Chords … Inspired by John Mayer (groovy stuff)
Hey guys, let me share with you this awesome rhythmic idea I recorded today. I was listening to John Mayer a couple of days ago and I realized his rhythmic parts are always beautiful and really groovy. One of the thing that I noticed is that in many songs the rhythmic parts are played with a staccato technique.
The staccato is a form of musical articulation that will make the note or chord shorter in duration. You will basically play the chord and block it quickly after.
This approach will give more groove and rhythm to the chords. We will also fill in the gaps between chords with short phrases.
Take it step by step guys and thank John Mayer for this wonderful lesson 🙂
