The D major is one of the most fantastic keys on the guitar. There are countless harmonical possibilities and beautiful extended chords available yet; I don’t see many people writing more in D major.
In this lesson, I am going to show you a fantastic chord progression played with beautiful chords. The goal for this tutorial is to combine these chords with a melody and a simple fingerpicking pattern.
As I rule of thumb, I like to balance a simple fingerstyle pattern with the “special” sounding chords you are about to learn. With this approach, I can keep the plucking hand simple while working on new chords. It’s easier to develop these types of chords when you don’t have to worry about the rhythmic hand.
We are going to break down each section so that you can learn these chords and, eventually, get inspired to write your ideas in the D major key.
Hey guys, welcome back to another lesson! Today, we are going to talk about the minor key, and I am going to show you how to play a bunch of musical ideas in A minor.
In this lesson, I am going to show you all the chords from the A minor key and how I blend them into a beautiful instrumental.
The minor key is such a magical thing full of sadness, emotional chords, and beautiful singing melodies. But you need a place to get started, and I hope this video helps you out.
All the chords in the minor key come from three minor scales: The Natural minor scale, the Harmonic minor scale, and the Melodic minor scale.
The majority of the chords we use in the Minor key come from the Natural minor scale. We find these chords in Pop, Folk, Rock, and Indie music.
Music genres such as Jazz and Latin have more chords coming from the Hamonic minor and Melodic minor scale (Due to the altered chords available with these scales).
We will start with a simple idea in A minor played with chords from the Natural minor key.
Some chord progressions work better than others. When we let chords work the way they are supposed to, amazing things happen and we are able to write beautiful chord progressions.
You must realize that each chord has its personality, behavior, and, most importantly, its function within the major and minor key.
If your goal is to learn how to put chords together without just guessing, then I suggest that you watch this video.
Of course, you can still use your ears. However, I recommend that you also learn how the chord functions within the key so that you can write things that are out of your comfort zone.
There are 3 chord families that we find in music theory.
Tonic family.
Sub-Dominant family.
Dominant family.
Each family represents the function of each chord and how they work within the major and minor keys.
In this guitar lesson, I am going to show you how to put chords together using the chord functions of each chord. Once you understand this concept, you will be able to analyze each chord progression you already play and write a bunch of new exciting ones.
I am going back playing in DADGAD after a while. I am not a massive fan of alternate tuning, but I still push myself to do some song-writing in this tuning now and then.
I thing DADGAD is an insanely beautiful tuning for guitar. You can still use some of the chord shapes you already know to familiarize yourself with the tuning. Then, move one finger up or down to discover new possibilities.
I don’t know if I am approaching this tuning in the right way. I don’t have any guitar player I listen to that uses this open tuning, so I can only play things I have in my head. I found myself thinking that I don’t sound different than when I play in standard tuning.
I am sure there are a lot of cool things you can do in DADGAD, so I want to teach you how to play a few musical ideas I wrote yesterday so that you can get inspired and eventually play something in DADGAD.
Tune your guitar a couple of times. The strings always want to go back to the standard tuning, so keep the tuner next to you.
When I play in a different tuning, I never think about the chords I am playing. I only refer to the root note, of course, but I don’t bother too much about the chord types I am playing.
In the alternate tuning, pretty much all the chords you’ll end up playing have some sort of extended note. Just play around with different ideas before you sit down and analyze everything. Have fun before getting serious about the chords you are playing.
Hey guys, welcome back to another excellent lesson. I am super happy I am finally picking up the electric guitar again after years of only playing the acoustic guitar.
My life has been quite a journey. I played classical guitar from 10 to 20 years old. Then electric and acoustic from 20 to 26 years old. Only electric guitar from 27 to 31 years old and only acoustic guitar from 32 till now. I just recently went back playing the electric guitar, which I still love!
In this lesson, I am going to show you this picking exercise I practice when I go back playing the electric guitar.
When you go from fingerpicking to picking, you should always take it slow. Picking the strings with a guitar pick involves a different wrist angle. If you go too fast right-away chances are you will damage your tendons and muscles.
What I usually do, I would write an exercise (just like this one) that involves different musical elements. In this particular example, I am combining alternate picking, scales, and chords.
Listen to the exercise at the beginning of the video and learn how to play it throughout the video. I am also making this backing track available on my Patreon page, so feel free to check it out if you want to play along.
Welcome to the part 2-3 from the beautiful classical piece in A minor by Matteo Carcassi. In the next two videos, you will learn the rest of this fascinating study in A minor.
The Allegro in A minor is one of the most famous compositions by the classical composer Matteo Carcassi (1800). In this short study, the composer Carcassi blends in music and technique, putting together the perfect piece for beginner/intermediate fingerstyle players.
By practicing and learning this short piece, you will be able to challenge your fingerpicking technique, finger dexterity, musicality, and control.
Part 3 can be pretty intense so, please, take it step-by-step and learn one bar at a time.
You can learn the part one by clicking on the link below. The full tutorial and sheet music is available on my Patreon page.
Fingerstyle melodies are awesome. I love the fact that we can combine chords and melody with just one guitar without the need for another guitar or a backing track.
In this lesson, I am going to show you how to play a beautiful fingerstyle melody in A minor. This melody is perfect if you want to improve your fingerpicking technique while learning an awesome melody.
I wrote this melody for two reasons. First thing, I was writing a melody for one of my songs. I love the fact that I can combine the A minor scale with the top E string open to create a constant E pedal tone.
The second reason is clearly for an educational purpose. I like that I can create a fingerstyle exercise out of a song I am writing. It allows me to combine songwriting with technical exercises. In this example, I am combining a simple melody on one string with a fingerstyle exercise that focuses on the fingerpicking pattern middle-index.
By practicing this fingerstyle melody, you will be able to improve your fingerstyle technique while learning a beautiful melody.
As always, take it, step-by-step guys. Some of these positions can be stretchy on the left-hand. You have been warned.
Hey guys, in this guitar lesson, I am going to show you this excellent concept that I call “Interval Voicing.” In this approach, we transform chords by changing or adding a note within the chord.
Here’s how this approach works.
Step 1. Figure out the chord progression and key.
Step 2. Write down the notes of the key. If you are in G major, write down the G major scale. These are the notes you can add to change the internal voicing.
Step 3. Add one of the notes from the scale to the chords.
As you will see in the video, almost any note from the scale works. However, you should always use (and trust) your ears as not all the notes work great.
I recommend that you learn this chord progression before writing it down again with a different internal voicing of your choice. You don’t have to play the chords with the same rhythm as long as you work on a different internal voicing. Once you have it, work on the rhythm and make it more interesting.
Did you ever wake up one day and realized you don’t know much about the chords you are playing? I mean, you know the shapes, you know how to put the chords together, but you don’t know what they are.
Well, it happened to me once, and I worked hard to fix that.
In this lesson, I am going to show you all the chord types we can play on the guitar and how to make them so that you don’t have to work as hard as I did.
When my teacher taught me this, it changed the way I saw chords. In fact, it added two more elements to the chord shapes: The notes (which I didn’t consider at that time), and the colors.
I like to break-down the chords in four big categories
The basic chords without extensions.
Power chords.
Major chord. (Happy).
Minor chord. (Sad).
Sus2 chord. (Bright).
Sus4 chord. (Unresolved).
The chords with one extension:
Major seventh chord. (Jazzy).
Minor seventh chord. (Folk).
Dominant seventh chord. (Bluesy).
Add9 chord. (Romantic).
Minor add9 chord. (Emotional).
Add11 chord.
Minor add11 chord.
Major 6 chord. (Latin)
The chords with two or more extensions:
Major ninth chord (Maj9).
Minor ninth chord (Min9).
Dominant ninth (9).
Major eleventh (Maj11).
Minor eleventh (Min11).
Dominant eleventh chord (11).
Major thirteenth (Maj13).
Minor thirteenth (Min13).
Dominant thirteenth (13).
Altered Chords (Chords that have one or more altered notes)
Augmented chords. (Uneasy).
Diminished chords (Tense).
7#9
7b9
7b13
Such a big list, right! We better get started.
We will talk a lot about the major scale, scale degrees, and intervals. All you have to know for now is that chords come from the scale. It could be the major, minor, melodic minor, harmonic minor, etc.
We will be using numbers to identify the notes of the chords, so when I say 1 3 5, it means that the chord is built using the first, third, and fifth degree of the scale.
The secret is to learn the formula to build the chord in each category.
Quick disclaimer! One video can’t teach it all. Make sure you do your research and learn more about chords from other teachers, too, as everyone can tell you a little more about it.
Hey guys, in this lesson we are going to take a look at a beautiful classical piece by Matteo Carcassi from the Op.60, 25 Studies.
In this series of videos, I am going to show you how to play this fantastic piece. I will share with you valuable insight on chords and dynamics so that you can not only learn the piece but also understand the key points of the performance.
I love classical music. If you want to improve your fingerstyle technique, I highly recommend that you try this amazing classical piece.
Watch the video to listen to the piece and to learn more about the music, composition, and more.
