Magical Chord Shapes That will Make

your Playing Interesting

Hey, guys, I hope you are having a fantastic day. Today I am going to show you a bunch of magical chord shapes that will make your playing interesting.

The goal is to combine extensions with open strings to create interesting sounding chords.

In this fingerpicking lesson, we are going to apply this concept to three types of chords.

• A major – Add9, major7 chords combined with open strings.
• C major: Major6 and major7 chords.
• A minor: minor9 and minor chord with major 6.

Don’t forget to implement some of these chords in your playing 🙂

The tab is available on Patreon.

The Video

The A Major Chord

Let’s get started with the A major magical chord shapes.

One of the awesome thing about the A major chord is the fact that we can play around with opens strings a lot, especially the E and B open string.

In the first example, I am playing a very simple Aadd9 which is played in position I. This chord has the same shape as the A major but with the B string open.

The second chord is an Amaj7 chord played in position VI (index finger on the sixth fret of the neck). The major seventh is performed on the B string fret 9 (G#). This magical chord shape is one of my favorites as it sounds dreamy and melodic.

Moving on to the third A major chord up to position IX. This is another Aadd9. This chord can be challenging and stretchy, so make sure you practice slowly. There are two ways of playing this chord:

• Bar chord on fret IX and little finger playing the B string fret 12.
• Index finger on the G string fret IX, B string fret XII with the little finger, and E string fret IX with the middle finger.

Start with the first chord shape if you struggle with a finger stretch.

The C major Chord

The second chord I am playing for this magical chord shapes exercise is the C major chord. There are again four different shapes played using fingerpicking technique. For this chord, I am going to add major 6th whenever I can.

The first C major chord start with a Cadd9(6) played in position III (Index on the third fret). I like this chord because the voicing on the E string fret V sounds beautiful and charming. Notice that I will then change the voicing to the open E.

I will then move on to the second chord, which is probably one of my favorite. I will play the Root note of the chord on the low E string fret VIII with the little finger. I will then add the G string fret V and B and E open string. This is a beautiful C major 7th chord. I can also play with different voicing and add the D string fret VII if I feel like adding the Major 6th again.

The third chord is indeed a beautiful way to play the C major chord. It is played in position X (index on the tenth fret). I start with a basic triad before changing the voicing on the B string fret 10 (again another A, Major 6th).

The A Minor Chord

The last chord for this chord progression is an A minor chord played in three different positions.

I will start by playing an Amin9(11) chord in position III. This chord is played with a very interesting magical chord shape with the C note on the G string fret V, D note on the D string fret III, and the D note on the E string fret VII.

I will then switch to the Am6, which is an excellent interesting chord played in position III with the major 6th on the B string fret VII (F# note).

The last chord is a beautiful Am9. This chord can be stretchy, so practice slowly.

Tabs available on my Patreon page.