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9 Blues Guitar Chords to Rock The House!

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The dominant 7th chord is the most common used chord in blues. But also the ninth and thirteenth chords are found regularly in blues music to give that extra flavor to a chord progression. They add a little bit of jazz flavor.

Choosing the right blues chords can make your blues rhythm playing sound fresh and full of color.

Playing these blues chords in different positions will give you a unique sound every time again and makes playing rhythm much more fun and challenging.

The blues chords shown below are all in the key of A, however they are moveable chords so they can be played in every key. The red dot indicates the root note. In the diagrams below all red notes are “A” notes. If you would move all the chords up a whole step then the chords are in the key of B.

If you want the chords to be in the key of E, then move the entire chord so that the red dot (root note) lands on the “E” note.

Effective Exercises To Make Barre Chords Sound Clean

By Klaus Crow 11 Comments

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Getting a barre chord to sound good is a real struggle for many guitar students, especially on an acoustic guitar.

It takes a while to really get a barre chord to sound clean and clear. Let’s be honest here, barres are nasty pain in the &ss and can be pretty frustrating at first.

It almost feels like impossible to apply the amount of pressure on the fingers to get them sound smooth.

But don’t worry, if you follow the tips and exercises in this post, it’s gonna get better, a lot better. If fact, you’re gonna do great!

The trick is not just about pressing hard. There’s more to it. Yes, it is important to press your index finger firmly down on the strings in order to make it work, but then again, you don’t want to push too hard either. You need to find the right balance. Whatever you do, do not strain! Don’t be a wimp, but if you’re feeling cramps just let go for a minute.

Watch the positioning of your fingers. Alter the positioning of your index finger slightly up or down to see if you can fix some of the buzzes and mutes. Try rolling it to the sight a bit. Make sure your thumb is right behind the neck to give it enough support. Observe all your fingers and hand position carefully.

Don’t expect your barres to sound great in the beginning, it’s part of the process. Your fingers need to build strength but also learn to shape the right way. It takes some time for your fingers to find the right placement onto the strings. So it’s not just a matter of strength but also technique and the latter takes practice and patience.Continue Reading

Basic Open Guitar Chords

By Klaus Crow 55 Comments

8 Most Important Open Guitar Chords For Beginners

Basic Open Guitar Chords for Beginners

Where do you start when you want to learn to play guitar? Well, the first thing you want to do is learn is some basic open guitar chords, a basic strumming pattern and then start practicing some beginner songs, so we’ll start out with some basic open chords.

The chords are the building blocks for your songs, they give you the harmony. The strumming delivers the rhythm and together they are the accompaniment for your or someone else’s singing voice which in turn provides the melody.

The 8 most important chords for beginners are: C – A – G – E – D – Am – Em – Dm. (you can memorize the first 5 open major chords by the word CAGED)

Songs with Beginner Chords

With these simple chords alone you can play an endless amount of easy songs. For example there are about a million songs that use this chord progression: G – D – Em – C (also called the I – V – vi – IV progression).

Songs like “I’m yours” by Jason Mraz, “With or without you” by U2 and “She will be loved” by Maroon 5 can all be played with just these 4 chords. Not all of these songs are originally in the key of G but you could easily fix that with the help of a capo and play it in the appropriate key.

The open chords are also the starting point and components for the more advanced chords that follow like barre chords. All barre chords are derived from open chords. If you’re interested check out The Four Most Essentiall Barre Chords.

How to Play The Beginner Guitar Chords

In the video lesson below I’m going to show you how to play each chord correctly step by step and how and where to put your fingers on the strings.

What is The CAGED System? (The Keys to The Fretboard)

By Klaus Crow 24 Comments

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Whenever you try to deepen your guitar knowledge and you buy a guitar music theory book or look up something on the internet you keep bumping into the CAGED system.

There comes a point when it’s unavoidable, that means it’s time and probably something worth knowing about.

Let me rephrase that “definitely something worth knowing about”.

So then, what’s all the fuzz about the CAGED system?

Well, if you want to be serious about guitar playing and you want to understand how the guitar in relation to the fretboard works, the CAGED system is an absolute valuable tool. Let’s take a good look and see what this is all about.

The CAGED system gives you a logic overview of the fretboard. It makes it much easier to find your way around the neck and understand how chords, chord shapes and scales are related to each other as well as a lot of other things on the guitar. (arpeggios, triads, licks, etc.)

The CAGED system is derived from the five open major chord shapes: C, A, G, E and D. Each chord shape can be moved up on the fretboard. To do so we first have to take the 5 open chord shapes and turn them into closed chord shapes. That means there are no open strings in the chord. By barring the fret and then playing the shape next to it you can easily move the chord up and down the neck and play each shape in all 12 keys.Continue Reading

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