This book is for the aspiring guitarists who either just bought their guitar or have had one sitting in the corner collecting dust for awhile. You want to be able to play your favorite songs jam with friends, serenade your loved one(s), or simply be...
In this chapter we are going to review chords that lay within the key of C and different shapes of how to play them on the fretboard. We are also going to set up the foundation(s) for understanding arpeggios for our next chapter. Let us drive right into it - time to grab your guitar.
What is a chord? A chord is classified as a group of 3 or more notes played together. Diatonic chords are of course chords that lay within the major scale you are playing in or analyzing.
Something important to know right off of the bat - there will also be more options of chords to play than what lay within the major or minor key you are playing in.
Let's start off with some fun - I'd like you tune up your instrument and play some of these examples with me.
How to read chord diagrams:
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1st Row:
From our 'Let it Be' example you probably can play the top row of chords no problem. Just to make sure I'd like you to set your metronome at 75 bpm [beats per minute] and play each chord cleanly on the 1 of every measure. This can be your baseline to see if you can play the chords without thinking. If 75 bpm is too slow, then increase by 5-10 bpm until you are having to work for it.
2nd Row:
For now I want you to ignore the 7s on top of the chord names. I want you to focus on the fingers you added or removed, and how they produced a different sound. This is very important - I want to add colors to your pallet so you can enjoy some new sounds right away. Dsus2 is one of my favorite chords of all time. The notes inside are D-A-D-E. There is no 3rd, instead it is replaced with 2nd note in the D major scale which is E. If that is too confusing, that's okay for right now, but know it will make sense by the end of this course.
CAGED chord forms:
Okay, just like last chapter we are briefly going to review the CAGED system again. In fact this system is going to come up a lot in this book/course so I would advise really getting a firm grasp on it as soon as possible. There are plenty of books you can buy or online videos you can watch to further your understanding.
