Before you begin Beginner's course
Fretboard notes
About the Creator Links Link to me? Support the site
Buying a guitar Guitar anatomy Tuning Tabulature/chords
Lesson 1 Lesson 2 Lesson 3 Lesson 4Lesson 5 Lesson 6 Lesson 7 Lesson 8 Lesson 9
1. Introduktion 2. Kromatiska skalan, oktaver 3. Oktavtricks 4. CAGED-systemet 5. Teknik-övningar
6. Pentaskalan
7. Ackordteori - basic
Box 1 Box 2 Box 3 Box 4 Box 5

Lesson 4

You will learn...

Recommended time for completion - 2-4 weeks (maybe longer)
Important lesson that prepares you for the (often dreaded) bar chords.

Tune your guitar

I do encourage you to tune your guitar before you continue - otherwise it will sound horrible, and people will not want to listen to your beautiful music...

Tune your guitar by comparing notes with your computers MIDI-bank: click here!

Learn internet video poker with a lesson from a free video poker game at the how to play video poker section of AceHoyle.com!

Warm up!

Warm up those guitar fingers as I demonstrated in the 2nd lesson.

Repetition...

Now you have learnt quite a bit of guitar playing. For all of you who have made it this far - I salute you!

Many people quit after trying just a few chords, and I don't blame them, because it is really not easy in the beginning.

So far in the course we have come across quite a few open chords, and if you were on chordie.com (or any other site), you probably learned even more! Hence, I thought a nice summary would be the right thing to start with.

Anyway from this point forward I think you have reached a high enough level of understanding so that I do not have to post pictures to each chord! In other words they will be presented as they are in this summary from now on.

But now we will repeat together. Watch, listen and play at the same time!


C
X32010		 D
XX0232		 Dm
XX0231		 A
X02220		 Am
X02210		 A7
X02020
E
022100		 Em
022000		 E7
020100		 G
320033		 F
1332XX		  

 


If you did not even make the first slow round - practise them better and make sure everything flows! A guitarist should not have to think twice about any of the chords above (trust me). =)


One last reminder (maybe the last time?):

It is very important... however, enough thumb-yapping - time to learn powerchords (this is when you are supposed to scream "Yay! Finally.")

Powerchords/5th chords

Now you are going to learn something which for many guitarists has been a real mood-lifter! The great Steve Morse (of Deep Purple) said himself that it wasn't until he learned these simple chords that he felt that his guitar playing really took off.

In Swedish we also refer to these as "rock chords", because they are so widely used in rock. Any AC/DC song, practically, would just not function without these chords.

There is no real magic about the chords, but they have a special feature: you can grab them anywhere on the fretboard, and the root note of the chord is always on the string closest to your chin, i.e. the top string of the chord (if you don't play like Hendrix style with the guitar on your neck).

Here are the four different powerchord patterns, in this case demonstrated with the root on the third fret of each top string of the chord (the most common are the first two with the root note on the low E string and A string respectively):

355XXX

X355XX

XX356X

XXX366

When I learned these chords I usually just played around a little to hear what sounded good or not - it is a great way to get to know your guitar:). In principle, you can play the backing track of nearly all songs with these chords, although to get the full harmony you need to play complete major/minor chords.

Bar chords are in definition chords in which you use your index-finger as a replacement for the nut at junction between the head and neck of your guitar, enabling you to move the chord anywhere you want. They are also referred to as movable chords. The powerchords are simplified bar chords, you will learn the real bar chords later in this course! So if you found this paragraph confusing, don't worry because you will get a thorough explanation in the next few lessons on bar chords.

As I said earlier, just fooling around the fretboard is great way of getting to know your guitar, although an even better way is knowing just exactly what you are playing... That's right, time for some theory (please do not stop reading!).

Important: What follows next may or may not be confusing to you - if you find it confusing you should not worry too much about it because it will become clear to you later! In other words if you do not understand, you can still without any problems move on to the next lesson.

Basic chromatic theory

In order to know what you are playing, you will need to learn the notes on the strings. For now, though, the first two strings are enough (the low E and the A string). But you should know that when you have learned the notes on the low E string, you have simultaneously learned the notes on the high E string as well=).

To start memorizing, you first need to get acquainted with the chromatic scale, and learn where the flats and sharps are.

This will explained more in-depth in the theoretical section, but for now just learn the following:

Natural notes are those denoted without any signs - the rest are denoted either with a # sign, or a♭ sign. When a natural note is highered a half step in pitch, we say that it is a sharp, #, of the natural note. When a natural note is lowered a half step we say that it is a flat,♭ , of the natural note.

Natural notes:

A B C D E F G (A)

In total there are 7 natural notes. (all from the C major scale)

Summarized the chromatic scale includes all the flats and sharps within a given scale, for instance the A chromatic scale:

A --A#/B♭--B-- C-- C #/D♭-- D--D #/E♭-- E --F --F#/G♭-- G --G#/A♭--(A)

all in all there are 12 chromatic notes. Between two natural notes the interconnecting chromatic note can either have a ♭ sign or # sign - but it is still the same note with the same sound.

When we are going up the scale we say that the notes are sharp, and going down the scale we say that they are flats i. e:

From A, up (red notes)

A, A sharp, B, C, C sharp, etc.
A --A#/B♭--B-- C-- C #/D♭-- D--D #/E♭-- E --F --F#/G♭-- G --G#/A♭--(A)

From A, down (green notes)

A, A flat, G, G flat, F, E, etc

A--A♭/G#-- G--G♭/F# -F --E--E♭/D #-- D--D♭/C #--C---B--B♭/A#--(A)

As you may have noticed, there are no sharps/flats between E, F and B, C (of course, if you would see Fb written anywhere, you are smart enough to know that they actually mean E, it's just another way of writing it depending on the piece).

If you see an H anywhere, this is analogous to B. H is old-school, B is new-school; it is easier to say
"ABCDEFGABC" and so on instead of "AHCDEFGAHC". Quite logical, if you ask me.

H is still taught by some teachers who stick to the "old ways", and what not. You just need to understand that this is the same note as B!!! Another thing that will probably confuse you, is that a flat H is not called "H flat", but it is in fact called a B. When I played the clarinet I had to learn it this way, but now I think it's pretty... umm... unnecessary and confusing (I'm sorry, all you who like the H, :P).

On your guitar all notes restart at the 12th fret, ie G is on the 3rd and 15th fret of the E string, etc.

Here is a diagram of the fretboard with all the chromatic notes:

(This picture is always available under Tools - Fretboard notes)

Back to the powerchords... how to name them!

Ok, now you have some really basic knowledge of the notes. The reason for why I told you the above is so that you can be able to name the powerchords that you play!

The root note of the chord is always named first (Not only for powerchords, but in all chords!). The root note then it is followed by a description of the modifications made to the chord.

I just want to mention that all chords are compared to a regular major chord. Therefore regular major chords never have anything else in their name except for the root note!

In a powerchordFor the powerchords all you have to to is to name the root note, and add a 5 to it. For instance this chord:

X133XX

Is called A#5 (A sharp 5)
Or it can be called Bb5 (B flat 5) - it's the same thing. (As I weote earlier, it's confusing in the beginning, but you will understand with time and practice).

another example:

B5
X244XX

and so on.

Feel the power!

So far you have only been able to play simple chords that did not stretch further than the 3rd fret of the guitar. And now, all of the sudden, you have the ability to play on the entire fretboard with these simple chords!

I use the word simple, because these chords only consist of a root note, and the 5th note in the major scale! Proper chord theory, however, will be explained in the theoretical section.

If all of this seems very complicated, or even boring, I think you will change your mind if you have a look at the video:)

here are the chords that I posted earlier once again:

355XXX

X355XX

XX356X

XXX366

 


Right, now I think it's time to play some proper music with these chords, don't you?

look, listen, learn!

Nirvana - Polly

A very nice song by Nirvana.

Tabulature
verse
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
---------------0--77-X-5---5-X-0-----o--
-2--X--0--55-X-0--77-X-5---5-X-0-----o--
-2--X--0--55-X-0--55-X-3---3-X-0--------
-0--X--0--33-X-----------------0--------

chorus
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
--77-X-5--5--X--0-------3---3--X-0---o--
--77-X-5--5--X--0--55-X-3---3--X-0---o--
--55-X-3--3--X--0--55-X-1---1--X-0------
----------------0--33-X----------0------

In the bridge there is a bass that plays the following:

-------------------------
-------------------------
--------------55-3-333---
-00-0--33-3--------------

Demonstration:
First I will play it in 4/4 tempo, and then like Kurt (as the tab shows), both fast and slow. I hope you have been practising the right-hand techniques shown in Lesson 3.

Click here for song lyrics.

Green Day - When I Come Around

Green Day music is quite centered around powerchords, which is why they are a good example:)

I only show the verse for the song, because it introduces a new playing technique: palm muting.

 

---pm->----pm----------->---pm----->
--------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------7----------9-X--5---5---555-------o-
--------5---------------- 7----------9-X--5---5---555--0----o-
--------5-----------5--5--5--5-5---7-7-X--3---3---333--0------
---3--3-3---3-3----------------------------------------0------

Click here for lyrics.


Pm stands for palm muting.

Palm muting is a technique in which you mute a string by putting your palm across the strings ca. 1-2 cm from the bridge, while you pluck one or more strings. The sound produced by palm muting is most conspicuous on a distorted electric guitar. I will demonstrate this in the video.

Try listening to more Green Day songs in order to learn your powerchords better:)

 

 

 

Bonus songs

Here are some bonus songs with instructions in order for you to practise your powerchord playing.

AC/DC - TNT (coming soon)
Deep Purple - Smoke on the water (coming soon)
The White Stripes - Hypnotize (coming soon)

Arpegio

Now you will learn a simple arpegio piece that I have composed myself! It will be a little bit difficult in the beginning, but if you practised the previous arpegio patterns you should have no trouble mastering this piece!

It is composed of two parts that are each repeated twice, and then with an easy finish.

Video demonstration, and audio+ txt files are found beneath the tabulature.

 

repeat 2x
E||-----------2--------------------------|-----------0--------------------------|
B||--------3-----3-----------3--------3--|--------3-----3-----------3--------3--|
G||-----2-----------2-----0--------0-----|-----2-----------2-----0--------0-----|
D||--0-----------------------------------|--0-----------------------------------|
A||--------------------3--------2--------|--------------------3--------2--------|
E||--------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|


-----------2--------------------------|-----------3-----------------3---------||
--------3-----3-----------3--------3--|--------3-----3-----------3-----3------||
-----2-----------2-----0--------0-----|-----0-----------0-----0-----------0--o||
--0-----------------------------------|--------------------------------------o||
--------------------3--------2--------|--------------------2------------------||
--------------------------------------|--3------------------------------------||


repeat 2x
---------------------------------------|-----------------------------0---------||
------------0-----------------1--------|-----------0--------------0-----0------||
*--------2-----2-----------2-----2-----|--------0-----0--------0-----------0--o||
*-----2-----------------2-----------2--|-----2-----------2--------------------o||
---0--------------2--3-----------------|--------------------2------------------||
---------------------------------------|--0------------------------------------||


finish
-----------2--------------------------|--3----------------||
--------3-----3-----------3--------3--|--3----------------||
-----2-----------2-----0--------0-----|--0----------------||
--0-----------------------------------|--0----------------||
--------------------3--------2--------|--2----------------||
--------------------------------------|--3----------------||

MIDI:
Slow | Normal | Fast

Guitarpro4-fil
TXT-fil

In the first video I demonstrate how to play, in the second video I play without talking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Allright...

That's all for this lesson, before you move on to the next...