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Playing Bar Chords in Songs
In the previous bar chord guitar lesson we looked at the correct hand position required to play consistent clear sounding bar chords on the guitar. Once you’ve mastered this technique the next step is to know what bar chord shapes and where to play them on the guitar neck within a song.
6 String Bar Chords
The main bar chord shapes used are based on open string E and A chord shapes. For example the F major bar chord at position (fret 1) is the E major chord shifted up 1 fret with finger 1 barred behind across the 6 strings.If you look at the F minor bar chord you will see that it is simply the open E minor chord again with finger 1 barring across the 1st fret. Read More
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Breaking The Bar Chord Barrier
Are you a guitarist who is comfortable playing open string chords but when it comes to bar chords they are a barrier to playing certain songs? The key to breaking the bar chord barrier on guitar is building hand strength and placing your hand in the correct position on the guitar neck. In comparison to open string chords such as G C and D bar chords are much more difficult to play as they require extra pressure for the strings ring out clearly.
To help build the hand strength necessary for a clear bar chord sound try this exercise. Using just your first finger bar it across all the strings at the 5th fret. Ensure that the finger is perfectly parallel with the fret and placed up against it as close as possible. Read More
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Tackling Travis Picking
Travis picking is a finger style technique used in country and folk music that combines an arpeggio with a moving bass line playing the root and 5th of the chord. Travis picking is named after Merle Travis who was a famous country music guitarist who played on thousands of recordings.
To learn this tricky technique you first have to develop independent movement between your plucking thumb and fingers. To do this start with the simple exercise below where the fingers pluck two strings for each pluck that the thumb does.
Using the A chord the thumb (P) will act as the bass player plucking the A string (the root of the chord) and then the E string (the 5th of the chord). Read More
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First Fingerpicking Guitar Lesson
There are two main ways to play the guitar either with a guitar pick/ plectrum or by using your fingers. The technique for using your fingers is called fingerpicking or fingerstyle. This guitar lesson will introduce you to this technique.
Many beginners will tend to strum the guitar with just with their thumb to avoid having to use a guitar pick. However there is much more to proper fingerpicking technique than just this. Learning correct fingerpicking technique can be more difficult than learning how to use a pick as it involves coordinating four fingers and a thumb verses just one guitar pick. Read More -
Using The CAGED Chord System
Previously we unlocked the CAGED chord system discovering how to play chords in different locations on the guitar neck. In this guitar lesson we’ll learn how to use our knowledge of the CAGED chord system in songs.
Rock Riffs Using The CAGED Chord System
The CAGED chord system can be used to make boring predictable chord changes sound interesting. Many songs are written just a few basic chords so to make them sound interesting guitarists often use the CAGED chord system.
Substitute Riff
Substitute by The Who is a classic example of this. The main riff of the song is just 3 chords D A and G which are used in 1000s of songs. However what makes it interesting is the shapes that Pete Townsend uses to play the chords and the rhythm. Read More