The dictionary defines a chord as; A combination of usually three or more musical tones sounded simultaneously.
On a guitar the most commonly used chords are probably power chords, a chord simply consisting of the root note and the fifth. They sound great with loads of gain, and most modern rock songs are build around them. I’m sure every beginner out there has has learnt some classics using power chords, and they form the basis of much of what any guitarist will do. Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit is one of the most memorable power chord sequences that I’m sure every teenager post-1991 has learnt at some stage in their guitar playing career, myself included.
What happens when you wish to go beyond power chords and start to add more voicing, depth and dynamics to your chord playing? In this article I will explain how you can add a few notes to the basic power chord to drastically change the sound, and the theory behind those extra notes and how they may be applied to other chords.
For this article I will assume you know how to play an A minor power chord. The chord is made from an A, played on the 5th fret of the low E string and an E played on the 7th fret of the A string. Most players usually add the octave to the root note and play the A on the 7th fret of the D string. A pretty basic rock power chord, and a basis for many songs over the years.
You can take this power chord and change the key and sound quite easily. At the moment the chord has quite a neutral sound, it could be major or minor as we haven’t added the third note yet that would make it into a ‘true’ chord. To make the minor you must simply add the minor third of the A minor scale, which is C. So a chord made of A, E and C is an A minor. You’re playing the root, the fifth and the third. If you raise the third one semitone to a D flat you’re playing the major third and so the chord will change from an A minor to an A major. Try playing the two different versions, you should hear the chord go from a sad sound to a happier sound.
These simple three note chords are known as major and minor triads.
This theory can be applied to all chords. If someone asks you to play a minor chord, you know that you must play the root note, the fifth note and the minor third. If you know your scales then this shouldn’t be too hard to work out. Don’t worry if it sounds too complex, after a while it’ll become second nature and you’ll begin to recognise and memorise the chord shapes. The advantage of learning chords on the guitar is that once you’ve learnt the shape then it can be moved up and down the neck to different root notes really easily.
For now that is the main basic theory behind major and minor chords. It is possible to add flavour to these chords by adding extra notes. I’ll run you through some of the ones I use the most and how you can play them as well. All these chords are based around that power chord start point of root, fifth and octave.
A common extension I use while playing guitar is the add9 chord. As the name suggest you’re adding the 9th note of the scale to the triad. You might ask how do you add the 9th note when there are only 8 notes in the scale? Well the 9th is really a relative term to your root note. Take the note nine intervals up from your root, which is an octave higher than the second. So in our A minor example you would play a B. Typically this note is played instead of the fifth, and is common in a lot of blues rhythm playing.
Another type of chord is a suspended chord. I use a lot of suspended second chords, written as Asus2. When playing a suspended second you remove the third and play a second instead. So an Asus2 consists of the notes A, E and B. These chords can give a lighter, dreamy sound and sound great through the clean channel with loads of chorus.
Seventh chords are also commonly used in many forms of music. Here you aren’t replacing any note from your triad, but you are adding another note to create a four note chord, called a tetrad. As the name suggests, you add the 7th note from the scale. In our example an A minor 7th would be played using A, E, C and G, where G is the 7th note of the A minor scale. It is worth noting that there are many different kinds of seventh chord, depending on the scale you’re using. To start with I would recommend getting comfortable using the natural minor and the major sevenths. A major seventh is played using a major triad and then adding the 7th from the major scale. To play an A major 7th you would play your A major triad consisting of A, E and Db before adding the major 7th, which is a B.
Hopefully that has given you more of an insight into how some basic chords are constructed and why they are named the way they are. Ultimately you want to make it your goal to be able to play any chord by just hearing the name and working out which notes you need to play. It can all seem a little technical and difficult at first, but trust me, it gets easier over time. Remember to take everything slowly and learn one thing at a time and get comfortable with it before moving on to something more complex. Good luck and I hope this article can be of some help to anyone struggling with their chords.
To a beginner the world of music theory can seem a daunting one. There are a lot of terms, phrases and ideas that can seem so foreign that they may as well be a different language. Understandably this puts a lot of new players off from starting to learn music theory and apply it to their playing.
I was the same until I’d been playing for three years or so and decided start learning some theory to help take my playing up a notch. It has been many years since and I’d like to share some things that I used to get started, and to guide you through the first basic steps of learning to apply music theory to your guitar playing.
For the purposes of this article I’m going to assume you’ve taken the first step towards learning theory and learnt where all the notes are across the neck. If not, then go do that now! Knowing the notes is extremely important to start applying theory.
The first thing I did was learn scales and how they are put together starting with the major key, I used C major.
The major scale is made from seven different notes. The first note is called the root note, the note that you start the scale with. The root note is where the scale gets its name from. In this case the root note is C, and so the scale is C major. Each fret on a guitar is a half note, or a semitone. To play a major scale go up the neck in the following increments;
Root, whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, and then a half back to your root one octave higher. The third note in the scale is the note that decides whether it is a major or a minor scale. In a minor scale the third note is one semitone lower in pitch than in a major scale. Try playing it to hear the difference.
The notes in a C major scale you should notice are; C, D, E, F, G, A, B. See a pattern? There are no flats or sharps in the C major scale, which is why I decided to start there when I began learning.
The next step takes a lot of time and a lot of practise. Take these notes and find them all over the neck. Try to learn the scale in as many places as you can, make sure you get really comfortable with it.
You’ll find that once you’re totally at home with the C major scale it should be quite easy to move the shape and patterns around to find other scales. Try moving every note you know from C major up two frets on the guitar. You’re now playing the D major scale. Move one half step down from C major and you’re playing the B major scale. This is how I learnt my scales. I took shapes and patterns I knew and simply moved them round the neck, learning each key one at a time. Over time I learnt which notes were the fourth note, the third note, etc. As you play more you’ll get a feel of what notes are good to start and end phrases on, where you can bend to and just generally what notes will sound better over each chord.
The next thing that I did is what really made music theory click for me. I started to learn the minor keys. I started with A minor, the notes are A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Notice anything familiar? The notes of A minor are just the same as C major. In fact, if you take the 6th note of any major scale and play the notes up to the 6th one octave higher you’re playing the minor scale. So after learning the major scales I came to realise I knew all the notes for the minor scales as well. Obviously they share the same notes but of course, you need to phrase them differently when you play. The only way I can really recommend this is with experimentation. If you’re looking to learn a minor scale then the increments are;
Root note, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, half step, whole step and then whole again to the root note one octave higher.
There should be plenty to get you going here, it took me months to get my scales and notes to where I needed them to be. Ideally after some practise you should feel comfortable jamming in any key. If I shout that we’re playing in B flat minor then you should be able to play there! Good luck practising and remember to take everything slow to start with.
The rise in popularity of guitar bands and the phenomenal success of the Guitar Hero video game franchise has lead to more and more people picking up the guitar recently. Sales of guitars in the UK has hit an all time high in the past three years and as more and more people are starting to play, the guitar has surpassed the piano as the most widely learned instrument in schools.
With all these people learning I thought I’d pass on some tips from my 10 years of experience playing guitar and help point people in the right direction as they start learning their technique. In this article I’ve listed some things that I feel are very important to playing well but are often overlooked by those just starting out. If you’re a seasoned player then there won’t be much here for you, but if you’re new to playing guitar then hopefully I can help out and perhaps shed some light on things you maybe hadn’t thought about before.
1. Theory
The one factor that has improved my guitar playing beyond any other was taking the time out to learn the basics of music theory. Once you manage to break out of the pentatonic scales so overly used by rock guitarists you’ll find that your song-writing and improvisation will come on in leaps and bounds. Believe it or not, by learning the scales you’ll actually become far more free than when you didn’t know them. Ironically, learning the rules of music has left me much more open to play expressively than before. Don’t forget that once you know them, you can break them, and this is where your playing can really start to become interesting.
So how did I go about learning the theory I needed for playing rock guitar, and how might you learn it too?
Well, it hasn’t been a fast process and I’m certainly not finished yet, I learn something new all the time and there is a massive amount I simply don’t know yet. I started by learning a couple of major scale shapes, E major, C major and D major are good ones to start out with. Try finding a song you know in one of these keys and play over it, picking out the notes that sound good, and the notes that don’t sound good. A good way to learn scales is by checking out some of the free guides floating around the Internet.
I started out by learning a couple of positions for each scale, taking one or two at a time. Once you’ve done that a great method to help your soloing is to learn each scale on each single string. Take it slow at first, one or two strings at a time and just move on when you feel comfortable. The advantage of doing this is that before you know it, you will know every note you can hit on every string to stay in key and switching positions becomes a breeze. Once you’re happy with the major scales you can start to pick up the minor keys, which is actually a lot easier than you might think.
As well as learning scales I looked at chords and how they’re built and how they work together. I would recommend learning the scales first, as once you have those down, constructing chords becomes much easier. The key factor when learning is not just knowing them parrot fashion like “this is a Cmin7″, but rather learning why it is a C minor seventh. Once you know why the chords are then you can build them anywhere you need and you’ll find it that bit easier to write great melodies over the top.
A detailed guide to learning music theory is beyond the scope of this article but hopefully I’ve highlighted an area that may be lacking in your guitar playing. Remember even the most basic major and minor scales can make a world of difference when writing that next song, or improvising with your band. There are a huge range of free lessons available on the web, and some great tutorials on YouTube, so make sure you check them out.
2. Bending
Something I feel is crucial to being able to play rock guitar well is being able to bend the string accurately. String bending is what makes the electric guitar the instrument it is, having been used by countless guitarists to convey every kind of emotion you can imagine. When it is done well a big bend sounds amazing, but done badly it can sound terrible. If you have a great ear for music then you shouldn’t have much trouble bending and keeping in key. If however you’re like me and aren’t blessed with a natural ear then you’ll need to train yourself to bend accurately.
For the best results when bending strings always try to use three fingers on your fretting hand. I find when playing rock the best method is to fret the start note with the ring finger and use your middle and index fingers to help control the string as you bend it. I generally bring my thumb over the neck and ’squeeze’ the fretboard to bend the note. Some guitarists might argue that bringing the thumb round is bad technique but I find it helps your control and is useful for muting the strings you’re not playing.
Once you have a solid technique the first thing you need to do is make sure you’re bending in key. Pick any note on your guitar. Then pick a note two frets up and play that. Play the two notes one after another getting used to the sound of the interval. Once you have the sound in your head, play the first note and then bend up to the second. This whole tone bend is the most commonly used in rock guitar playing and you should make sure you’re comfortable with it. Once you’ve mastered that you can try single fret (semitone) bends and even three fret bends. Remember to always bend up to a note that is in key with the song you’re playing, nothing sounds worse than an out of key bend!
To hear some fantastic string bending listen to any guitar solo from Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd. You should be able to hear a lot of blues style bends as well as really controlled bends across wide intervals.
3. Vibrato
Your vibrato can be defined as your touch or feel as you play. How you vibrato the notes you play can often define you as a guitarist and help to differentiate you from everyone else. For example take Yngwie Malmsteen with his super wide vibrato and then Steve Vai with a much more smooth and controlled sound. You can tell the two apart instantly. In fact I’d go as far as to say you could have them both play the same passage of music and you’d be able to tell the difference, even when playing the same notes.
Vibrato is varying the pitch of a note as you hold it to give a vocal like quality and expression to your playing. The amount and the speed at which you vibrato the note is entirely down to personal preference, so really just experiment with everything you can think of. Try everything and see what you think sounds best. As a test, try playing a melody with some light vibrato. Then play again but don’t vibrato a single note. The time without vibrato will often sound rather lifeless and uninteresting. It is an important technique to work on as once you have it down you’ll sound like a real guitarist and not a beginner anymore.
When I vibrato notes the motion generally comes from the wrist. I try not to overdo it and generally let the mood of the music decide how aggressively I vibrato the note. There isn’t really a steadfast way to teach vibrato, I found the best method was to simply watch my favourite guitar players as they played and pick up techniques as I went along until I settled on a sound I felt comfortable with.
Try some songs from Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai and BB King to get a good idea of some different vibrato sounds.
4. Timing
Timing is everything. It doesn’t have to as complex as Dream Theater but one thing is for sure, if you play out of time you’ll sound rubbish. The issue of timing applies to lead and rhythm playing but of course is ten times more important for playing rhythm, after all, that’s why you’re playing it.
A great way to make sure you play in time is to always practise with a metronome. They’re cheap and available from every music shop, and failing that there are several free software metronomes floating round on the web. By always playing with a beat you’ll be used to hitting your notes in time and sticking to a regular rhythm. Before I joined a band I never played to a beat and so for the first few practises my timing was quite out on places as I was just used to jamming around on my own.
Remember that even the most simple of passages must be in time and that you need to be able to play your rhythm parts consistently.
5. Picking
An aspect that is often overlooked by new guitarists is their picking hand. I was the same, generally all the focus goes onto the fretting hand to make sure those chords stick and the bends sound good. However the picking hand is just as important and will have a big impact on your sound. There are a whole host of approaches when picking your notes while you play, you can play fast and precise or loose and slower and everything in-between. If you ignore your picking technique you’ll have to go back and learn it again, which is what I had to do after three years of playing.
A solid picking technique is vital for rhythm playing as you’ll need to be able to reproduce the same thing every time you play the song. You’ll need to make sure that your picking hand is synched up well with your fretting hand, you don’t want to hit dead notes, especially on clean sections.
The technique of picking properly is enough for a separate article, but just remember not to overlook it. Try searching YouTube for some videos from Paul Gilbert and John Petrucci on picking technique. For a looser feel you can always turn to Jimi Hendrix, Wind Cries Mary and Castles Made of Sand have some great sections in them for getting some new picking ideas.
In conclusion.
While I haven’t covered anything groundbreaking here I certainly hope I may have uncovered some weaknesses in your playing that you can keep in mind as you work on your technique. These are often things I see new guitarists overlook in favour of playing some loud power chords or trying to shred away from the start. Remember that the key with learning anything new on the guitar is to start slow and make sure you can play it cleanly before moving up to speed. By taking things slow and learning the best techniques you’ll become a much better and more versatile guitarist in the future.
For many guitarists I meet and talk to being able to pick at super speeds through runs and scales seems like an impossible task. Let me assure you right now that it isn’t, it is just a matter of practising often, and practising well. By following a few simple guidelines and exercises you’ll be shredding away like Herman Li in no time. Well maybe not no time, but certainly not as long as you might think.
Many people associate fast alternate picking with terrible 80s hair metal and too many guitarists playing mindless solos just going up and down scales showing off how fast they can play. While this was certainly true for a good number of players, playing fast and controlled is actually a vital part of having good all round technique, and it has been overlooked in recent years.
It seems to have taken nearly 20 years to start to become more acceptable to play fast and there have been a large number of bands rise in popularity recently that have virtuoso guitar performers at their forefront.
So in this article I’d like to point out some steps that can help out with your alternate picking, giving your solos that speed boost just when they need them. Of course, the benefits of learning the technique isn’t only evident in solos as the methods carry across into many other aspects of guitar playing. You’ll be able to play more complex rhythm sections a lot more easily which is especially useful in a lot of heavy metal, jazz and flamenco playing.
First things first, what is alternate picking?
Alternate picking is simply a technique where you pick the notes in a continuous up and down motion with your plectrum. For example; first note is played with a downstroke, second with an upstroke, third is down, fourth is up, and so on. Usually the downbeat is played with a downstroke, and the upbeat with an upstroke. This allows you to synch up your hands to the beat and pick accurately and in time. I usually find it is best to synch up your downstrokes to the beat, if you keep the fluid up and down motion then the rest of the notes will look after themselves.
So where to start?
They key to playing really fast is to start really slow. By repeating the actions very slowly but accurately you’re programming the actions into your hands and eventually they will become part of your muscle memory. Once learnt slow it becomes much easier to take the same licks and build up the speed. The most absolutely necessary thing you must have is a metronome. Without a metronome to synch up your picking it’ll be near impossible to get good technique.
Start off by choosing an exercise or lick that you’d like to learn. Just a simple 1234 chromatic pattern is good, or three notes per string ascending and descending a major scale is also good. Once you’ve found the run that you’d like to play make sure it goes all the way up, and then back down as well. A key mistake many players make, myself included, is to play the run very well one way but to skip out playing the other way. For a long time I could play ascending scales quite well but it took me quite some time to learn to descend to the same standard.
Play your run up and down very very slowly. Make sure you use the metronome to keep time. Synch up your downstrokes to the clicks of the metronome. The easiest way to get started is playing four notes per string and changing string on each beat. Start very slow, around 40-50bpm and just move in small increments as you feel comfortable. Eventually you’ll be flying along at 200bpm, just be patient and never move on until you pick each note cleanly and in time.
I would do these exercises for around an hour each day, focusing on staying clean and keeping the time. Now admittedly playing up and down to a click for an hour isn’t the most interesting thing to be doing on the guitar but it pays huge dividends later. I found it useful to watch some TV or a film whilst practising these kind of exercises. Keep picking through a couple of Simpsons episodes and you’ve done a really useful practise workout, just make sure your metronome is louder than your TV.
The point of this article really is that I want to push home that seemingly difficult techniques are accessible for everyone, you just need to practise the right way.
Think of playing guitar like driving a racing car. The fretting hand is the steering wheel, and the picking hand is the accelerator. The two elements must work together or you’ll crash off the track. In a similar way of looking at things, how many Formula 1 drivers race around a track the first time they go there? The answer is none. They take it very slowly and learn the track inside out before they even think about racing round it. The same applies with guitar and learning alternate picking. Learn it solidly and slowly and the speed will come with time.
Be patient and good luck!
