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hi, ive been playing guitar for about 8 years but im not actually that good considering how long ive been playing. thats mainly cuz when i started guitar i got into a lot of bad habits and i spent a number of years getting out of those habits. i hope you find some of these tips helpful cuz if you follow them you will have an easier time of it in the long run even if it seems like its harder at first.
if you want to play chords that span 3 or 4 frets you have to remember this rule. 1 finger, 1 fret. always. this applies when you are playing scales across 3 or 4 frets, or trilling notes.
this is an F chord:
e---1---
b---1---
g---2---
d---3---
a---3---
E---1---
you play this by barring the first fret. that is, resting your index finger on the first fret, pressing down fairly hard and evenly (actually its not that hard at all, but it seems like you have to press really hard if you are not in the habit of barring often). your middle finger should be on the 2nd fret of the g string and your 3rd finger and little finger on the 3rd frets of the a and d strings respectively. thats the correct way to play barre chords. move all the notes 1 fret along and you have an F#. move it all along 1 more fret and you have a G chord. yep you guessed it - you can play all basic chords as barre chords.
a g chord is:
e---3---
b---3---
g---0---
d---0---
a---2---
E---3---
but it is the same as playing this:
e---3---
b---3---
g---4---
d---5---
a---5---
E---3---
(actually the are very subtly different - the notes are the same but the 2nd G chord rings out more because of the open d and g strings - it has a more resonant feel)
another tip. if you are not strumming these chords but finger picking them, ALWAYS try to pick with all your fingers. lets say your fret hand is in the shape of an F chord and you want to pick the strings E, a, d, g, b then go back up and play g, d, a, E. you would play the top string with your thumb, the a string with your index finger, the d string with your middle finger, g string - 3rd finger, b string - little finger. by doing this all the time you are required to finger pick you will make all your fingers more dextrous. if you want to play guitar to a high level, if if you want to play complex solos or flamenco this is absolutely necessary. if 1 or more of your fingers are less dextrous than the others then you will have serious problems playing scales fast, or changing chords rapidly.
try to be consciously aware of what notes you are playing - this isnt always possible if you are playing fast but if you know what the key notes of an a chord are it makes it easier to understand how to make that chord a minor. or major. how to augment that chord, suspend it etc etc. this in turn means that your vocabulary of chords increases dramatically (if you learn how to augment chords you will be able to play any chord you want without having to memorise finger positions), which means you have more techniques, progressions, more ideas to throw in your tunes than you had before. its not a good idea to just memorise a bunch of chords. or get a chord library and look up a chord if you are stuck. what you need to do is figure out what you need to do to augment chords. this is actually alot easier than it looks. the key notes of an a chord are the root note, augmented 5th and perfect 7th. i cant do all of them cuz theres a crazy amount of chord augmentations. for this ill just focus on making chords minor. there are online resources which tell you how to, for example suspend chords too, and its worth taking the time to read them and learn them.
for example:
an a chord is
e---0---
b---2---
g---2---
d---2---
a---0---
E---x---
the root note is the first note - 0 on the a string. that note is A. hence it being the root of the chord. if you change the root note you change the root of the chord. lets say you move your index finger up 2 string to play this
e---0---
b---2---
g---2---
d---0---
a---0---
E---2---
you change the root note to the 2nd fret of the E string. E, F, F#
that chord is actually called F#/a. easy. go back to the A chord...
e---0---
b---2---
g---2---
d---2---
a---0---
E---x---
lets turn it minor...we do this by flattening the last key note. to suspend a chord you double flatten the last key note (cant remember whether this is a sus2 or a sus4 - i think its a sus4 though). therefore an a minor would be
e---0---
b---1---
g---2---
d---2---
a---0---
E---x---
a b chord is
e---2---
b---4---
g---4---
d---4---
a---2---
E---x---
therefore, if you flatten the last key note of the chord triad, a b minor is
e---2---
b---3---
g---4---
d---4---
a---2---
E---x---
also i recommend everyone learn music theory. im not kidding - you can learn it pretty much in an hour. its just as easy as learning tablature and its more useful because musical scores tell you note duration and tempo as well. you only need to know that bass clefs are for scores below middle C on the piano and treble clefs are for scores above middle C. you need to know that the bottom line on a musical staff represents E, the top line represents F. you can extrapolate all the notes in between. other stuff about music theory you can figure out as long as you know these basics and basic time signitures. time signitures relate to the number of notes per bar and the legnth of those notes. its like calculus - you only need to learn a few tiny things and you can use them to build enormous complicated equations (er, songs). it is totally logical and knowing it makes it easier to organise your own songs, easier to keep track of multiple scores. this will be useful to anyone here that produces trance because all trance producers are effectively writing music for, typically 5 or more instruments, in many cases alot more (lead instrument, bass instrument, rhthym section, percussion to name just a few essentials). also, you will begin to notice musical patterns in alot of other people's songs. patterns of notes and chord progressions which appear everywhere. this in turn makes it easier to dissect other people's songs and figure out how they work, which in turn can help you to build your own tune from the ground up.
if you do all that and stick to it and keep trying to figure out more about chords, how to augment chords that have more than 3 key notes for example you will not only be a better guitarist but you will be a better musician overall so all your trance productions will benefit from what you learn on guitar. thats one of the beauties of music, it all makes complete sense.
Last edited by Derivative on Aug-27-2004 at 17:20
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