B7 chord

The B7 Chord

Exercise: Blues in E major
Now that we have covered the basic open dominant 7 chords we can play a blues in E major.

G7 Chord

The G7 Chord


I strongly recommend that you begin to record your practise sessions for future reference.

 The C7 Chord

Two Bar Rhythms

So far, the rhythm patterns given play for one bar only and are then repeated for every following bar. We will make things a little trickier now by introducing some two bar rhythms. A two bar rhythm is a rhythm phrase that lasts for two bars, see the following exercises 

Exercise:
Play the following chord progression using the two bar rhythm provided. Note that both F and
C are held for two bars each.

Silent Stroke

Silent Stroke Symbol

In previous lesson we covered an eighth note strum pattern that involved a continuous down/up strum pattern:

 We will now introduce the idea of a silent stroke and incorporate it into this continuous down/up strum pattern.


When you see these symbols:

Silent Stroke symbol

 you do not stroke the strings but let your strumming hand continue to move over the strings so that the down/up pattern of strum is not broken. This is something that you are already doing natually, we just haven’t notated it yet. Silent stroke symbols allow us to write more complex strumming patterns because we can start to miss out those strokes that fall on the beats 1, 2, 3 and 4 as the following exercise demonstrates.




Exercise:
Play the following chords using the strum provided. Make sure that you don’t hit the strings
on beats + of 1 and 3, this is called an ‘off beat’. On beat refers to the beat when it falls ‘ON’
the count i.e. the 1, 2, 3, or 4 count. The off beat refers to when the beat falls ‘OFF’ the
count i.e. all the + (and) beats.

Notes on the Sixth String

The sixth string is also known as the low E string.

Exercise:
Pluck the following notes. This time, play the notes with a down/up picking motion.

A7 Chord

Dominant 7 Chords


So far we have looked at major and minor open chords. Some of these chords can be made into dominant seventh chords by changing the shape of the chord on the guitar. Dominant 7 chords (often called sevenths) are built by adding the minor seventh note of the major scale to the major chord. For example the A major becomes A dominant 7th if you add a G note to the chord

The A7 Chord

The open A7 chord comes in two shapes. Both shapes consist of the same notes that make up the A dominant 7th chord. The first shape adds a finger, changing the open E (1st string) to a G and creating the minor seventh in the chord. The second shape removes the note A on the 3rd string and therefore becomes G which is the open string. In this way both shapes have added a G to the A major chord to become A dominant 7. The second shape is shown below:

Exercise:
Play the following:

D7 Chord

The D7 Chord

Exercise:
Play the following:

E7 Chord

The E7 Chord

Exercise:

Play the following:

Exercise -Dominant &

Exercise:

Play the following using shape 1 of the chord A7 and shape 2 of the chord E7:

There is an uneasy sound created between the first and seventh notes of the dominant seven

chord. This is known as dissonance. Also, note that we are using a new strum pattern here,

listen to the example and play along, it will be much easier than you think.

Eighth Note Rhythm Patterns

Eighth Note Rhythm Patterns


So far we have used rhythms that follow a quarter note pulse. It is counted 1 2 3 4.
For example:

The quarter note becomes an eighth note when halved. The eighth note looks like this:

 In terms of time, a quarter note is the equivalent of two eighth notes:

 By halving the quarter note pulse we can make an eighth note pulse. It is counted as follows:
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +

F Major Chord

The F Major Chord

Exercise:

First I will play through the F major chord in a standard quarter note strum, then I will play the same chord but in an eighth note strum pattern

 F major chord in eighth note strum:

Exercise:
Play the following chord progression. Notice the chord changes between chords C and G.
These changes take place halfway through bars 2 and 4.

At first it will be hard to land that F chord and then change to C and G and back to F. Don’t worry, a little practice each day will improve your new skill.

The Chromatic Scale

The Chromatic Scale

The chromatic scale is based around the seven notes of the musical alphabet (A, B, C, D, E, F and G), however, it contains a few extra musical notes. In its entirety it runs as follows:

Some of the notes in the chromatic scale have two note names. These notes are called accidentals. They can either be sharp notes, in which case we we use the symbol #, or flat notes, in which case we use the symbol b.

The chromatic scale applies to your guitar in the same way as it does a piano:

Minor Chords

Minor Chords

Major chords give music a happy feel. Minor chords, on the other hand, lend a sad or melancholy feeling to music.
Minor chords are constructed in the same way as major chords except that the third or middle note of the chord is flattened

A Minor Chords

Exercise:
Strum the A minor chord as indicated by the tab below:

E Minor Chords

Exercise:

Play the following:

Notes on the Fifth String

Notes on the Fifth String

The fifth string is also known as the A string. The main notes in the first position that are on the fifth string are A (open), B (2nd fret) and C (3rd fret).

Exercise:
Play these fifth string notes with a down/up picking motion.

G-Major Chord

The G Major Chord
The G Major Chord contains the notes G, B and D. It is played using fingers 1, 2 and 3.

Note that finger 1 plays a B note, finger 2 plays a G note, and finger 3 also plays a G note. According to music theory a G Major chord MUST contain the notes B, D and G. In the above G major chord diagram, the D note is sounded by the open D string (4th string). Remember to consider that open string notes are included in chord make-up and not just the notes played by your fingers.

Exercise:

Play the following:

G major chord

C Major Chord

The C Major Chord

The C Major Chord is constructed of the notes C, E and G. It is played using fingers
1, 2 and 3.

Exercise:

Play the following: