Week 3 - Day 1: The F#m Chord
The F#m chord looks like this:
This chord offers us a really neat lesson. As you know, the second fret note on the Low E string is an F#,
which is also called a Gb. The reason is because the F note is on the first fret and the G note is on the third
fret. So, we have a note in between which sits just in the middle. If you call it an F#, then this means you
are bringing the F note (from the first fret) UP in pitch to an F#. If you call it a Gb, then this means you
are taking the G note DOWN in pitch to a Gb. No matter what you call it (F#m or Gbm) it will have the
following characteristics:
1. It's a minor chord.
2. It's either a sharp or a flat.
3. The notes are mostly sharp or flat.
In this chord we have the notes F#, C#, and A. You can also look at it as Gb, Db, and A.
Before we begin learning more about the F#m chord, compare the F Major to it:
vs.
(OR)
While this may seem obvious, I wanted to show you a side-by-side. As you'll see, the F#m really just takes
the form from the F and does two things:
1.
We move the F shape from the first to second fret (or the G shape from the third fret and move it
to the second fret)
2.
2. We remove what makes the F Major or G Major a 'major' chord (which is the added second fret
noteon the G string)
Slash Sheet Exercise (95 BPM):
Simply practice playing the F#m chord four times each measure.
Important: We will only focus on the second fret version of this chord because I've never seen an instance
that requires you to play an F#m anywhere else on the neck. However, we do need to examine the notes
found in the F#m.
Now we need to look at the fretboard for logical areas in which the F#, C#, and A appear:
We're going to do things a little differently with this
chord. Instead of showing you the optional position, I
want to see if you can find it.
Here are a few hints:
1. It's an A Style barre chord.
2. You'll need the root note F#(Gb.)
3. It's a standard chord.*
* What I mean is that this is a chord you've already
learned in terms of positioning. The notes are just
different.
Did you find it?
If you found it easily, now try to figure out how you
would create a power chord out of it.
Remember that in theory we only need the root note and
the 5th. It is up to you whether or not you wish to
include the octave above the root.
If you are turning an F#m chord into a power chord,
remember that the power chord DOES NOT contain the
minor.
In other words, and F#m power chord turns into an F#5.
Just remove the minor.
Before We Apply Fingerstyle...
What I want you to do is strum the following progression using our slash sheet at 95 bpm:
D...........................Em....................F#m....................G
I want you to play the D and Em open. Then play the F#m and then the G chord barred. Remember that
the G barre chord is just a simple: 355433 (low E left to high E right)
Applying Fingerstyle To The F#m Chord
Exercise 1
This is different than previous fingerstyle arrangements. Here you have sixteenth notes being played.
These appear on the "4's and 2's" being picked in between. The easiest way to think of this is by playing
only eighth notes at the beginning and very end of the second measure. Everything else is sixteenth notes.
Fingerings
I have purposely set you up here to play the E, A, and D strings with your thumb.
Week 3 - Day 2: The Bm Chord
The Bm chord looks like this:
To me there aren't many 'other' chords that are as beautiful (and haunting) as this chord. In this chord we
need the notes B, F#, and D to create the triad. The Bm is a barre chord no matter how you look at it.
However, often you'll find the option to play a Bm as an easier version, such as the "little" Bm, which looks
like this:
All you really do is eliminate the need to play the second fret note on the A string, which is a B. It is much
easier for many to play, but for me (since I use my thumb) I actually have more trouble playing the Bm in
this fashion. I've yet to figure out why.
Slash Sheet Exercise (95 BPM):
Simply practice playing the Bm chord four times each measure. I played all three variations of the Bm,
such as (1) the original barre with your 1st finger and (2) the 'little' Bm and finally (3) the thumb version.
Now we need to look at the fretboard for logical areas in which the B, F#, and D appear:
Can you find the optional position based solely off the
notes provided here?
Here are a few hints:
1. It's an E Style barre chord.
2. You'll need the root note B.
3. It's a standard chord.*
* What I mean is that this is a chord you've already
learned in terms of positioning. The notes are just
different. You learned this exact same pattern on Week
3: Day 1 (F#m).
Did you find it?
If you found it easily, now try to figure out how you
would create a power chord out of it.
Remember that in theory we only need the root note and
the 5th. It is up to you whether or not you wish to
include the octave above the root.
If you are turning an Bm chord into a power chord,
remember that the power chord DOES NOT contain the
minor.
In other words, and Bm power chord turns into an B5.
Just remove the minor.
Optional Position
This is an exact duplicate of the F#m chord that you
learned in Week 3: Day 1 of this course. Notice that all
you have done is moved the root down to the seventh
fret on the Low E string.
In order to create a B5 you simply don't play the notes
on the G, B, and High E string.
This chord MUST be learned as it is actually quite
common.
Applying Fingerstyle To The Bm Chord
Exercise 1
This is different than previous fingerstyle arrangements. Here you have sixteenth notes being played.
These appear on the "4's and 3's" being picked in between. The easiest way to think of this is by playing
only eighth notes at the beginning and very end of the second measure. Everything else is sixteenth notes.
Fingerings
I have purposely set you up here to play the D, G, and B strings with your thumb and 1st finger.
Exercise 2
This exercise follows the same format as exercise 1, but of course it's played on the seventh fret root.
Fingerings
This time you'll play the A, D, and G strings with your thumb and 1st finger.
Week 3 - Day 3: The Am7 Chord
The Am7 chord looks like this:
You'll notice immediately that this chord looks almost identical to the Am chord with one exception. The
exception is that there is no fretted note on the G string. Instead the G string is played open. This is what
creates the "7th" in the chord because the note G is the 7th. The notes required to form an Am7 chord are
A, E, G, and C. This time we need FOUR notes.
Hmmm....with music (and everything else for that matter!) there is always an exception to the 'golden
rule' isn't there? You'll need to remember this when it comes to dominants (7ths).
Take a look at the Am7 vs. the Am:
vs.
If you were to look at the (8) notes of a A major scale (including the octave) an Am7 chord would be made
up of the first, third, fifth and seventh notes.
A minor 7th chord is formed based on the major 7th chord, by lowering the 3rd and 7th note a
half step, which also means to flatten the 3rd and 7th.
A Major Scale (finding the "7" in A):
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
A
A Major Scale (only the A):
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
A
Easy huh?!
Slash Sheet Exercise (95 BPM):
Simply practice playing the Am7 chord four times each measure.
Now we need to look at the fretboard for logical areas in which the A, E, G, and C appear:
AAAGH they're everywhere!
Don't worry - only a few areas are discussed here.
Many of these possible arrangements are used in
jazz. However, because we now have four notes to
look for it does make it much more difficult.
The good news is that really we only need to deal
with two possible options.
One of these options is very much like a standard
Am chord with an added 7th that KEEPS the
same Am chord formation.
You'll find the two optional positions below very
very very common, so be sure you understand
why these positions are played.
I imagine you've already discovered at least one
of them by pure observation, but in the event
that you haven't yet, I have set up the positions
below for you.
What you are about to see might get rather
complicated, but I've done my best to explain
it the way I learned.
Again, this may be a terrible idea as I learned
from a very non-traditional teacher, but I get it.....
hopefully you will too.
Optional Position #1 (all notes)
Ok. This position is rather easy because it is just
an Am that ADDS the seventh (7th) to the original
chord. Remember: we ONLY need the notes A, E,
G, and C to appear.
Here's the kicker: in an OPEN chord
(even though we actually have four notes here)
we only want each of these notes to appear one
or two times. The ONLY time we want one note
to appear twice is if it is part of the original
root of the chord.
Only the necessary notes:
The old saying "less is more" most definitely
applies here. The chord root is an A. That means we
CAN allow the A note to be duplicated. However, we
don't want to duplicate any other notes. As you
will see in the "only the necessary notes" diagram
I have done just that.
Based on the chord diagram I have provided
(below) you will see the Am7 in the most 'open'
form possible. Beside that chord we have the
optional Am7 position. We still have the notes
A, E, G, and C being played.
vs.
You will recall that I said with an "open" chord
we only want the root note duplicated. As you
already know, when we create a barre chord
we want to apply as many notes as possible,
based on your preference.
Optional Position #2 (all notes)
(In an A style barre chord you don't really need to
include the Low E string notes.)
That being said, take a look at ALL of the notes
found in the diagram to the left.
You will see that this time we have THREE A notes.
We only want two.
You may now start to understand why I constructed
this course in the way I did. You'll immediately
recognize that this is an Am barre chord - right?!
Only the necessary notes:
Well, we don't want an Am barre chord. We want
an Am7. This means we need to include the G note.
How do we do that? REMOVE the duplicated
A note on the seventh fret of the D string
and there it is.
By looking at the "only the necessary notes" you
will now see an Am7 barre chord. It's super easy
too.
All you do is remove your 4th finger from the
equation because your 1st finger will take care of
the barred G note on the fifth fret. Did I make that easy?
We all have my good friend Jon to thank for that.
Optional Position #1
Optional Position #2
Applying Fingerstyle To The Am7 Chord
I didn't include fingerings here on purpose. Try to play each exercise COMFORTABLY without focusing
too much on the actual fingers you use to pick. I have found that too much structure in fingerstyle guitar
truly only leads to frustration. The last exercise might LOOk scary, but it really isn't. Just remember that
your thumb and 1st finger CAN (and many times should) take care of most of the work.
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Week 3 - Day 4: The A7 Chord
The A7 chord looks like this:
So yesterday we talked about the concept of 7ths in the form of a minor. The good news is that this is
EASIER to understand, because there is no need to 'remove' any additional notes.
As you'll see the A7 chord (aka "A Dominant 7th") is basically just an A Major chord that has been made
'dominant' - or in other words - we've just added a 'seventh' instead.
Take a look at the A Major vs. the A7
vs.
Since we already went over how to find the "7th" the same rule applies here. The notes for the A7 chord
are A, E, G, and C#.
All you need to do is add the G (the 7th) to make the A chord basically morph into an A7. Again additional
notes are irrelevant.
(You'll notice that the A7 chord shows an open E string played. It's not necessary.)
Slash Sheet Exercise (95 BPM):
Simply practice playing the A7 chord four times each measure.
Now we need to look at the fretboard for logical areas in which the A, E, G, and C# appear:
Optional Position #1 (all notes)
As you will remember from yesterday, we
don't want TOO many notes to be played
for this chord. Again, the A7 has a root on "A"
so we need to only allow two of these notes to
come through. When you look at the "all notes"
you will see that we need to remove the A note
on the seventh fret of the D string.
Doing so will allow us to play the G note on the
fifth fret that comes before it in the note spectrum.
Take a look at "only the necessary notes" to see
what I have done.
Only the necessary notes:
Easy huh?! Believe it or not this happens with
ALL m7 or 7 chords. Of course, the root note is
where all the 'action' happens, but the general
idea is still the same.
Optional Position
Applying Fingerstyle To The A7 Chord
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Week 3 - Day 5: The E7 Chord
The E7 chord looks like this and contains the notes E, B, D, and Ab (G#):
OR
This time I want to show you both 'open' options for the E7 chord right up front. The reason is that the
first E7 (only two fretted notes) is a common chord to play for folk or rock. The second E7 is VERY
common in blues, because the added "D" note to the original standard E Major chord really adds that 7th
feel to it. (Also, practically any 7th is common in blues/jazz)
Take a look at the E Major vs. the E7 (version 1)
vs.
Here you've just removed the E note from the E Major and created a D note, which is the 7th of E.
vs.
The same thing applies here, but instead we've got the D note added to the E Major chord. You'll
remember that with the A7/Am7 we wanted to focus only on two of the root notes for the most part. Here
it doesn't matter. Why?
Because (in standard tuning) the guitar automatically plays an 'open' E when strummed, you really can't
avoid this all that well unless you choose to avoid striking the Low E (or high E) string. This isn't
necessary. The E chord, regardless of its form, sounds great because of the original tone in which the
guitar is tuned.
Slash Sheet Exercise (95 BPM):
Now we need to look at the fretboard for logical areas in which the E, B, D, and Ab (G#) appear:
Optional Position (all notes)
Again, here are all the notes that are associated
with the E7 barre chord.
Take a look at "only the necessary notes" to see
what I have done.
Only the necessary notes:
Again, this is nothing you haven't seen already.
There's no need to play the seventh fret note on
the Low E string (B). This is played as an A style
barre chord.
Optional Position
Applying Fingerstyle To The E7 Chord
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3