Beginner Up-The-Neck Chords For Americana, Rock, Indie, Folk, Country & more !

Hello everyone Welcome back to Music Corner I'm your host Jonathan K. Now we're going to take 30 minutes and give you some ideas on how to improve your guitar playing skills and your musicality. We'll give you some ideas of things you can do. especially when you play with another guitarist or another musician uh to take the

chords

that you already know how to play and have a little

more

fun with them uh today's topic today's topic is

chords

to the

neck

I say to the

neck

talking about moving this Address going up the neck this way taking chords that hopefully you've already learned or are in the process of learning, like C A minor, D, E major, all those basic chords that you really can't live without, almost not.

It doesn't matter what style of music you play, those chords keep showing up in all different styles of music, so if you've already been working on those chords and you're great at those chords, stick with it if you're just in the process of starting your career as a musician. guitarist and you're just learning your A, D and E, stick around because I want to show you how you can have a lot of fun with those chords as you get better and better at okay so what we're going to talk about today involves rhythm guitar rhythm guitar essentially is keeping the guitar beat for an entire song instead of saying an occasional guitar solo um rhythm guitar you are the basis of the song you're in Somehow you're a combination of guitarist, bassist and drummer all together, like this So grab your guitars, stay, let's have some fun, so we'll focus on what you can do with your left hand, but I'm going to give you a quick reminder or a point about your right hand as well.

Some of what we're going to do today. I will strum the guitar strings in my right hand, but I will occasionally focus on strumming. certain string combinations, so a lot of what I'm doing will hopefully sound pretty good because I'm not playing all six strings equally. I call this focusing on the pick, okay, focusing on the strings. I really want everyone to hear "we." I'll come back to that topic, you know before the end of the show, but keep in mind that there will be times when I'm not going to strum all six strings, certainly not all of them I'll focus equally on, maybe three. or four or five strings, we'll talk

more

about that in a minute, okay, the neck chords going up the neck like this now we're going to take something that you already know, like saying a D chord and show you not only the sounds that you can do as you go up the neck, but maybe I'll give you some, some reminders, some tips on what the names of these are going to be and also where you might have heard this technique before this neck technique first. everything, let's play a little, tell me if this song sounds familiar to you, I'll do it again, okay, maybe you'll recognize that I'll tell you what it is in a minute, a d chord formation that goes up the neck now that the melody of the Beatles involves the pinky too, but deep down there is a d formation that starts as a d and then slides up two frets and becomes an E chord, although physically it feels like my old D chord, but now I'm in a new place.

It's called an E major chord and then it goes up three more frets from there and it's known as a G chord, although I didn't have to relearn anything, it's still the same grip okay, so the Beatles used this in that song that you probably know. called 8 days a week, okay, so I'm using this as an example to show you what you can do with your humble, ubiquitous warp. I call it warping because I want you to think of these three fingers as a grip which is sometimes called a D chord but it can have other names as you go up the neck and we'll talk about naming those chords as you go, so like I said, The Beetles went from D to e to G and then back to D again here's my D I I went up two frets and the name changes to e.

Now I want to point out right away that I'm definitely not playing all six strings. In fact, if I strummed all six strings it would sound a little bad. This is what my new chord is. I'm calling this the E chord, this is what it would sound like if you strummed all six strings equally, it doesn't work well, but if you focus on just the three thin strings, you can take this D formation and play it all. up and down the neck with a lot of great results, so I'm using the 8 Days a Week riff as an example, the D formation right where you'd expect the D formation to be up two frets and that same formation up. three more frets now I'm at 787 and it ends where I started from here is what it looks like, I left out that little pinky trick which isn't the most important thing at the moment okay so moving it around is relatively easy okay but it helps a lot.

There's a lot of knowing the names of what you're playing here because if you know the names then you can use them in the future, so let's talk about how to know the names of chords as you slide up and in a minute I'll show you how you can slide up some other chords, so hopefully you've played this D grip before. Hopefully, you are well familiar with the D chord. Every time you move the grip up a fret, the name changes and good thing. The news is that at the beginning there's a nice alphabetic pattern, it's a D major chord and again I'm just playing the three thin strings.

I don't trust those three heavy, open strings to sound harmoniously, just the three thin ones, so it's D major, D sharp major. I let the name throw you E major F major I'm going to stop right there E and F are neighbors I have to remember that forever and ever E and F are neighbors The notes E and F are neighbors The chords E and F are neighbors, okay, so anything that is an E chord one fret higher becomes an F chord or, if appropriate, we call it E major and F major. Okay, so far we have a D grip, still correct in the D formation, but now we're getting these new ones. sounds with new names, so now we are at 565, that is, fifth fret, sixth fret, fifth fret, it's F major up, one F sharp major more, one G major more, one G sharp major, and we keep going up higher and more, sun sustained. it's a major up one plus a sharp major up a B major plus I'm going to go up just one more 12 13 12 there's a C major okay, keep in mind that I didn't have to relearn anything if you already know how to play a D D chord I can now do all these things.

The question is: do you know the names of these things? That's why it's so useful to name them, because then you can use them. Here's an example of how you could use them in the future. Let's say you're playing. song with a friend and the song goes from D to G to a very common chord progression of a D to A chord like I think Twist and Shout by The Beatles sounds good, but you'll let your friend do it that way and you'll do it that way. You'll play this cool new way with your left hand sliding from warp right where you expect to warp in new places, so you'll still play dgna but you'll let your friend do it.

It's the old way you're going to do dgna like this, it'll add a nice musical complement to the whole situation, it'll make you look like the smart person in the room, okay, people look at you and say, well how do you know ? that was going to sound good, well, a d A dgrip chord, if you slide it up far enough, the name has now changed to a G chord and where is that G chord 787? You were at 232 now you're at 787, okay d a g and going up two more frets gives you a nine 10 n chord then d g and an ok and again Turn around and shout if you have your guitar handy and I hope you do, you can play with me exactly what I'm doing doing or you're welcome to play the regular old d g chords and like this okay start playing with you when when you feel ready here's the open position and now I'm going to do it the new way just strum the three thin d strings to g a, let's slow it down a little bit here we go d a g a a and believe me when you're playing with another guitarist, any other string instrument, guitar, piano, banjo, mandolin, if someone already has the chords covered and it sounds, you know, that's fine. the way they play the chords really frees you as a guitarist to play the chords with new voices.

That is the key word that applies to what we are doing today. Different voicings when you move chords up the neck, you find new voicings for chords that you may have played for many years, maybe on the neck like a G chord down here, well now you have the opportunity to play G up here, it's great, especially if someone else has this kind of G covered, two people playing. the same type of chord on this end of the guitar doesn't sound twice as good, in fact sometimes it can even sound a little muddy, but when one person plays this G and another person plays this G it sounds pretty good, by the way.

If these G and A chords here sound familiar, tell me if you recognize this melody, that bell sound up there, just Led Zeppelin over the hills and far away, well, there's Jimmy Page doing what you can do right now. A G chord that feels like d. 787 and an A chord that feels like D on 9 109 okay, now in a minute we're going to do this with some other chords besides the D formation. I'm going to point out one thing to you as you become better and better. Guitarist, there will be small subtle changes that you will make, whether by accident or on purpose, that will help you play a lot, so let me point this out to you so you can start working on it with purpose.

I'm on my 787 chord here, which now you know, the name of this is a G chord, but it feels like a d. I'm being very deliberate about strumming only my three thin strings, but just to hedge my bets, I'm letting my left hand index finger very lightly touch the fourth thin string, the D string. I'm muffling it a little on purpose. Well, I have my seven 8 7 and then it swims right, so if I play that string by mistake, it doesn't. It sounds like anything, it's not going to make noise with the rest of the chord, subtle little things like that with your left hand, damping an unwanted string on purpose, goes a long way towards making you a better guitarist and here's why let's assume that you are right-handed and you're playing the guitar the same way I'm holding my guitar right now our right hands are pretty safe hands they want to strum they want to have a lot of fun and they're often limited in a lot of ways so your left hand can work well if your guitar is closed.

There really is nothing bad that can happen if your right hand is allowed to play the strings freely and enthusiastically. Your right hand is capable of playing some cool rhythms and some really fun strums. So, if possible, you will ever have the opportunity to dampen a string, an unwanted string, with your left hand. It's a great technique. It's a great skill. Free your right hand to be more carefree and sound more fun on the guitar. So that's a little quick. Leaving aside here, but I want to point out that I'm grabbing my G chord by the 787 neck and my index finger is very light, very light, just a little bit of skin touches the neighboring string, one less thing for me. worry about wanting to think about it like playing the guitar well, don't worry, you want to play the guitar without worries, like hitting a string that sounds bad, there's a reason the way they don't call it working on a musical instrument, they call it playing a musical instrument because that's our way of thinking, okay, now we just cover the D chord moving up and down the neck of the guitar.

I think you have an idea of ​​where we're going with this, let's do it with some other chords, including some other opportunities to make some kind of creative, pretty sound. I'm going to do it for a second here with an E major chord, so take a minute, I hope you have your guitar handy, grab your E major chord, and by the way, I'll be happy to answer any questions about what our theme is. today in the chords of the network, so do not hesitate to send an email or call by phone. I'd be happy to talk to you about all of this and we'll go over those phone numbers. and uh, email addresses that will be at the end of the show, so stick around, okay, the E major chord, right, the easy chord sounds great now.

A few years ago, a great band called The Jayhawks took this e-grip, let's call it e-grip right now, and came up with a great guitar riff. I have to give them credit. This is a song by The Jayhawks called Blue and this is what they did with their electronic grip. They slid that electronic grip up until the index finger was at eight and the other two fingers are at nine and, uh, I'll play it for you. Check it out, you know, it's cool, very creative, but not difficult, you know how cool that is and take advantage of the natural jingling sound that an E chord has.

Anyway, okay, perfect example of what we're talking about today, grid chords so anyone who can play an E chord can start playing what I just did, you just have to know where to move that grip of Me and both inside and out. go up, remember that the name is no longer an E chord even though it feels that way, but the name has nowchanged. If you're interested, the name of this chord at 899 is now a B major chord and it slides back to an A major chord and finally ends on E, so B to ae if you use your middle finger as a guide, it's so good like anyone else, you have to use some fingers as a guide, so you could use our middle finger, are you thinking? seven seventh fret sorry, sorry, scratch that ninth fret ninth fret seventh fret go back to your old comfortable e okay, 9 to 7 to two if we use the middle finger as a guide, okay, so check it again and I'm being a little uh unconcerned about exactly what strings I play.

I'm letting other strings ring, you know, in a kind of chime, even if they're open strings, just because for me it adds a little nice Play now, notice that not once did my left hand leave the strings of the guitar, that's key to a lot of what we're doing today, as soon as one finger lifts even a millimeter off the guitar strings, uh, that's going to slow you down. or somehow get tangled so you have to keep those fingers down even when you slide back and forth you know these different positions you have to keep those fingers on the strings even very slightly as you slide, you know what I do when I slide, I just relax my hand, I don't lift my fingers off the guitar, I just relax, relax my muscles and that allows me the freedom to glide to a new place without wasting the energy of taking off, you know.

Economy of motion is the trick here, okay, so let's go back to our beginning. An egrip. An E chord is a great chord to slide up. Here are some options. Grab your E-Grip. Okay, your E chord. Wherever you move, it will be. a major chord if you're careful and you just strum those three notes you'll get all these major chords starting here is an E major you go up one and it becomes F major okay E and F are neighbors you can't separate them and an E chord turns right into a Fa chord Fa Shar Major G Major G sharp Major sharp B major C major B and C have the same unique relationship as E and F do B becomes C immediately now why am I being so specific? about the names of these, I want you to have the opportunity to use these chords uh in the future these chords on the neck.

My uh scenario that I imagine is that you're playing with another guitarist who might say oh, this song goes from some E to A to B and he or she starts strumming an E chord and an A chord, maybe they do B7 for that nice blues sound. Well, now you don't have to do the same, in fact, it won't necessarily sound as good. I'm going to sound good, but if you like this and a top like this and a B like this, especially if you focus on just those three strings that you're picking up, you can get a Sounds pretty good, okay, but you have to know where to find that chord and where to find that B chord, so hopefully that's starting to sink in.

E and F are always neighbors, they are next to each other and B and C are next to each other. everything else has what they call a crash between an A chord leading to a sharp chord leading to a B chord, but if it leads directly to C, now don't worry, in the future show we'll talk more about this guy. . From the music theory aspect of things, okay, by the way, now is a good time if this concept is sinking in to talk about those open strings, sometimes those open strings can be your friends musically, this is about what I mean.

I'm going to take that control. I'm going to slide it up to the 9th, 9th and 8th fret, that's the B major chord, okay, as long as I only play those three strings, I have a perfect B major chord, but check it out, I'll include both of them too. thin strings what I'm going to get, I hope you agree, it's a nice nice musical sound that could be a good intro to the guitar or a little interlude during a song, but I'm not doing any hard work, I'm just taking an e Grab and move to a new place.

Look at this for a minute. It's a nice sound. I'm incorporating Mi's grip into my new place. The B major chord, but I'll let the open B string play with my open second string. B string ring. I'm letting my open E string ring. I'm going to skip the thick rope right now. This to me doesn't add a great musical tone. You know, there are some nice musical combinations there too because it's me. I'm letting it all sound like that, you get some nice harmonies and an interesting combination of those different notes, okay, sometimes those open strings can be your friends, they can help you get these cool, creative sounds that you didn't know about.

They were there waiting for you. I'm going to take my B major chord at 998. I'm going to slide it back to an A major chord at 776 and I'm still going to include those two thin open strings, the open B string. and the open E string, look at this, you know, it sounds like I'm doing something harder than what I'm actually doing, in a way, it's a good goal to figure out how many easy things you can do that sound great and make the world. I think you're doing something complicated but it sounds great, so far, like I said, our topic is the neck strings which we cover by taking the D grip, moving it up the neck which we cover by taking the E grip, the E major chord and up. the neck now we're going to get a little more creative here and you'll see what I mean by creative in a second we take the C major chord and move it up the neck.

Now what is unique about the C major chord in today's context the C major chord has a thin open third string the G string is open here it sounds very harmonious with the C chord right where you think it will be now look at this as soon as I take my C grip and turn it up to In a new place, I'm going to get a new chord, of course, which is based on the C grip, but the open string, in this case, the open G string, the thin third string and the thin open E string are obviously not going to change.

It won't be affected by my hand movement here because they were open to begin with and they're still open now. They're potentially going to add some very interesting sounds or some very unpleasant sounds. I'll let you be the judge, but I'll start with some that I think are great, so check this out, grab your C major cord. I hope it's a lanyard you're familiar with. I hope it's one you're good at. If not, as I said on this program today. This is an opportunity for you to motivate yourself to do extra work on your chords because you're going to be able to do a lot of fun things with them.

Here's my C chord. Now let's say the next chord in the sequence of this particular hypothetical song. It's a D chord look at this I'm going to take my C move it up one two frets now I'm on the third fret the fourth and fifth okay third fourth and fifth is a chord but like I said the skin string is still open the third string is still open now listen to this new effect. I'm going to do a little arpeggio slowly so you can hear the arpeggio just means you play notes individually like this, I'm playing a D chord, yes I am. adding some colorful sounds, yeah, so I'm going to stay here for a second, remember this is the C grip, two frets on the neck, okay, and I'm going to play so you can get this tone in your head and see if It's something that draws you in now, if I had to tell you the name of this new chord, it's based on D major, I would say it's a complement of D major to add 11, the name is not the most important thing, in fact, I want to focus mainly in this. like a physical skill that anyone can play a chord chord back and forth, okay, here's a hypothetical idea, imagine you want to write a song.

Oh by the way this is great for songwriters because you get some great sounds for the price of almost nothing, imagine my hypothetical song goes from D to C and instead of being a little boring and doing this D and this C I go to make my new colorful D up to my usual C, check this out, plus the colorful sounds you get with this new one. The D chord type in this particular case we also get a nice kind of slide effect that you might find appealing if you're writing a song that you know well, but the bottom line here is that we're taking something that you've hopefully been exposed to.

Hopefully, something that you're very comfortable with, we'll move it to a new place and get a new reward, a new musical reward from this now. If you've played a lot of songs, you know that CF and G appear together in a lot of songs uh, three chords that sound great musically, they act like a musical family CF and G sound fantastic together. I'm going to play all three chords, but my grip will always feel like the C grip, look, this is my C chord, of course, if I slide it up far enough alphabetically, my C chord becomes a C chord.

G with some colorful sounds. Now, for the record, my C grip is now based on six, 7 and 8, 6, seven and 8, and G will be two. Higher frets 8, 9 and 10, so check out this cf and G for my purposes now. I'm going to center my pick, remember that term from before. I'm not going to tighten the thin rope. I don't want to get so colorful. however, I'm going to play a little bit here CF and G focusing on the inner four strings, not the fat or thin C, do this with me, you can do this for uh, how about eight beats on each? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 sliding to f 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 to g 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 back to C okay, now remember that in a way you're not learning anything new today, you're taking the skills that hopefully you already have and applying them in a new context, so I guess my point is that we are not giving you a big challenge that will take you weeks to master, if anything it is a reward for the work you learned in these chords. to start with CF and G, then if you were going to strum a song using CF and G, especially if you were playing with another musician who already had this F covered in this G covered or if you were a songwriter and wanted to come up with something that hadn't been done until death CF and G.

I could have this G at my disposal. The thin string, by the way, adds an interesting sound to this new way of doing G, this F and back to the comfortable old C. I'm going to play us here and give you some ideas of how you can strum them thanks for watching again today this is music corner my name is Jonathan Q send us an email or call us if you have any questions I would love to hear from you and thanks for looking today see you next time