Guitar Lesson -- Practice Tips For Learning New Chords

As a guitarist, you should always look for ways to expand your chord vocabulary

. The more, the better. Every time that you learn a new one, you should not only practice switching back and forth from that chord to all of the others that you know, but you should attempt to discover all of the possible ways to use it.

The first part of this is self-explanatory -- you definitely need to keep learning as many new chords as you can. But the second part will take some experimenting on your part.

Actually, it will take a lot of experimenting on your part.

Some of these new chords can actually be used as a direct substitute for basic major and minor chords depending on the "context", or when and where that basic chord is played.

What do I mean by that? Well, it's pretty much of a "touchy-feely" process that involves your ear and your sense of music "color" and your sense of what may or may not be appropriate in the context of what you are playing -- "context" being where you are in the song progression wise, AND the style of the song itself.

For example, you may find that instead of using a basic D chord in a chord progression, you can use D2, or sometimes even a Dsus4. Or you might use an A2 instead of a regular A chord. Sometimes a 6th or even a 7th chord can be substituted for a basic chord. It all depends on the feel that you're looking for -- as well as the type of song that you are playing.

Speaking of "2" chords -- they are particularly versatile. An A2, for example can be used as a substitution for either an A or an Am. A D2 can be subbed in similar fashion for either a D or Dm. You will need to be careful with this and pick your spots as to when you will want to try this as it will not always sound right. Again, it will depend at least in part on the style of the song.

As another example, let's take a look at a simple G-C-D-G progression. This type of progression is heard all of the time in popular music -- and is often "colored up" a bit in this fashion:

G (played this way with the extra "D" note) [ 3 2 0 0 3 3 ] - C2 [ X 3 2 0 3 3 ] - Dsus4 [ X 0 0 2 3 3 ] - G [ 3 2 0 0 3 3 ].

Note how easily these chords flow into each other when played this way.

This takes a rather ordinary sounding G-C-D-G and turns it into a totally different rich and colorful "feel". Now of course there are also times when you might want the simple feel over the more colorful feel. It all depends on what you are looking for and how you want it to sound like. You may even try to "mix and match" at different points in the song.

Sometimes a substitution that you try may not work out, in the way that you hoped, but that's okay. The important thing is that you are experimenting. All of the chords that you learn are like crayons in a box. Learn to use the colors.

by: James Emery Vigh

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