Description
In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to enhance a boring chord progression by playing a different rhythm and adding fill licks. Lots of ideas for those of you that are learning to improvise!
Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson
Part 2 - For Premium Members
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Slow Walkthrough
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Video Tablature Breakdown
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Nice!
Ken P. Pretty tough for a Polish guy to learn. But love it!
You really explain things very good & why. Thanks so much.
I’m always down for enhancing a boring chord progression. Thanks Brian
Lots of fun in this one. Great to get away from scales &such for a break to just playing around with chords. Thanks for this one. Dave
Love it .
Wow, thank you, that’s right up my alley. That’s something I can impress my family with. 🙂
Love seeing the weekly lesson early. Brian, I really like your teaching method of creating original material for us to learn. I do think it results in us becoming better guitar players than by just learning songs. I do find myself trying to take the material though and relating it to some song I know or something that I am writing. If we take this lesson for instance I would wonder what songs I might know use this progression and it would be helpful if you could mention a few either with the lesson ( obviously not needed for straight 12 bar blues ) or alternatively if you know a site where you can plug in a chord progression and see a menu of songs. Would be surprised if I’m the only one here with this issue. Anyway this lesson is so right up my alley!
Cool one Brian. Starting to flirt with some simple Chet stuff. He’s in the pantheon for me. Know I’m never going to get there, but anything that gets me closer to Chet, even just strumming, (forget the fingerpicking), makes me a happy guy.
Do my eyes deceive me or is that your CEO-7? Thanks for this lesson Brian.
Dress up those cowboy chords Brian !!!
Thanks for another great lesson!!
Excellent lesson. Thanks again Brian.
Thankful for the acoustic lessons (and mostly standalone despite the supplied backing track)! I always find myself playing along with the video playthroughs usually at the beginning and end of lessons and not much enjoying playing with backing tracks. Just me?
I find the real test is being able to play with backing track alone…its damn hard but satisfying when ya get it…so Keep the Backing Tracks going Brian.
They really help with timing, the think as bedroom guitar hero like me can struggle with the odd time we get to play with orthers.
Excellent lesson yet again ( happy days ) 🙂
I really like the sound of that G to C7 in the 18-19th, similar to the A to D7 you’ve used in other compositions, thanks Brian.
Here’s a little tip for everyone who, like me, is not as good at listening and understanding to rhythms (or is a little impatient):
The strumming pattern (explanation in the first video from 4:25) is well written down in the PDF ( bar 17 -20).
Thanks a lot, Brian 😉
and an encouraging “hello” to all beginners level dancers that (as I) love explanations step by step 😉 😉
Great lesson Brian
Thanks
Ray P
Oh good!
Great lesson Brian. Is there any way to get a minus guitar without the count-ins for continuous practice with this backing track.
You could download the free Audacity program out there on the net, open the file Brian provides, then use it’s tools to trim off / take out the anything you don’t want.
Just a thought..
Well as a stand alone lesson, this one is really fun but as a companion piece to EP 330 it’s outstanding. Lucky for me I have been studying that one. Brian buddy, you missed an opportunity to build on something here, especially with that first bass run that you ID here as being in the G-shape, (which is totally true), whereas in 330 you connect it to the A-shape in 3rd postion, (i.e. a 5th fret barre of 2, 3 & 4),. You call that 5th fret barre “your best friend in the Key of C”. Connecting those was a big “light -bulb moment” in this one for me.
If y’all get a chance, go back and check out 330 soon and you’ll find a bunch of stuff there that connects to this one to expand your rhythm and rhythm-fill vocabulary. Also, that one is played electric with an emphasis on double-stops, which shows how versatile a player these lessons can help you become.
Thank you Brian! This is stuff I really need. Great lesson! I have also been going back to some of your early fingerpicking lessons and love’em.
Thanks Brian another great lesson love these rhythms. These lessons are such a great learning guide for us all so happy I joined this site.
Really nice lesson…thanks. And you must be psychic..because after part 1 I was trying to remember the other way you showed movable 6 and 9 in a previous lesson…and you covered it in part 2 which really helped my memory!
The big take away from this lesson is how to play along with others.
While most of your lessons are about expanding your personal skills this one is more about how to fit in on the front porch.
I have a group of friends I often play with and they are what I affectionately call the “Boompa Chink” crowd. Trying to play along with them is the biggest challenge. This is exactly the type of stuff I interject to keep from falling asleep .
Thanks .
I’ll be studying this one in depth.
Terrific lesson Brian loved it all cheers
Hi Brian. As usual a really clear exposition of a playing technique. You are so clear. great stuff.
I have one question to ask about your outline of of the G6 and G9 chords. What you describe as the G6 looks more like an Em chord to me. Can you explain the difference.
Thanks Kevin
Hi Brian.
Your lessons are the best that could have happened to me.
Great stuff follows another.
Thank you, thank you……….
Hi Brian ,
Great lesson again, thanks.
I was wondering if you had done or would be interested in doing one on modulating/key changes?
cheers
Francis
Dear Brian
You are doing phantastic lessons. One idea: could you repeat the lesson number on the following pages of the PDF documents? When I print the lesson and the sheets fall down, I always have a mess, especially if there are several different lessons 🙂
Thanks a lot, Lucas
Excellent lesson! Thanx Brian!
WOW! Im so stoked that im learning from you Brian . Im a beginner but had to look at one of your lessons. Not only am I going to learn and possibly, confidently, finally get up on open mic, I may even be able to jam with myself or my former teacher.
Thanks Brian
Hi Brian,
I think you are turning me into a hill-billy guitarist. It’s great fun- well done!
I would appreciate to have the pdf of the first guitar, for the rythm and how to play the bass strings… excuses pour mon anglais qui n’est pas très bon 🙁
Thank You Brian for your good lessons, Patrick from Le Mans France
Like, like ,like ,like ,like.
Superb Rockabilly stuff for my Chetty!
Denise
Great lesson!!! I’ve been working on EP407-Country Chord Embellishments for a while now (love that one!!!! reminds of something you’d hear playing in the background of a old episode of Wagon Train or something). Once I get this lesson (EP421) under my belt the two of them together make for a really nice “library” of country fills. Thanks for this big step forward in my guitar playing 🙂
Is G6 the same as Em? Looks like the same fingering and top 4 strings. And G9 is same as Dm?
Yes, within a G6 is an Em and within a G9 is a Dm
Thanks. I noticed you played the top four strings with the 6 and 9 though I think the full chords use all six strings?
Brian, Worked on syncopation on this lesson to get it like you played it.Should have done this long time ago. Once I got this it was easy .This helped more than anything I have done.Thanks so much for this lesson. Really enjoying!!!
The part 1 videos on YouTube are excellent. My musical education started on ukulele and I settled in on the baritone ukulele about 10 years ago. It is tuned DGBE like the high 4 strings on the guitar. A good friend suggested that I learn the guitar. He said it would ultimately improve my musicality. I have been playing guitar via simple chords for about 6 months now and my chord movements are becoming more solid. The movement from nylon to steel string has been a bit of a challenge but I am loving playing the guitar (when my fingers don’t hurt).
I took a flatpicking class from Wayne Henderson about 5 years ago and I can definitely see some of those skills in this video. Your videos are so full of information that I am going to need to challenge myself to stick to one video a week. I look forward to the journey…
So have I got this right ? A -G6 chord is also an A9 chord ?
This tune makes me want an OM
you demonstrate a G6 chord based of of the “E” Caged version of G, fretting the following notes (bottom strings to top): (x x G B E G), i.e. (x x 1 3 6 1) and then say that by sliding the same fingering down two frets yields a G9 – (x x F A D F), i.e. (x x 7 9 5 7) – which is both rootless and lacking a 3rd relative to G. Sure the other three notes are properly part of a G9, but it’s a little confusing to seemingly claim as a bona fide G9 without fuller explanation or qualiication, even if it the sound produced by that fingering sounds in context just enough like a G9 to get by.
For me this was a brilliant light bulb. after 18years I’m able to hear and improve my timing on fills in a simple common structure… I’m making making some gains again!