Description
In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn which triads work on top of a major chord. You can play these to create colorful versions of the chord, for both rhythm and lead.
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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Brian, could you do a lesson on using the wah wah pedal to enhance playing? Great lesson by the way.
great idea!
this is such a lovely piece of music. ive got it under my fingers already just trying to make it flow
Neil Young’s On the Beach is a great example this sound and helped me to tune my ear to it.
Wow this is a great concept I will find this very helpful . JohnStrat
Brian , more of the same please
This is good stuff! 👍
i find this lesson and the last (plus others in the same vein) to be very helpful. the emphasis on ‘rhythm’ and the ‘hearing’ of what’s going on will be better (in the long run – for me at least) than learning a composition ( awesome as they are).
last lesson really brought home how challenging a pocket can be….. the instruction helped a great deal.
Thanks for a bit of theory Brian! It may get absorbed through osmosis, my brain being the area of lesser concentration!
Awesome lesson love the bottom big screen with tablature and the different options also love stuff like this where you can add to just normal chords/melodies etc…
Thanks to you the way you handled Part 2 was entirely sufficient for me but for years I definitely relied on your very detailed note for note explanation. That’s what you did way better than anyone else and that’s why I’ve been a subscriber for 8 years now. Please don’t eliminate the note for note explanation. Even if I now longer need to rely on that I’ll never forget how important it was. And sometimes it still makes things move faster for me. That note for note detail is a major point of differentiation from your competition. You do that so much beer than any one else. You don’t want to get rid of that. Thanks.
Brian,
I agree with Biker13’s note. The detailed note for note is very helpful and I miss that approach in this lesson.
Don’t be too quick to abandon that teaching technique. Working off the tablature takes a lot more time for me.
But your Part 2 “Summary” is still helpful. Awesome lesson.
Don’t forget about the Video Tablature Breakdown section, that shows every note at almost any speed you like. It’s my favorite tool in the lessons.
These are such powerful lessons… great stuff. I love these lessons that weave note knowledge with CAGED. A catchy melody completely sucks me in and I have to play it myself. That’s when I bump into my weakness with rhythm. But, lately I’ve been using the play-along video tablature at slow speeds to really focus on keeping and feeling the rhythm. So, it’s all fantastic. After a little more than a year with your lessons, I followed all of the 6 and 9 chords… and the Maj7 and Dom7 (although I still never remember which is which)… and CAGED positions for the C, G and F… and understand the relative minor. I think I actually know enough to be dangerous.
For other engineers out there… you know how a scope has a “persistence” feature… I wish I had that in my brain. I’d love to work out the CMaj scale around the open C, the A-shape C and E-shape C with persistence turned on… and then start noodling with the full picture in my mind. Right now, my mental persistence is about a half second at best.
Richard, I suspect there are a LOT of other (retired?) engineers out here.
Yup… and I should have said “geeks” instead of “engineers”, because we engineers are not the only geeks that know about the persistence feature of scopes…
Just do a quick Google search for the caged major scale positions. It helped me greatly. Its alot easier than learning all 7 shapes if you’ve not learned them yet.
What I like about your lessons,is that you take basic concepts like the Caged System and Triads and show how much you can do using them.
Wow you made fall in love with the C chord! Great lesson, tons of tips and theory concepts weaved in that is easy to understand and more importantly fun to play within minutes.
Separately, can you share some thoughts on amps like marshal code, positive grid spark, etc and DAW for recording and creating loops. Thank you Brian.
Geroge Harrison’s Something in the way she moves is a great example of this idea
Wonderful Explanation of Color Chords Brian. Maybe in future some color chords for minors ?
For me, I have tried to (self) learn this, but never actually connected all the pieces show here. Thanks! It’s something I will work on.
Brian, you have saved my life, almost literally as, after an epileptic attack, I am no longer allowed to drive my car and go to my guitar classes. I started following your brilliant lessons about 10 weeks ago, managing to put in two hours practice a day . I can now bear to listen to myself playing several of the classes, particularly enjoying, 282,404, 402, 102, 249, 379, 339 and 380, for example. Could I request a few more easyish classes, maybe one a fortnight, as if we were up to level of the most difficult we probably wouldn’t need classes! Anyway, thanks again, your explanations are the clearest I’ve found on the internet (and you spend less time on theory than my teacher!), the backing tracks are great and the quality of the tabs is the best I’ve come across, so 5 stars and keep up the good work.
This was another great lesson. I particularly like the way in which you explain the guitar theory as it applies to this and many other lessons. So much easier to digest and remember.
Thanks again Brian
Ray
Great lesson, as usual, but this is the first lesson I’ve ever seen on basic jazz chords that didn’t mention the word “jazz” even one time! What I especially like is your method for finding the “right” triads quickly.
In any case I really like the direction you’ve been taking things lately. How about a follow-up lesson on minor 7th and 9th chords?
I liked how you showed that these triad techniques can be used in a wide variety of styles, blues, jazz, country, even Hawaiian. Very cool how the same fundamentals can be utilized to create such different effects.
Good lesson on making connections between chords. Like how the G9 also becomes the F6.
Always enjoy mixing the theory with the playing! I learn both. I enjoy how the guitar “works “ almost as much as playing the tunes. Thx!
Excellent. This is really helpful!
You can hear that a lot in the Sponge Bob Squarepants soundtracks. I think the group playing it is called Primus.
BTW, the Premium member video format was quite useful – worth watching twice (or more) I would say. Especially if you’re interested in developing your own compositions…..which is what we all aspire to.
This is a really useful lesson and very well explained. It definitely highlights the need to have good theoretical knowledge.
That was a vacuum packed lesson. Once you poke a hole and understand it. It expands 10 fold. Love it
You know Jerry always wore a black t-shirt on stage. Is that his influence naturally making you wear one or did you wear a black t knowingly? Glad to hear you are stuck in Jerry mode. There is a song Dark Star it is and was their most sought after deep space jam that did what ever it is they do the best with the most intensity. Sure would like to see you deep dive Dark Star.
Great stuff for an old left hander’
another solid lesson maestro. i love how you make use of your screen time to thoroughly cover a topic, for all player levels. i find myself learning new things each time i watch the lesson and even more when i take time to put the guitar down and write things out. there are so many ideas covered in each lesson, within your deep dive, and the compositions always do a great job of giving us something to get under our fingers to cement the ideas, navigate the flow on the fretboard. connecting voicings with scale melody, and relating voicings to tension and release provide the solid base for learning to improvise. i feel like i move forward a little each week. you have a great way of blending theory with composition and performance, and making it attainable for anyone who puts in the time. just great. thanks for what you do and how you do it.
Fully agree with this comment. You have been doing a few triad lessons in the last 20 or so, and each one just improves my understanding of what is going on around the root, 4th and 5th so much…
Brian, Great lesson, you make it all make sense. Great sound also !
Thanks Brian. This lesson opened many doors for me.
Good lesson.
After spending a week within the structure of EP 307, which I love, it is so much fun to jump into this lesson. Learned alot. Great job! as always
I thought the overview lesson was very refreshing. Plenty of stuff available to learn note by note, if desired…
I’ve “heard” that sound forever and always wondered why it worked, and what it was. This will be a deep dive. The occasional explanation of what the note is really does help. Once learned, a player can always speed it up, but this style of slow explanation is awesome. I am always turned off by instructors who are more interested in showing off their prowess than offering any real instructions.
Keep it up.
That is just … *gorgeous*
Brian, Went back to an old lesson that I didn’t get finished with and after this lesson it became easy and so much fun to play around with. EP304 . Good to go back to some earlier lessons
again . Understanding things better now after good teaching and going over what you have been teaching us in many different styles it is finally starting to come together.I was a chord player when starting with you and now so much more. Thanks for being such a great teacher You da Man!! Dave
Hey Brian I hope your stuff is copy righted. This is some of the nicest stuff to listen to and play. Enjoyed this lesson and learned a lot. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us, your a gift.
Hey Brian your a legond, just loved this session, I have been experimenting with this for a while but you just nailed it for me, thanks a lot your a great encouragement Bro.
Hi Brian,
Nice description of the use of the major 7th chord in your stacking lesson. I wrote a love song a while back and used mostly major 7’s throughout. I didn’t realize that I also had some of the 6th and 9th in the song. Thanks for the review and your good work.
Jim
Western PA
That’s why something by George Harrison sounds like it sounds….C Cmaj 7 C Dom. 7…
Brian – thank you so much. I love this sound and you have given us all the tools to create it. You are a brilliant teacher and you make guitar playing really exciting. I have been playing on and off for 40 years. Wish you were around when I started.
love listening to your guitar work, I am learning so much but I could just sit back and listen to you play just as well
Isn’t that just beautiful
Fantastic lesson. I feel like you opened a window for me. You have come along at the right time for me. I have some personal issues on the home front and you help me get away. I am fairly new to playing , but I am truly learning.
great lesson. thanks
This is a brilliant lesson, Brian! I am what you would call a visual player, seeing shapes when I play. I mainly relate everything back to the scales (Minor pentatonic and major pentatonic). Tryint to also relate it all to chord shapes and triads. Your explanation here, as I understnd it, that C plus E minor equals C Major 7 is mind-blowing! Dreamy sound of E minor with C, and blues-y sound of E Minor with E in the bass! Wow!
Still relating it back to scales… I was adding another “stack”… I was noodling out of the C major pentatonic/C major scale (just staying in that scale) over the top of you playing over the top of the backing track (ie: the “with guitar” clip at the bottom, and it worked! Then, mind-blowing to me, while doing this, I noodled around on the first thing you showed us: the C major, C major 7, E minor triad, at the 8th fret: and realised (I think!) that I was playing in pattern 2 of the C major pentatonic (C major?), which also equalled, I think, pattern 4 of the E Minor pentatonic? … Am I correct here with all of these connections?
As Keith S says above, I love mixing the theory with practice, and looking at the amazing way in which the guitar works: how the shapes, scales and chords all fit together (sorry about the length of this post: this is the longest post I have ever written: just excited by all of this!)
Cheers,
Rich F
Hi Brian,
Just watching this lesson again (over my early morning cup of tea!)…
Falling deeper and deeper in love with this lesson! I am just watching the first part of the first video… and I love the dreamy sound of you noodling over your C strum backing track… just wondrring whether you could add that strum, entirely in C, as a 5 minute backing track at the bottom: It woukd be great as a practice track, just staying in C…
Best wishes,
Rich F
This has been a very helpful lesson, Brian, thank you! I usually find studying the music theory behind guitar playing to be exceedingly dry and boring. However, I think this lesson finally gave me some better insight into the relationship between the root chord and the major 7th and dominant 7th chords. Just moving the root note down a half step at a time for each. Then, you can “anchor” your solos around those flatted root notes to give your solos the “flavor” or “feel” of the maj7 or dom7 vibe, depending. Very nice and simple to understand. You da man!
Hi Brian, what lesson or course that teach, that contains this lesson on stacking cords eg EP411, and what is the cost of this cheers mate. This is a great lesson.
Great Lesson Brian !!!
BTW, I’m not sure if you realize it but your jam track is similar to the Theme Song from the Canadian sitcom, “Trailer Park Boys” written by Blain Morris.
You can check it out here … ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OFeJQEPANc ). Thanks again !!!
This ones fantastic. This had an odd familiarity, but I couldn’t place it right off. Then “I kissed her and she kissed me” started playing in my head while working through the lesson and learning the triads for this. Then it came to me. Ain”t that a kick in the head? Another classic. I’m loving these lessons.. Keep em’ coming..
Thanks, Brian. One of your best
Another great lesson, I don’t own a acoustic yet, but I will use my acoustic simulator on my Fender LT25 but a great lesson , I am going to give it a shot, looks like fun,
Thanks Brian
So initially I was thinking “meh” to this lesson and feeling a bit under-whelmed about the whole thing. Man I was wrong. I must have watched the lesson 2- 4 times before applying the chord stacking thing to the track and this is a major break through/game changing technique for me. When I was young and more foolish, I aspired to play loud and fast. No need. What a great way not only to color you play, but to add melody as well. Love this Brian.
John H.
A great lesson and always a masterful job by Brian. I see this as a real game changer, but I am totally lost after the first run through. I am going to need to watch this over and over (as well as the circle of 5ths and the GAGED system)!
man this really is a great lesson..ive been back here several times and now making a deep dive
i love these and..triads any double stops..3rds 6 s. 9 s .so good for improvising