Guitar Basics, Part II
Guitar Basics II
First let’s review...
Common musical scales have 8 notes. Most popular songs, including worship songs are written using 4 chords that are built off of certain note numbers in these scales. Those note numbers are: 1, 4, 5, 6. Our little graphic now has 4 common guitar scales as examples, it looks like this:
As a reminder, if you were playing a song in the key of G, you’d find that the majority of the chords you were using were G, C, D, or Em.
I’ve intentionally switched the order of the scales up in the chart above. We’ll talk more about that later, however notice one curious fact…. When comparing the notes from one line to another, most of the notes are the same, they’ve just shifted 3 places to the right.
Now I want to show you how I play the other 3 chords for the ‘missing’ numbers in the G scale. These are important because they allow you to ‘cover’ almost all the chords that any basic song might have in the key of G. They also allow you to do ‘walk ups’ or ‘walk-downs’.
Walk-ups means ‘walking up the bass notes’ of a scale that the key of a song is in. That might sound confusing. Many songs actually have chord ‘progressions’ (chords that follow in sequence, one after the other) that go up (or down) the notes of the scale of the key your playing in. For example, the bass walk-down for the chorus of ‘How Great is Our God’ is like this (the G scale in reverse):
Bass only:
G (8) F# (7) E (6) D (5) C (4)
How great is our God Sing with me How great is our God And all will see how great….
Real guitar chords:
G D/F# Em D C
How great is our God Sing with me How great is our God And all will see how great….
So, the chords you DON’T know yet for the key of G are for the numbers 2, 3, and 7. They are:
Am (2) G/B (3) D/F# (7)
Remember - triangles mean ‘mute’ or DON’T play that string
Chords with the slash are simply read like this:
- G/B - Play a G chord with a B note in the bass.
- D/F# - Play a D chord with an F# note in the bass.
Am - Note the low string is muted. The second lowest string is open and played, and that note happens to be A (2). This chord that I’m showing is actually Am7 and I think it sounds better than a straight Am when played in a song that is in the key of G. Also having that pinky finger on the last string helps anchor the rest of our G chords.
G/B - Here the only low string that is played is the 2nd lowest string on the second fret, which is the B bass note. I actually mute the 3rd string with my index finger while its holding down that B note. The 3 high strings make up the G chord. It’s ‘a G chord with a B (3) in the bass… G/B’
D/F# - In this chord no strings are muted and I use my thumb to hold down the low string on the 2nd fret which is an F# note (7) for the bass) The rest of the strings comprise the D chord.
G/B - Here the only low string that is played is the 2nd lowest string on the second fret, which is the B bass note. I actually mute the 3rd string with my index finger while its holding down that B note. The 3 high strings make up the G chord. It’s ‘a G chord with a B (3) in the bass… G/B’
D/F# - In this chord no strings are muted and I use my thumb to hold down the low string on the 2nd fret which is an F# note (7) for the bass) The rest of the strings comprise the D chord.
Another example of a walk up from the bridge of ‘The Goodness of God’
G/B (3) C (4) D (5) Em (6)
With my life laid down I'm surrendered now I give You everything
G/B C D G (1)
'Cause Your goodness is running after It's running after me
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