The chord name that the diagram is teaching you is located above the diagram.

The diagram’s vertical lines represent the six guitar strings. The guitar’s thickest string is the left vertical line on the diagram, and the thinnest string is the right vertical line on the diagram.

The diagram’s horizontal lines represent the frets on the guitar’s neck. The top horizontal line represents the “Nut” at the top of the neck, where the strings run through, and the bottom line of the diagram represents the respective fret number.

X’s located at the top of the diagram represent muted strings. Do not play those strings.

O’s located at the top of the diagram represent open strings. Play these strings without touching them.

The black dots indicate which frets you should place your fingers on.

The numbers at the bottom of the diagram describe which fingers to use. Your fingers are numbered: 1=Index, 2 = Middle, 3 = Ring, 4 = Pinky.

A number or Roman Numeral will be placed to the left of the diagram if the diagram represents a higher section of the guitar’s fretboard. For example, if a 5 or V is written to the left of the diagram, the “first” fret of the diagram now becomes the fifth fret, the “second” is the sixth, the “third” is the seventh fret, and so on.

Hope that helps you out. Feel free to email me if something is still unclear.

www.completeguitarmethod.com

When first learning the guitar, many students are intimidated when receiving from their teachers pages and pages of different chord shapes to memorize.  I am writing this blog to let you know, it doesn’t have to be that scary.  Even the “simplified” CAGED system which deals with only five different chord shapes is more than you need to memorize.  I am going to show you how you can learn ALL the chord shapes by only memorizing TWO chord shapes!!!  You should be familiar with how to read a chord diagram before you read this lesson.  Okay, let’s get started!

If your guitar is tuned in “E standard” tuning: E (thickest string) A D G B E (thinnest string), each string is a “fourth” apart with the exception of G to B, which is only a third.  For example, E to A is a fourth (E=1, F=2, G=3, A=4), A to D is a fourth, D to G is a fourth, G to B is a third (G=1, A=2, B=3), and B to E is a fourth.  This tuning theory is not necessary for you to understand in order to benefit from this lesson.  However, a very important rule is created because of it.  You need to memorize this rule to learn the techniques in this lesson.  The rule is:  “When moving a chord shape up a string, whichever note lands on the B string must move up one fret.”  This may sound confusing now, but just memorize the sentence and later it will make a lot of sense.

We will start by learning the “open” major chords.  When you play a string without pressing down on any frets with your finger, it is called an “open” string.  Open chords are called this because they contain open strings.   We will start by taking the open E major chord, you WILL need to memorize this chord shape:

E major:

By taking the open E major chord, and moving the whole thing up one string, so that now the lowest note is on the open A string, we now have the A minor chord:

Here is where the one rule you have to memorize comes in.  Remember, the rule is:  “When moving a chord shape up one string, whichever note lands on the B string must move up one fret.”  So taking our open A minor chord and moving the note that falls on the B string up one fret will give us the open A major chord:

Notice, you may have to change up the fingering to feel more comfortable.  Now taking our open A major chord and moving it up one string, and following the rule of moving the note on the B string up one fret will give us the open D major chord:

So by only memorizing the open E major chord and the one rule of moving the note on the B string up one fret, you have now learned three open major chords: E major, A major and D major.

Now let’s do the same with the open G major chord.  This is the second chord you WILL have to memorize:

Now by moving the open G chord up one string and following the simple rule, you will now have learned the open C major chord:

Now move the open C major chord up one fret and follow the same rule.  Now you will be playing the F major chord:

How simple was that!  By only memorizing two open chords (E major and G major), and one simple rule, you can now play six open major chords!  Much easier than memorizing six different chord shapes.

This same concept works with all of the chord types including minor, seventh, extended and altered chords!

Practice these chord changes everyday until you have effortlessly memorized them!

This post is a very basic explanation of guitar chords, but should keep you busy for  a while.  But for a complete mastery of guitar chords and harmony, check out Dennis Wetzel’s Complete Guitar Method, a four-book streamlined guitar course that will help you master the guitar quickly!  www.completeguitarmethod.com

Are scales really necessary to learn in order to master the guitar?  The answer is: ABSOLUTELY!!! Scales are important for many reasons, such as: improving finger coordination and speed, improving your concept of proper fingering, training your ear, and improving your solo and improvisational skills, to name a few.

The word “scale” comes from the Latin word: “La Scala” which literally means “step” or “ladder.”  This is an appropriate name because scales are played either in ascending (pitch raising) or descending (pitch lowering) order.

Teachers or instructional books will often list five different two to three-octave scale patterns to memorize for any given scale type.  These five scale shapes can be connected to combine notes over the entire fretboard.  If you have already read my other post: “Chords ‘WAY TOO’ Simplified“, you know that I like things even simpler than that.  Memorizing can be time consuming, and who wants to waste time when learning something like guitar?  Scales are no exception!  There are really only three one-octave scale patterns you need to know for any given scale.  That’s it!  These three scale patterns cover the same exact amount of notes that the five different ones do.  Not to mention the three scale patterns are only one octave long each, not two to three octaves like the traditional five!

Before we begin, you should be familiar with the one simple rule from the post: “Chords ‘WAY TOO’ Simplified“, and you should be able to read a scale diagram.  Okay, let’s get started!

The three scale patterns we are going to learn for any scale will be called:

1. Scale pattern one (starting with your first [index] finger)
2. Scale pattern two (starting with your second [middle] finger)
3. Scale pattern three (starting with your fourth [pinky] finger)

We will start with learning the most popular “major” scale.  You will recognize its sound from the popular children’s song “Do Re Mi.”  Here are the three one-octave patterns for the major scale:

Pattern One:

Pattern Two:

Pattern Three:

Once you know what key you are going to play in, let’s say C major, you can play any one of these three scale patterns as long as the first or last note of the pattern is on a C.  Just remember the one simple rule, that is: any notes that land on the B string shift up one fret in order to compensate for the difference in tuning.  For Example, this is pattern two with the notes on the B string shifted up one fret:

Here is pattern two again with the notes on the B string shifted up one fret each.  Notice any remaining notes on the high E string shift up too because the rest of the pattern remains the same.

You can expand these patterns beyond one octave by combining any of the three patterns together by overlapping the last note of one pattern with the first note of the next pattern.  For example, here is pattern two combined with pattern three:

And here is pattern one and two combined and at the very end goes into pattern three but does not complete due to running out of strings:

This technique works with any scale.

This post is a very basic explanation of guitar scales, but should keep you busy for  a while.  But for a complete mastery of guitar scales, soloing and improvisation techniques, check out Dennis Wetzel’s Complete Guitar Method, a four-book streamlined guitar course that will help you master the guitar quickly!  www.completeguitarmethod.com