Today’s lesson on guitar chord embellishments is a great one for beginner guitar players, but also you guys who are a bit more advanced and are still looking for a few ways to spice up some of your chords.
The guitar chords I chose are in the key of G, and basically all we’re doing here is moving around the notes in the chord, rather than adding or subtracting new ones. What I mean by that is you still end up with a G major chord, its just that the three notes (G B D) that make up that guitar chord are being re-arranged onto different strings.
This puts the emphasis on different parts of the chord – for instance maybe now instead of having a G B D G B G (starting with the 6th string) you’ve now got G B D G D G, which puts more weight on the D than on the B. Note that you’re not actually changing the names of the notes that are present in the chord though.
As such, you end up with a different sound by using these different fingerings and guitar chord embellishments. Fun stuff.
If you’re interested in learning more about embellishments, you’d probably really enjoy my Rhythm Player’s Toolbox course – in there, you’ll discover how to turn normal everyday chords into a goldmine of musical inspiration!
If there are other guitar chord embellishments you like using, share them in the comments below!
Wouldn’t you call that new C a C9 ?
Yes…
Good Morning Jonathan-I know it would be more complicated, but is there anyway you could include a tab or note example. I have a really hard time seeing where your fingers are. Good lesson, I just wish I could visually see it so I don’t practice it incorrectly. Thanks, Linda
thanks for the tips. I have been practising incorrectly, so will have to adjust my playing. Thanks heaps Joanne
Everytime I come to this site there is this annoying window that pops up and blocks the content. Can’t get rid of it and it’s only on this site. It Shows the facebook count and tweets etc. Can’t move it just have to scroll screen up and down to get around it. Did I say “Annoying..” very!
I really appreciate the help. It would be a lot more helpful if you could show a finger pattern diagram with the video as I can’t tell where your fingers actually are. I am definitely INTERESTED big time as I battle with the C chord a bit and anything to make chord changes smoother I need.
Mark
Hi Mark, try checking out this lesson:
https://playguitar.com/beginners-guide-to-open-chords/
It has some diagrams in it…