Some Guitar Chords That Go to the Next Level

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So you’ve learned most of your basic guitar chords, great! Let’s learn some small alterations that can add a little more and that you can add to the ones you know.

First, I’ll show the basic chord and then we can show the others. Let’s start with the C chord and then we’ll add a note here and there. I’ll put the names on top and which finger below.

So let’s say you’re putting a song together and you have an A minor chord and a G chord. C works nicely with those and Cmaj 7 could be at the end. Remember that between each of those lines is 4 beats of the chord.

/  Am  /  G  /   C  /  Cmaj7 /  or how about    /  Cadd9  /   Am  /  Cmaj7  /  G  /

We can do the same thing with the Am chord.  Important! Some chords have more than one name on the guitar!

Now, we can put some chords together with these.

/   Am11  Am7  /  G   D    /  Am11  Am7  /    G  /  (With 2 chords in one measure, play them 2 beats each. Remember between each of those lines there’s a total of 4 beats)

Let’s do one more group with the G chord.

Now we can mix those up in order      orange dot = don’t play this string

/  G  /  Gmaj7 / Gadd6  /  Gmaj13  /

That one sounds good if you keep repeating in 4 times.

So chords of the same family mixed with other chords (either with the chords from above or just basic chords like C and Am) can really widen your guitar playing.

Remember, if it sounds good, it is good!

Try to hum or sing a melody while playing your chord changes and if you have something you like, record it real quick on your phone and start putting some words to it.