Rock Blues Guitar
PERFORMANCE/TOUR: Duane Eddy Tops Deke Dickerson's Guitar Geek Festival
The influential rock guitarist leads a lineup in Anaheim that also includes 'Honeyboy' Edwards. One of the musical highlights in recent years of the National Assn. of Music Merchantsannual trade show, now under way in Anaheim, has been Deke DickersonsGuitar Geek Festival, which the roots rock guitarist and band leader only half jokingly bills as "the best guitar festival in the world...
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The hidden guitar secrets on the fretboard.
That sounds all secretive and mythical, but it's actually quite simple. Whether you're learning to play rock guitar or not, there are some very simple chord shapes that can have you playing any major chord with only one finger.
I'm going to assume here that you know nothing about the guitar, so if you do know a little, please be patient while I explain things you may already know.
First, let's get some guitar basics down.
The guitar strings: What are they called and how are they numbered?
- The thinnest guitar string is called the 1st string and it's tuned to the note E.
- The 2nd string is tuned to B
- 3rd string is G
- 4th string is D
- 5th string is A
- And the 6th string is tuned to E as well, only a lot lower down.
To tune the guitar, I would advise getting a digital guitar tuner for now. Chances are that, as a beginner, your ears will not be that developed yet to accurately tune the guitar.
Easy guitar chords.
Now, here's what I want to show you. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th string, without you putting a finger on the fretboard, are the three notes that make up a G major chord. What that means for you is that if you wanted to play, say now, an A chord, then all you'd have to do is put your index finger flat behind the 2nd fret.
As long as you're only strumming the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th string, they're all major chords. Let me give you the chords at each fret interval so you can play any major chord by just going up and down the fretboard.
The open three, as we've already said, is G, then at the 2nd fret is A, at the 4th fret is B, the 5th is C, the 7th D, 9th E, 10th F, and 12th fret is G again.
You'll notice I've left out some fret positions, that's because inbetween the chords I've mentioned, are the sharps and flats. The G sharp for instance, is the chord one fret up from the open G, ie the first fret. If you had played the A chord first, and then moved one fret down, it would be called A flat. Same note, just different perspective I suppose.
All you really need to know about the chords here, is that E and F are 1 fret apart, and B and C are 1 fret apart.
So there is no B sharp or E sharp, or C flat or F flat for that matter.
Okay, let's make this easy. What chords go well together?
Let's say you're playing in G major, in other words G major would be the key of the song and the root chord. There are only three major chords in any key, and in this case you've already got the one, G obviously.
The other two major chords will always be 5 frets up, and 7 frets up. So in the key of G, the two other chords are C and D. It doesn't matter where you start, it's always the same distance between the chords.
How to use this method to play rock guitar chords.
Rock guitar is mostly played with chords known as Power chords. The great thing about power chords is that they're made up of only two notes, and those two notes exclude the one note in a chord that makes it sound either major or minor.
Power chords sound best through a distorted or overdriven guitar amp, or through a distortion pedal or overdrive pedal.
Here's how to play them using the one finger system. If you take the chords I've just shown you, and instead of playing all three strings, you only play the 3rd and 4th string, then that's a power chord.
You can also play these on the 4th and 5th string, and if you want to get really heavy, the 5th and 6th string.
The problem with all these easy chords.
The only thing wrong with any of these chords, from a purely technical point of view, is that the lowest sounding note is not the note the chord is named after, which makes them sound a little light, or ungrounded. I'm having a bit of a hard time explaining that one fully, but when it comes to rock guitar power chords, there is another way to get a fuller sounding power chord.
By tuning the 6th string down to D, it's possible to play very full sounding rock guitar chords with one finger on the 4th, 5th, and 6th string.
Seeing as I'm writing this article mostly for the beginner electric guitar player who wants to start playing almost immediately, I should also advise that you also get the correct training, without all the short cuts, so you wont be limited.
You've got three more fingers, so just imagine what you could do with them once you get going.
Join me at Play-electric-guitar.net for electric guitar lessons where, amongst other basic beginner guitar lessons, you can learn all about How to play Power Chords and also the theory behind Rock Guitar Power Chords
Many thanks for reading our Rock Blues Guitar article
