Guitar Chord

Yesterdays guitar chord of the day post started a new mini-series of guitar chords. Today well continue our mini-series of 12 Dominant 7th Guitar Chords you should know, with our second dominant 7th guitar inversion.

This chord and the next two chords are all played on the top four strings of the guitar.


This inversion is in root position. Thats to say, it has the root note of the chord as the lowest note. This is a G7 chord but try moving this around to other positions too.

Check back in tomorrow when well be continuing our series of 12 dominant 7th guitar chords you should know.

Playing guitar well involves building strength and independence in both hands.

The previous post suggested a left hand pattern to work on, now its time to get the right hand moving as well. Once you can do the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th fret exercise, you can start to build technique with your right hand as well.


Alternate picking and timing exercises.

Play the left hand exercises as before, but now play two of each note using alternate picking. Pick down on the first note and up on the second. While doing that, count 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. You should tap your foot and it should follow the same pattern as your picking hand, down on the number and up on and. Practice slowly, with a metronome, and once youre able to play the exercise flawlessly, add a few beats per minute. Beginning guitar players need to be patient, not rush, and build muscle memory.


A new exercise for the fretting hand.

Still using the position playing concept of one finger per fret, now play 2nd fret, 2nd finger, 3rd fret, 3rd finger, 4th fret, 4th finger and 1st fret, 1st finger. Go slow until your fingers land on the right frets, then add the metronome and the down and up picking.

Commit yourself to doing these exercises when you start your daily practice and youll be surprised at how much easier it gets.

The circle of fifths. What is it, why would I use it.

As you travel on your musical journey youll certainly read or hear about the circle of fifths. Its a learning tool that helps you remember several important concepts. There are many examples on the internet, just Google circle of fifths. The circle teaches you key signatures, how many sharps or flats are in each key, which chords go together, and the relative minor chords. Going clockwise around the circle you learn the sharp  # keys,  going counterclockwise you learn the flat b keys. This helps you learn how to play in different scales. The letters around the top can also help you remember what the 3 main chords are in each scale. Pick a letter, then go clockwise 1 and counterclockwise 1 to get the 3 chords that are most common.

Relative Minors.

No, theyre not your young children. Every scale has 2 letters that use the name number of sharps or flats. So C Major and A Minor have the same number, in this case zero, of sharps or flats. To play either one you just start on the first letter and then go through the 7 letters we use in music until it comes back around. For example: C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C is the C Major Scale while A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A is the relative minor.

How is this useful?

By knowing which chords go with which scales you can learn songs more quickly. The other advantage is that it will help you follow along when practicing or jamming with other musicians. This is just a brief explanation, so if youd like to explore the circle further, do some research or have your guitar teacher go over it with you. It can definitely make figuring songs out a lot easier.