10 Chords everyone needs to know

greetings I'm Rob Chappell and welcome to ten chords that you absolutely need to know if you are a beginner or in fact if you are any kind of guitar player at all and I'm not just going to teach you 10 chord shapes that would be way too easy I'm actually going to teach you how to combine them to write music to write songs whether you are a singer-songwriter acoustic guitarist and singer or whether you're in a metal band or reggae band any kind of music and teaching you the foundational bedrock of how to write music it's gonna be really cool and what I'd like you to do is treat this video like it's a resource so for example you know you might get bored after two of the chord shapes wanna go home have a coffee or a beer and just try and focus on learning these shapes totally cool come back learn the rest of the shapes yet treat it like a resource so there is this thing that we call the chord scale and the chord scale is a combination of all of the chords in a key don't worry I'm not gonna teach you loads of theory I'm keeping this super super ultra easy to make it fun and to make a creative tool but this chord scale is what I'm going to give you giving you the keys to the Lamborghini of writing music and we're gonna be working in the key of C let's start by giving you some tuning notes it might be easy for you to tune to the sound of each string that I give you but alternatively you can always pause here and use whatever tuning device you happen to have here is my East ring [Music] is an a string [Music] d [Music] is a g-string [Music] here is a B string [Music] [Laughter] here is another e vibrating twice as fast as the originally that's an octave so our first chord is C major sounds like this [Music] and you can see in the close-up how this is constructed its third finger on the third fret a string second finger on the second fret D string and first finger on the first fret B string it's easy to remember because you've got third finger on the third fret second finger on the second fret and first finger on the first fret we're only using a T and the B string it's really important for you to memorize the names of the strings e a D G B and E imagine it's a word yeah bigger bear yeah so that's called number one some people find that very difficult to play because you need a specific kind of hand position with the wrist to enable the fingers to fall onto the fretboard easily so I'm going to give you a second B side shape to use just in case you find this shape difficult this is all about enabling you not about creating a challenge so here is another shape of the same chord with a different configuration of the notes still a C major chord so it goes second finger third fret a string first finger D string second fret and then the little finger and the third finger both go on the third fret B and E string here's the chord [Music] so view this as kind of a c-major just made a different way there are lots of ways of making each chord is another one again it's the C major chord but we're going to stick with this first shape to begin with [Music] now then moving along our chord scale scale just means a ladder it's a sequence of chords that get you from one part of a scale to the end of a scale in this instance it is the C major scale which would sound like this but for each of those notes we're going to play a chord so after C in the alphabet comes D in this instance we're going to play what we call a D minor chord so the D minor chord looks like this and sounds like this [Music] it is constructed with the second finger on the g string 2nd fret third finger on the third fret B string first finger on the first fret E string but we're also incorporating an open string which means the string is free to resonate from the nut to the bridge Sabol I'm using the third string down our D string above your open string are a number of strings namely the E and the a that are not being touched they're left open but I'm not playing them on only playing from the D string down these strings only very important otherwise you're gonna get horrible sound like this unless of course that is exactly what you were after and what I would do is use the underside of my right hand to rest on top of the top two strings to mute them and then you are free to play them with the rest of your hat now this is a minor chord and what that means is it it has a melancholy feel it feels sad bit down there really nice romantic sounding chords but we could make it major so I'm going to give you another version of this chord but in this instance it will be a major version of the chord we're going to change the fingering so all we're going to do is take my second finger off and put it on the second fret on the e-string take my first finger off and put it on the second fret of the g string still play from the D string done really great to have a couple of chords that you can change quickly and effectively and I would practice changing between them as a drill so start with the minor chord take both four fingers off swap them over and place them down let me give you a close-up of how that is played starting from the minor chord you so we're two chords in and I've given you variants of each one so you're doing great so far if you are an absolute beginner take a break go and have a drink or two some fish and chips or whatever you do in your country and herbs absorb it because it's gonna be a lot take it in don't forget at the end of this I'm gonna teach you how to write music using these chords this is the Holy Grail it'll do all sorts of wonderful things for you so after D in the alphabet comes e so this is an E minor chord it is the most metal of all chords ever created because you literally use this sign these two fingers you put them on the a and the D string at the second fret so you can still do the metal symbol and play it like this [Music] for this Court I am strumming all of the strings the e string is open and then it's the second fret on the a string 2nd fret on the D string and then the rest of the strings are all open now I am opening my hand to give you as much visibility on the finger tips as possible but I wouldn't normally make this hand shape when I'm playing this chord I would I would cover the strings and keep my hand comfortable so don't feel that you have to do this I'm just giving you this ability so this is E minor but it could be a major let's make it emajor it's really really easy you take your first finger the one I'm wiggling and you put it on the first fret on the g string I'll give you a close-up so from a minor to E major [Music] it's actually quite a bluesy thing to play between major and minor [Music] all I'm doing is going from minor to major after eat we got F a lot of beginners stumble at the F chord and they say this is really hard I can't do it it involves a bar with a finger so I'm gonna give you two options one of them is the standard full fat you know red-blooded F and then one of them is not a cheap version but an option to a b-side if you will so we take a bar first finger and the trick here is not to use the front of the finger which has lots of creases but to use the side of the finger which is much flatter and I will give you a close-up you bar at the first fret and then you do the same shape as the e major shape after your bar and it sounds like this you will only be able to do this if you drop your thumb down the back of the neck put it relative to where your first finger is and drop your wrist if your wrist is flat you'll find it really hard drop the wrist and you'll find it much easier and and more ergonomic it will fit to the body as my thumb comes down the back of the neck then I can put my first finger across and make a bar then second finger on the second fret g string and then my third finger and little finger third fret on the a and the D strings but look at my wrist this is really key if your wrist isn't sunk down you'll never be able to play this chord the way that this is [Applause] if I remove the bar and bring this shape back its emajor all I have done is use the different fingering pattern to make a major F another way an easier way we're just going to ignore the first F note on the e string first fret and play from the a string down so the fingering is like this please note I'm using my thumb to just gently touch this e string but not fret it down so it's muted it would go if I was to play it it means like I can really strum it and just ignore this string altogether as being muted by my thumb so here's how this chord looks up close third finger third fret a string little finger right underneath it at the third fret on the D string second fret g string and the first finger just plays both of these strings at the bottom the B and the E and the first fret and the thumb just touches the E string [Applause] you you can actually move this anywhere you want and it will make a major chord moving on to G G is such an easy chord to play this is kind of the relief when beginners get to F they go this is awful I'm never playing guitar again and then they get the G me go well maybe it's not that difficult after all so G we start with our swearing finger put it on the third fret on the E string first finger second fret on the a string and then the last two fingers on the third fret B and E this is a little bit like our second version of a C chord second finger on the third fret e string first finger second fret a string and these two fingers go on the third fret together B string and E string if I take these two fingers off and down a string now it's that C chord bring him back up now it's the G cool next chord is a minor again a sad soulful melancholic romantic chord this chord is really cool because it's almost exactly like E major but all of your fingers go down one string so we'll build it with the a string being open second finger second fret D string second finger second fret g string first finger on the B string play from the a string down if I bring them all up one string it's email [Music] last chord this chord is really fun to play you probably will not be using this chord a lot but it's really important to learn it in sequence this is a B half diminished chord it's a minor 7 flat 5 chord you can just call it B haft in that will do and it sounds like this [Music] as a scale it would sound like this it's the sound of intrigue so what a lot of people do is they substitute this court they kind of forget about it and instead play just a minor chord which I will also show you but to start with here is the B half diminished chord here's how it looks close up first finger second fret a string second finger second fret g string and then my third finger third fret D string little finger third fret B string and I'm only plucking the strings that I have a finger on you can move this chord [Music] a lot of people will substitute this cord for just a regular minor cord here's how you would do that you take that a minor shape but I'm only gonna play it with these three fingers second third and fourth I shifted along so if this is a a sharp B and then I put a bar in front of it so from that diminished sound so a - er [Music] that's acceptable to the arocs it's a cheat it's not in key but it works musically here's a close-up of how that works so here's that a minor shape that you're probably familiar with by now I shift it forward two frets one two and put a bar in front of it that is a b-minor chord and here was the B diminished [Music] we have c d e f G a and then B I know it goes cdefg and then it stops alpha betting after you basically goes in a circle there's a circle that we use in music so B is the end of the road you would then just return to C so the whole chord scale looks and sounds like this I'll play it to you nice and slow in a close-up so we start with C major d-minor a minor [Music] F major G major a minor B haft a minute and then you can go back to see it doesn't matter which of these chords you use as long as you use a cord from this sequence in any order it will always sound correct because it's in key this is something that is so important to learn when you are studying music if you want to write music or if you want to learn other people's music and you want to know where in the song they are or for example which other chords might be in a song because there are patterns that you can study from this that will really help you in all of the kind of music that you do so it's just C major [Music] see and I taught you some major versions of the minor chords that were useful so here's the D major chord as the e major chord I'll give you one more call cord which is a major version of that a minor so rather than playing this I'm just gonna use one finger and we're gonna put it on the D string 2nd fret we're also going to cover the g string and the B string with this one finger here's a close-up so this one Wiggly first finger goes on the second fret deep covers the G comes the beat and I'm playing the a string down in these three string [Music] so now you are armed to play all kinds of music to mix the chords around and write things you've got a bunch of really cool open chords and my final parting piece of knowledge or information to you that might be useful is if you go by a capo and you put it on the first fret and play all the same chord shapes you are in a different key one half step higher so you be in the key of C sharp if you go forward and put your capo one fret higher you're in the key of D placing the capo but playing the same shapes will change the key for you and you can use exactly the same chord shapes which is why so many singer songwriters will use a capo to change the key between CDE and eventually use things like open tunings and drop tunings I hope that's been useful please dip in and out of this video at various points that are more useful for you than others because of course you might know some of these chord shapes already and in the comment section below please tell me if this was useful for you take it easy choppers out

Channel: Rob Chapman

Views: 187,722

Keywords: Rob Chapman, Chappers, tutorial, Monkey Lord, Chapman Guitars, Guitar, Rock, Blues, Orange, Marshall, Lesson, Tuition, Gear, Demo, review, Andertons, Gibson, Fender, dorje, 10 chords, beginner, beginners lesson, learning, study, practice, metal, pop, pop rock, help, self help, guitar lesson, how to play guitar, guitar chords, guitar lessons for beginners, guitar lessons, guitar tutorial, beginner guitar lessons, online guitar lesson, how to play rhythm guitar, guitar lessons online, beginner guitar

Id: hBhmk1rdwJ0

Length: 20min 25sec (1225 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 02 2019