As of today, the ‘Play by Ear‘ page has been created. Please leave me any feedback as to additional details you may want, or anything you want expounded on.

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Having difficulty learning how to strum? Here are a couple of thoughts for the beginning guitar player.

Probably the majority of songs we play are in 4/4 timing. This means the song’s timing is a series of 4 beats sections, or “4 quarter beats per measure”. Every count of 4 is a measure, and is simply counted like this 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-etc. The space of time between each number is the same.

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The term “slash chord” refers to a chords whose bass note (the lowest note played) changes from the root note to another note.  These are examples of slash chords: G/B, D/F#, C/D, Bm/A.  In the G/B chord, the bass note is a B note and can be played like this: x20033.  The D/F# can be played as 200232 (using the thumb on the E6 string).  The C/D would be xx0010.  And the Bm/A can be played x04432 or substituted by a Bm7/A, 524232 (the pinkie reaches to the E6 string on the 5th fret).

Two Common Slash Chords

Probably the two most common slash chords are the -/2 chord and the -/3 chord.  The -/2 is where a chord’s second note is played in the bass, such as F/G, G/A, A/B, C/D, etc.  I play most of these as a slideable chord like this F/G: 3×321x.  This shape can then be slid up the fretboard to create a number of -/2 chords. For the C/D, however, I use the pattern above: xx0010. Read the rest of this entry »

A bass line progression is a progression where the bass note of a chord (“the lowest note played in a chord”) is changing and following a predetermined or predictable pattern.  There are two generic types of bass line chord progressions: ascending (the bass line goes higher in pitch) and descending (the bass line goes lower in pitch).  The bass line progressions can be pictured as going up or down a small set of stairs.

Root Note is Usually the Bass Note

One thing to understand first, is when any chord is being played, it’s bass note (or lowest note) is the root note of the chord (unless we are told otherwise).  Thus the bass note of a G chord, a Gsus, a Gm7, a Gdim, etc. is a “G” note.  If we need to change the bass note of a G major chord to a B, for example, we would write it kind of like a fraction: G/B.  We often call these “slash” chords.  The Dm7 chord with a C note in the bass would be written ‘Dm7/C’.  An A7 with a C# note in the bass would be written ‘A7/C#’. Read the rest of this entry »