Acoustic Rhythm Guitar Mini Course - Day 4
How To Use Guitar Chord Embellishments To Really Spice Up Your Rhythm Playing
Now that you have some great sounding versions of your chords, lets look at the wonderful world of chord embellishing.
Some of the best sounding chords you can play on your acoustic guitar are those that use chord embellishments. Think of embellishing as simply decorating the chords that you play on your guitar. This can be done in a variety of ways with outstanding results!
Lets start with a simple example of applying embellishments to our progression. Here it is:
In the progression above, I have created some simple embellishments using notes within the chord itself. As you can hear this creates a really cool sound.
When playing the example above, be sure to have your chord fully formed before doing anything. The embellishments happen within the chord, not separate to it. You want to hear everything that you play ring through. This should become obvious to you when you listen to the audio examples.
You will find that when you are embellishing chords on the guitar, you cannot only create them with notes existing in the chord, but you can also use notes outside of the chord. These notes are commonly referred to as extensions, of which we looked at a few in the previous lesson when learning some new ways of playing your chords.
In the following example, I create some additional embellishments to the same chords from the first one, however you will see that I have used some extensions this time. The best sounding chord embellishments are those that use notes from outside the chord itself. It gives you more scope to work with because you have more notes at your disposal. Here it is:
As you can hear in the example above, using extensions of the chord really adds to the embellishing. You can create more flowing lines that weave there way through the chords you play. This is especially true with the C chord in the progression above. The possibilities are endless.
Next, lets take some chords voicing’s that were introduced to you in the previous lesson of this mini course, and use them to create more chord embellishment possibilities for your acoustic guitar playing.
Here is how you might do this:
The result is a fantastic sounding arrangement of our chord progression. The new voicing’s of the chord along with the embellishments really make it come to life.
Make sure you use your thumb to fret the root notes of both the G and C chords as I showed you in the previous lesson. You need to do this so that you free up fingers to add the embellishments for each chord.
I have added fingerings for your fretting hand below the embellishments as well to help you. Also, remember as always to have the full chord formed before playing anything.
Time To Put It Together
In a sense you have kind of already combined two ideas presented to you in separate lessons in this one. This was when you played some chord voicing’s from the previous lesson and added embellishments to them (ie. Example 3).
However, there are countless ways to combine any two or more things together, so here is an example of doing exactly that with our chord progression. I am using a range of concepts covered so far in this mini course. As always, learn this example well, as it will do wonders for your own ability to apply the things you are learning.
I have also once again included our chord progression in its original state to highlight just how effective the concepts you are learning are.
In tomorrow's lesson you will learn how to ditch your chords altogether and use a riff approach to our progression. Be sure to look out for it in your email inbox.
Songs With Examples Of Chord Embellishing:
- Patience by Guns N’ Roses
- Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin
- Under The Bridge by Red Hot Chili Peppers
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