How To Make Your Chord Progressions On Guitar Sound Better
by Simon Candy
In this video lesson, I show you how to jazz up the chord progressions you play on guitar.
We will take a typical progression and use extended chords to jazz it up.
Using chord extensions brings so much more diversity to your guitar playing. You don’t have to be a seasoned jazz musician at all to know and use chord extensions.
Whilst they are often associated with jazz music, extending chords are a concept associated with all styles of music and will be very useful to you in many different playing situations.
In this lesson, an excerpt from a live masterclass I taught in Chicago, I present to you a standard progression before applying a number of chord extensions and alterations to it.
In addition, you learn a fingerpicking pattern associated with jazz which you can use to play throughout the progression.
I also demonstrate how to integrate some walking bass lines into the progression for good measure.
Watch the video below to learn more:
Standard Chord Progression
Here is the progression we will be “jazzing” up:
"Jazzed" Up Chord Progression
And here is this progression with added chord extensions, alterations, and some walking bass for good measure: (watch the video for a breakdown of this progression)
Chord Shapes Used
Here are the chord voicings used throughout the progression:
Learn how to master the style of fingerpicking with my online fingerpicking guitar program