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