Hey, everybody. How’s it going? This is Darrin Goodman with guitarcontrol.com bringing you this video lesson. Today I want to show you a way that you can add in a little melody in with your chords, just a little chord melody. And it’s just by using notes that are either in the chord that you’re playing or notes that are nearby. So you could be suspending some of the notes, moving stuff around. It’s all stuff that’s within reach, so you can just take a really basic chord progression and add a little bit of flavor and stuff to it. So this is set up like a 12-bar blues, so there’s four bars to the one chord, two bars to the four chord, two bars to the one chord, a bar of five, a bar of four, and then a turnaround. So I wouldn’t really consider this to be like a blues per se. I guess you could call it like a moody blues, but it’s just to kind of give you some ideas of things that you can do. So be sure to click on the link in the description for the tabs and let’s get close up and take a look.
All right, so starting off, we’re going to be playing E minor 7. So I’ve got my first finger barred across the first five strings at the seventh fret. Then my second finger is on the eighth fret of the second string, and my third finger is on the ninth fret of the fourth string. And you can play the sixth string open along with this. All right, so we start off, we play just the open six string twice. And then just strum that chord.
So now, while that cord is just ringing out, we’re going to play this little melody line. So the most complicated part about this is that it’s really going to be a workout for your pinky. So if you’re really a beginner or you just haven’t really used your pinky a whole lot, you’ve kind of avoided doing that, I know a lot of people do, this might be a little bit of a struggle for you, but this is going to be a good workout to get you using that better.
So after we strum that chord, you’re going to reach to the tenth fret on the first string with your fourth finger, and you’re going to pick that, and then do a pull off to the seventh fret where your first finger is barred. So you got… And then you’re going to follow that with just plucking the second string. So that… That’s like a triplet. Now you’re going to lift your second finger up, and you’re going to play the third and second strings together, and then do a hammer-on back to that eighth fret with your second finger. Take it back off. Hit the second string again. So it’s… And then you’re going to follow that with your fourth finger playing the ninth fret of the third string, which is just going to make it resolve back to an E… Whoops. So that’s the first measure. That’s your one cord. So you’re going to have four bars of that…
Then from there we’re going to go to our four cord, which in this case is A minor 7. So we’re going to move over to the fifth fret, and we’re going to bar across all six strings now. And then go to the seventh fret of the fifth string with your third finger… So that is A minor 7. So we’re going to do the same thing. We’re going to hit the bass note twice and then strum that chord. And now, for the little riff we’re going to do, is that we’re going to play… You’re going to put your fourth finger onto the seventh fret of the second, excuse me, the eighth fret of the second string, and you’re going to pick that and then do a slide down a half step. So you’re going to strike the third and second string together, and then slide that seventh threat to the eighth fret with your fourth finger. And then you’re going to take your fingers of so you’re just getting the fifth fret now because you’re barring… And then you’re going to do a hammer-on to the seventh fret, and then back to the five, and then follow that with the third string that will also be the five… So since that is your four chord, you’re going to do that twice. And then you’re going to go back to the one chord again and two more measures of that…
And then that leads us to our five chord, which is B minor 7. So we’re going to do the same thing that we did on A minor 7, except we’re just going to move it up a whole step, so now your first finger is going to be barring all the way across seven and your third finger is going to be on the ninth fret of the fifth string. And we’re going to do that same little riff that we did before… But we’re only going to do it once since it’s just one bar of five. Then we’re going to move down a whole step and do it again for the four chord… and then back to the one chord… Whoops… Then, just go to the fifth fret of the sixth string and then to the sixth fret and then your B minor 7. So that’s like your little turnaround. And then that just brings you back to the top again… All right. So the whole sequence…
All right. So as you can see in these chord, all these notes that I’m playing, they are all notes that are right near the ones that you’re already playing in the chord, and so they’re going to be in key… And when we resolve back to the E there, we’ve actually made the E minor 7 into just regular E minor. So it’s just a really nice way to add a little bit of melody into a basic chord progression. I mean, that chord progression’s been used, and there’s lots and lots of songs that use that chord progression, but this just makes it a little bit different, a little bit more interesting.
All right. So hope you enjoyed that and you got something out of it. If you liked the lesson, give me a thumbs up. Be sure to subscribe to the channel. Leave me a comment down below if there’s something you’d like to see, either myself, or one of the other instructors at guitarcontrol.com do in a future lesson. All right, so that’s all I’ve got for you today, so until next time…
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