A and E Style Chords: The C's

When I first offered this course, the demo was about the C Major chord using both the E and A style format. I am duplicating that lesson here. Atthe bottom I will show you how to take everything you've learned from this assignment and make it sharp (#) using the C# instead. The C Major Chord Variations

Here are three positions that we should all know when playing the C Major chord. I have included the open C chord, the C barre chord with theroot on the A string (A style barre chord) and the C barre chord with the root on the E string (E style barre chord) for reference. You should alreadyknow these chord formations, but I wanted to include them here so that you could experiment with possibilities.

What We Must Know About C MajorThe Notes In The Chord: We MUST know are the notes used to form the C Major. The notes are C, G, and E. These notes can be in differentorder but as long as these notes are used you have a C Major. Where you choose to play these notes is up to you. The chord variations we haveto choose from were further above. In this example I will be using a simple open C Major.

The Notes In The Scale: Usually it's not all that necessary to know the notes found within the scale version of this chord, but for this program wedo. We don't need to know different patterns or positions. We just need to know the "allowed" notes within the chord itself. The notes used in theC Major scale are C, D, E, F, G, A, and B.

These notes will be our guideline in what we can (and sometimes cannot) do when creating fingerstyle and riffs. Here is the C Major scale plotted notes using ONLY the first five frets - that should be easy:

The C Major scale uses the notes: C, D, E, F, G, A, B You aren't necessarily limited to ONLY using those notes, but for now I think we should keep it simple. When you look closely you'll see both theopen C Major chord as well as the A style C Barre chord hiding in there.

How To Create A Riff, Fingerstyle - or Both!It's completely up to you on how you want to approach the lessons in my EZ Acoustic Riffs program, but for now, let's create an easy-to-play riffusing the C Major chord as well as a bit of the C Major scale.

Creating A Riff Using C MajorWhen we create a riff we aren't necessarily playing blazing lead guitar, so don't feel as though this has to be difficult. Some of the coolest riffs inthe world are actually very simple to play. In the "From The Pros" section you'll find that what Keith Richards plays in "(I Can't Get No)Satisfaction" isn't difficult at all - but it's SUCH an influential riff. So, we must always approach riffs not as lead solo work, but more as somethingthat "sticks with you" musically.

When I show you how to create a riff, I will not be forcing you into actually playing what I provide. I am just showing you a blueprint with which youcan approach your own created riff.

Here's an example of a simple riff using the notes from both the C Major chord itself as well as the notes found within the C Major scale:

As you can see, I never moved out of "the box" at all. I just used the first five frets. Speaking of "five..." Octaves = 5 An octave is a 5 tone range from any origin point. In other words, simply add "five" to this SAME pattern and guess what? You can now play this

same riff on the eighth fret (3 + 5 = 8) where the root note of C WAS on the 3rd fret. Now this riff can be played using the C Major barre chord onthe 8th fret using the E style format. Here's the chord again:

Simply use THIS chord (E style barre chord with the root on the 8th fret of the E string) and move all notes played before as followed:

I just added "five" to every note! That's it. Here's the C Major scale from frets 5 - 10:

Now, you WILL see that the note on the 8th fret (D string) is not part of the C Major scale. However, this doesn't mean we can't play it. This iscalled an accidental. An accidental occurs when a certain note is used to add dimension to a song or passage that usually isn't included in theoriginal note spectrum. I added this note as an "out of the box" concept because...well - it sounded good to me. Recall that when we first stared this riff using the open CMajor, every note was part of the C Major scale. When we decided to move this pattern by "adding five" we then created an accidental. We all know that Hendrix did this quite frequently. If it sounds good then just do it. That's the beauty of creating riffs or fingerstyle. You don'talways have to follow the rules.

Finger AcrobaticsIf you tried to play this riff, odds are you had to do a bit of finger switching, something you didn't really have to do in the first riff created. If you arean intermediate or advanced guitarist, you'll probably have a bit more fun with the second riff. It requires you to think ahead a bit more. However, ifyou look closely, you'll see that most of this riff is relatively close in sound/tone as was the first riff. It's all about options here. It doesn't always sound "great" when a riff is played near the same area as the chord being played, so we could always use the open C Major andSTILL play the new riff created, like this:

This version will give you a more "authentic" sound, where the rhythm is just playing an open C Major and the riff being played over it is using theoctave-based approach. This is perfect for bands to practice with, because the lesser-experienced musician can play the easier part while themore experienced musician can experiment with placement of a given riff.

Playing This Riff PassageRemember - basically everything you're playing here revolves only around the C Major chord. The video below demonstrates the first riff with astandard angle, then an overhead angle slowed down, and finally the overhead angle at "average" speed. I would recommend practicing this at aslow 60 bpm, which is what you'll find in the PTB file as well.

Creating a Fingerstyle Passage in C Major

The same approach is mostly used when creating fingerstyle. The only real difference here is you don't need to worry about an additional guitar.All you really need to do is discover some of the notes that can be combined to play a given fingerstyle passage.

Every single note you see here CAN be used as an embellishment, riff, or fingerstyle. Of course, not all of these notes will sound good. Your job isto decide what you like and don't like. After all, you're in charge of creating the fingerstyle based on your ability. I'm just the messenger. Maybe you just want to play an embellishment? An embellishment is just a series of adding or taking away of a given chord. In other words, youcould consider chords such as Cmaj7, Cadd9, and even C7 as embellishments FROM the C Major chord itself. This is often the easiest way to getfamiliar with a chord as well as what works and what doesn't. If I were to break down a few BASIC embellishments from the open C Major chord, I would play something such as this:

*notes in parentheses ( ) indicate the embellishment from the original C Major chord.

This is a VERY simple series ofembellishments, and most likely nowhere nearthe depth we want to work with. However, as you can see - everything fits nicely.But what if we wanted MUCH more than this?Something...less strummy.

Expanding Our Passage

We already have the basic idea, where the C Major was our origin. We simply added or removed notes from the B string itself. The only catch wasthat we wanted to make sure the notes we added or removed "worked" with the C Major scale. Since they did, let's break this down into a muchdifferent idea. How about some fingerstyle?

When you look at the fingerstyle tab above, you'll see it's acombination of C, Am, and G. That's it! Looking at the tab above inrespect to the C Major scale to the left, you can see that every note(even the G chord note on the G string at the 5th fret) follows the CMajor scale EXCEPT one note. Can you find it? If you guessed the 4th fret note on the D string you got it! The F# noteis NOT part of the C Major scale. This is an accidental.

You'll find the exact representation of this "Legato" slide - meaning, to slide to the next note without picking the string(s)affected - in the song "Man On The Moon" by REM.

While it's not part of the C Major scale, this doesn't mean we can't use it.

Now, in this song you could always end with the C Major rooted as an A style barre chord (x35553) for the C Major. It's much closer after the GMajor barre chord, rooted on the Low E string at the 3rd fret (355433) but this is completely optional. If you were to play this progression again,following the format I've provided, you'll want to play the open C instead.

Working With C Minor

Now I'd like to show you the variations of Cm and C#m using both E and A style chords. Below you'll find that they are very easy to play based onwhat we've learned so far.

The first Cm has the root on the C note on the E string, so it's an E style Cm chord. The same applies with the first C#m chord. You'll also noticethat the other Cm chords are on the A string, so those are A style C#m chords. Of course, Cm7 and C#m7 chords are extensions, so you knowwhat to do there. If not, here's an example of those:

Now, what if we took everything we learned from above and applied it using the chords we've just discovered? Let's use the Cm as an A stylebarre chord. First we need to take a look at the Cm scale:

All we need to do is make the notes that WERE playing lead from this....

...to THIS:

Look closely and you'll see that all I did from the original exercise was make the notes "work" for Cm. That's it! Drop the "5" on the B string to a "4" to make it fit.

Move the more "open" formation from C Major to the fifth fret area on the D and G strings to keep it within Cm. End on the fifth fret note on the D string (G note) so that it "wraps" the riff that preceeded it.

What if we did this in C#m?A simple look at the C#m scale will suffice:

From Cm to C#m would look like this:

Ok that was super easy huh? Again, all we need to do is find the notes that are allowed. Later in the course I will be mixing things up on you, butfor now I find it very important to understand the steps associated with working on riffs.

How This Applies To Everyday PlayingYou may be wondering what all this is really "good for" right? Well, let's take a sample scenario. Maybe you started playing in C Major using theoriginal riff. You liked it, but it wasn't quite exotic enough. This doesn't mean you must forget the riff entirely. You just need to move it a bit. Sure itwill change the key of the overall song if you focus solely on the step-based movement (changing the key from C Major to Cm or C#m etc.) butthat part doesn't really matter. The idea is simple. You are looking to play something that sounds good to you. This means you could take this same simple riff passage and move it anywhere you wanted! Just think of a different "spot" to establish your chordformation. If you like Cm, then focus on the Cm scale. If you like C#m then focus on the C#m scale (Abm). Once you do that, the scale patterns"allowed" give you some freedom in exploring different patterns. You can always work out of the box as well, but just remember that most out ofthe box patterns are notes that are right next to the note that is allowed.

Final NoteWhile I haven't included any fingerstyle here, you can assume exactly what can be done. Here are some formulas that you can play through thatwill allow you to practice everything you've learned so far using I - IV - I - V. Remember you can also create a combination of patterns using Major(upper case) and minor (lower case)

You can play these either in A style or E style. I would recommend starting every chord using an A style to eliminate too much movement.

Key C C#

Formula 1: I - IV - I - V C - F - C - G C# - F# - C# - G#

Formula 2: i - IV - I - V Cm - F - C - G C#m - F# - C# - G#

Formula 3: I - iv - i - V C - Fm - Cm - G C# - F#m - C#m - G#

I LOVE the C - Fm - Cm - G progression. It sounds killer to me. The C# - F#m - C#m - G# sounds like a Radiohead song. I just can't remember which one. Later on in the course I will be providing you with a ton of formulas that will let you practice through a variety of chord formations. First I want to make sure we have all the chords down though.