What simple wee chords can teach you😀

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:17]Hi. So, I want to help you understand the fretboard better. And I think truthfully this the best way you can do it is um learning chords. And I think when people say they're stuck in boxes, it's in their head. Uh it certainly was in mine because if you use a if you look at a chord, a chord could be seen as the same as a box. It's just a couple of notes in a we box. Um, but move it about, you know, imagine you could only play a scale like this, right? And you we're stuck in that.

[00:00:53]You're stuck in that box, but or whatever. Okay, it's the same scale moved up, but that is going to open a whole world completely different to when you were stuck there. It's the same with a chord. If we have a here, right, in a in a blues context, we want to make it a dominant seventh chord. Now, if you know your A major scale, you know that that's the seventh note.

[00:01:26]So flat 7th, flatten that.

[00:01:31]Maxeladine is a major scale with a flat 7th degree.

[00:01:35]So you don't you still have that happy major third, but you also have that And those two notes together.

[00:01:54]So the the cage system shows you where everything repeats. So if you already know this chord, you know that that might be a bar chord flip. But the A played open. And our next shape, you might know this, right? And then in the key system, you get this one as well. So 12 11 9 10, right? And the bottom half of that shows you a D chord, but it's not a D chord, it's an A chord.

[00:02:31]So if you're learning the neck and you're trying to remember the notes of the fretboard, if you start learning it in the field by like putting a put a tuner on even or say them out loud and work them out for yourself is what one's the root of that. So in this it's on the G string and we'll keep it free chords. It's just that walk that down a full a full step or it has there's a major 7th and that's how it sounds like a major 7th. A major A major 7th type sound.

[00:03:06]There's a dominant. So, do it with the next shape. Take the bottom three notes.

[00:03:20]The next shape, this one, which is just a D shape. Notice in that one, the root was up here. Up here, it's here.

[00:03:29]And then this one.

[00:03:33]So there's this A dominant 7th.

[00:03:38]Do the same with D. Now, as we know in this one, it was in the B string, the root was. So the exact same, just in different places, but it repeats the same.

[00:03:53]bottom half of that like the eight and then D bottom half of that whenever it's that shape it's on the high E.

[00:04:12]That's how we But now we don't have a root at all when we play on a three string sort of voicing like that because like this A.

[00:04:22]Now I've changed the root to the flat 7 which is G.

[00:04:28]I have the third and the fifth of the the chord which in a major scale like an A major would be of that.

[00:04:39]Those three notes are the first note of the scale. the third note of the major scale and the fifth note and then actually it would be of the mixelyian scale that flat 7th but we don't have a root so we just have those three together and it's a great place to arrive if you you're going back from the four. So if you go into the four chord, then we're going to go to the E, right?

[00:05:19]And like this E chord shape here, because they all repeat, the same thing applies to E, roots in the middle, the B string.

[00:05:30]So on the G string on this one and it became the the do becomes dominant seven when you flatten that one though not.

[00:05:42]And then when you get to the D you can use this one and then find the nearest A.

[00:05:53]So, the good the good thing about that is if you're if you're in E is a great lick and it's telling you when you flatten that note that it's going back to the fork.

[00:06:16]I didn't have to go on if See, you only knew the way to go back to that chord.

[00:06:20]So when you get to D, uh, you don't have to jump to say there where you know it's safe or whatever. You can go or this chord.

[00:06:34]You don't have to do that. You know, if you're in, you know, there's a cracking there's a cracking E shape there.

[00:06:46]Sorry, A.

[00:06:49]It's a D nearest A.

[00:06:57]A lot of the time people play it.

[00:07:10]You can sky's the limit with those chromatics.

[00:07:23]And a good thing you can do also with this D chord shape, it works on any any of them. When this when you get it in this inversion, so say we get D here, it's just D7. We can if you move that up two frets every time, it's where this stuff, that stuff comes from. It's symmetrical.

[00:07:44]Yeah. totally movable. And then just hit an A chord.

[00:07:58]I mean, that's some cracking stuff. If you you play that at the blues jam, they're going to love you. So, you can go H.

[00:08:07]Yeah. So there's that seventh there. So go to your D chord.

[00:08:28]There's a lot of tension. You know what I mean?

[00:08:33]And going tell everybody we're going to the E. walk chromatically up to your E, your the note below the E, the root. So in any shape you get wherever in the chord, wherever the whatever note is below is the third. And that's what gives us this sound or that starts from a half step below the third and sliding into it and then hitting the root. So you've got uh So you got an A going D.

[00:09:41]So, I hope that helps. Sorry if I rambled on a bit, but that showing you those chromatics, telling you what the the notes, the names um the names of the notes are by giving them numbers and then seeing where they are in a chord shape. So if you're playing a that shape and you were stuck on these three strings and you were we'll go with this one and you're playing a like that.

[00:10:10]Well, learn a major around that or the a the A mixelyian scale around that. We're just changing that one note. So it would be that's a good bit of homework for you from there. Where is the nearest way to do it? Well, there's your A note. Find your root again.

[00:10:26]If you're doing that, well, you know, because look, one, two, three, a free one always goes well.

[00:10:42]You know, if it's this shape, if it's E, if it's ever that shape, the note directly below the roots of the third, and then you can always walk that octave up.

[00:10:57]then going to D.

[00:11:01]And then when you get to A, well, here's I hope that helps. If it did, leave a comment. If it didn't, sorry.

[00:11:22]Have a nice day.