Chords And Scales

Beginner Scales and Chords

Artist / Title / Progress
Difficulty / style
Christopher Schlegel
A Minor Scale for Beginners

This tutorial explains the concept (theory) of the A Minor Scale and how to apply it (practice) to the guitar. This tutorial is primarily written for beginners. But even experienced players might benefit from this quick, concise review of what constitutes a scale.

Published: 12/06/2007 Upgrade
Christopher Schlegel
C Minor Scale Exercises for Beginners

This tutorial shows how to do basic scale exercises with the C Minor Scale. This tutorial is primarily written for beginners. But even experienced players might benefit from this quick, concise review of how to "practice scales".

Published: 12/06/2007 Upgrade
Christopher Schlegel
Simple Chords Group 1: Intro To C Major & G Major

This tutorial introduces simplified versions of the C and G chords at a beginner level.

Published: 12/04/2007 Upgrade
Christopher Schlegel
Simple Chords Group 2: Intro To A Minor & E Major

This tutorial introduces simplified versions of A, E and C chords at a beginner level.

Published: 12/04/2007 Upgrade
Christopher Schlegel
Introduction to Barre Chords for Beginners

This tutorial explains the concept (theory) of barre chords and how to apply them (practice) to the guitar. We will start with the mechanics of how to "barre" and then learn how to use our barring index finger as a sort of "movable capo". Using this idea enables us to use the basic open chords of E major, E minor, A major and A minor to play any given major or minor chord chromatically in many different positions covering the fretboard.

Published: 12/13/2007 Upgrade
Lisa McCormick
Seamless Chord Changes For Beginners

One of the most challenging tasks for a new guitarist can be making chord changes smoothly and quickly, without creating a pause in the music. Often times, coming up with a specific strategy for getting from one chord to the next can make all the difference. This tutorial presents four powerful tools for improving the speed of your chord changes.

Published: 02/24/2008 Upgrade
Christopher Schlegel
Full Chords Group 1: A, D, and E

This series introduces you to some of the basic chords on guitar: A, D, and E.

Published: 12/05/2007 Upgrade
Christopher Schlegel
Full Chords Group 2: C, F, and G

This tutorial introduces the beginning guitar player to the full (non-simplified) versions of the C, F and G major chords in first position. These are the standard basic chords that form the basis for thousands of songs.

Published: 12/05/2007 Upgrade
Christopher Schlegel
Full Chords Group 4: A, D, and E Minor

This tutorial introduces the beginning guitar player to the full (non-simplified) versions of the A, D and E minor chords in open position. These are the standard basic chords that form the basis for thousands of songs.

Published: 01/07/2008 Upgrade
Christopher Schlegel
C Major Scale for Beginners

This tutorial explains the concept (theory) of the C Major Scale and how to apply it (practice) to the guitar. This tutorial is primarily written for beginners. But even experienced players might benefit from this quick, concise review of what constitues a scale.

Published: 06/17/2007 Upgrade

Chords

Artist / Title / Progress
Difficulty / style
Andy Gurley
Extracting the Power!

In this series, we'll teach you what a power chord is, how to pull a power chord out of any major or minor barre chord, and how to put that power into some great examples.

Published: 10/05/2009 Upgrade
Ben Lindholm
Two-Note Chords

In these six lessons, I will introduce you to the concept of two-note chords. Then I will show you a small example song, so you can see how they can be used in a musical context.

Published: 01/20/2012 Upgrade
Ben Graves
Open Chords: Rhythm and Embellishments

In this series of lessons, we'll see that open chords can be used to create great rock riffs. We'll use the basic open chords that you learned in the fundamental courses and earlier in this course.

Published: 03/09/2009 Upgrade
Dale Turner
Campfire Chords With Character

In this style tutorial, Dale Turner will teach you some ways that you can spice up your common "campfire" style chords. You'll learn how to create chords like add2/sus2, add4/sus4, and major 7 in C major and A minor. Dale will also show you upper register common tones. He'll then demonstrate some strumming and fingerpicking styles used by well known acoustic players, and finish it all off by putting it all together in a performance.

Published: 10/11/2011 Upgrade
Christopher Schlegel
Introduction To Minor 7th Chords

Christopher will introduce you to minor 7th chords. This tutorial assumes you already know & can play basic barre chords & barred, movable dominant 7th chords. In this tutorial you will learn to play various voicings of minor 7th chord shapes rooted on the E, A and D strings.

Published: 01/22/2020 Upgrade
Ned Luberecki
Creatively Connecting Chords With Bass Lines

In these nine lessons, Ned Luberecki demonstrates how to play the classic country "lead-in" line to walk into another chord. First you'll learn the basics of how to walk into chords, then Ned will show you how to do this in several different keys. As we get to the end of the tutorial, Ned will show how to walk into minor chords, then with some common progessions.

Published: 03/10/2009 Upgrade
Christopher Schlegel
Introduction to Dominant 7th Chords

Christopher will show you an introduction to dominant 7th chords mostly in open position. We'll cover all the basic open position dominant 7th chords A through G. We'll also have a review of basic chord theory and why each shape forms a dominant 7th chord. At the end we'll have a couple of play alongs with backing tracks to practice these open position dominant 7th chords.

Published: 11/20/2019 Upgrade
Anders Mouridsen
Alternative Chord Voicings

In this tutorial I'm going to show you some alternative "voicings" of the chords used in the blues. When you arrange the notes of your chords differently, take out or add certain notes, you can get many different sounds and possibilities out of them. In this tutorial we are gonna explore some of these sounds and look at how they are used in the context of the blues.

Published: 04/08/2010 Upgrade
Ben Lindholm
Beyond Power Chords

In these lessons I will leave standard power chords behind and show you four types of chords that are just as useful, that you may not have seen before. In the first two examples, I will take you through inversions. After that we'll take a look at using thirds, and last but not least, the progressive metal power chord.

Published: 11/04/2011 Upgrade
Bobby Howe
Double Stops: How They Work

In this four lesson tutorial, the student will learn the theory, the mechanics, and the fingerings of double stops and why they work as they do. Simply put, double stops are the approach of playing two notes at once that are harmonized. I'll start off by playing a short original tune that's based on double stop, then use the C and G major scales to demonstrate this technique.

Published: 04/18/2010 Upgrade
Caren Armstrong
Barre Into Jazz Chords

In these seven guitar lessons, Caren Armstrong will teach you how to turn barre chords into jazz chords. After introducing you to the tutorial, Caren will first break down the A7 chord, and in the next lesson, the E7 chord. Then it's time to learn to shift between the chords. After that, we'll look at harmonic reationships in A and E, playing progressions that use the I-IV-V chords. Last, Caren will demo some examples with different feels.

Published: 05/15/2012 Upgrade
Ben Lindholm
The All Chords Exercise

In this tutorial I will show you a great chord exercise that I call The All Chords Exercise. The purpose of the exercise is to practice finding all 12 chords of a certain type (major, minor, etc.), without moving around all over the neck. We will start with major chords only, then we'll add dominant 7th chords, and ultimately we'll do this exercise using minor chords.

Published: 01/16/2012 Upgrade
Ned Luberecki
Creatively Connecting Chords With Bass Lines

In these nine lessons, Ned Luberecki demonstrates how to play the classic country "lead-in" line to walk into another chord. First you'll learn the basics of how to walk into chords, then Ned will show you how to do this in several different keys. As we get to the end of the tutorial, Ned will show how to walk into minor chords, then with some common progessions.

Published: 03/10/2009 Upgrade

Arpeggios

Artist / Title / Progress
Difficulty / style
Ben Lindholm
10 Ways To Play Arpeggios

In this series of lessons, I will show you ten of my favorite ways to use arpeggios in a musical context. In the first lesson I'll introduce you to the tutorial, and in the lessons that follow I will teach you examples covering many styles of music, from classical, to rock and metal, with backing tracks of course. At the end of the tutorial you'll find slower versions of the backing tracks, so you can gradually build your speed up.

Published: 09/20/2011 Upgrade
Douglas Showalter
Triads, Inversions, Arpeggios, and Extensions

In this tutorial, I'm going to introduce you to the world of triads, inversions, arpeggios, and chord extensions. We'll take a very thorough, step-by-step approach working with all these concepts- breaking down how they relate to one another. Having an understanding of all these musical ideas is fundamental to the instrument and can work to make you a better lead and rhythm player. These lessons are in-depth, so work through them slowly and see how you can work them into your own musical world. Enjoy!

Published: 03/19/2010 Upgrade
Ben Lindholm
The Connecting Game

In this tutorial I will introduce you to a great exercise called The Connecting Game. At the end, I will show you the common chord progressions, and how to apply the exercise to these chords.

Published: 10/27/2011 Upgrade
Anders Mouridsen
Arpeggiation in Rock

In this set of lessons, Anders Mouridsen will teach you how to start applying arpeggiation to your rhythm playing. An introduction and a good arpeggio tone come first, then you'll learn how to arpeggiate open chords with 8th notes, power chords with palm muting, and barre chords with 16th notes. Next we'll arpeggiate in 3/4 time; then we'll mix it all up. You'll learn some easy practice exercises, then a practice tune.

Published: 11/27/2012 Upgrade

Combining Scales Chords

Artist / Title / Progress
Difficulty / style
Christopher Schlegel
Scales And Chords Relationships

This tutorial explains how scales and chords are related to each other. You will also learn musical examples that show how to combine scales and chords.

Published: 11/21/2007 Upgrade
Christopher Schlegel
Introduction to Improvisation For Beginners

Christopher will introduce the concepts needed for the beginner to understand and learn how to improvise a single note melody, lead or solo over a major key chord progression. This includes key signature as the scale that relates all chords in a progression, rhythmically targeting chord tones, building melodies and musical phrases from the scale and chord tones as a basis for improvising over the chord progression.

Published: 10/15/2017 Upgrade
Christopher Schlegel
Improvisation in a Major Key

Christopher will show you the concepts required to improvise. You will learn how to improvise a single note melody, lead or solo over a major key chord progression. This includes finding the key signature as the scale that relates all chords in a progression, rhythmically targeting chord tones, building melodies and musical phrases from the scale and chord tones as a basis for improvising over the chord progression. You will also gets a lot of practice applying those concepts.

Published: 11/15/2017 Upgrade
Christopher Schlegel
Improvisation in a Minor Key

Christopher will show you the concepts required to improvise. You will learn how to improvise a single note melody, lead or solo over a minor key chord progression. This includes finding the key signature as the scale that relates all chords in a progression, rhythmically targeting chord tones, building melodies and musical phrases from the scale and chord tones as a basis for improvising over the chord progression. You will also gets a lot of practice applying those concepts.

Published: 12/15/2017 Upgrade
Christopher Schlegel
Using Scales to Connect Chords Exercise 1

This tutorial shows you an exercise on how the A major scale can be used to "walk in and out" of a group of related major chords (A, D, E major).

Published: 11/21/2007 Upgrade
Christopher Schlegel
Using Scales to Connect Chords Exercise 2

This tutorial shows you an exercise on how the A minor scale can be used to "walk in and out" of a group of related minor chords (A, D, E minor).

Published: 11/21/2007 Upgrade