Often the best approach is to select a song and use a capo to
convert difficult chord shapes into guitar friendly chords.

Regardless of how difficult the chords may look in the sheet
music it’s relatively easy to change then into chord shapes you
like to play.

Here we go:

Easy two chord country songs with simple chord shapes

Achy Breaky Heart

A /// | A /// | A /// | E /// |

E /// | E /// | E /// | A /// ||

A chord shape

—0—-
—2—-
—2—-
—2—-
—0—-
—x—-

E chord shape

—0—-
—0—-
—1—-
—2—-
—2—-
—0—-

Let’s say you find the “A” shape chord awkward to play no matter
how hard you practice your fingers don’t seem to fit behind the
second fret on the second, third and fourth strings; a simple
solution would be to use a “G” shape chord with the capo placed
behind the second fret.

With a capo placed behind the second fret you could use easy
chord shapes like “G” & “D” and now Achy Breaky Heart would
look like this:

Achy Breaky Heart (capo 2nd fret)

G /// | G /// | G /// | D /// |

D /// | D /// | D /// | G /// ||

G chord shape

—3—-
—0—-
—0—-
—0—-
—X—-
—x—-

D chord shape

—2—-
—3—-
—2—-
—0—-
—x—-
—x—-

This version of Achy Breaky Heart would most likely suit many
guitarist as the “G” shape chord is often easier to play than the
“A” especially if you have big fingers.

By using the capo in this way you as still playing the song in
the same key as the recorded version only using easier chord
shapes.

Here’s another song to try, do you notice anything familiar? Deep
In The Heart Of Texas has exactly the same chord progression as
Achy Breaky Heart!

Notice how I create chord progression templates with four bar to
a line, it’s easy to spot chord progression similarities when you
set out your songs this way, it also makes it easy to remember
them.

Deep In The Heart Of Texas

A /// | A /// | A /// | E /// |

E /// | E /// | E /// | A /// ||

Another two chord country favorite is Jambalya:

Jambalya

E /// | E /// | B7/// | B7/// |

B7/// | B7/// | E /// | E /// |

E /// | E /// | B7/// | B7/// |

B7/// | B7/// | E /// | E /// ||

B7 chord shape

—2—-
—0—-
—2—-
—1—-
—2—-
—x—-

I’ve presented Jambalya in the key of E which would be quite
difficult to play for the beginner guitarist, this would be
another instance when using a capo would be the recommend way to
go.

Solution: Place the capo behind the second fret and use the
following chord progression.

Jambalya (capo 2nd fret)

D /// | D /// | A7/// | A7/// |

A7/// | A7/// | D /// | D /// |

D /// | D /// | A7/// | A7/// |

A7/// | A7/// | D /// | D /// ||

A7 chord shape

—0—-
—2—-
—0—-
—2—-
—0—-
—x—-

Did you notice that although “Jambalya” seems to be a more
complicated chord progression, in reality it’s just the first
eight bars repeated again!

The templates for each of these songs are not simplified versions
of the songs they are exactly the same progressions used on the
recordings and as you can see when songs are presented this way
it’s very easy to remember the chord progression and play them on
the guitar.

By now I bet you are ready to start cranking out more songs on
the guitar in less time than you ever thought possible, right?
So then now get FREE Instant Access to my “How To Remember 1,000
Songs” eCourse. When you visit: http://www.guitarcoaching.com

You’ll get the first of my instant “Song Templates” to get you
playing guitar in less time than you thought possible.

From Mike Hayes – The Guitar Coaching Guy & the Express Guitar
System

This tradition continues today, often a new artist bursts on the scene with a “new” song that takes the musical world by storm … the format? You guessed it, the blues!

Did you know that Mustang Sally by The Commitments, Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry, Let’s Stick Together by Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music and Hound Dog by Elvis Presley are all blues based songs?

To be fair you most likely didn’t notice this very significant
musical fact of life because we are not trained  on “how” to
listen to music.

Sure, we have all sorts of music tests at school where we have to pick the interval of a minor third or major second and stuff like that to pass the music exams, however we are not instructed as to how to really pay attention to the sounds we are hearing.

And that’s the key to being able to remember songs, you have to pay attention to the music you are listening to, you have to be actively involved in the listening process.

Why is this important? Because you can mentally pigeon-hole songs as you hear them, you will be able to instantly associate new material to songs you already know, this accelerates the learning process and saves hours of wasted practice time.

In this instance we are discussing blues tunes that contain only three chords, if we take a closer look we can divide and sub- divide the blues genre into three popular templates(a) 12 bar blues, (b) 16 bar blues, (c) 24 bar blues and (d) 8 bar blues.

These four blues templates represent the blues “form”, our next task is to identify the content of each blues template.

By the word “content”, I am referring to the harmonic background (chords) of each blues.

12 bar blues:

1/// | 1/// | 1/// | 1/// |

 4/// | 4/// | 1/// | 1/// |

 5/// |4/// | 1/// | 1/// ||

There are four common variations to the 12 bar blues, however this progression is one of the most popular. You could use this progression for “Hound Dog”, and “Let’s Stick Together”.

16 bar blues:

1/// | 1/// | 1/// | 1/// |

1/// | 1/// | 1/// | 1/// |

 4/// |4/// | 1/// | 1/// |

5/// |4/// | 1/// | 1/// ||

The 16 bar progression works well for the verse of songs like “Be Bop A Lula”, incidentally, the chorus of Be Bop A Lula is the 12 bar blues progression.

24 bar blues:

1/// | 1/// | 1/// | 1/// |

1/// | 1/// | 1/// | 1/// |

 4/// |4/// | 4/// | 4/// |

 1/// |1/// | 1/// | 1/// |

5/// | 5/// |4/// | 4/// |

1/// | 1/// |1/// | 1/// ||

Mustang Sally would fit this progression.

8 bar blues:

1/// | 5/// | 4/// | 4/// |

1/// | 5/// | 1/// | 5/// ||

Songs like B.B King’s “Keys To The Highway” work well over this progression.

So there you have it, concentrate on developing your ability to associate music you are already familiar with to music you are currently listening to and trying to learn.

From Mike Hayes – The Guitar Coaching Guy & the Express Guitar
System

http://www.GuitarCoaching.com
http://AdvancingGuitaristProgram.com

Did you know that hit songs by Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and the Rolling Stones all sound just as
good on an acoustic guitar around a campfire?

They do, and they all only need three chords, you see the real test of a good song is if it sounds good without all the
electronic sound enhancement.

And just to prove you don’t need to learn thousands of chords to sound great here’s a short list of songs by Elvis Presley to get you thinking (there are thousands more that only use three chords).

A sample of some three chord Elvis Presley songs:

• All Shook Up
• Don’t Be Cruel
• I Got A Woman
• My Baby Left Me

Of course, by now you are probably thinking that’s all well and good if you (a) know which three chords and (b) when
to change them.

Good point, lets’ take a closer look at both questions.

(a) Which three chords do I play?

In the key of C: chord 1=C, chord 4=F & chord 5=G7

In the key of G: chord 1=G, chord 4=C & chord 5=D7

In the key of D: chord 1=D, chord 4=G & chord 5=A7

In the key of A: chord 1=A, chord 4=D & chord 5=E7

In the key of E: chord 1=E, chord 4=A & chord 5=B7

In the key of B: chord 1=B, chord 4=E & chord 5=F#7

In the key of F#:chord 1=F#, chord 4=B & chord 5=C#7

In the key of C#:chord 1=C#, chord 4=F# & chord 5=G#7

In the key of Ab:chord 1=Ab, chord 4=Db & chord 5=Eb7

In the key of Eb:chord 1=Eb, chord 4=Ab & chord 5=Bb7

In the key of Bb:chord 1=Bb, chord 4=Eb & chord 5=F7

In the key of F: chord 1=F, chord 4=Bb & chord 5=C7
(b) How do I know which chord to change to?

When you play chord one in any key and move to chord four you will notice the sound of the chord goes up, or to put it another way, chord four has a lighter chord density than chord one.

Start training your ear by playing in the key of A, beginning
with the A chord listen to how the D chord (chord 4) sounds when played after the A chord (chord 1), can you hear how the D chord sounds lighter?

Next, try playing the A chord (chord 1) followed by the E7
chord (chord 5), notice how the sound drops down or how the chord has a heavier musical weight or density.

When you listen to the melody of a song you will naturally hear the melody line move up or drop down, this is your musical clue, get the harmony (chords) to follow the flow of the melody line.

It sounds complicated, but with a little practice it will become
easier for you to play your musical hunches.

There are literally thousands of pop and rock songs only use
three chords in fact you can play all these songs with the same three chords, it doesn’t get much better than this!

Let’s say you knew the chords A, D and E7, you could play all the songs listed above with just these three chords, you would needto use a capo to adjust the pitch of these chords to suit the vocal range of your singer(s), however you would still be playing the exact same chord shapes.

From Mike Hayes – The Guitar Coaching Guy & the Express Guitar
System

http://www.GuitarCoaching.com
http://AdvancingGuitaristProgram.com

The guitar is also a very portable and personal instrument plus the fact that so many favorite songs only use three chords makes the guitar easy to learn.

The most guitar friendly keys for guitar accompaniment are: Key of G, key of D, Key of A and Key of E.
Key is a short list of Folk and Traditional songs that use only 3 chords.

Folk and Traditional songs

• Beautiful Brown Eyes
• Big Rock Candy Mountain
• Blue Tail Fly
• Careless Love
• Cattle Call
• Crawdad Song
• Frankie and Johnny
• Golden Slippers
• Goodnight Irene
• Goodnight Ladies
• Gotta Travel On
• Hand Me Down My Walking Cane
• Home On The Range
• Jesse James
• John Henry
• I Gave My Love A Cherry
• Letter Edged In Black
• Little Brown Jug
• Michael Row The Boat Ashore
• Midnight Special
• On Top Of Old Smokey
• O’ Susanna
• O’ Them Golden Slippers
• Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet
• Red River Valley
• She’ll Be Comin’ Round The Mountain
• Strawberry Roan
• Swanee River
• This Land Is Your Land
• Worried Man Blues

There’s hundreds of other Folk And Traditional songs that require only 3 chords keep your ears open and add new titles to this list as you discover them.

Now let’s turn our attention to Sacred and Gospel songs that use 3 chords.

Sacred and Gospel Songs

• Amazing Grace
• Faith Of Our Fathers
• Farther Along
• Gloryland Way
• I Saw The Light
• I’ll Fly Away
• In The Garden
• Jesus loves Me
• Just A Closer Walk With Thee
• Nearer My God To Thee
• Old Rugged Cross
• Softly And Tenderly
• That Old Time Religion
• Where Could I Go (But To The Lord)
• Will The Circle Be Unbroken

Again, this is list is just the tip of the iceberg there’s many
more just waiting to be discovered.

The trick is to play all these songs with easy chord shapes while still being able to accompany the vocalist(s) in a key that best suits their voice.

The ideal way to achieve this is to master the three basic chord shapes in the guitar friendly keys and then use a capo to transpose these easy chord shapes into other keys.

The three basic chords in the key of G are G, C & D7.

The three basic chords in the key of D are D, G & A7.

The three basic chords in the key of A are A, D & E7.

The three basic chords in the key of E are E, A & B7.

The best news is you don’t even have to know all the chord shapes listed above, you could play all these songs (and a whole lot more), by learning only three chords in one key. However it’s better if you know at least two keys.

Take your time and learn these basic chords on the guitar, you will be glad to did, they will reward you with many hours of fun on the guitar.

From Mike Hayes – The Guitar Coaching Guy & the Express Guitar
System

http://www.GuitarCoaching.com
http://AdvancingGuitaristProgram.com

The great news is that there are literally thousands of three
chord songs, in fact most of the popular songs on the radio
contain only three chords.

Let’s take a closer look at how this works, it’s an important
step in the right direction for guitarists who want to play camp songs by ear.

As you understand the concept of how these three chord songs work it will be easy to join in jam sessions and play new songs that you have not heard before by recognizing familiar chord progressions.

Here’s how it works: three chord songs almost always use the following chords (a) the key chord, (b) the dominant seventh chord, and (c) the sub dominant chord.

The key chord is also known as chord one.

The dominant seventh chord is often referred to as chord five.

The sub dominant seventh chord is identified as chord four.

The following list will be helpful to identity these chords in
the most popular guitar keys:

Key of C : key chord = C, sub dominant chord = F, dominant seventh chord = G7.

Key of G : key chord = G, sub dominant chord = C, dominant seventh chord = D7.

Key of D : key chord = D, sub dominant chord = G, dominant seventh chord = A7.

Key of A : key chord = A, sub dominant chord = D, dominant seventh chord = E7.

Key of E : key chord = E, sub dominant chord = A, dominant seventh chord = B7.
Here is a short list of country song titles to get you started,
this list is only the tip of the musical ice berg. All these
songs can be played using 3 Basic chords: The Key Chord,
Dominant Seventh, and Sub Dominant.

Songs by country artist Willie Nelson …

• After The Fire Is Gone,
• Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain,
• Devil In A Sleeping Bag,
• Local Memory,
• Shotgun Willie,
• So Much To Do,Whisky River,
• You Look Like The Devil In The Morning.

Songs by country artist Hank Williams …

• Cold Cold Heart,
• Honky Tonk Blues,
• I Can’t Help It If I’m Still In Love With You,
• I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,
• Low Down Blues,
• Mansion On The Hill,
• May You Never Be Alone,
• Mind Your Own Business,
• Move It On Over,
• There’ll Be No Teardrops Tonight,
• You Win Again.

Songs by country artist Bob Wills …

• Bubbles In My Beer,
• Brain Cloudy Blues,
• Corrine Corrina,
• Faded Love,
• Hang Your Head In Shame,
• Home In San Antoine,
• I Can’t Go On This Way,
•  Keeper Of My Heart,
• Maid’s Prayer,
• Milk Cow Blues,
• Miss Molly,
• My Confession,
• Rose Of Old Pawnee,
• Stay All Night,
• Still Water Runs The Deepest,
•  Time Changes Everything,
• Trouble In Mind.

As you look through this list you will notice how many really
good songs have just three chords, the important thing is the
story, the guitar should support the story not distract from it.

You will get a nice surprise when you pick up your guitar, select a guitar friendly key and start picking your favorite country song using only three chords.

From Mike Hayes – The Guitar Coaching Guy & the Express Guitar System

http://www.GuitarCoaching.com
http://AdvancingGuitaristProgram.com