« | Home | »

Learn Guitar Trick #1 – The Keynote Chord System

By Mike Hayes | December 11, 2009

Hands up those who have looked at a guitar chord book then
dropped the book and ran for the nearest exit. To be honest I
don’t blame you!

My earliest experience with chord books was with my first guitar
teacher, the idea was to learn one new chord shape per lesson out
of this massive chord book entitled 1001 chords.

It all started out fine for the first two weeks, then on my third
lesson disaster struck, I had forgotten one of the chords from
the previous lessons. This started me thinking “how will I ever
remember all these chords?”

You probably have had similar experiences; but what if there was
a easier way to learn and remember chords, the good news is there
are heaps of ways to learn chords. Here is just one of them, it’s
called the Keynote Chord System.

Keynote Chord System

Concept: each chord has a keynote, also referred to as the
root note, essentially this is the note the chord takes it’s name
from, hence the name ‘keynote’.

Let’s take a look at a D major chord

D
–2—
–3—
–2—
–0—
–x—
–x—

The keynote for this D chord shape is on the second string, third
fret, marked [ ].

D
–2—
-[3]–
–2—
–0—
–x—
–x—

By applying a chromatic scale to our keynote chord system concept
we can play many chords without changing chord shape.

It works like this …

Chromatic scale: A – A#/Bb – B – C – C#/Db – D – D#/Eb – E – F -
F#/Gb – G – G#/Ab – A

I know it looks complicated, however you can create your own
chromatic scale by selecting any note, in this instance I began
on the note ‘A’ open, fifth string and proceeded to play every
note on that string (playing along the string – linear fashion)
until I reached the next note ‘A’ on the twelfth fret, fifth
string.

Think of the chromatic scale as an endless loop, whereby you can
start at any point, play all the notes in succession until you
reach the note with the same letter name you began on and there
you have the chromatic scale.

Some samples:

The ‘A’ chromatic scale – starting on the note ‘A’

A – A#/Bb – B – C – C#/Db – D – D#/Eb – E – F – F#/Gb – G – G#/Ab
- A

The ‘D’ Chromatic scale – starting on the note ‘D’

D – D#/Eb – E – F – F#/Gb – G – G#/Ab – A – A#/Bb – B – C – C#/Db
- D

The ‘F’ chromatic scale – starting on the note ‘F’

F – F#/Gb – G – G#/Ab – A – A#/Bb – B – C – C#/Db – D – D#/Eb – E
- F

Notice how each scale contains the same notes only starting from
different points in the scale.

Back to the D chord shape, since we are using the chord of D we
will use the D chromatic scale as a reference.

The ‘D’ Chromatic scale – starting on the note ‘D’

D – D#/Eb – E – F – F#/Gb – G – G#/Ab – A – A#/Bb – B – C – C#/Db
- D

Application: Since the keynote for a ‘D’ chord would be the note
‘D’ and we already know it is on the second string, third fret,
if we moved the D shape up one fret higher the keynote would be
D# or Eb (the second note in the D chromatic scale).

Therefore we would name the chord D# or Eb

D# / Eb
–3—
-[4]–
–3—
–x—
–x—
–x—

Notice how I’m only playing three notes not the usual four, this
is because the open string is not moving therefore it would not
be correct.

More examples …

Keynote E – second string, fifth fret

E
–4—
-[5]–
–4—
–x—
–x—
–x—

Keynote F – second string, sixth fret

F
–5—
-[6]–
–5—
–x—
–x—
–x—

Keynote F# / Gb – second string, seventh fret

F# / Gb
–6—
-[7]–
–6—
–x—
–x—
–x—

Keynote G – second string, eight fret

G
–7—
-[8]–
–7—
–x—
–x—
–x—

All I’m doing is moving consecutively through the D chromatic
scale and using the same easy chord shape to create heaps of
chords effortlessly.

I invite you to try these simple shapes next time you are playing
your guitar.

And now I’d like to invite you to get free access to my “How To
Remember 1,000 Songs” eCourse. You can download the course for
free at: http://www.guitarcoaching.com

You’ll learn about hit song templates, easy chords,simple scales, red hot rhythms, and successful practice strategies in text, audio and video.

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

Topics: Beginner Guitar Lesson, Guitar Chords, Guitar Fretboard, Learn And Master Guitar | No Comments »

Comments

You must be logged in to post a comment.