Do you ever find it difficult as a guitar player to breakout from strumming open chords, barre chords, & power chords?
What if there is a way to creatively use the same chords you already know and love...would you do it?
This article is to tackle changing the way we think about playing chords and to keep an interesting sound.
We find our solution to this problem by looking at our right hand motion. In this lesson we will cover 6 examples.
These examples use open strings to keep our focus on what is important and apply them to what you know!
Stuck for Ideas? Get the Songwriting Idea Matrix!
Never stare at a blank page again. Download our free PDF guide to instantly generate new chord progressions and song structures.
Exercise 1:
This first example is dedicated to individually picking each string in chronological order from the 6th string to the 1st string all open notes. This will slow your playing down to focus on each individual note. This may seem basic, but is the foundation we will continue to build from. Don’t just pass over this exercise…
Exercise 2:
This second example we will remove some of the notes from the first example. This exercise will focus on playing 4 notes ascending and 4 notes descending. This will break up the monotony of the first exercise and focus on separating the lower tone section from the higher tones.
Exercise 3:
This exercise is much like the second, we removed and added different notes. In this example you will ascend 3 notes and descend 5. You might be thinking this is easy…. If you continuously practice exercise two you will find you are in the habit of playing the ascending 4 notes and descending 4 notes. This is to shift the higher tones forward in the chord creating an in balance compared to exercise two.
Exercise 4:
In this exercise we will challenge you further, this picking pattern requires you to skip a string and return to the one below it. First you will pick the 6th string then the 4th string and after that you return to the 5th string and then the pattern continues. I want to emphasize you can’t hit the 5th string when crossing over to the 4th string. This means you need to pull the pick out of the trough of the strings and cross over the 5th.
Exercise 5:
This last exercised we will incorporate a little bit of every exercise thus far. This pattern is normally played in 11/8 and if this doesn’t make sense, I’ll save it for another article. The beginning of this exercise is an ascension from the 6th string to the 4th string, followed by three descending sections. Each descending section will require you to skip strings to begin the descent.
Exercise 6:
This pattern I’ll leave to you as an additional challenge, this isn’t any harder or easier than the previous exercises. I want you to consistently think of new ways you can play chords by individually playing each string opposed to strumming your blues away.
Ready for Personalized Guidance?
Information is great, but personalized feedback is what creates real progress. If you're ready to apply these concepts and take your playing to the next level, book a free, no-obligation assessment with a professional instructor.
