Understanding Liquified Chords Guitar Lesson

Chapter 1: (08:37) Intro and Review Review

- Warm-up the hands.
- Stretch the wrists
- Play the major and minor open chords.
- Warm up your strums by relaxing the wrists and letting the pick flow over the strings.
- Play the E major chord in the new way and play the type 1 barre chords.
- Play the A major chord in the new way and play the type 2 barre chords.
- Practice the slanting A technique.
- Practice the type 1 minor barre chords.
- Practice the type II minor barre chords.
- Play all of the type 1 mini-barre chords.
- Play all of the type II mini-barre chords.
- Review and practice quantitative and qualitative techniques.
- Review last week's exercises.
- Practice Wrist Warming.

Ready?

As most of you have become quite familiar with my manner of teaching as well as some of the vocabulary that I frequently use to describe certain processes on the guitar, I want to go into greater detail into the process I call "liquefying" chords. As you know, what I refer to as liquification is simply the process of adding, subtracting, changing notes in one chord to make another, sometimes very similar although sometimes very different chord. We will delve further into this process today working with the Am chord. Please make sure that you have warmed up your wrists (and your brains for that matter) and gone through the review section sufficiently so that your hands are ready to go.

Here are the chords that we'll be using for the first set of exercises:

A minor
E_0_
B_1_
G_2_
D_2_
A_0_
E_x_

Am(maj7)
E_0_
B_1_
G_1_
D_2_
A_0_
E_x_

This chord is best played by placing your first finger on the G-string 1st fret, your second or middle finger on the B-string 1st fret and your third finger on the D-string 2nd fret.

Am7
E_0_
B_1_
G_0_
D_2_
A_0_
E_x_

This chord can be played by placing your second or middle finger on the B-string 1st fret and your third or ring finger on the D-string 2nd fret.

D9 (4th fret)
E_5_
B_5_
G_5_
D_4_
A_5_
E_x_

This chord is best played by placing your first finger on the D-string 4th fret, your second or middle finger on the A-string 5th fret, and barring the G, B and high E-strings with your third finger.

This set of chords will give you the opportunity to walk down on a particular string while still maintaining the integrity of the chords surrounding. In this case we'll be walking down the G-string and putting together a cool little "regression" if you will. I'll explain further...

Take a closer look at the chords listed above and note how the only difference between the first three chords in the series is that we are dropping a half step on the G-string, and then changing to the fourth chord, again, we are dropping to the D-string and playing an F# note. The series of notes that we are playing then is as such: A, Ab, G and F# or

E|------------------|   

B|------------------| 

G|-----2-1-0------|

D|---------------4-|

A|------------------|

E|------------------|

Thus we're playing a descending scale while playing chords at the same time. This method of chord construction (and subsequent chord playing) creates what I like to call a regression where in essence the chords are moving downward, in a sense, creating a feeling of gradual descent. Chapter 2: (08:10) Liquification of Chords Exercise 1
Strum the four chords and get a feel for the changes as well as the changes your chord hand needs to make to accommodate each chord. Use the strum down down down-down and accent the second and fourth strum. Also, the third and fourth strums should be "linked" or strummed as one unit, as it were. Watch me in the video for clarification on this. Remember to relax your strum hand, relax the pick (if you use one) in your grasp and play from the wrist. If you did not go through a wrist warming procedure be sure to do so now. Play the rhythm at half time if you need to at first in order to get a good handle on the changes.

Exercise 2
Play the chords again this time paying close attention to the note that is changing from chord to chord (see the above tab). Listen for the differences between each chord as that note descends. What effect do you think dropping one note from chord to chord has? What do you think of the sound of each descending chord?

Exercise 3
Play the chords again this time with your eyes closed. Get a good feel for how those changes feel to your hand and the relationship between your fingers and the frets themselves. Can you use the frets to guide you to making those changes accurately? Despite the increased difficulty what effect do you think closing your eyes might have on your future ability to play? Chapter 3: (08:48) Explore with New Chords For the next set of exercises we're going to use a new set of chords similar to the ones we used above...

Dm/A (6th fret)
E_x_
B_6_
G_7_
D_7_
A_x_
E_x_

This chord is best played like an Am chord but on the 6th and 7th frets. You can play the high E-string if you want to but be aware of the dissonant effect it will have on your chord progression.

Dm(maj7)/A
E_x_
B_6_
G_6_
D_7_
A_x_
E_x_

This chord is best played by placing your first finger on the G-string 6th fret, second finger on the B-string 6th fret, and your third or ring finger on the D-string 7th fret.

Dm7/A
E_x_
B_6_
G_5_
D_7_
A_x_
E_x_

This chord can be played by placing your first finger on the G-string 5th fret, your second or middle finger on the B-string 6th fret, and your third or ring finger on the D-string 7th fret. Notice any similarities between this progression and the last using the Am? Yes, the chord changes are the same until we reach this last step.

Dm6/A
E_x_
B_6_
G_4_
D_7_
A_x_
E_x_

This chord is best played by placing your first finger on the G-string 4th fret, your second or middle finger on the B-string 6th fret and your third or ring finger on the D-string 7th fret. Once again, take a look at how only one string is changed from chord to chord. The change from chord to chord is only one note beginning with D, Db, C, to B.

Of course, this progression is slightly different than the Am progression but the idea is still the same. All we're doing is taking one note and moving in a descending fashion, then altering our fingering to accommodate the shift.

Exercise 4
Play the four new chords using the same strum pattern as above. You should be relatively accustomed to play this progression after the first three exercises but get a feel for it using the four "new" chords. Are you finding it more or less difficult to play the fourth chord (F flat 5) in lieu of the fact that there is a big gnarly stretch, four frets to be exact, as opposed to completely changing positions as we did in the first progression?

Exercise 5
Yep, you knew it was coming didn't you? The dreaded eyes-closed-playing-tough-chords exercise! Again, you should be a little more comfy with this set of chords seeing that you have already gained experience from the first three exercises. Important to gain from this exercise: get a good feel, and what I mean from feel is, the relationship between your fingers to one another as you change chords, the relationship between your fingers and their positions on the fret board. Focus on these facets and you will learn much from these exercises.

Exercise 6
Explore, seek out and discover new areas that this same type of "regression" might work on the fret board. Hint: you can use it all over but only some of the positions will sound pleasing to the ears, but of course, that is a subjective matter isn't it?

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