In this third installment of "Nice Chords," Lauren shares another ten voicings that are sure to work their way into your songwriting. She also discusses the unique nature of the diminished chord and shares different ways diminished chord shapes can be applied.
Taught by Lauren Passarelli in Pop & Classic Rock with Lauren seriesLength: 10:04Difficulty: 1.5 of 5
Using her own songs and recordings as examples, Lauren teaches us that it's not what you know, but instead how you USE what you know. This series covers tons of great chord voicing ideas, arranging tips, and production techniques as well as general music theory applied to real music!
Lesson 1
Lauren is back with her highly-anticipated Phase 2 series on the styles of Pop and Classic Rock. Using her own music as examples, Lauren explores the influences of such artists as the Beatles, Pink Floyd,...
Length: 6:15 Difficulty: 0.0 Members Only
Lauren teaches a progression that is sure to have you thinking "Beatles." This lesson focuses on the application of some pretty basic chords, but applies them in such a way so that they sound somewhat...
Length: 13:57 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
Lauren teaches the catchy lead arpeggio line in the "tip our hats to the Beatles" tune "My Norwegian Friend". She also talks about arranging ideas and adding your own flavors over the provided backing...
Length: 6:47 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
In this lesson, Lauren examines a fingerpicking technique commonly used by the Beatles in 1968 as well as a very "Beatleish" chord progression. Play along with this beautiful ballad using the provided...
Length: 17:26 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Learn a walking riff, a 60's flavored guitar solo, a cool double stop picking technique, and some more great chords. Pack all this into a rockin' Beatles-inspired track, and we're all good to go! Play...
Length: 21:12 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Alternate tunings don't have to be so confusing. In this lesson, Lauren shows how changing just one string while using some basic, easy to play chord voicings can dramatically alter the vibe of a tune....
Length: 12:57 Difficulty: 0.0 Members Only
In preparation for the lessons to follow, Lauren show us twenty different ways to play a Cmaj7 chord using Drop 2 & 3 voicings. She also explains voice leading and how to arrive at each different chord...
Length: 11:03 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Lauren provides a tasteful chord progression that applies many of the Drop 2 & 3 shapes taught in the previous lesson.
Length: 9:28 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Continuing with the application of Drop 2 & 3 chords, Lauren teaches the chord progression and main riff of her original song "I Carry On". his progression features some quick changes over a driving beat....
Length: 13:23 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Lauren discusses and demonstrates the lead and texture elements from her original song "I Carry On" as a way of teaching us how to layer simple lines and sounds to make our compositions really shine.
Length: 10:25 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lauren returns to some more basic chord voicings and strumming in this Beatles-inspired tune. Once you've learned the chords, play along to the full backing track!
Length: 10:52 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
Lauren looks at combining riffs and chords while exploring how Drop-D tuning affects common chord shapes. She applies and demonstrates these useful tidbits in her original song "Feel For Me". A full backing...
Length: 10:51 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lauren teaches a simple pattern perfect for those just getting started with finger picking. She applies it over just four simple chords and provides a full backing track for your practicing fun!
Length: 11:10 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
Grab a refreshing drink, stretch out your fingers, and get to work on a soothing progression. This lesson focuses on tasteful voice leading and piano voicings that can be played on the guitar.
Length: 16:53 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Lauren teaches an upbeat chord progression using 7th chords. This time around, she focuses on inversions of the familiar voicings covered earlier in the series.
Length: 12:43 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Lauren explains various uses for the Major 6th chord and teaches a simple progression comprised entirely of these tasty chords.
Length: 8:44 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lauren demonstrates how to adapt songs that are in alternate tunings to standard tuning using her original song "Don't Look Down". She also teaches some lines and textures from the song to demonstrate...
Length: 20:18 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 18
Lauren starts a mini series in "Nice Chords" that was inspired by a student of hers. She shares ten chords per lesson, breaks them down, and discusses various uses for each. If you're looking to spice...
Length: 11:20 Difficulty: 1.5 FREE
Lauren continues her mini series with ten more "nice chords" and briefly discusses how having many choices in chord forms can keep your creativity flowing.
Length: 10:25 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
In this third installment of "Nice Chords," Lauren shares another ten voicings that are sure to work their way into your songwriting. She also discusses the unique nature of the diminished chord and shares...
Length: 10:04 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
Lauren concludes her mini series on "nice chords" and ends with a call to all guitarists to see every aspect of guitar playing as a chance to create!
Length: 10:57 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
Lauren takes a few of the voicings she shared in the previous mini series on "nice chords" and applies them with a nice anticipated rhythm and a tasteful, jazzy melody. Play the rhythm and the melody...
Length: 12:33 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lauren discusses and demonstrates a key trait of James Taylor's rhythm style. Learn how to take just a few simple voicings, change a few notes and come up with a very simple, yet interesting progression!
Length: 9:35 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
Lauren takes a few more of the nice chords learned in her 4 part mini series and gives your picking hand a little workout with a funky rhythm and lots of movement. Play along to the provided backing track!
Length: 10:01 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
About Lauren Passarelli
View Full Biography
Lauren Passarelli is an award winning teacher & distinguished alumni from Berklee College of Music where she has been a guitar Professor since 1984.
Originally from Paramus, NJ, Lauren received a fantastic guitar foundation using the Alfred’s, Mel Bay, Harry Shearer & William G. Leavitt guitar books from her first guitar teacher, Lou Sabini.
Graduating in 1982 as the first woman to finish the guitar performance program, Lauren also became the first woman to join Berklee’s guitar faculty & first to be promoted to full Professor.
She’s a multi instrumentalist, vocalist, arranger, recording engineer & record producer & has worked with Cindy Brown, Sarah Burrill, Thaddeus Hogarth, Kate Chadbourne, Danny Morris, Pat Metheny, Elizabeth Lorrey, Nancy Beaudette, Melissa Etheridge, Jane Miller, Louis Arnold & many others.
Her students include Derek Sivers, founder of cdbaby, Panos Panay, founder of sonic bids; Will Knox; Kyle Patrick, of Click 5; Jesse Ruben & Rob Harkness, founder of Barn Productions.
Lauren specializes in creativity, composing, sight reading, the ability to groove, the music of The Beatles, alternate guitar tunings, song writing, recording, producing, arranging & Artist survival skills. She writes in standard & alternate tunings, plays slide & fretless guitar, and approaches the guitar as a mini orchestra. She has the ability to play funky riffs and sing counter melodies at the same time.
She endorses, Line 6, Wechter, Guild, Fender, Taylor, Godin, Washburn, Yamaha, Martin, Rane, Electro Voice, Crowley & Tripp, AKG, Audio Technica, Groove Tubes, Bose, DR Handmade Strings, D’Addario, Planet Waves, IK Multimedia, East West, Apple, Studiomaster, ADA Amplification, Marshall, Vox, ART & more.
There are hundreds of performances, clinics & interview videos on youtube featuring Lauren & her original music as well as Beatle covers while she was touring as the sound-a-like George Harrison.
She is the co-founder of Feather Records, Cotton Moon Music, Wizard & Feather Brown Productions & PassaBrown Studios.
Lauren’s music is available world wide on cdbaby, iTunes, Rhapsody, Pandora & many other sites. Her CDs include: “Among The Ruins” & “Shadow Language” under her band name Two Tru, “Back to the Bone”, New CDs coming soon ~ “Playing With the Pieces” & “Blast of Love.”
"Lauren Passarelli is a great guitar player" Pat Metheny.
Our acoustic guitar lessons are taught by qualified instructors with various backgrounds with the instrument.
Alan Skowron
Alan shares his background in teaching and sets the direction for his beginning bass series with simple ideas and musical...
Free LessonSeries Details
David Isaacs
JamPlay welcomes David Isaacs to our teacher roster. With his first lesson Dave explains his approach to playing guitar with...
Free LessonSeries Details
Miche Fambro
Miche introduces several new chord concepts that add color and excitement to any progression.
Free LessonSeries Details
Danny Voris
Lesson 7 is all about arpeggios. Danny provides discussion and exercises designed to build your right hand skills.
Free LessonSeries Details
Dave Yauk
Learn a simple mini song that illustrates just how intertwined scales and chords really are. Dave uses a G chord paired...
Free LessonSeries Details
Nick Amodeo
Nick explains how to play some of the most commonly used chords in the bluegrass genre.
Free LessonSeries Details
Justin Roth
In this lesson Justin introduces his series on playing with a capo and dishes out some basic tips, including how to properly...
Free LessonSeries Details
Rich Nibbe
Rich Nibbe takes a look at how you can apply the pentatonic scale in the style of John Mayer into your playing.
Free LessonSeries Details
Mario DaSilva
Free LessonSeries Details
Mark Kailana Nelson
Mark Nelson introduces "'Ulupalakua," a song he will be using to teach different skills and techniques. In this lesson, he...
Free LessonSeries Details
Our electric guitar lessons are taught by instructors with an incredible amount of teaching experience.
Tom Appleman
Tom Appleman takes a look at a blues in E with a focus on the Chicago blues style. The bass line for Chicago blues is very...
Free LessonSeries Details
Danny Morris
Hone in on your right hand and focus on getting in the groove. You'll only play one note during this lesson, but it'll be...
Free LessonSeries Details
Guthrie Trapp
JamPlay introduces Nashville session player Guthrie Trapp! In this first segment, Guthrie talks a little about his influences,...
Free LessonSeries Details
Paul Musso
JamPlay is proud to welcome senior professor and Coordinator of Guitar Studies at the University of Colorado at Denver,...
Free LessonSeries Details
David Ellefson
David Ellefson, co-founding member of Megadeth, explains his overall approach to teaching and learning bass in this introductory...
Free LessonSeries Details
Yvette Young
Welcome to Yvette Young's series! Join Yvette as she gets creative with open tunings.
Free LessonSeries Details
John DeServio
JD teaches the pentatonic and blues scales and explains where and when you can apply them.
Free LessonSeries Details
Joel Kosche
Joel Kosche talks about creating and composing a guitar solo. He uses his original song "Sunrise" as an example.
Free LessonSeries Details
Lisa Pursell
Lisa breaks into the very basics of the electric guitar. She starts by explaining the parts of the guitar. Then, she dives...
Free LessonSeries Details
John Shannon
Meet John Shannon and his approach to rhythm guitar. John discusses why he put this lesson series together and what his...
Free LessonSeries DetailsSignup today to enjoy access to our entire database of video lessons, along with our exclusive set of learning tools and features.
Take a minute to compare JamPlay to other traditional and new methods of learning guitar. Our estimates for "In-Person" lessons below are based on a weekly face-to-face lesson for $40 per hour.
 |
||||
| Price Per Lesson | < $0.01 | $4 - $5 | $30 - $50 | Free |
| Money Back Guarantee | Sometimes | n/a | ||
| Number of Instructors | 88 | 1 – 3 | 1 | Zillions |
| Interaction with Instructors | Daily Webcam Sessions | Weekly | ||
| Professional Instructors | Luck of the Draw | Luck of the Draw | ||
| New Lessons | Daily | Weekly | Minutely | |
| Structured Lessons | ||||
| Learn Any Style | Sorta | |||
| Track Progress | ||||
| HD Video | - | Sometimes | ||
| Multiple Camera Angles | Sometimes | - | Sometimes | |
| Accurate Tabs | Maybe | Maybe | ||
| Scale/Chord Libraries | ||||
| Custom JamTracks | ||||
| Interactive Games | ||||
| Community | ||||
| Learn in Sweatpants | Socially Unacceptable | |||
| Gasoline Needed | $0.00 | $0.00 | ~$4 / gallon! | $0.00 |
Mike H.
"I feel like a 12 year old kid with a new guitar!"
I am 66 years young and I still got it! I would have never known this if it had not been for Jamplay! I feel like a 12 year old kid with a new guitar! Ha! I cannot express enough how great you're website is! It is for beginners and advanced pickers! I am an advanced picker and thought I had lost it but thanks to you all, I found it again! Even though I only play by ear, I have been a member a whopping whole two weeks now and have already got Brent's country shuffle and country blues down and of course with embellishments. Thank you all for your wonderful program!
Greg J.
"With Jamplay I can fit in a random session when I have time and I can go at my own pace"
I'm a fifty eight year old newbie who owns a guitar which has been sitting untouched in a corner for about seven years now. Last weekend I got inspired to pick it up and finally learn how to play after watching an amazing Spanish guitarist on TV. So, here I am. I'm starting at the beginning with Steve Eulberg and I couldn't be happier (except for the sore fingers :) Some day I'm going to play like Steve! I'm self employed with a hectic schedule. With Jamplay I can fit in a random session when I have time and I can go at my own pace, rewinding and replaying the videos until I get it. This is a very enjoyable diversion from my work yet I still feel like I'm accomplishing something worthwhile. Thanks a lot, Greg
Bill
"I believe this is the absolute best site for guitar students."
I am commenting here to tell you and everyone at JamPlay that I believe this is the absolute best site for guitar students. I truly enjoy learning to play the guitar on JamPlay.com. Yes, I said the words, ""enjoy learning."" It is by far the best deal for the money.
Member Comments about this Lesson
Discussions with our instructors are just one of the many benefits of becoming a member of JamPlay.Most of my favorite Artists haven't studied music. They just loved the music they loved, the players they loved, the chords & riffs they heard & they learned them & used them where they wanted them. The theories, came after the real music. Remember your favorite things & put them all together.
If it feels & sounds right, it's an emotional choice, just like colors don't have to fit a formula to go in the room decor. You don't have to have a degree in chemistry to get the right blue. You just have to love it.
This is an interesting section of the lesson series. I've been spending a lot more time on chords lately, almost to the exclusion of everything else. I really appreciate Lauren's subtleties. There's a lot of information here that only fills in because I sit around in kind of a disgusting 'leisure phase' contemplating chords. I enjoyed this. One thing, just a little thing that caught my attention, was the use of versus analysis of. Sure, but from time to time I run into a ' how'd they get that moment - eg. C69 to F/G - perfect , but how'd they get that. Ahhh these musical depths.