One of the concepts of this lesson series is to avoid bar chords. The only exception so far has been F, which has a partial bar. Unfortunately, in a couple of common progressions we need to cover, there are a couple of chords that are usually played as bar chords. I will present options here without bars; thus the title, “Sandbagging Bar Chords.” If you want to explore bar chords, go here for a free lesson.
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Blogs Published Since Last Newsletter
More Triads in the Blues: In a previous post, Triads in the Blues, I gave some examples of common ways triads are used in the context of a 12-Bar Blues. There’s more where that came from!
Letter to Jimmy Bruno: It doesn’t take a lot of knowledge and it doesn’t take a lot of chops to make music from those 4 notes. What it takes is ego-strength. The REAL issue is psycho/emotional.
Triads in the Blues: The basic concept here is that we are going to apply triads to a 12-Bar Blues Shuffle. Don’t worry about not understanding the theory aspect of things. I would venture to say that most Blues guys don't understand the theory but the use of these devices is commonplace in the Blues.
Cowboy B7, Blog Links and More! Free Lesson on Cowboy B7, blog links, Tune of the Month and more!
Tune of the Month
This is the song I wrote about in the blog, A Six-Figure Song!
This song was written for my In-Laws 40th wedding anniversary. It was originally played Travis-Style, which was the style of the demo that caught the attention of the big-time Nashville publisher I talked about in the blog.
Travis-Style picking is a particular finger-picking technique popularized by the country artist, Merle Travis. It has been expanded and evolved by guitar players like Chet Atkins and Tommy Emmanuel.
However for this recording, I rearranged it. This recording of the song is not Travis-Style. It has a multitude of influences:
The chord structure of the song is directly influenced by James Taylor.
The rhythmic aspect of chords changing on 1 and the "and" of 3 I picked up from Dave Mathews' "Crash."
The picking pattern comes mainly from Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven."
Having said all that, I sometimes wish I had retained the original Travis-Style picking pattern of the original for this recording. On the other hand, the gorgeous flugel horn solo played by Stan Kessler would have been less appropriate to the Travis style. So I am conflicted about it.
When I perform it live these days I usually do it Travis-Style. For my father-in-law's funeral I did it as a reggae!
Cowboy Chords Launch Coming Soon!
Next month will be the last lesson in the Cowboy Chords lesson series. After that the whole series will be offered as a single PDF download to your device of choice.
The launch will take place in mid-December and will be to site members only!
If you are interested in downloading the Cowboy Chords PDF...and...since this launch will be available to Site Members only, you might consider signing up if not a Site Member; it's free!
Jay
How about 5 FREE lessons?
The 5-Lesson Foundational Series teaches the Circle of Keys as an organizational mechanism by which you ensure that whatever you learn is drilled in every key in all possible positions.
It also gives you a method to find any note, anywhere, without memorizing note names on every string. That is a beautiful thing!
You can download the 5-Lesson Foundational Series right here for free (a $39 value) with no further obligation or commitment.
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