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Article from Phaze 1, January 1989 |
HANDS UP ANYONE who's fed up with D and A7 as a chord change! That's where we left off last month, struggling with the physical problem of moving between the two shapes.
If you're new to this Fret Fax lark, you'll get the background information on tuning and working out chord shapes from box diagrams in the first two articles (send off to the address at the front of the mag for back issues), though with a bit of luck, this article will clear up any problems you may have reading the boxes. Here are D and A7 again (Diagram A).
Just to clarify that, here are the five chords shown together (Diagram E), so you an practise the left hand movements. Pay particular attention to the common fingers between chord changes - in other words, the fingers that you an leave on the neck of the guitar as you change the chords. (I've marked these with an arrow in the order I've shown them here.)
The next stage is to practise "ghosting" the changes in the left hand, watching the way your fingers track from one chord to the next. This is very important, and short-circuits the learning process if you do it carefully. Be certain that your "verbal movement" is sensible, by which I mean: does your left hand 2nd finger go down the line of the 2nd fret when you change strings in the G to A7 change, or does it spiral a couple of inches?
Practise the progressions in Diagram F, strumming or using a fingerstyle. Count four beats to each bar, and play slowly and evenly, preferably counting aloud to start with. If you find it difficult to count and play, record a count onto cassette, and play to that: 1 2 3 4/1 2 3 4/1 2 3 4, and so on. In time, you should be able to count and play live. Trying to count live, and out loud, is good practice because at some stage, chances are you'll want to be able to sing and play at the same time.
Ultra Vox (Part 1) |
Key Lines |
Drum Hum |
Making Notes - Treble & Bass explained (Part 1) |
Outside of C (Part 1) |
Dave Stewart's Music Seminar - Grey Skies (Part 1) |
Zen Guitar |
Highly Strung |
Chord of the Month - Keyboards |
More Bassic Chords |
Tona De Brett's Vocal Points |
Fret Fax |
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Feature by Peter Driver
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