[SPBG] - the bad news is...

Hey, it's Griff again from Beginning Blues Guitar:
http://bluesguitarunleashed.com/beginning

 

There's good news and bad news... let's do the bad news first...

 

It looks like the chords might have been a little tougher than the single note riffs we did first. I got a few questions via email and a few more on the blog, so let's take care of those now.

 

The main thing I'm hearing is that it's hard to position the 3rd (or 2nd, depending on which you're using,) finger on the 2nd fret of the 3rd string in such a way that it DOES NOT TOUCH the open 2nd string.

 

Yup, that's a tricky one. And the good news is there's a trick that almost always fixes it.

 

... are you ready?

 

... it's kind of silly, but...

 

... it's a footrest.

 

I know, "are you kidding me?" ... Nope, not at all.

 

In order to get your fingers right on the tips, and out of the way of that 2nd string, it helps a TON to get the guitar neck higher and closer to your own face. One of the easiest ways to do that is to sit down in a chair and place your right (or left, whichever one holds the guitar up) foot on a footrest about 8-12 inches tall.

 

A couple of big books will do fine too. I have this little cheap thing I got at IKEA for about $2 and I use it every single day, without fail. It makes all the difference in the world.

 

Okay, 2nd thing. There was a great comment on the blog, something like "these chords are not in my chord book, what's up?"

 

Funny thing about chord books, they contain a wealth of chords that are theoretically possible, yet only about 10% of them seem to be chords that are used much.

 

The other thing about chord books is they are meant for "pop" music players more than blues players... our chords will be a little off the beaten path. You probably will find most of them in your chord book, you just might have to dig a little.

 

Finally, keep in mind that we are playing what I call "little chords" right now. They are a bit easier, and are *subsets* of larger chords that come later. But just because these are a bit easier, they still get used a lot.

 

Hopefully that takes care of stuff for you. I hope you have some time to practice, the next lesson's going to be a lot of fun.

 

Talk soon,
Griff

 

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