Cool Basic Chord Substitutions (For 2 Guitars)
This is a lesson on substitutions. There are a lot of variations on this, and you can really use it to spice up a song.
Both guitars are working off the same chord progression here: A, D, E. Colin was playing the open chords. Jonathan was creating the power chord variation of the chords Colin was playing.
Let’s start with the A chord. The first note of the power chord is the open fifth string, which plays the root note: A. The second note of the power chord is played with the index finger on the second fret, fourth string: E. This is the open version of the A power chord.
The fun part comes in when you play the major 6. You play the 1 and 5 with the power chord, and adding the 6 walks you up the scale a bit.
One thing that always confuses students is that the A is always the root note – it matches every note in that chord. Continuing to play that A root note when you move between the 5th and 6th notes of the scale maintains that drone sound.
So start off by getting that A power chord down. Then add your third finger on the fourth fret, fourth string to get the major 6. You would use your third finger for this because it’s always good to line up one finger per fret. Remember you are just playing two strings.
Now shift everything you are doing in that pattern to another root note. The next root note in this lesson is for the D chord. The root of the D chord is on the fourth string. So that would also be your root when you create the power chord. The A is the 5th note of your scale, and this completes the power chord. From there you add the major sixth.
You can shift that progression anywhere on your fretboard, so don’t limit yourself! Switch positions for different verses if you want variety – using different octaves will change the sound of the song. This also gets you thinking about what you’re playing.
Your last chord in this progression is the E chord, and the root is the open sixth string. To get the 5th note, which is a B, place your second finger on the second fret of the fifth string. Then add in the major sixth pattern!
This progression is a 12 – bar progression:
A x 4 bars
D x 2 bars
A x 2 bars
E x 2 bars
A x 2 bars
For the person playing the power chords, it is important to remember to never end on the major 6 note – always end on the 5.
Now try it an octave higher! See how that changes the sound!
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