Chords for Magic Chords

Salut, David Alvin here.
It's Monday and I am leaving Wednesday for NAMM, the [C] NAMM show in California.
[Gm] It's always an exciting thing in January to go where the sunshine [D] is and all the other musicians are.
This year I have a plan and my plan [C] is to enjoy the show.
Last year I've been going with a lot of pressure on myself trying to come up with videos and meet people.
This year I'm just going to take it easy and go and enjoy the show and meet some friends.
[D] It's going to be fun.
So that means that I'm not going to be here next week, but you're still going to get your free videos per week
because I have a plan this week, filming some videos in advance for you guys.
[Bb] So this Wednesday I'm going to [C] give you a sneak peek of a modulation pack.
It's been a request on my site, guitarplayback.com. You're going to love it.
It's going to teach you how to approach [D] chord progressions that are going to modulate.
This is [B] going to be a sneak peek [D] of what you will get on [C] Guitar Playback soon.
You'll get a free backing track too this Wednesday to prepare for that pack.
[Bb] Friday_
Friday_
It's a [C] secret.
Friday's video is a secret that has to do with a [Bb] secret.
[C] _ You'll see that Friday.
But anyways, I just wanted [D] to say hello and I wanted to thank you so much [D] for making the book that I wrote for iPad a [C] success.
I have been really surprised at [Bb] the positive response that I got [C] from all over the world for that book.
It's been [Bb] out for four days now.
It's $9.99 on iTunes.
I've had [A] some [C] amazing, overwhelming comments and a lot of downloads.
[D] If you haven't downloaded it yet, you should get it.
For those of you who are wondering if the book is going to be available on Android [C] and different tablets, I would love to.
But I don't know how to do that.
So if you know how to do that, send me an email.
Maybe we can do something together.
[N] Anyways, I am still going to teach you a little something today.
This is going to be a different lesson.
We're not going to talk about the behind the scenes because that's not the point of the lesson.
When I say behind the scenes, I mean theory.
You don't need to know theory with this exercise.
If you do know theory and if you start to get into the theory of this exercise, you're going to miss the point.
The point is to be musical with something that is new and fresh and not overwhelming for the brain.
Two chord shapes.
Out of these two chord shapes, you're going to create something fusion-y.
If you're not used to playing fusion, that's even better because it's going to force you to think in a different style, different genre,
and try to create something, come up with something with some rhythm elements.
Here are the two shapes.
Very simple.
Those are magical shapes, by the way.
Those are shapes that I use at guitar stores.
For example, when I would try a guitar, I never know what to play and I don't want to do the stairway to heaven thing.
I use these two shapes all the time and they make you sound musical, I think.
Anyways, here are these two shapes.
First shape uses two fingers, the index and the ring finger.
The index is going to bar the first two strings on any fret you want.
So this is a movable shape.
We'll use fret number five, so we're going to bar frets five of strings [A] one and two.
[N] And then the ring finger is going to be on the third string two frets higher.
So in this case, on fret number seven, here's how that little triad [A] sounds. _
Why is this shape magical?
[Eb] Because you can use any bass with it, any bass note with it, it's always going to work.
For instance, let's use a low E [E] string open with that shape.
_ And why not move that shape one fret lower?
[Dbm] _ [C] It's always going to work.
_ [E] _ _ _
[C] _ _ [E] _ _ [N] Some of these chords are going to sound a little outside, but that's okay.
You can make them work with some interesting rhythm elements.
The second shape that I want to show you also uses a bar with the index.
This time, we're going to bar all the strings, the six strings.
So let's do fret number five, for example.
We're going to bar everything.
Our middle finger is going to play the second string one fret higher.
So if we're barring five, it's going to be on the second string, sixth fret.
And we're going to play with the index, middle and ring finger, the top three strings, or the first [F] three strings.
And then the bass is going to play either of the lower three strings.
So we can play a bass on string number six, string number five, [G] string number four.
They're all going to work, and you can move that around and alternate the different basses
and just move your same exact shape for the left hand anywhere on the fretboard.
_ [Bb] _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ [G] _
_ [N] Always going to work.
These two shapes have in common the fact that you can use any bass with these triads.
So if we combine the two different shapes with a multitude of different bass notes,
and that's completely up to you, we're going to come up with [E] something really interesting.
[Ebm] _ _ [Ab] _ _
[Db] _ _ [G] _ _ _ [Ab] _ [G] _
The goal [N] of this exercise is not to think about the key, but to create something interesting rhythmically
and get you thinking outside of what you might be thinking.
And this is going to kind of force you to get back to the music, get back to a feel,
instead of overthinking things.
That's the exercise for today.
It's really fun.
I do it all the time, and I hope that you do it too.
It's going to help you improve a lot of things.
Anyways, I need to pop for now, and thanks for watching this.
Have a great week, everyone, and I hope you enjoy the next two videos, Wednesday and Friday.
Subscribe to my channel, like this, share it around.
Remember, we get three videos every week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
And every video ends the same way. _
[C] _ _ _ [A] _ [C] _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ [C] _ _