Using other chord shapes - rhythm guitar lesson

Using other chord shapes is a great way to make our rhythm, guitar playing more interesting and varied.

If in a song you have to play, say, two bars of an open A chord, rather than sticking like glue to the open A, you can choose to use both the open A and one or more other A chords along the neck.

One of the great features of the guitar is that it allows us to play the same chord in different shapes and areas of the neck. Playing chords in each of these different areas produces slightly different sounds to each other.

In addition, each of these different areas of the neck offer different opportunities to musically decorate the chord, like we did in the previous video on chord extensions:

In this video we go over several examples of switching between open chords and other chord shapes in order to create musical interest.

Try to copy the examples covered and then try to find other examples of using other chord shapes in your rhythm guitar playing.

After working on static chords, like in the examples, try to apply what you have practised to some simple chord-based songs.

With practice, using these other chord shapes, instead of sticking to just one chord shape,
Will gradually becomes more and more natural. And you will become a better rhythm guitarist because of it.

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