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Blues Guitar Institute

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One Chord, Five Ways: Get the Most from Your Fretboard

Lesson ID: TB161

In this lesson from Blues Guitar Institute, you’ll learn how to get more from your fretboard with the five dominant seventh chord shapes.

Maybe it’s because I’m a little dense at times or maybe it’s because I foolishly skipped all the theory lessons in my formative years; but, whatever the reason, learning that a given chord can be played in virtually any position on the neck hit me lick a ton of bricks.

For years, my chord knowledge was limited to power chords and the open position “Cowboy” chords. Yes, those alone can get you far, but nothing opened up the fretboard for me quite like the CAGED System.

As acoustic blues pickers, we play chords in most of what we play. It’s a very chord-centric style of blues.

In this lesson, we’re going to run through the 5 main chord shapes for bluesy 7th chords to give you bluesy chordal anchor points you can use to build your knowledge of the fretboard and sound great doing it.

You’ll learn:

  • What the CAGED System is and how we can make it bluesy
  • The five 7th chord shapes
  • A cool bluesy etude to put the theory to the test

Other Related Lessons

When you are ready, there are two ways I can help you:

Back Porch Blues Course:  A proven system to fingerpicking the blues.  This step-by-step course guides you through building fundamental fingerpicking skills.  Plus, you’ll learn three levels of a delta blues style performance study to put your new skills into action.

Become a myBGI Member: Membership comes with access to Back Porch Blues plus over 70 step-by-step courses.  Get proven results with one of myBGI’s structured Roadmaps.

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