CHORD TIPS
Surprising tweaks, hacks, variations, substitutions, and enhancements for the everyday chords we know and love.
For instant access to all these lessons
General Tips
Learn New Chords Quickly
This strategy, called "Chord Pushups," quickly trains your fingers to grab a chord all at once. This was the first instructional video I ever shot, about 70 years ago.
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Learn How Hard to Fret
Most guitarists press too hard when they fret chords. This lesson, from my course Strum & Sing in 60 Days, teaches you how to press just barely enough to get the note to ring clearly, thus saving energy and reducing strain.
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Common Chord Clinic
You'll grab these chords tens of thousands of times. It's worth getting to know their little quirks and nuances.
Open
A
- OMG, your crowded fingers
- OMG, your even more crowded fingers when capoing
- Get your 1st string to ring
- Fret with varied pressure to prevent fatigure and injury
- Damp that 6th string
- Learn the wonderfully-chimey open A5
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Open
C
- Get your 1st and 4th strings to ring
- Throw in your pinkie for an easy alternate voicing
- Damp the 6th string, or folk it and play C/G instead
- Substitute Cadd9 for convenience, speed, and a singer-songwriter vibe
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Open
D
- Get your first string to ring
- Choose from a veritable smorgasbord of bass notes: D, D/A, or D/F#
- Learn the wonderfully-chimey open D5
- Use Drop D to turn the most anemic open chord into the hugest one
Open
G
Learn the multitude of possible voicings and fingerings, and their applications, such as:
- Freeing up 1st and 2nd fingers to play chord/melody etc.
- When to use the 4-finger G
- The lush open G5
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Barre Chord Alternatives
Did you know that all the common barre chords have open substitutions? Don't let painful chords stand between you and the songs you love.
Alternatives to
B
For a bluesy songs in the key of E, use open B7. For other applications, the modern, spacey, lush Bsus4 often sounds fantastic.
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Alternatives to
Bm
The Bm(add4) is a perfectly respectible substitute in almost any situation. The open Bm7 is a little frumpy but works in a pinch too.
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Alternatives to
C#m
Did you know you can barre C#m on the 4th fret and let the 1st string ring open, and it's STILL a street-legal C#m? And if you want, let both 1st and 2nd strings ring open and you've got a lovely C#m7.
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Alternatives to
F
The dreaded F chord! My local guitar store even has an F Chord support group. Thankfully, there are several great options by turning it into different versions of an Fmaj7 or Fadd9. Unless you play ska or reggae or something, you can spend the rest of your life never barring F.
It's Free!
Alternatives to
F#m
Our open treble strings save us yet again: The F#m7add4 is a super-cool chord I first encountered in one of my all-time favorite songs "The Golden Age" by Beck.
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Alternatives to
Gm
Guess what? There's an open Gm. And a gorilla could fret it. I couldn't believe it when I discovered it a few years ago.
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When nothing else works
A power chord will always work in a pinch.
And if you have a little music theory under your belt, consider changing the key and getting a capo involved.
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Scooting Open Chords Up the Neck
An effortless, fun, inspiring way to mix up your strumming is to scoot your open chords around and find the sweet spots.
Scooting Open E
Access six more glorious chords by just sliding that open E shape up the neck.
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Scooting Open D
The scoot that launched a thousand classic riffs, from "Give a Little Bit" by Supertramp, to "Stairway to Heaven," to "End of the Line" by The Traveling Wilburys.
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Scooting Open A
I remember learning "Breaking the Girl" by Red Hot Chili Peppers thinking, "This is the easiest, coolest sounding riff ever." All you do is scoot that A chord.
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Scooting Open C
Bump your C up two frets for a lovely variation on a D chord (a-la "Closer to Fine" by Indigo Girls), or travel up even further (a-la "Fluffhead" by Phish).
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Scooting Riffs
These riffs, where you keep some strings ringing open while scooting fretted notes up and down the neck, sound fantastic and can be worked into your rhythm playing without interrupting the groove.
"Give a Little Bit" by Supertramp
This easy, fun riff is easy to mix into your rhythm playing whenever you're parked on an A7 for a while.
"Melissa" by The Allman Brothers Band
Travel through the key of E chord family on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th strings, while the other strings ring open: A lush and lovely sound.
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"Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne
This trip through the key of A's I - IV - V triads is the sweet counterpoint to Randy Rhoads' salty trademark riff.
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"I'm the Man Who Loves You" by Wilco
Only played once, and somewhat buried in the mix, this little gem is one of my all-time favorite scooting riffs. Like "Give a Little Bit" but over an E chord.
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"Run Like Hell" by Pink Floyd
This riff rocked my world when I first heard The Wall. Then the aftershock hit when I discovered it wasn't that hard to play. And in Drop D tuning (how Gilmore plays it), it sounds HUMUNGOUS.
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"Blackbird" by The Beatles
In addition to being, in my opinion, one of the most gorgous songs ever written, "Blackbird" is a great exercise in playing 10ths up and down the neck. Learn it, and then apply it to other songs in the key of G.
