This lesson will explain how notes, scales, and chords work and how it all comes together in keys.
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When I am listening to the song I try to work out the tonic and if that’s major a use power chords the same way as you to check if I am in the right key then I play major scale or major pentatonic, if the tonic is minor I just start playing minor pentatonic because I have not learnt the minor diatonic scale yet. One thing I try to unlearn is to to start on the low E or A strings because at the moment I use those as crutches to stay in the scale. The other thing I struggle with is jumping between modes (3NPS) whenever there is a chord change, especially focusing on the higher strings. It would be interesting to watch a lesson on jumping between scales using the top 3 strings by ignoring the lowest root note as a reference.
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Great lesson! So much value in knowing the chords of a key. I don’t think it is that deep into music theory to be honest.
What is the fingering for a major chord with a root on the fifth string? I don’t recall this being covered before (maybe I missed it), and I’m not 100% sure just by looking at the video.
The two chord shapes with a 5th strim root is the A and C shape.
Hi CDG, you’re right it hasn’t been covered, it’s an A shaped barre chord.
This lesson was super useful. Really enjoyed it, and a great easy way to work out the key of a song and also get into songwriting. Now to learn the major scale! 
That’s where I’m up to in the music theory course.
And the C shape barre chord
In the context of grade 3 we haven’t even covered A shaped barre chords, in the lesson Justin uses an A shaped one.
In the context of the lesson Justin also says you don’t need to know barre chords this applies to open chords as well. So I think the point of the lesson was last by CDG.
Thank you! I’ll do some research on it.
I’m lost at around the ten minute mark. You’ve talked about playing chords in the key, but you start jamming with the drum track and it looks like you stop playing any chords and are playing single notes in what looks like maybe a scale of some kind. Major minor minor major major minor I get, but all the playing you do later on the top 4 strings (D, G, B, e) looks like picking out individual notes not chords. It sounds great and I wish I could do it but I have no idea how to tie the chords in a key to picking out individual notes on the top 4 strings.