This lesson will explain how notes, scales, and chords work and how it all comes together in keys.
View the full lesson at: Chords In Keys | JustinGuitar |
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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.
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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.
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The two chord shapes with a 5th strim root is the A and C shape.
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Hi CDG, you’re right it hasn’t been covered, it’s an A shaped barre chord.
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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.
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And the C shape barre chord
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In the context of grade 3 we haven’t even covered A shaped barre chords, in the lesson Justin uses an A shaped one.
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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.
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Thank you! I’ll do some research on it.
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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.
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It looks like when he starts soloing around the 7:30" mark he is using the G Major scale. He uses this because the chord progression he played on the looper pedal is in the key of G major.
At 9:32" when he starts soloing on the new progression he made on the looper he is playing the B major scale because it is in the key of B major.
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Is there a trick similar to this to finding out the chords in a minor key? The key of G minor for instance?
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One way is by referring to the minor keys relative major, because they share the same notes/chords.
ie. Re Gm
The relative major key is Bb
Bb Major and Gm will have the same diatonic chords ( they will however, function differently).
Another is to use the minor key formula.
(Dont think its mentioned in these lessons, as minor keys come a bit later on.)
m dim M m m M M
( notice its the same sequence as Major, but starts on the 6th degree).
Cheers, Shane
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Would be nice to see how minor chords looks like, cause I learned the F and I can move it across fretboard, but never heard or seen minor barre chords, hard for me to understand why the same shape is Major once and then Minor. Like at 10:40 , F major and then it looks like powerchord but it is minor chord , and on A string the last chord has the same shape as major chord, how come its a minor now
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Hi @JanisR, looks like Justin is using chords he hasn’t taught yet…
Anyway, you could easily look up the chord grips for minor barre chords.
The 6th-string rooted minor barre chord does look a little like a power chord, except that you really are barring all the strings with the index finger. So the G#m chord that Justin plays would be 466444 (the power chord would be 466xxx). The 5th-string rooted minor chord looks a little like the major chord shape, but in fact, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th fingers are on strings 2, 4 and 3, respectively (not 3, 5 and 4, as for the major barre chord shape). It’s based on the open Am shape.
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Thank you! 
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Janis. Look at the diagrams below and the intervals showing on the chords.
REMEMBER
1, 3, 5 = major and 1, b3, 5 = minor.
Look at the one and only difference between the F major and F minor then the B major and B minor chords respectively. Which note is different? Wat has it changed from / to?
E-shape major and minor
A-shape major and minor
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Totally got lost with this lesson. I agree with a previous post when he starts soloing who knows what notes he is playing. Especially when the major scales he is using haven’t even been covered yet. Haven’t covered B or Bm chords yet or any of the other barre chord shapes. Maybe I missed them in grade 1 or 2. Just my opinion but this lesson doesn’t appear to be a beginner lesson. Will ignore for now.
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