Yup, that’s never been covered in the previous lessons… Justin actually never really covered barre chords. Only the F really…
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Thanks Richards, this helps a ton… Might be great to suggest Justin to cover major/minor barre chords in a module placed ahead of this one.
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Hey JG Community
At the 1-minute mark, Justin shows a pattern of first 6-notes in the G-major scale. But this pattern isn’t the same as any of the Major scale patterns (this one seems to be 3rd/5th/7th frets on 5th & 6th strings) - and none of the major scale patterns follow this. Would love some guidance on what I’m missing here.
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The notes on strings 6-5 / frets 3-5-7 are the first six notes of the G major scale in a 3 notes per string scale pattern (3NPS).
Justin (initially) teaches scale patterns based on the CAGED system, where some strings have only got 2 notes. This is what you have learned thus far.
Both the CAGED and the 3NPS system have their pros and cons, but that’s not important here.
For this lesson, Justin shows us where the common chords in any given major key can be found in relation to the root. Don’t think of scale patterns, but rather keys and chords.
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Thank you for this Jeff
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What scales is Justin using while improvising over the chords?
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At the 7:28 mark, he’s playing the G major scale over a G - D - Em - C (I - V - vi - IV) progression.
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Chord boxes on screen would make all the difference. I’m spending ages trying to figure it out from the video.
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agreed, would love some chord boxes to illustrate. I’m having a hard time following without some explanation.
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I wonder if it would make more sense to pair this lesson with the lesson in grade 4 that is teaching the major scales–it feels a little premature to learn how to figure out the keys for a jam session if we aren’t also prepared for the improvising on the scales. I think it’s a great lesson, just wondering if it would make more sense to be in sequence with the companion videos teaching scales in the next grade? Thanks, Justin, for all you do!
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So what role does power chords play in keys? Is it the same chords in a key but played as power chords?
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Power chords are chords built from the root note and the perfect fifth interval. They do not contain a major third nor a minor third interval, which would give the chord a major or minor quality respectively.
C major = C E G
C minor = C Eb G
C5 power chord = C G
D major = D F# A
D minor = D F A
D5 power chord = D A
Etc. This does not work for the diminished chord in a key, because that has a diminished fifth interval (not a perfect fifth interval).
B diminished = B D F
B5 power chord = B F#
Therefore, you can play a power chord as a substitute for any major or minor chord.
For beginners, this can be very useful to play F or B chords when they don’t have enough strength to play barre chords.
But power chords are used a lot, not only by beginners. As the name indicates, power chords sound very strong. That’s why they’re often played in e.g. rock and metal music, rather than the full major or minor chord.
Let’s put this to practice with the very common I V vi IV progression in the key of C.
You could strum the open major and minor chords, either as a full chord or a triad:
C major, G major, A minor, and F major
Alternatively, you could replace all of them by their power chord version:
C5, G5, A5, F5
By doing so, you are taking away the major or minor quality from the chord, but that’s ok. Your ears will tell you what they really are, because other instruments, vocals etc all together form the harmony.
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I think I agree with some others that this lesson is in the wrong place in the course. We haven’t learnt any barre chords so far except F and there’s only a passing reference that F is actually an E shaped barre chord. We also haven’t learnt the G major scale.
Then I am feeling particularly grumpy as I am sick and have taken to my bed, so this is all too much for my clouded brain today.
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So all power chords can be played together and sound good together?
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Not quite…
The power chords still really need to be in the correct key.
So, for instance, if you have a key of A, then you really shouldn’t be playing the A# power chord in most cases.
The power chords in a key are the same as the full chords. So, in the key of A, for example, the first 6 chords are:
A major
B minor
C# minor
D major
E major
F# minor
The power chords would be:
A
B
C#
D
E
F#
The difference is that power chords are neither major nor minor, so you can use a power chord in place of either a major or minor chord and it will sound good.
By the way, I’ve deliberately not used the proper naming of these chords above, to illustrate the difference. They should really be called “A5”, “B5”, “C#5”, etc.
I’ve also missed the 7th chord out of this because it’s the diminished chord (G#dim) which is a little different, but it is also rarely used and something you shouldn’t worry about at this stage.
Cheers,
Keith
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Okay cool, just the answer i was looking for i understand now.
Thx ",
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This lesson wasn’t as easy as I expected from the title of the lesson. This is a great lesson in terms of beginning to learn to solo using the major scale in any key, but I had hoped it would be a little more basic in the content at this level. I have decided to use the Easy Barre Chords lesson in module 22 for my module 20 focus. Then I will focus on this lesson when I am in module 22 just prior to starting Grade 4 when all of this will be studied in detail. A year ago I had requested a lesson on all the chords in the 5 main (open shape Major chords) keys of C, G, D, A and E. Justin gives the chords in the key of G in this lesson, but using movable chords. I decided to make a video for my own use showing finding the chords in the keys of C, G, D, A and E using the note circle. Here is a link to the video that I put in my learning log:
My video lesson on what are the chords in the CAGED keys
As I said, I am not a guitar teacher, just someone with a few years of experience as an advancing beginner spread thinly over a 40 year time frame, so I know that this is what I need at this point. I am only posting on Justin’s site so if Justin wanted to use this video as a suggestion, I know that he could make a video 10 times better than this one. This main purpose of my video lesson is to introduce the Bm, F#m, C#m, and G#m chords (2nd and 4th fret barre chords) used in these keys to provide practice with barre chords before starting Grade 4 and to provide a table of the chords for using to transpose songs between these keys.
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Sorry guys, i don’t understand why justin pick these notes while he is improvising. He said a pattern at the beginning of the video, and then he pick other notes.
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I don’t have a jam buddy, but I have a looper.
So I’ve decided to turn this lesson into a looper session, where I pick a key, work out those chords like the lesson teaches, create a chord sequence with them, then work on solo improv over those chords!
Not only do I think this will help me learn how to use chords properly, but also gets me doing solos outside of the key of G, learning to use the major scale positions all over the neck.
Wish me luck!
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Justin showed a repeating pattern that uses only the E and A strings alongside the statement that this method requires you know the note names on those strings.
He started at fret 3 of the E string so his notes and (major, minor, minor, major, major, minor) chords were named after the notes found in that pattern - G, A, B, C, D, E.
If the pattern was moved to a different place, it would follow the exact same shape on those two strings but the notes and names would take different names based on those different notes.
When Justin improvised he used pattern 1 of the G major scale because the chord progression he played was in the key of G (a selection of chords built from some of the six in the pattern).
I hope that helps.
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