I’ve been working through Grade 3 Module 15 for a little while now and, for the last few weeks, have spent a good deal of time on the D Explorer lesson which has resulted in me putting together this short composition and evolved into something I’m quite pleased with. I’m going to make this a little project through G3 I think as we explore other chord variations and see where it takes me.
This initial D chord recording is done on the acoustic but also sounds nice on the electric guitar with a hall style reverb and delay which I may post up at some point.
I have done this “properly” and written it out too if anyone’s interested (pics below the video) but also so I can revisit, tweak and add to. As it stands verses are 18 bars, I was going to do a random last verse combining all string variations and really playing with it, but it lost a little structure and I could go on for at least a few more weeks doing so but feel like I need to stop here for the moment. Really enjoyable to take the time to do this and I feel on the edge of a rabbit hole here!!
Hopefully enjoyable to a few ears out there in the community
Hello Mark, it sounds really sweet to my ears and as David I think it would deserve some lyrics to go along with. Love to see creativity at work, very well done!!
Only one thing I think you can improve and that’s when you change chord, you could try to get rid of the noise from the strings. I recently had this problem on the thickest strings of my Classical Guitar and by slowing down tempo and doing the change slow and accurately I fixed it and didn’t take much to speed it up again.
Hi Mark, thank you for sharing your approach of exploring the D Chords. Sounds very nice and I like the way you “documented” your explorer study. I had a similar approach, maybe not as professional as yours and I didn’t document my efforts. Good idea to note it down, inspires me to catch up on that, at least to try it for the next upcoming chors explorers. Thanks for that push into the right direction!
What I really struggle with, is to implement different D variations into songs to make them more varied as Justin suggests. Whenever I try out variations, it doesn’t sound good or even better than before or at least “right”. Maybe I haven’t found the right song yet? Have you or someone else any ideas for a song that is suitable for experimenting with those variations?
The following songs have famous riffs based around the D chord shape. The two songs from The Beatles are in a different key (played with a capo), but you play the D shape.
Everybody Hurts - R.E.M.
Norwegian Wood - The Beatles
Here Comes the Sun - The Beatles
Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen
Summer of 69 - Bryan Adams
Thank you all for checking out and for the kind comments and feedback, it’s rewarding. Also so easy to forget that we all interpret and practice things in different ways. I know this one’s pretty simple really but it’s a good feeling to produce something original for once.
I must admit I hadn’t thought of this as something to turn into a song but David’s and Silvia’s posts have got the hamsters gearing up for a run in my mind!! My original intention and inspiration with this was for my partner to be able to use this as background music for a rest and relaxation period for yoga classes that she teaches, that’s where the electric variation on this with the reverb & delay (and a little bit of chorus) I mentioned above comes more to the fore, and that intended use in itself was inspired by the song “Magnificence” by Daphne Tse, a beautiful tune that’s so simple. So many options
@SILVIA - I presume you mean the noise of my index finger sliding over the string? I rely a lot still on the anchor finger between A, D and E and you’re right it is noticeable, something for me to work on over time.
@Jeff - good point with the chord linking, it’s in the same module I’m practicing now so I am working on it, still getting them under my fingers but it would add a great deal to this I agree, thanks for the pointer.
@Helen0609 - Andrea to add to Jeff’s songs above, I Used to Love her by Guns and Roses is another good one for bringing in D variations, there’s a lot of sus2 and sus4 in the original but the others can sounds nice as well. In fact I’ve found that a lot generally with D in songs, it’s mostly sus2 and sus4 that tend to get used, or perhaps I’m not looking broadly enough too!!
@Jeff Thanks Jeff! Very appreciated! I’ll check them out! @Notter Thanks for that, I have to admit, that funnily enough I have a lot of songs with Ds in it and I was very excited about the possibitily to add a little flavour, but non of them seems to fit. The regular D always sounds better . I know, there are lots of songs with Dsus Chords, but I tried to implement those variations into songs with a regular D. Not very successful so far. As always, time will tell and maybe i’ll get a lightbulb moment when moving on on theory…
Ahhh… the fruits of all that labour in your ‘office’
Sounding good Mark, and kudos for being disciplined enough to write them all out. It definitely helps to imprint things in your brain. The moment I start to ‘grasp a concept’, I’m likely to move on to the next fascinating thing, only to realise a couple of weeks later, I’ve forgotten large chunks of it You sussed the D!
(I’ll get my coat…)
Very nicely done Mark. Lots of exploration with a steady pattern that keeps the piece moving while exploring all those goodies around the D chord. I am kind of reverse engineering this at the moment. I have a melancholy minor progression over a rolling folk finger style pattern, with a view to exploring the chords and other progressions as it becomes more fluid. There is a lot here I can take to that “project” for want of a better word. Thank you for the inspiration.
. I know, there are lots of songs with Dsus Chords, but I tried to implement those variations into songs with a regular D. Not very successful so far. As always, time will tell and maybe i’ll get a lightbulb moment when moving on on theory… 
