I see different chord diagrams everywhere it seems. The video shows A minor strumming all strings, but I see elsewhere to not strum low E. For D major it says skip only low E, but I see elsewhere skip A also.
I’m just learning all of these, but I want to make sure I’m practicing correct. Are all of these right?
Welcome to the forum!
This is a great reason to know chord theory (check out the Essential Chord Theory lesson). Chord charts are great for learning chords at the beginning, but don’t hesitate to move away from them and play whatever variation you want that fits in the theory of the chord.
If in doubt… does it sound with pleasant consonance? If it does, don’t worry about whether or not it is on a chart. I always play adman with the open A string, and regularly even let the open high E string ring out for a suspension. Same with an Amaj or Amin chord; I like to let all 6 strings ring loud and full.
I used to think that chords must be created by scientists in lab coats with some magical formula; but once I became familiar with the theory, I realized that I could create my own voicings. Have fun and don’t hesitate to ask questions!
Thanks for the reply! What you are saying makes sense, and I kinda gathered as much. I have viewed the essential chord theory lesson, but it might be useful to review again.
I have learned so much about notes and chords and music theory in the past few months, but like all things, it is hard for me to fully grasp the concepts until I put it into practice. Simply understanding which notes I am using to create the chords can make my head spin sometimes, lol.
Good to know there is no real right or wrong. I’ll just do what feels (and sounds) best! Thanks again!
Glad to hear it helped! I too was overwhelmed by music theory starting out, but the more you become familiar with it, the easier learning more becomes!
Banjo Ben is a the best learning tool I have found on the internet. My question for this lesson: I don’t understand how you know how many notes to “walk” between chords. I understand what 4/4 time is but not how many notes separate the chords. . Sometimes it is one or two and sometime it is four. Thanks and again great website.
I might not understand the question correctly, but in case I do… what I think is that it is basically a matter of personal preference. Different musical phrases have different lengths and number of notes depending on what you want to convey. It’s kind of like how many pepperoni you want on your pizza. There’s a “normal” range, but maybe you want a bunch on there and maybe just one. Unless you are emulating something that someone else has already done, you are the architect of the song you are playing. Put as few or as many notes in between chords as you want to hear.
Welcome to the forum Jason!
There is an exact point at which a song transitions from one chord to another, but we don’t need to always land directly at that point with the last note of a walk. You could land a little early, a little late, or directly on the change; any of these will sound just fine. You shouldn’t necessarily always think about the exact number of quarter, eighth, or half notes that separate a chord change. Basic chord walks are something you will be able to do just by pure intuition once you get used to hearing them. You just hear that little pocket of time and throw in a chord transition.
Hope that helps you!
Great lesson!!! I’ll be chewing on this one for a while! One question…when using the non-linear note technique, is there any effort to match the walking notes to the melody notes in a given measure? Thanks!
Where was this 40 years ago??? You realize how long I spent re-inventing the wheel figuring this out myself (self taught with a moron as a teacher) since we were too poor for lessons and I watched Lester Flatt on the Martha White TV show on Saturday evenings and Sonny James TV appearances trying to see how they did those walks. Taught myself the G scale from a library book then noticed it sounded a lot like the walk down runs…sat for days with guitar, paper and pencil figuring out how it would sound then finally got …most of it. Now I’m 61 and going to school again…its sure easier with somebody showing the way. I’m hoping to correct self taught bad habits of 50 years of guitar playing and maybe finally be able to do those great Sonny James guitar licks…my big ambition
Welcome to the forum Jerry!
We’re about the same age & my experience is very similar.
Best of luck in your learning adventure & have fun!
Dave
Jason - maybe to simplistic, apologies if so. I count how many scale notes there are between the two. For example, from G to C is A-B-C, so a simple walk from G to C needs 2 quarter notes. So I use the last 2 beats of the measure before the C to walk there. G to D needs 3 so I’d start the walk on the second beat of the measure before the D. And when I lose track of the time I try to race up there with eighth notes!
Sometimes I’ll try a full measure walk between chords - so I’ll walk around for a full 4 beats with some quarter notes and some eighth notes, some going up and some going down. As long as the notes are in the scale it’s OK. I think of those more as rhythm licks than walks but I think that’s ok.
Hope this is what you were asking about.
Stephen
Along the same lines here - I really want to develop interesting rhythm guitar. Who should I listen to? My main philosophy here is to be interesting but not step on the singer or soloist. Who does that well that I can listen to for a little stylistic guidance?
Stephen
Hey Stephen, I would think that that really depends on who you want to play like. Jake Workman has some extremely cool fast pace driving bluegrass guitar rythym that sounds real nice. So if that is what you want, listen to a player that does that and you will begin to play like him. If you like more tastful, driving, groovy backup, try Tony Wray. It really depends what you want. I think everyone would have to agree that the more you are with someone the more you are like them, so i would think that the more you listen to someone, the more you play like them. It’s true for me at least. Not sure if that is what you were looking for…??
I cannot download the Tabs for the Lessons or Exercises. I get a page with an XML error message.
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@gratefulcheese I’m way late to the party here, but I believe it also has to do with keeping the root (first note) of the chord in the bass (lowest-sounding tone) when you play the chord.
For example, for an A-major chord, the preference might be to have the lowest-sounding note be the root note (A), in which case you wouldn’t play the low E string, because if you did, your bass/lowest note would be an E, not an A. But since E is actually IN an A-major chord (which consists of A, C#, and E), it still sounds perfectly fine if you do play it!
Same with the other example, D-major. If you skip the first two strings, you’ll then be strumming the chord with the lowest tone being the root (D). If you DON’T mute the A string, that’s okay too, because the note A is in a D chord (D-F#-A). But there’s definitely NOT an E in a D-major chord, so don’t play that string! But your ear will tell you that. 
Now, what the actual technique/strategy is behind keeping the root in the bass when strumming, I do not know. Maybe someone can answer that… is it a matter of clarity or something? Or perhaps it’s just to reinforce which note is the root in your brain, for when you’re alternately picking and strumming… or walking up or down to a root note, like in this lesson?
Something about labeling the measure before a chord change as a “transition measure” made something click in my brain! Just having a name for it was a big help. I can’t wait to try this on banjo, too.
@BanjoBen I got accepted into the Guitar4Vets program, so I added guitar to my daily practice of Banjo and Mandolin. This was a great lesson, Thank you!!!
See you in Montana!!!
Basic question here! Ben is demonstrating playing the four finger G chord and then lifting the index off the fifth string and muting the fifth string with the middle finger. I can do that, but I wanted to ask about the purpose of this? Is it to make the index finger available to play other notes or is to get a “certain sound” from this particular G chord? Thanks!!