EZ Chord Practice, audio & chart - C6 lap steel

[Doug Beaumier]

I just added this to my blog. It's a chord practice exercise that I give to my students. It's a chart showing chord changes and a track to play along with. There are three charts... one showing the chords only. Another showing those same chords and chord positions for C6 lap steel guitar. And another chart showing the same chords and chord positions for E9 pedal steel guitar.

---click it---> http://playsteelguitar.com/blog/

[Jim Hoock]

Thanks Doug!

[Joe Breeden]

Thanks Doug. I needed that. Joe

[Stephen Abruzzo]

Thanks Doug.....good to have.

[Brent Marklin]

Yep. Learning various songs, licks and what not and in the back of my mind I'm thinking "..even still, I still don't intuitively know the key positions and inversions like on a regular guitar. i really need to get on that". And then you post this, bringing it to the forefront. Fun to play against while trying different chord combinations and simple to transpose to other keys. Perfect. Thanks very much for the lesson.

[Will Houston]

Yes, thanks. Every little bit helps.

[Doug Beaumier]

Thanks guys, I'm glad you can use this. Sometimes it's good to get away from tablature and focus on chord positions. If you play in a band or play backup to a singer you'll be chording a lot. You'll need to know where the majors and minors are on your tuning and be able to get to them quickly. The next level would be playing partial chords (two notes only) on a different fret... not on the fret where the full (three notes) chord is found.

[Jeff Spencer]

Thanks Doug. I need this!!

[Doug Beaumier]

Hi Jeff, I'm glad you like it!

[Chuck S. Lettes]

Chords and their positions! I sound like a broken record with my students, but at least I'm consistent. Great lesson, Doug.

[Doug Beaumier]

Thanks Chuck, I too stress the chord positions to my students. I'm surprised that most lap steel instruction books don't teach the chord positions, the majors and minors. Most of them never even mention it. My books are song books and are sold as such, but if I had a method book I would certainly include chord exercises. This is absolute "must know" stuff for bandstand work. Jeff Newman taught basic chords, G, C, D, Em, with exercises, right from day 1.

[Will Houston]

Thanks for the explanation Doug and Chuck. When I saw the chord exercise, I wondered what is the purpose of this and how will this help me. Now I know.

[Doug Beaumier]

Just to clarify... most of our playing in a band situation is backup for the singer... "padding" with chords, and playing fills between the vocal lines. Not interfering with the vocals, but providing support, backing. So you need to know what the chords of the song are and be able to get to them quickly on your guitar. Sometimes our backing is based on chords and sometimes it's based on scales and harmonized scales. This style of playing is improvisational. There is no tab... you need to create the backing and the fills from the chords and scales. If you prefer to play melodies you will probably be bored practicing backup, but this is about 90% of what you'll be playing in a band.

[W. Bill Schmidt]

True 'dat!, Thanks for posting Doug.

[Doug Clark]

Good stuff, Doug.
And for those nights when for some reason we don't have Web access here, I just figured out how to add the MP3s to my hard drive. Now I can run a backing track without having to connect to the blog for practice. I'm listening to "Akaka Falls" with VLC MEdia Player as I'm typing this.
Thanks for the great practice materials.

[Joe Burke]

Thanks Doug - very useful. I think play alongs are such a great way to rehearse. I found almost immediately I wanted play 2 note chords, and have fun seeing how one chord can lead into the next.

[Doug Beaumier]

Thanks all for checking it out. I'll probably post another one in a couple of weeks.