There’s 3 shapes on the high 3 strings for all the major chords.

We used D Major here.

Here’s how we got them    (Skip to ‘How To Use Them’ – if you really don’t care)

You take a D Major scale (or any major scale for any key) and find the 1st, 3rd, and 5th of the scale.  So D = D F# A..

Then you put them in ‘closed position’ order  (not skipping notes like 1 5 3 – that’s open position – for later).  So we get:

1 3 5

3 5 1  

5 1 3

In this chart we start on A (the 5th) for your ‘good ol D chord’ so its the 5 1 3 to start. Next shape is 1 3 5, then 3 5 1. (Btw, we’re color coding like the chart).

You might notice that 1 3 5 shape (middle) looks like (is) the top of a ‘classical’ D barre chord, and the high 351 guy is the top of a slid up F chord shape – or the high 3 strings of a 10th fret rock and roll D barre chord.

How to use them:

Lets take a simple progression of major chords for now (Don’t sweat it, we’ll add minor chords soon).

How about //: G / D /  C / D ://

Record this progression for a few minutes to a beat, or Loop it, or have your buddy or girlfriend or even your musical slave from another galaxy (blaming Rick) play it over and over.

Slide each chord around to get the new chords –

If you slide a D down 2 frets – or up 10 – you get C.

If you slide a D up 5 frets  – or down 7 – you get G.

(Notice  2 + 10 and also 5 + 7 both = 12. The up/down thing always adds up to the 12 frets in an octave.)

Ok,  now use these shapes to play along, You can play 1 or 2 — or more – shapes per measure.

Try picking them 1 note at a time.

You can also add licks to them from the D major scale.

This is a nice way of playing while someone is singing – you can flow up and down the neck – without getting a beer bottle thrown at you by the singer – which might happen if you’re just jamming pentatonic scales while they;re trying to sing.

I have some YouTube videos at where I cover this material and I plan to do more. These skip ahead to future blog posts where we cover more strings, minor, etc.

Don’t worry we’ll get there and I plan to eventually shoot one that just covers this post.

Cya Soon —

Have fun!

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