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Guitar Chords With Only Two Fingers

By: Mike P Hayes

Three note chords using only two fingers are not just an easy way out for kid's songs and lazy guitar players, if done correctly these slick chord voicings will have you producing amazing guitar sounds. Guitar chords with only two fingers are essential tools of the professional guitarist.

There is a tendency to think that the more notes the guitarist plays the bigger the sound will be, nothing could be further from the truth. This is definitely a case of less is more, the secret to some of the best loved popular guitar sounds from groups like: Dire Straits, Rolling Stones through to jazz rhythm guitar expert Freddie Green with the Count Basie Orchestra all know the power of these small chord shapes.

Classical composers from Bach, Mozart and Beethoven have used these very same tonal principles to create enduring music that the whole world loves and enjoys hundreds of years after these musical compositions were written.

The sad fact of musical life is that almost every guitar player would learn faster and sound better if they learned the skill of playing and connecting small musical chord shapes.

So why is it that guitar players are oblivious to these extremely simple yet powerful concepts?

The answer can be discovered by studying the guitar explosion, after 1955 the guitar experienced worldwide popularity, all sorts guitar instruction methods came on the scene, the main feature of these methods was "how quickly" you could play. Notice I said "how quickly" not how accurately you could learn.

Today, these "fix-it-all-in-five minutes manuals are everywhere! Regardless of style, most guitar methods go down the same road, the majority of guitar instruction manuals usually start out using some generic chord shapes that are usually two hard for the beginner guitarist.

The result is that often (a)the player loses the beat because they have to put all their energy into tackling the monster chord shape in front of them, (b) they give up in frustration and decide their time would be best spent elsewhere.

The brave students who survive the difficult chords shapes are led to believe that if they persevere and keep learning more and bigger chord shapes eventually it will "all come together" ... wrong! Anyone who has struggled with bar chords will know that these physically demanding chord shapes do not produce the sounds we hear on recordings.

Take a listen to the Rolling Stones intro to "Start Me Up" or "Brown Sugar", these catchy intro chords are three note chords. Many would-be guitarists quit because they believe their fingers are too thick, too slow etc when in reality the intro chords for "Start Me Up" are small three note chords.

If you want to play easy guitar chords with only two fingers and sound great whether you are playing funk, R & B, or jazz the trick is to learn the basic musical knowledge of how chords are constructed, each chord has it's own unique spelling and once you start looking at individual notes that make up each chord rather than viewing each chord as a chord shape you will be able to design your own chord shapes and create a smooth professional guitar sound that's easy to play!

Article Source: http://www.articleopus.com

Mike Hayes is a teacher, author, speaker and consultant. Get his tips and tested strategies proven to boost your guitar playing his membership site at www.guitarcoaching.com today.

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