One thing that used to drive me crazy about learning guitar was when I’d watch other guitarists jam the hell out of their guitars.
It could be friends, pro musicians, people playing open mics, or even my dad jamming.
This was made worse when a friend would ask me to play them a piece of music.
At the time, I couldn’t really play any full songs (yes, I was embarrassed by this fact – not that I would admit it to anyone).
So I tried to jam some ideas.
It was always hit or miss when I tried it at home.
In front of others, though, it was like someone got a vacuum cleaner, stuck it to my ear and sucked out all the creativity from my brain.
My mind felt like an empty derelict building where there was nothing there apart from one tiny mouse squeaking around!
When I tried to jam, it was pretty laughable.
My friend looked perplexed.
He even said something about it sounding kind of jazzy (that was not the intention!)
I quickly put the guitar down as I tried to hide my red-faced embarrassment.
I felt like I needed one of those memory erasers from the Men in Black movies.
The thing is there are so many good benefits to jamming.
Jamming is great for the brain.
It’s fun, it can be impressive, it’s a good place to try out ideas, and when you get a good jam “template” you can keep building upon it forever.
The good news is jamming needn’t be too hard.
Over the last year, I’ve taught lessons in my membership programme on jamming triads, “Carulli Chords”, and more.
Now though, I want to share with you a lesson on moving open chords up and down the neck in a specific way.
In short, there are five chord shapes (that most people know) that you can do wonderful things with around the fretboard.
Do it wrong and it can sound weird, dissonant, and strange.
…But do it right and it can sound lush, inspiring, and mesmerising.
In one of the new Dan Thorpe Acoustic Academy lessons (out on Thursday), I cover this topic.
I’ve seen lessons like this taught by others, but, unfortunately, they don’t really give you many specifics – they tend to just give you “wishy-washy” ideas.
In this lesson though, I give you plenty of ideas but also two concrete examples for each chord shape to jam.
One fingerpicked, and one unique to each chord and its flavour.
If you like jamming, this is an exciting lesson.
To get the lesson when it’s out on Thursday, you can join at the link below:
The Dan Thorpe Acoustic Academy
Dan Thorpe
Guitar Domination
P.S. DTAA member Bily said this recently on a Facebook post of mine:
“If you’re serious about learning not only the guitar but the approach then get off the bus and come on board. Dan is absolute class and doesn’t blow his own trumpet. Just to follow his monthly exercises is an experience. Then go back and play one of your songs and see the difference Top Man.”
P.P.S. This post was originally taken from Dan Thorpe’s private email list. To get blog posts like this sent to you which are full of great tips to make fingerpicking, strumming, and learning guitar more enjoyable (especially if you are over 40) join Dan’s list. It’s 100% free, HERE.
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