Cool Guitar Chords Lesson – Play Awesome Chords On Guitar
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In this guitar article...
I show you awesome guitar chord ideas that:
1. are simple to learn and play without a lot of practice
2. help you create new song ideas quickly and easily (so that - even if you never considered yourself a songwriter - you may start to get inspired to create your own songs)
3. sound very impressive and ‘advanced’ to anyone who hears you play guitar
And after I teach you these guitar chords...
I’ll show you other cool techniques of playing guitar chord progressions that improve your songwriting ...
... make you more creative...
... and help you sound more pro.
(Even if guitar is just a hobby for you.)
EMAIL TO GET ACCESS
By submitting your info, you agree to send it to Tom Hess Music Corporation who will process and use it according to their privacy policy.
To begin...
Watch this video packed with cool guitar chord ideas you can use to create awesome guitar chord progressions right away:
Now, let’s go deeper. Here are 5 more guitar chord playing ideas that level up your guitar playing fast.
Tip #1 For Playing Cool Chords For Guitar Players: Use (Better) Voice Leading
Most guitar players think cool guitar chords are all about fancy shapes.
But what actually makes chords on guitar sound smooth and musical… is how they move from one shape to another via voice leading.
What is voice leading?
It’s how each note inside a guitar chord moves to the next chord.
When the notes move in steps (1 or 2 frets on your guitar), the chord progression sounds more connected and emotional.
Watch this video to see voice leading in action:
Professional songwriters and composers use voice leading to make their music sound amazing.
Poor voice leading can make even the coolest guitar chord sound random or awkward (if that chord is not smoothly connected to the guitar chord that came before or after).
But even if you have no interest in songwriting, great voice leading makes a simple guitar chord progression sound way more advanced than it is.
How do you use voice leading with chords on guitar?
Start by looking inside the chord shapes you already know.
For example: let’s say you play a G major chord, followed by a C major chord.
Instead of jumping from the standard open C from an open G major chord…
Play the G chord by fretting the 7th fret of the low E string, 5th fret of the D string and the 7th fret of the G string…
Then, simply move the B note (on the 7th fret of the low E string) up 1 fret and the D note (7th fret of the G string) up 2 frets.
That’s voice leading - thinking about how the notes in your first guitar chord move into the next one and moving between the chords in the smoothest way possible.
Now try this for yourself:
Pick any 2 chords for guitar that you already know.
Now ask yourself: “What is the smoothest way I can connect them?"
(Tip: look for different places on the fretboard to play the notes of the chords and try as many different fingerings as you can think of).
Practice this a little each day (with any guitar chords and riffs you know) and you’ll be amazed how cool your guitar chord progressions begin to sound.
Tip #2 For Playing Cool Chords For Guitar Players: Don’t Use Only Simple Triads
There are 7 notes in a (standard) major or minor scale.
But when you build your typical major and minor guitar chords, you’re only using 3 of those notes.
This means there are 4 scale notes left that you can add to standard triads (3-note chords) to create cool guitar chord progressions.
Here are some ways to do this:
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Idea #1: add 1 extra note. Take any (major or minor) chord (e.g. A minor with notes A C and E) and add any one of the remaining notes in the A natural minor scale (B D F G) to the chord.
Pay attention to how each variation sounds and how much you like (or dislike) the sound.
Idea #2: add 2 (or more) extra notes. Same idea as above, only now we’re adding several notes at a time.
Idea #3: omit some notes (except the 3rd). For example: add the 9th (the 2nd note of the scale 1 octave higher) and the 7th, but omit the 5th.
Idea #4: vary the spacing of the notes. Don't just play all the notes of the chord in the span of 1 octave. You can put the 3rd (and/or the 5th and/or the other extensions you add to your chords on guitar) 1 or more octave higher than the lowest-sounding note when you play guitar chord progressions.
Idea #5: use inversions. You can play guitar chords in root position (with the root of the guitar chord as the lowest-sounding note). You can also play chords on guitar in 1st inversion (where the 3rd of the chord is the lowest-sounding note)… 2nd inversion (where the 5th of the guitar chord is the lowest-sounding note)… and – if playing 7th chords - you can also play guitar chords in 3rd inversion (where the 7th of the guitar chord is the lowest-sounding note).
Any one of these variations helps to create new sounds as you play chords on guitar. (None are better than others - they are just different.)
Idea #6: use inversions combined with extensions. Yes, combine the previous ideas.
Idea #7: use unusual note spacing in the chord. For example: play the highest sounding note of the chord on the G or B strings, letting the high E string ring open. This means the high E string (which, typically, is the highest-sounding pitch of any guitar chord is now not the highest note).
You can hear a great example of this last tactic in guitar chord progressions of John Petrucci’s tune Glasgow Kiss.
Question: “Tom Hess, what’s the best way to figure out and remember the names of these chords I come up with during this step?”
Answer: For now, it doesn't matter. Focus on the process of exploring new ways to play chords for guitar and creating cool guitar chord progressions. Understanding and memorizing the chord names can come later (and that is something a good guitar teacher can help you with).
Tip #3 For Playing Cool Chords For Guitar Players: Use Rhythm In Creative Ways
Just like it sounds, the idea here is: make the rhythm of your guitar chord progressions more creative.
The best way to do this is to separate the process of creating rhythm ideas from the guitar chords themselves.
Like this:
- clap a rhythm with your hands until you find a rhythm idea you like. The rhythm becomes the backbone of your guitar chord progression. (You can add the guitar chords themselves later.)
- write out a rhythm on paper (or in a tab editor like Guitar Pro) to achieve the same goal. (The rhythm ideas you're likely to come up with taking this approach will be different… that is why this approach is listed separately.
- enter a steady stream of 8th notes into Guitar Pro (for 6-8 measures) and randomly delete some of them (replace them with rests). This forces you to create guitar rhythm ideas you'd never have created any other way (and makes your guitar chord progression sound very unique as a result).
After you come up with rhythms that sound good without any guitar chords, it'll be so much easier to create cool guitar chord progressions with them.
This approach is no different than lead guitar phrasing. The mistake many guitar players make is only focusing on the notes they play to add all the creative interest to the guitar licks and guitar solos they play.
Few guitar players think to vary the rhythm of the notes, by either:
- unpredictable rhythmic groupings (such as playing guitar licks over the bar line)…
- or using rubato (where you compress or stretch the time as you play), like this:
But guitar players who do think about the rhythm of their guitar licks and solos? They have a far easier time creating lead guitar ideas that sound awesome and pro.
Tip #4 For Playing Cool Chords For Guitar Players: Create Variations On Riffs From Songs (And Guitar Chord Progressions) You Like
True story:
When I started playing guitar in January 1986, my dream was to learn my favorite guitar solos and play them exactly like the record.
But in mid 1987, after I FINALLY nailed the solo in “The Green Manalishi” by Judas Priest...
I began to dislike some of the phrasing choices in the solo.
I asked myself if I could do “better” and started tweaking the licks to my liking.
As years went by, I did this more and more with almost every piece of music I learned.
Some might scoff at me “violating” sacred guitar solos.
But I call this idea: “musical refinement”.
It’s where you take a pretty good guitar lick or solo and make it sound “better” (whatever that means to you).
Through the years, I’ve developed dozens of guitar soloing and creativity secrets just like this.
(They have allowed me to not only develop ‘my own’ style, but also help thousands of guitar players develop theirs and take their skills to pro level.)
And believe it or not…
This approach applies to playing chords on guitar as well.
You can take any guitar riff from a song (your own or someone else's) and ask yourself: how might you play it better?
This could mean:
- Changing one (or more) of the guitar chords in the chord progression (while keeping the rhythm the same)
- Changing the rhythm of the riff (while keeping the chords the same)
- Changing the voice leading of one (or more) of the chords in the guitar chord progression
- Doing 2 or more of the above
The idea isn't to create a better version of the riff (or the guitar chord progression), even though you might…
…it's to help trigger more ideas than you'd get trying to create guitar chord ideas from scratch. It also helps you avoid writer's block.
Tip #5 For Playing Cool Chords For Guitar Players: Study Music Theory And Learn Your Fretboard
The more you understand how music works and the better you can visualize your guitar fretboard…
… the easier it becomes to find cool chords for guitar and create awesome-sounding chord progressions.
And no…
Music theory does NOT hurt your creativity as a guitar player. It also doesn't create rules around what music you can and cannot play. Music theory simply explains why the songs (and the guitar chord progressions) you like sound good to you, so you can create cool guitar chords and have way more fun as a musician.
Watch this video to learn more about all the awesome ways studying music theory helps your guitar playing:
Now that you know how to play cool guitar chords, I want to show you how to transform the rest of your guitar playing and help you reach your musical goals faster than you ever thought possible. I can do that for you in my personalized Breakthrough Guitar Lessons.
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... and I create guitar lessons that help you reach your goals lightning fast. And as you practice, I give you a massive amount of feedback, help and support every step of the way to help you improve and enjoy the process. Thousands of my guitar students are now playing better than they ever thought they could. And you can be next.
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