4 chord rock n roll in C Major – Lesson 8

Subjects Covered

• Chords
  • 50s rock in C (C, a minor , F , G)
• Scales
  • The C major scale on the 7th fret
• Musicality
  • Mixing the major pentatonic and the blues scale
• Exercises
  • Volume exercises, the new pentatonic scaleand more chord picking patterns

The main points for this whole course are

• keep your hands relaxed
• keep your guitar in tune
• play in time, with the rhythm
• musicality always beats technicality
• practice too slow instead of too fast
• play along to records whenever you can
• play with other people whenever you can

Overview

This shows you how to play the following chords: C major, A minor, F major, and G major.  Remember to check out the guide notes.  It makes it easier to switch chords. Basically, when you change chords you still keep one of your fingers on the same note. This helps you find the next chord.

Also, this lessons shows you some different ways to play a C major pentatonic and a C major scale.  This will help you in the future when you want to find your way around the fretboard!

Hope this helps.  Video and audio coming soon once I get a video camera!

Chords – 50s rock in C

Points to remember:

• keeping the rhythm is more important than playing all the notes
• play in time
• use the guide notes – keep your first finger planted until the last chord (G major),then use your pinky from the 3rd to the 4th chord.
• The progression is C Major, A minor, F major, G major

C Major	A minor
F major	G major

The C major pentatonic scale on the 7th fret – a new pattern

There are other ways to play the same scale. In this case we are going to learn a new pattern to play the C major pentatonic scale. Remember that with the old pattern we played the C major pentatonic on the 5th fret.

Old C major pentatonic on 5th fret

This is the form we have been using for quite awhile.

New C major pentatonic on 7th fret

This form is the same as G major pentatonic scale that we used in the last lesson. It is just on 7th fret instead of the 2nd fret.

The C major scale on the 7th fret

This is like the C major pentatonic scale on the 7th fret, but with a few more notes.

Musicality

1. Make a solo that sounds like a melody to a 50s rock n roll song.
2. Remember to add changes in volume to accentuate different notes.

Exercises

Picking pattern

Take the 50s chords in C and play the following:

One note per beat:

Chord : C

Strings : 5 , 4 , 3 , 2

Chord : a minor

Strings : 5 , 4 , 3 , 2

Chord : F

Strings : 4 , 3 , 2 , 1

Chord : G

Strings : 6 , 5 , 4 , 3

If you can do that, then play two notes per beat and repeat each pattern twice

Remember : play slowly and in time!