Creative Fingerstyle Transformations

You've probably heard these four chords several times before; they're definitely a staple of popular music. We're going from the G to the D to the Emin to the C, also known as the I to the V to the vi (minor) to the IV. Don't let those numbers confuse or scare you - this is a simple chord progression that sounds beautiful from which several songwriters have created wonderful pieces of music with. Examples of songs using this progression are endless, but two that come to mind are "Country Roads" by John Denver and "Under the Bridge" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The grooves might be a little different, but this basic chord progression is the foundation.

So, here I'm going to show you a basic way of playing these chords, and then I'll show you a couple ways to inject some tasty embellishments into a chord progression such as this.

Let's look at the basic pattern for our I-V-vi-IV chord progression in the key of G. Feel free to play along with me here, and in the next video we'll break down the progression.

Let's look at some of the things we did in the basic pattern for our I-V-vi-IV progression in G. I'm keeping things simple here, using an open G chord shape to start things off. We then go to the "open" versions of the D, Emin and C chords as well.

When you're going through a set of chords in a progression, or doing anything on the guitar, make sure you're always relaxed without tensing your body. This will start causing problems for you!

With the right hand, you'll see that I've got a thumbpick on. I don't use fingernails, as I prefer the sound of the pad of the fingers. The pattern I'm using here is with the thumb and the first finger - picking with the thumb and finger, then a light strum up & down on the top strings. You'll see that I'm changing the note that I'm picking with the thumb over the D, Emin and C chords. This is an "alternating" bass pattern, something that you can get a lot of mileage out of!

Now, let's look at how we can embellish this pattern in the next video.

Here we've added in some embellishment to our basic pattern in key of G. We're building up a melody part throughout the chord progression, and starting to say something as we move through the chords. Check out the new pattern, and then move on to the next video where we'll break it down.

So, we start off by playing the G chord in a new position up the neck, which is a nice place to play it because you get an open string against the higher fretted notes. Then we move to a new D shape as well, which is just a two-finger chord at the 7th fret, played on the B, G and (open) D strings. Our Emin shape is played with an open E, no A string, and a trio of fretted notes at the 4th & 5th frets on the B, G & D strings. Then, we're just playing a two-finger version of C on the D & A strings, accompanied by a little chord move to give us some motion and resolving to our regular (three-finger) C shape.

Over the G shape, we're playing a little melody on top with the pinky, accompanied by a finger-roll with the right hand. You can really do whatever roll you want here! But, we'll look at exactly what I like to do in the video. Next, we slide down to the D, landing on the the pinky and ring finger on the B & G strings. The pinky is playing the melody here as well, moving up a fret and back within the right hand roll, and then we slide down again to the Emin shape. When we land there, I like to do a roll with the right hand instead of picking them all at once. There's a bit of a stretch to keep the melody going here, reaching over to the 2nd fret on the high E string. Then, we move on and finish up with our C shape chord move.

That's all it is! Go slow with this to work out the melody, you'll get it quicker than you think. When you're ready, I'll show you another way to embellish this progression and transform it yet again in the next video.

To wrap things up with our first progression, we'll work through another embellishment of the I-V-vi-IV progression in the key of G. We're adding more to the melody, accompanied by some hammer-ons and other techniques. Get the progression in your ear, and then move on to the breakdown when you're ready!