How to Connect Guitar Chords with Scales Video Lecture - The Ultimate Guitar

if you've ever been on Craigslist then
you know the missed connections section
is the saddest thing on the internet
which is really saying something but in
music miss connections can be just as
sad now what I mean by that when you
have like any kind of core like we'll
just take a really easy one a C chord to
a a minor chord there is a note in the
scale that you're in they can connect
those two and it can really it help
making your make your make your playing
sound a little bit different more
exciting give you more options on things
to do so in that key it happens to be in
this Beno right here 2a so anytime you
go from a CoA you can always connect
them with that note in between which can
sound good sometimes it can sound
annoying if it gets overused but there's
an easy way to find all the notes you
can possibly potentially connect chords
with and it all comes down to skills and
it's actually a really easy one because
you already know all these notes anyway
isn't and you know all these chords and
it'll make more sense once you see it
kind of laid out so we're gonna go in
the key of C and the chords in the key
of C are C major D minor E minor F major
G major and a minor those are the six
main chords and I'll leave a link in the
comment section if you want to see a bit
on how to find those and understand why
those are the six chords but we're just
gonna assume you know those are the
chords and see mine now our C major so
in that same scale the notes are e f g a
b c d e f g
ABCD so you can kind of think of it as a
handshape and really all you have to do
is just get this one section of notes
and get this down F G you don't really
even have to think about them I mean it
helps to know the names of the notes but
you don't have to think about them as
like an F and E and a G just think of
them as like open first fret third fret
and the 2nd string the a string would be
open two three open two three open to
open one three open you can use any of
those notes to connect to chords so
let's take chords that are farther apart
than just see an a let's take a gene and
maybe walk it walk it all the way up to
me and when I say walk like bass players
like take a walk what that means is
really just kind of like connecting
these chords with notes so I guess kind
of think like a bass player actually no
I take that back never ever think like a
bass player we're going to we're going
to take this G and walk in to a D so we
could take a G now the note after G is a
ABC
so you start with the G
you
and it kind of acts as like a glue to
connect those chords together and you
don't even have to connect different
chords to each other you can use just
the knowledge of knowing these notes to
kind of use with N one chord so for
example let's just take a regular C
major chord let's focus on the D string
and the C major so by that little scale
that we learned we know the D string is
open two three now get the notes to B D
F but more importantly is how you use
those notes within a C chord you can
actually just do this right now see you
in a C chord my middle fingers on the
two second fret of the D string
so I'm just kind of swapping out all the
notes on that string I'm just taking one
string at a time it can be kind of
overwhelming thinking of all six strings
and the different notes on each of them
so just take one string at a time and
just having like play around with it so
and then maybe when you get really
comfortable knowing that one string try
a difference right let's try the nice
turnout hey is ABC open two three any
chord that you use you can even use that
D minor chord
now every time you do this you're really
making a different chord like for the C
you're actually going from a c2 as C
suspended for to a C suspended to you
don't really even have to think of it
that way
just think of altering different chords
and then connecting them to each other
so I'll take a see it I'll alter it with
this
now you can do these in order ascending
or descending like if I was going to go
from an E minor chord all the way up to
a c4 I can go in order so you
the mg ABC
backward
or you can just kind of skip around like
you don't always have to go up and down
and that's kind of like the value in
scales in general you don't always have
to descend or descend a lot of people
will tell you to practice them like this
but that's just kind of like to get that
shape in your mind to really it use
scales in a way that isn't boring you
wanna be able to jump around within the
scale so like instead of an a minor
going back to it
you can kind of take a miner and play
around a little bit
and then just really learn all these
notes and then alter the chords you do
know and you can do them with pull-offs
and hammer-ons to make them sound a
little flashier
there I'm just taking a d-minor I'm
altering the high E string which is open
one career d-minor coop and every time I
do this I'm making a new core but the
name of the court isn't important it's
just does it sound good
now I also want to kind of talk about
how you can use bar chords and different
scale shapes to do that on an electric
guitar but first let's take a break look
at an actual Craigslist misconnection I
would like to chat more to the cashier I
met at the above store today I commented
on your figure as we chatted during my
purchase let me know if it's you by
telling me how you thought you were
gaining a pound or two and what happened
when I asked if the pan I was buying was
magnetic and how it affected you what if
the pan was magnetic and how it affects
you like how magnetism affections I
understand has that ever worked once
anyways
Craigslist connections check it out oh
it's good for laughs now electric guitar
we're gonna do is we're gonna use it
different chord shapes you probably
already know in the same key key C is
the a minor shape okay they probably
already know this shape that's just
starting and we're only gonna do the
first three string so five seven eight
on he five seven eight five seven so
this a mine and this stacks up right
next to C major which now my middle
fingers on the eighth fret every finger
gets its own friend eight ten seven
eight ten seven nine ten so two chord
shapes are to scale shapes or use those
same thing so we're going to start with
an E minor chord
we're then we're going to go to a minor
we're gonna go to E minor and then to C
major up here now what I'm going to do
is I'm going to take some of the rest of
this chord shape and C and inflect it
kind of like a little Jimmy chili
peppers thing all right so now here's
how we're going to connect these instead
just going me to end we're gonna add
some of the stuff we've learned we can
still use the open open one for you you
can still use those in combination this
and this so we'll take an E minor I'm
doing is I'm inflecting this a minor
chord with these notes in a scale and if
I want to I can add this G note which
remember efg in between zone
in any of these cars I can use in
between a there's the Beano right there
so the fg8
so I'm just using scales all I know
about is only three strings kind of add
so one two three four five six seven
eight four two five eight seven four
five eight seven I'm skipping some of
these I'm in the C shape I can kind of
just slide into the fifth note one two
three four five and then maybe if I want
to do like a flat seven like you back
your regular six major seven
so I'm just using it all of these scales
and they're just really simple ones you
probably already know the minor scale
and the major scale to connect the
chords and to play within those chords
and thus I'm getting a much different
guitars on the display
yeah
so all these shapes are not becoming
representative of the chord that I'm
using so never miss those connections
ever again