The Forgotten Guitar Chord You Aren't Using Video Lecture - Guitar Become

ever since my biological parents left me
at the skee-ball machine by
chuck-e-cheese I know what it's like to
feel forgotten which is why I'm not
gonna let that happen
to one of my favorite guitar chords
which is totally under used and you know
I'm talking about the minor 7 flat 5
chord sounds pretty fancy yeah that's
why it scares a lot of people but we're
gonna learn what it is where you can use
it maybe talk a little bit about why
it's underused so I myself am also
guilty of this but usually I talk about
the chords in the key I say there's six
main chords which is true all right so
let's take everybody's favorite key C
major and just go through the six main
chords there's three major ones and
three minor ones the three major ones
occur on the 1 4 & 5 of the scale c d e
f g a b and the minor ones crown the 2 3
& 6 so you go through and play them all
C major D minor E minor F major G major
a minor and then back to C major well we
said there's seven notes but those are
only six chords we're skipping B's chord
okay so the core that you'd make from
that if you just take the the notes from
the C major scale starting on B and
taking when you have a B right a D let
me go through CDE B D F I think you
going skip another one cdefg you a okay
so when you play it an order like that
sounds kind of awful but there's a place
for this so this is the chord that
occurs on the seventh degree of any key
or scale major scale B minor 7 flat 5
it's super easy to play it's way easier
than a lot of the chords even if you
root your pointer finger on the second
fret of the a string right here your
ring finger on the third fret of the D
string your middle finger on the second
fret of the g string and your pinky on
the third fret of the B string
you get this guy right here B minor
seven flat five totally movable shape
when you just play the inside four
strings C minor seven flat C sharp minor
seven one five now it is a mouthful to
say but learn to set it'll impress your
friends whatever this position we ease
it there bar chord right sometimes if
I'm like just kicking it trying to look
super impressive I will just keep my
hand in this resting minor seven flat
five position just kind of look what's
up generally people are impressed okay
now the sound of it is what is kind of a
turn off and why in a lot of genres of
music you don't see them that often
because there's a dissonance here right
a lot of the distance comes from the
very first interval that you'll find
these two notes together a B and that is
a diminished quality right there it's a
flat five I can't have that sound right
but once you add the rest of it in there
it actually sounds kind of melancholy
beautiful okay so this is how you play
the chord now where you use it it's
gonna be up to you but I'm gonna tell
you my two favorite places okay so I
like using it as a transitional element
between different chords generally from
the one chord to the sixth chord or the
six chord to the one chord so that means
in the key of C you've got the one chord
being C major the six chord is being a
minor now a lot of times a lot of songs
you'll see a transition between these
two chords all right now really very
often this B note gets used because
that's the note in the key between those
two chords a and C is it be in between
right but in a lot of instances you'll
see maybe like a slash chord where you
take the root note
[Music]
or a minor with a b c which is cool you
know it sounds good
that kind of descending type of thing
going on there but you're really just
changing the route known of what's
happening when a cool way to use that is
to actually instead of just making that
a transitional route no going from a c
major chord to an a minor chord put that
chord shape on there right so instead of
going see it with the B to a minor maybe
you could try going from C major to that
B minor 7 flat 5
in fact just say it just take a second
pause the video and just say B minor 7
flat 5 it sounds like you know what
you're talking about sounds like you
might be like a master a king or queen
of music theory just by uttering the
words B minor 7 flat 5 and thank you
found to make it even crazier B flat
minor 7 flat 5 I can't even I can't even
say B flat minor 7 flat 5 2 flats in the
same sentence it's tough to do I'm
working out of myself still please join
in join the party by using it as a seven
chord as a transition between the 1 and
the 6 or the 6 and the one that would be
an ascending way to do it from an a
minor okay really short and sweet it
just makes it really a little bit more
interesting in the meantime now really
you can use it wherever you want any of
those progressions you know maybe you go
from like a1 to a4 to a5
it's always gonna create a little bit of
dissonance that needs to be resolved by
the one chord okay now that's the
staying within the key another way that
I like to use it is maybe doing it in a
position using some notes that aren't in
that actual key and one way that I like
to use it and I've heard a lot of cool
songs I find interesting is maybe taking
it a minor third up from your root note
so again we're gonna stay in the key of
C you a minor third is always three
frets space ones
okay so third fret of the a string is to
see you whether you're playing to C bar
chord you can play in a C major 7 Barre
chord something like that three frets
higher we have this e flat or D sharp I
think that's actually kind of a cool
spot to put that same for right you can
kind of hear a little bit that fits in a
very interesting way to my ear okay
[Music]
okay so a minor third higher from the
root note of we're gonna resolve this is
an excellent place to put a minor seven
five five board really just experiment
finding your own intervals that you like
the sound of another cool place is
really if you want to resolve or use a
major seven chord voicing so again
sticking with c CU major seven it's a
great chord voicing an a string rooted
major chord major seven chord voicing is
a great thing that i use a lot that
maybe you should incorporate in your own
playing if you haven't done so because
again this is easier to play than a
barre chord i think that a string rooted
Barre chord is one of the hardest chords
to really get I get really really well
so one way to do it is take the third
fret of the E string the fifth fret of
the D string the fourth fret of the g
string of the fifth fret of the B string
that's the major seventh chord right C
major seven again all these are movable
shapes that we're talking about right
now now if you just take the root note
and you sharpen it you go one fret
higher everything else stays the exact
same that's how you can make that chord
voicing okay so I think one thing that
helped me in remembering a lot of these
chord voicings that I use in my playing
is by relating them to other similar
chord voicings so that's actually how I
kind of came about using this shape a
lot because I always use this major 7
shape and it's really just kind of an
alteration of thing so even though it's
a different chord name this would be
like a C sharp or a D flat minor 7 flat
5 in my mind's eye I'm seeing it's very
close to a major 7 chord voicing rooted
on the a string
you
[Music]
okay so just a couple different ideas of
maybe where you could use this but if
you haven't used minor seven flat five
chords I think it's def with something
you want in your chord vocabulary so to
speak because it's just so easy it's so
easy to play it's true negligence to not
be using this and a way that you can
find interesting so I hope you learned a
little bit about minor seven flat five
chords and put that in your memory banks
because they've been forgotten and
spoken over from for too long and again
from personal experience I know the back
and really you know alter your
confidence in a way so let's boost a7
chord on - seven flat five style I
really just spread with all there's joy
of the minor 7 flat 5 chord while you're
at it get your merch at the merch store
and hit me up in the comments section
with any questions or compliments that
you might have so until then I'll talk
to next time see ya