Welcome to More
Guitar Chords and Accompaniment! As a continuation of my
introductory book, Guitar Chords and Accompaniment (ISBN:
1-891370-10-3), this book goes into more detail about the areas
covered earlier and also introduces some new materials to help
expand your chord vocabulary and improve your accompaniment
skills. Although this book is a sequel and studying Guitar
Chords and Accompaniment first is highly recommended, it is
suitable for anyone who knows basic open chords, has a basic
understanding of music theory, and is able to read music.
Chapter 1 presents some music terms and
concepts that were not previously covered: changes of tempo,
dynamics, articulation, time signature, simple and compound meters
and chord symbols. This chapter has been newly added in
this revised edition not only to introduce you to some new music
elements and theory, but also to help you interpret and play music
with more insight.
Chapter 2 first briefly reviews how to read a
chord diagram and slash notation, and introduces you to several
muting techniques—methods to prevent unwanted strings from
ringing. Then the chapter presents new chords and strumming
patterns in various time signatures.
Chapter 3 continues to introduce you to more
new and advanced chords, along with new fingerstyle patterns in a
variety of meters such as 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 3/8, 6/8, 12/8, and 2/2.
In Chapter 4, you will learn how to transpose
various open and barre chords to different keys along the
fingerboard. You will first study several principles and
techniques for moving a chord, then numerous examples and
exercises will follow.
Chapter 5 will immensely expand your chord
vocabulary by presenting various alternative ways to play many of
the open and slash chords introduced in these two books.
Chapter 6 presents accompaniment examples for
various styles of music including blues, rock, folk, country,
classical, jazz, and Latin. The examples apply chords
and accompaniment patterns presented thus far, but also have been
carefully created and arranged to demonstrate how you can create
your own accompaniment for different musical styles.
Along the way, you may feel overwhelmed with
practicing and just thinking about conquering all the chords in
all positions and all keys. Don’t worry. You won’t need to
memorize or remember all the possible alternative forms of the C6
chord, for example, all at once. Select and practice only those
chord shapes that appeal to your ears. Or, you can refer back to
them whenever you are writing a song and need something different.
Gradually build and create your own favorite versions suited to
your needs over a period of time and as you pursue a particular
musical direction.
Good luck! I sincerely hope you will have a lot of fun and
further advance your guitar-playing skills by working with this
book!
