This post is my goof on those too good to be true ” miracle secret to overnight success” courses you see advertised from time to time. Anything works if you lower the bar enough! Consider the following:
– Use the 1st finger to play an open string “power chord”, with the root on the 4th, 5th, and 6th strings. A power chord is a perfect 5th interval, really just a 2 note piece of a chord. It’s used a lot in rock and pop music and abbreviated with a 5 (E5 is a power chord).*
E5 A5 D5
02xxxx x02xxx xx02xx – strings/ frets
This will give you the 3 main chords in the key of A; A, D, & E. This is perfect for a 12 bar blues like Johnny B Goode, Crossroads, Tush or about a million more songs. If you don’t limit yourself to a 12 bar blues these three chords will work for even more songs. from oldies like Louie Louie and Wild Thing to punk rock like Blitzkreig Bop or country songs like Your Cheatin heart or Family Tradition. Just type in ” 3 chord guitar songs ” in your search engine.
Bonus! If you have a capo* you can play all 12 keys using the 5th string as the root of the key. Choose your key, find the root on the 5th string fret and clamp your capo on that fret and play the same 3 power chords. Away you go! True, you will mostly sound like a drunk hamster playing ukulele on the higher frets but you’re playing the guitar with 1 finger in 10 minutes! You’re Welcome!
The next post will be about capos…
*Both power chords and capos are explained in more detail in my beginner book, “No Fail Guitar”, available on Amazon.
