You're a beginner guitar player and you need to learn to play a difficult song FAST, (maybe for this weekend at the lake by the campfire, jamming with a new band, or perhaps because your church group asked you to play with the band on Sunday morning). What do you do?




Whatever the playing /performance situation, the first thing you need to do is STOP fumbling over difficult chords that are beyond your skill level. You're not going to learn them quick enough to be able to play the song if your skills are below the level required.

In this post, I’m going to run through the fastest way to be able to play any song by using a better chording alternative, it's called power-chording.

As a matter of fact, the power-chord alternative we are going to use is one of the easiest ways to play a song on guitar!

In the video and post below, I'll show you a trick for how to apply power-chording and I'll show you a real song exercise to demonstrate exactly how to get the job done most effectively using power chords.

WATCH THE VIDEO:



JAMMING SONGS THAT ARE TOO DIFFICULT:
In this post we’re going to talk about a situation that happens to a lot of my students. And, it’s something that can really cause a lot of stress. It has to do with “getting together,” and playing with others.

Whether the "tough situation" involves jamming new songs by the camp-fire, or performing a tough new piece with your church band, or maybe it's just jamming on a difficult song with a friend on a Saturday afternoon. Whatever it may be - what do you do if the chords are just too difficult.

I’m sure by now - many of you already know - it can take quite a while to be able to learn your basic chords on guitar. And, even though (as I’ve said in past videos), you can play almost 75% of the songs ever written with the basic open chords and a capo… still there’s quite a bit of practice involved with learning them (to a level where you can apply them in a song).

So, in this lesson I’m going to introduce a method that you can use to instantly play through any song with your friends at the beach, at church, at your next campfire – you name it! Best of all, this system works great and even better is it’s really easy to learn.




HOW TO DO THIS:
Alright, so doing this will involve two steps. The first step is that you’ll need to become aware of the notes on the guitars 6th and 5th strings, (up to at least the 7th fret of the fingerboard).

Since most guitar students start out by learning the notes in the open position, it’s the notes up the neck that can cause problems... But, you can learn note names up the neck rather quickly by memorizing the notes found at each marker-dot location.

From the 6th string at:
3rd fret, 5th and 7th, we get G, A, and B.



Then, on the 5th string from the: 
3rd fret, to 5th and then 7th we get C, D and E.




You can memorize these note names from the 6th string:
ascend with the sentence; “Go, Ask, Buddy.”




From the 5th string at 7th fret, move in the opposite direction:
Use the sentence, “Email, Don’t, Call.”



To learn those marker dot notes memorize the sentence:




After you become aware of the note names on the 5th and 6th string marker dots, you’ll need to understand that in-between those frets are the locations of sharp and flat notes.

Just keep in mind that all of the notes on the guitar have whole steps between them, except for “B to C” and, “E to F.” Those notes only have one fret between them.





THE "POWER-CHORD" SOLUTION:
The second step is to start practicing one of the easiest shapes played on the guitar. Now, you’re going to need to get really good at this shape because it’s the secret to playing any song in record time. It’s called the “Power-Chord.”


What’s great about the power-chord shape is it can function with as little as two notes. So, all you need to do in order to establish the fretting pattern of the power-chord is use just two fingers.

The lower pitch note is the Root of the chord and the higher pitch note is in harmony with the lower root. Power-chords are neither Major nor Minor, and they can be used as a way to cover any major or minor chord used in any song.

So, let’s run through an example of how you can play a chord progression in the key of, “A Major,” using nothing but power-chords.





APPLICATION EXAMPLE:
For our example, we're going to examine a play through of a key of, “A Major” progression.

The chord changes are; “A Major,” “D Major,” “F# Minor 7th,” and “E Dominant 7th.”



Although common, those chords could be tough shapes for a beginner guitarist… And, to be able to play those full chord shapes, you’d need to know both Open Position and Barre chords. And, that could be almost impossible for a beginner guitarist or intermediate player.

But, with "Power Chording," you could cover all of those chords nicely with just one easy 2-note power-chord shape. 

Here’s how that same chord progression would sound, but this time played with power-chords.




POWER-CHORD BREAK DOWN:









As you can tell, playing a chord progression using power-chords does not offer the full rich effects of the complete major and minor chord types. 

But, over time, (and with practice), you’ll eventually be able to develop all of those more challenging; major, minor and seventh chords in your open position, as well as, all across the guitar neck.

On my web-site, I have a free lesson on learning all of the basic open chords on guitar. And, it comes with an excellent handout with all of the open chords that you’ll need to know.

Have a look over that lesson if you need more practice on your basic chords.

The Basic Chords on Guitar:




Also, in my web-sites Members Area, the “Introductory and the Intermediate Guitar Programs” offer students a chance to really start learning everything about playing and using all of the important open chords, as well as, all the barre chords across the entire guitar neck.

If you’d like to learn more about what I do as an online guitar teacher - visit my website and start looking through my Guitar courses. There are dozens of lesson plans all with very detailed videos along with PDF worksheets that you can download and print out to start learning more about the guitar.

The lessons are all well planned they’re easy to follow – and they all work in a very organized way so that in the end, you’ll increase your knowledge of guitar, and you’ll be able to start incorporating higher end guitar skills for the music that you enjoy.





• VISIT THE WEBSITE:
If you’d like to learn more about topics like this one and many others, join my members site as a free member and start looking through my, “Guitar Courses.”

I’ve spent over 25 years working with hundreds of guitar students creating thousands of detailed step-by-step guitar lessons for both my website members and my private students.

The result is the most comprehensive guitar course that covers every aspect of beginner to advanced playing ideas to help you improve your playing.


• LIMITED TIME OFFER:
If you join my site as a Premium member, you’ll receive a FREE copy of my popular Guitar Technique eBook.

My Guitar Technique eBook is 28 pages of jam-packed exercises, drills and studies for mastering all of your technical skills at playing Guitar.