A NEW WAY TO NAVIGATE CHORDS Written by Rob Garland
One of the reasons my recent TrueFire course, Chord Navigator: CAGED Triads, seems to have struck a chord (pun intended) is that we guitarists play rhythm most of the time, get fed up playing the same old chord shapes, but forget to learn new ones! So with that in mind, here are a couple of ways to breathe new life into a simple I-IV-V chord progression (E-A-B) in the key of E. Figures 1-3 show E, A and B chords based around the common open position. Note that the B chord (Fig. 3) is played using the A CAGED shape with the B root note located on the 2nd fret, A string.
FIGURE 01
FIGURE 02
FIGURE 03
Now let’s move up the neck and locate another E chord voicing, this time using the C CAGED chord shape, as shown in Figure 4. Play just the ADG strings and you have the E root triad (E-G#-B), play the DGB strings and you’ll hear a 1st inversion triad, (G#-B-E) an E chord with the 3rd (G#) in the bass. Remember these are all an E chord!
RIFF
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