The key to learning music well is to use your ears. Don't forget that music is about sound and listening so this part of your guitar study will help you a lot more than you will realise initially.

REMEMBER to stop the vid right after the chord you are trying to identify because...

The Last Thing You Hear, Stays In Your Ear!

Take it slow and don't expect results too quickly, it will take some time develop your listening skills.

Chord Quality Recognition (CQR)

We are still working out if chords are major or minor. I will be playing either D or Dm and you have to work out if the chord played is Major or Minor - so that is all I want you to write down! Try and listen for Happy (Major) or Sad (Minor). Like everything else it's going to take practice, but you can do it yourself too - just play D and D minor and listen closely to the differences. Try playing A and A minor too. Listen for the feeling in the chord. After a while it should be very obvious!

Sound Palette: Major or Minor (static root note)

JUSTIN-3-1-CQR by justinguitar

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Single Sound Recognition (SSR)

Now it gets a little harder because our palette is a bit bigger - but you can do - just remember to pause! Right after I play the chord and you pause, start playing your guitar and figure out what chord I played. This is a big deal and will really help you start working out songs on your own, because it's the same process. It's a really cool skill to develop and it's nowhere near as hard as you might think.

Chord Palette: E, A, D, Em, Am, Dm, G, C

JUSTIN-3-2-SSR by justinguitar

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Chord Progression Recognition (CPR)

Working more on working out our chord progressions, the same as we have been working on already, still just one chord per bar, with 4 strums on each. Remember you will pause the track after the chord you are working on. Don't try and listen to the whole progression and work it out. That is real crazy hard. Just take it one chord at a time, write them down and then once you got it, try and play along and check it's right. Then and only then, should you check your answers!

Chord Palette: E, A, D, Em, Am, Dm, G, C

JUSTIN-3-3-CPR by justinguitar

1. |__________|__________|__________|__________|
2. |__________|__________|__________|__________|
3. |__________|__________|__________|__________|

 

 

 

Only look at the answers if you really have to! Find them here.

 

HELP!!!!

If you need to ask a question about this lesson - there is a topic set up specifically to help you with this lesson. To help you find it easily you can click the following link and it will take you right the topic. You'll be able to see questions that other people had and ask your own questions! Hopefully one of the very helpful members of our community will be there to help you soon, I do go there and answer stuff too - but there are just too many questions for me to answer alone! So click this link to get help with this lesson!

Justinguitar Beginner's Products

I have four great beginners products that will help you make the most of this course. Most popular is The Justinguitar Beginners Songbook which contains 100 songs arranged by difficulty that perfectly match up with each level of the course. Many people told me they like books more than web pages so we've made The Justinguitar Beginners Course Book (comes with 2 x CD's too!) and many people found being online to watch the videos a pain so we offer The Justinguitar Beginners Course DVD which also means you can watch the vids in much better quality. Together they complete the whole online course and are perfect when there is no internet connection!! Also very popular is Practical Music Theory for those that like to know what they are doing and why!! It covers very basic theory in an easy to digest way and puts it onto the guitar! They are all available in Bundle Packs too where you can save a bunch of money!! Buying products and making donations help keep the site free and growing! :)