The British Steelies Society

Hi all,my lessons have started again after a short break,and I'm now learning three chord tricks..they will really help me with playing I think.

How did you get on with the Memory tab?

Hi my tutor said it's easy enough so we're going to work on it over the next few weeks thanks.
I'm also going to concentrate on learning the 3 chord tricks.What's your opinion on them?

Hi mate. Not quite know what you mean by three chord tricks.

Just googled it and quite basic. Didn't know they call it a trick. A good starting point for all guitarists is to learn the three basic chords in any given key and also the relative minor. Essential stuff. Also learn the scale in any given key in chord form.

Hi,my tutor is an experienced guitarist-but doesn't play lapsteel-and the 3 chord tricks are standard stuff,think Status Quo etc.
They are certainly helping me to learn my way around the fret board.

Don't forget the secondary dominant. Sorry, wash mouth with green soap....

This little "trick" crops up in a bazillion songs, especially country. You will need to master it. The dominant is the 5th, so in C you are talking about G, or G7 if you use the dom7 instead. If you go to the dominant of the dominant (the dominant of G is D) that's the secondary dominant.

So, whereas in C you'd normally use Dm, if you go to D major instead it bounces you to G, which bounces you back to C. You can follow that ad nauseam:

You can go to E from C. E is the dominant of A, so go next to A, which bounces you to D, thence to G, then back to C. This trick lies at the heart of so many non-trivial chord sequences in popular music, so it's the next step after the three-chord trick. If you can make sense of it you will find a whole new field of stuff opens up for you like a flower.

Look up "circle of fifths" - it shows all the different keys around a circle, starting with C at the top. All the sharps going clockwise, all the flats going anti-clockwise. They meet in the middle. For a fifth(dominant) go clockwise, for a fourth go anti-clockwise. You can see how changing from C to E, for example, can bring you back to C just by walking back around the circle, one step at a time.

Basil will now step in and correct me in a million tiny ways, as befits the master of harmony theory, but this is essentially correct and a really useful tool to have in your toolbox.

Thanks Will,that's great information.

I didn't understand a word of that - except for the circle of fifths.

That sounds like real cool stuff Will, didn't understand all of it, or rather I need to test it to understand it...nothing wrong with your description of it though.