Help for a beginner who can't be ass'ed to learn properly

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

Just learn the chord positions up the neck and "eventually" the tunes will play themselves......

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

To the 94 people that bothered to look at this post, did it help any of you??? response is the lifeblood of this forum positive or negative even if its only sympathy I will still take it..........

[bazmusicman]

Hi John,

Yes indeed it doe's help, please keep them coming. I have been looking at your 'help videos' for some time but I have only just took delivery of my first PSG a week ago.

As I am left handed Ronnie Bennett has took the trouble to make me a lefty PSG so this is the first PSG that I have sat behind, but due to other things since I received it I haven't had much chance of any seat time.

For the last 18 months I have been 'plonking' on a 8 string lap Steel and been doing what you said about playing along using different chord positions etc. for different voicing's.

At 76 I am a bit of a late starter for PSG.....but I thought 'nothing ventured nothing gained' .....it's gonna' be fun!

Regards,
Baz.

[Willie Gamble]

Excellent stuff there John, at our meetings at Gartcosh I keep banging on about chord inversions, and how it helps you get up the neck in a more melodic fashion, which is a great boon to playing tunes.I call it the " zero,three four five" eg in key of G
Zero = fret 3 no pedals.= G
Move up 3 frets A pedal F lever ,= G
Move up 4 frets A&B pedals = G
Move up 5 frets no pedals = G
This principal will work in any key.
I enjoy all of your videos John, you do not bad for only been playing for a fortnight
Asleep at the steel

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

There you go ! you nubies,,,, Willie has nailed it in a slightly better fashion, if you can copy that instruction going both up AND down the neck until you can do it smoothly in any key then you are cooking with gas and you will be able to play half as good as Willie!
Next thing after you have cracked that, still go up the neck playing and thinking those same chords but just pick two strings say 3 and 5 and see where that takes you,,,,,, turnarounds and intros will appear like magic ..... put the seat time in it is so worth it!

[simon_f3]

John, you are a legend as always! Sorry it's taken me a while to reply, but thank you once again for these videos, which are solid gold for people like me.

I have to say, the knowledge of the different chord inversions has opened so many doors for my playing. It also really helps with trying to work out what chord I am playing when copying someone else from a video...

A thing that really helped me with the theory side was working out what the levers and pedals do in relation to the notes of the chord, e.g. for a G at 6th fret (A pedal plus F lever), the A pedal raises F to G, and the F lever raises Bb to B. So then you can get an easy 7th by releasing the A pedal, or a minor by releasing the F lever.

Can anyone recommend a similar trick for minor chords please? So far I have found (for example) E minor on the 3rd fret with A pedal, 8th fret with E lever (Es lowered), or 10th fret with B and C pedals. Are there any more that I have missed? My guitar also has RKL to lower the 6th string, so I can get a minor on the 'open' position for the major chord in an emergency

Thanks again John, and look forward to catching up soon,

Sid

[Danny Mitchell]

Hi Sid, totally agree with you, John is the Legend of our forum. Thank you, John.

As for your 'minors' query. I've got one to add, A&B down with whatever lever drops B to Bb, on my GFI it's my LKV and on my old Carter Starter(apologies to John ) it was RKL.

[Haddock]

Danny beat me to it Sid. I’ve also got the B change on my vertical and sometimes its a smoother change sliding from your 3rd fret e minor to the 7th fret one with A B and V. Then of course, anywhere there’s a 6th chord there will be a minor (m7) lurking somewhere. A and B on the 10th is also Em7 on 7, 6 5 4.
I’m a big fan of your ‘emergency’ minor as on 12 string, its the ‘Mighty Minor’ with a low root. For years I had this on a feel stop so that I could hit it without doing the split with B but then realised earlier this year that I couldn’t remember the last time I shoved the lever the whole way so I tuned it out and RKL gives me a no fuss minor.
Cheers
Calum

[hickenjr]

As basic triad minors go when using a 3x4 setup.

E lower (only) on your triad groups
+ 2 Frets with B and C
+ 5 Frets with A

These are the basic ones to flow with and then you start delving into less conventional strings groups and extended minors.
Just remember, you can harmonize a lot of these with harmonized scales. I've always struggled with minor chords (especially 1m or full blown minor keys) but recently its clicked (ish).

For people with more than 3x4 see below.

The half tone lower knee lever on 5 and 10 will flatten your "third" interval when pedaling in with A and B which gives you a minor and also, some people also lower their open 3rd and 6th string a half tone which also gives gives you a flat third. In relation to the fret board...well I'm currently on my lunch break so I don't have time to come up with this.

There maybe more for others to chime in with. Most of the other's start to become extended chords though like minor 7s.

[bob adams]

I put this together about seven or eight years ago to assist new players, I seem to recall there was one minor mistake on it but I can't remember where, I'm sure some of you will have great fun trying to find it!!!

This puts some of what the guys are saying here into visuals.