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© Copyright 2016 Australian Guitar Academy

This Top Secret Codex belongs to _______________.

Keep it in your practice folder. Bring it to training with you. It contains:

1. Surf Blues in G

2. Yellow Rockin’ Riffs 3. Smooth Chord Changes

4. Eighth Note Rhythms 5. Yellow Repertoire

6. Yellow Warm Down


1. Surf Blues in G

Ways to End Songs

1. Decelerando – Gradually reduce speed toward end.

2. End on first note or chord. 3. Hit that note/chord once, twice, three or more times.

4. End on last note or chord. 5. Tremolo pick or strum last note or chord, then let it ring

out for a while, then hit it one last time, then slide out.


2. Yellow Rockin’ Riffs

Peter Gunn Louie Louie

Bat Man Walk Don’t Run

Seven Nation Army Another One Bites the Dust

Satisfaction Sunshine of Your Love

Cocaine Mission Impossible

Iron Man You Really Got Me


Bad to the Bone Wild Thing

All Day and All of the Night Billy Jean

Eye of the Tiger

Smoke On the Water

Breaking the Law

Waltz Blister In the Sun


3. Smooth Chord Changes

Introduction

Beginning guitarists often have difficulty making smooth chord changes. When I teach beginners

their first few chords, I usually approach it with a number of basic steps. Keep in mind that the

steps should be tackled in a “non-linear” kind of way. This means that you should not try to perfect

Step 1 before making an attempt at Step 2 and you should not try to perfect Step 2 before trying

Step 3 and so on. Practice Step 1 for a while. Then, even if you haven’t perfected it yet, have a go

at Step 2, then Step 3, etcetera. Then, in your next practice session, begin at Step 1 again,

working through the several steps until you feel like you have gone far enough. Eventually, you will

be so confident at Step 1 that you will be able to begin at Step 2. Shortly after that, you will be

able to begin at Step 3. At some point, all these steps will be completely integrated into your skill

set and you will be able to continue moving onward with your progress. If you have trouble

progressing steadily through these steps, don’t panic. I have plenty of strategies for breaking this

process down even further if necessary and making it even easier for students who need extra help,

but for now, just give these steps a try and see how you go.

Important: Don’t feel like you have to master these smooth chord changes in your first week. It

may take several weeks to train your fingers to move confidently between the chords and your

hands to work in synchrony with each other. There are plenty of other things for you to learn in the

mean time, with each new activity assisting in the development of the others.

Your First Three Chords

Step 1 – Check Each String Rings Clearly: Hold down each note in the chord, being careful to

ensure your fingers are only holding down the strings they are meant to be holding down and that

they are not touching any other strings that they are not meant to be touching. Then check that

each string rings clearly when plucked. Try this for the A chord shown below. Then try it for the D

chord and the E chord.

Note that the thick line at the bottom of each diagram represents the thickest string

on the guitar. This is called the Low E string. It is the lowest pitch on the guitar.

A black dot with a number 1 in it indicates where you should put your index finger.

A black dot with a number 2 in it indicates where you should put your middle finger.

A black dot with a number 3 in it indicates where you should put your ring finger.

A D E

1 2

3

4

T

You may also have noticed that some of the strings have an O next

to them, while others have an X next to them. The O means that you

should hit the open string, along with the strings that you are holding

down. The X means that you should NOT let the string ring at all so

don’t hit that string when strumming the chord.

Later in this course, you will see a black dot with a number 4 in it.

You guessed it! This is to indicate where you should put your pinky

finger.

We will also look at some chords which require you to wrap the

thumb of your fretting hand over the top of the guitar neck. This will

be indicated by a black dot with a T in it.


Step 2 – Build Muscle Memory: You will hear the term muscle memory a lot throughout your

guitar training. It refers to the process by which your fingers learn to move quickly and accurately to

where they need to go, without you having to think about it too much, or at all. Another term you

will hear frequently is isolation training. Many sports people use isolation training. A good example

is a swimmer. A swimmer often holds a board out in front of themself so that they can train their

legs to perform the precise kicking motion, without having to think about what their arms are doing.

Then they might let their legs dangle behind them while they concentrate on perfecting their stroke.

After they have perfected each movement in isolation they are much more ready to put the two

movements together without compromising their technique.

With this in mind, give your strumming hand (your right hand, if you are playing right handed) a

rest for now and just practice moving your fretting (left) hand between the chord shapes. Your

fretting hand is going to need to move from one chord to the next quickly and accurately so that you

can make smooth changes while strumming. Choose two chords to start with (i.e. the A and D

chords) and practice fretting each for just a moment, ensuring that each finger is on the correct

string and fret (nice and close to the fret), before moving to the next. Move back and forth between

these two chords several times, then try moving between two other chords (i.e. the A and E chords).

Finally, you can practise moving between the last combination of chords (the E and D chords).

Another term you will hear frequently during your training is economy of motion. Notice that for

both the E and the D chords, your first finger is on the third string. Therefore, rather than lifting all

of your fingers off the strings when changing between the chords, you should try to keep your first

finger on the string while moving the other fingers into place for each chord. Simply release the

pressure slightly for this finger and slide it into position, then place the other two fingers into their

positions. It might feel difficult at first, as your brain will tell you that the finger is in the way and

needs to get out of the way to let the other fingers move into place. But be persistent and you will

find that it becomes easier with practice.

Step 3 – Strumming Each Chord Once: Now that your fretting hand is moving more quickly,

smoothly and accurately between the chords, it is time to reintroduce your strumming hand. Again,

choose only two chords for this exercise. Strum the first chord once, with a down-stroke. Let it ring

for a while and be aware of whether or not you have mastered Step 1 (are all the strings ringing

clearly or are some of them dead?). Do NOT go back to Step 1 at this point, but stay focussed on

the Step 3 objective, which is to fret the chord and then strum it immediately. Also, don’t be in a

rush. Just let all the notes (strings) ring out for a little while and remember the name of the chord

(A, D or E) while allowing your mind to associate the sound of that chord with its name.

Now change to the other chord and strum it immediately, again with a down-stroke. Let it ring. Are

all the notes ringing clearly or are some strings dead? Name the chord in your mind and listen to the

quality of the chord. What does it remind you of? Use an adjective to describe the chord? Does it

sound strong? Bright? Happy? Warm? Pretty? Triumphant?

Now move back to the first chord and strum it immediately. As you repeat this process over and

over again, you will begin feeling more confident that you can move more quickly between each

chord. Go for it! Just make sure you are not rushing. Maintain an awareness of the sound of the

chords and whether or not each string is ringing clearly, but most of all, focus on eliminating the lag

between fretting the chord and strumming it. You want your fretting fingers to move swiftly to their

position in the chord shape and your strumming hand to strum the chord immediately. That is the

main point of Step 3.

Now that you are feeling quite confident moving between, and immediately strumming, the first two

chords, try this same activity for the next two-chord combination and then the next. Once you have

practiced all of these two-chord combinations a number of times, you can try moving through all

three chords in a row and then change the order of them. Stick with down-strokes only, for Steps 3

and 4.

Note: If this is your first time working through these steps, now might be a good time to move back

to Step 1 and repeat the process once before moving on to Step 4. You might even feel like a break.

That’s okay. Take a break and come back to Step 1. On your next journey through the steps, try to

continue on through Step 4. If you are feeling confident, then feel free to move on through Step 5

and beyond. If you need to begin at Step 1 again, there is no shame in that. It is best to work

through at your own pace.


Step 4 – Four-Four Time: You may have come across this symbol in sheet music or on chord

charts. It is called a time signature. There are many different time signatures but for now we will

focus on four-four time (also known as “common time”). In four-four time, we count 1, 2, 3, 4, 1,

2, 3, 4, over and over again. Now that you are aware of it, you will begin to recognise it in most of

the songs you hear on the radio. At first you will need to count as you play, but with time you will

be able to feel the four beats repeating without having to consciously count.

Now, choose two chords again. Strum the first chord four times and then, without leaving a long

silent gap while you move your fingers, change to the second chord and strum it four times. Make

sure that each strum rings out for the same length of time and avoid trying to play too fast. There

is nothing rhythmic or musical about strumming the chord four times, really fast, and then having

a great big silent gap while you try to find the next chord. IF this does happen, then you have two

choices:

1. The first, and most desirable, option here is to slow right down. Slow your count considerably

and let the chord ring slightly longer for each count 1… 2… 3… 4… Make sure the length of each

beat is the same. Nice and slow. This takes a lot of pressure off your brain and your fingers will

find it much easier to move to the next chord in time for the next strum.

2. If you have trouble playing this slowly, then it is time to return to Step 2 – Building Muscle

Memory – and keep training your fingers to move quickly between the chords.

Step 5 – The Open String Trick: Now that you understand and can feel four-four time,

strumming four down-strokes over and over again, let’s take a look at a symbolic representation

for this:

The next step in our process of learning to change smoothly between chords is going to

involve an up-stroke after the fourth down-stroke:

Now, after doing four down-strokes on the first chord, you are going to lift your fingers off the

strings, then do a small up-stroke (only hitting a few of the thinner strings, not all of the strings)

before putting your fretting fingers into place for the next chord and continuing on to the first beat

again with a down-stroke. Continue this over and over… 1 2 3 4 & 1 2 3 4 & 1 …

and over again. Once you are feeling fairly good with the first two chords, try the next two-chord

combination and the next. If you are getting pretty good at that then you are ready to tackle a song

or two. But in the mean time, go back to Step 1 and start incorporating these three new chords into

your arsenal.

Am Fmaj7 B7

The symbol underneath each number is called a

crotchet, technically, but we will call it a quarter note

because it takes four of them to fill up a four-four

bar. Also take note of the symbol, which represents a down-stroke.

Now we have three crotchets and two quavers, which

are half the size of crotchets. That means they last

half as long (or are played twice as fast). Let’s call

the quavers eighth notes, since it takes eight of them

to fill up a four-four bar. = Down Stroke. = Up Stroke.


4. Eighth Note Rhythms

In Step 5 of the Smooth Chord Changes document, we learned two rhythm patterns.

The first was simply four downstrokes: In the second, we added an upstroke:

We used the upstroke at the end of this second rhythm pattern to help make a smooth chord

change by using the open string trick. We will continue to use this open string trick to help us

make smooth chord changes, but now we will begin to add more upstrokes between the beats.

Below are two rules of rhythm. Like all good rules, we will be breaking them later, when we get

into much more advanced rhythm patterns, but for now, these two rules will help build a strong

foundation to your rhythm playing, so until stated otherwise, hold fast to these rules:

Rules of Rhythm Strumming

1. Down on the beat.

2. Hand keeps bouncing.

You will notice, as we work through the following rhythm patterns, that rule two helps you to

follow rule one. We want our hand to keep bouncing to the beat, so that our hand continues to

land on a downstroke on each beat. The beats are represented above by the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4,

while the off-beat, or upstroke, is represented by the & symbol. Below are some more rhythm

patterns for you to learn. Remember, also, while practicing them, that a quarter note lasts for a

full beat and an eighth note lasts for half a beat. The quarter note gets this name because it takes

four quarter notes to fill up a four-four bar. The eighth note gets its name because it takes eight

of them to fill up a four-four bar.

1 2 & 3 4 &

1 2 3 & 4 &

1 2 & 3 & 4 &

Once you feel that you have trained the right hand enough to play the rhythm patterns above, try

applying it to a pair of chords, as you did previously (an A chord and an E chord, for example).

Then try applying the rhythm patterns to a different pair of chords (i.e. A and D). Then apply it to

the last combination of chords (E and D). Once you are feeling confident moving smoothly

between these three chords, in any combination, while using these rhythm patterns, apply them

to the chord progressions that follow.

In Step 2 of the Smooth Chord Changes document, we

learned about isolation training and applied it to the

fretting hand. Now we will apply it to the strumming hand

by using muted strumming. Take your fretting hand and

rest all four fingers lightly against the strings around the

fifth or seventh fret. When you strum the strings, you

should hear a “dead” or muted sound. If you hear

something that sounds more like a chord or a bright

sound, then you are pressing too hard on the strings.

Relax your fretting hand so that it is resting very lightly

across all the strings.

By practicing muted strumming, we allow our brain to

focus only on what the strumming hand is doing, since we

don’t have to worry about moving the fretting hand

between different chords. This way, we can train the right

hand to develop the necessary muscle memory for strumming various rhythm patterns.


So far, we have used five different strumming patterns that can be made with combinations of

quarter notes and eighth notes. There are sixteen in total. They are listed below for your

reference. Try playing through them all with muted strumming and then applying them to the

chord progressions that you are learning.

Introducing Ties

This symbol is called a tie. When you see two notes “tied” together, it means that you

DO NOT hit the second one. Instead, just let the previous note or chord continue to ring for the

duration of the tied note.

( )

Do not hit the strings on this down stroke.

( )

Do not hit the strings on this down stroke.


5. Yellow Repertoire

Three Little Birds (in A) (Straight Feel) by Bob Marley

Chorus X2

A A D A : Verse

A E A D

A E D A

Return to Chorus

Three Little Birds (in E) (Straight Feel) by Bob Marley

Chorus X2

E E A E : Verse

E B7 E A

E B7 A E

Return to Chorus

Timeless Classic (Straight Feel) Traditional

E A E A E B7 E

E A E B7 E A E B7

E A E A E B7 E

4

4

4

4

4

4


Johnny B Goode (Straight Feel) by Chuck Berry

A A A A

D D A A

E E A A :

12 Bar Blues (in E) (Shuffle Feel) Traditional

E E E E

A A E E

B7 A E E :

Spirit in the Sky (Shuffle Feel) by Norman Greenbaum

Riff 1

A5 A5 D C A5 A5 D C

Verse

: A A A D

D A E A :

Return to Riff 1

4

4

4

4

4

4


6. Arpeggiatin’ Chords

Exercise 1

Hold down an A chord and strike the strings, as shown. Move to a D chord, as shown.

Exercise 2

Use the open root note to help give your fretting fingers time to move to the new chord.

Exercise 3

Remember to begin very slowly and increase speed gradually, as your confidence increases.

Exercise 4

If you have to put one finger in place at a time, for now, that’s fine, but the goal is to get all fingers

into place at the same time.

Have fun training! And try to make up some of your own on the next page.


Your Pattern 1

Go on, have a go. You know you want to. Be brave. Keep it simple to start with and remember: It’s

okay to make mistakes.

Your Pattern 2

Now challenge yourself. Just stick with eight notes in each bar for now, to maintain a steady rhythm,

but try using some of the other chords you have learned now.

Your Pattern 3

You can even try writing the notes into the treble clef music manuscript, if you want.

Now try to make up some arpeggiated rhythm patterns on the fly.


7. Yellow Warm Down

This is very similar to the White Level Warm Down, but each new string begins with a new finger,

which is then followed by the rest of the fingers: 1 2 3 4; 2 3 4 1; 3 4 1 2; 4 1 2 3 and then begin

on the first finger again. You will also notice that once you have gone through all six strings, the

third finger stretches up one fret in order to move the pattern up to the next position on the neck.

Fingers 1 2 3 4 2 3 4 1 3 4 1 2 4 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 2 3 4 1 3

Notice also that when you get to the thickest string again, you squeeze the first finger up to move

from the second fret to the third fret, in order to move the pattern up to the next position on the

neck. If you continue this accurately all the way up the neck, then you will find yourself arriving at

the twelfth fret, as follows:

Again, squeeze your pinky up to the 13th fret and continue all the way back down through the

pattern until you complete the entire guitar neck.

…

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