Substitute Chords – B with a detuned E

By Andy@Musicademy | March 31, 2009

Substitute Chords – part 7 This next little trick is again about playing in the key of B without barre chords or a capo but this time uses all the open strings and gives you some great new voicings simply by detuning the top E (string 1) down 1 semitone or a ½ step to D#. […]

Ask the Expert – why won’t my guitar stay in tune?

By Andy@Musicademy | March 28, 2009

Andy Shaw, a worship leader from New Malden in the UK emailed saying: “Can I ask a question about keeping your guitar in tune when playing live. I play electro-acoustic, normally a jumbo Tanglewood. Often, I tune up the guitar for rehearsal but once I have been playing for a while, the strings have gone […]

Substitute Chords in B

By Andy@Musicademy | March 27, 2009

In this little mini series we’ve looked at substitute chord shapes taken from our Acoustic Intermediate worship guitar DVDs that with help you find some easy one finger changes and hopefully inspired you to you use some different voicings with different sounds. Now let’s look at a key that most guitarists shy away from unless […]

Substitute guitar chords in A

By Andy@Musicademy | March 16, 2009

Substitute Chords – part 5 Before we check out some chord subs in typically awkward keys like B lets look at the last of the open keys. A is very similar to E and in some situations you can readily swap the shapes between these two keys. You will also have seen most of the shapes come […]

Substitute guitar chords in E

By Andy@Musicademy | March 10, 2009

Substitute Chords – part 4 After exploring some substitute shapes in G, C and D now let’s look at the key of E. In E some of the shape move away from the first position and start to explore the dusty end of the fret board.  For instance the very first shape (E) is actually the […]

Substitute guitar chords in D

By Andy@Musicademy | March 7, 2009

Substitute Chords – part 3 In the last two posts we looked at alternative chord voicings in the keys of G and C. Now let’s look at my favourite set of shapes which is for the key of D. I’m a big James Taylor fan and many of his songs use these exact voicings so if […]

Substitute chords for the key of C

By Andy@Musicademy | March 4, 2009

Substitute Chords – part 2 Previously we looked at a whole range of chords you can get nice alternative voicings with in the key of G. For many players once they start using these G based chords they simply put on a capo for other keys and never learn any other shapes again! This is a […]