Major Chords for Guitar, Mandolin, Ukulele & Banjo, Sign Up for Series

It has been a busy winter at Acoustic Music TV, we have released several new books from our new Left Hand Chords, two new sheet music books, the update to Essential Chords and 3 new posters with Guitar, Mandolin and Ukulele chords. We also have a nice new series of free chord and music pages that you can sign up for and receive. Today we begin with releasing some these charts so you can see what is in the series and sign up if you like.

If you want to receive the series sign up over on the right in the sign up box. In the future we have a new songwriting workbook coming and blank sheet music journal.

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Left Hand Chords for Guitar, Mandolin, Ukulele and Banjo Now Shipping at Amazon

Left Hand Chords for Guitar, Mandolin, Ukulele and Banjo

We are pleased to announce the release of our newest music chord book Left Hand Chords for Guitar, Mandolin, Ukulele and Banjo.

Left Hand Chords for Guitar, Mandolin, Ukulele and Banjo is a left hand version of our popular chord chart book for the beginning music player, Essential Chords for Guitar, Mandolin, Ukulele and Banjo. Left Hand Chords contains fingering charts for guitar, mandolin, ukulele and banjo chords and a variety of other music charts for playing rock, folk, country and blues music.

Simple, clean, easy to read fingering charts for all players showing the 7 basic Guitar, Mandolin, Ukulele and Banjo chords, A-G for Major, Minor and 7th chords. Includes the I, IV, V chord progressions for each key. Plus movable Guitar fingerings for barre chords, arpeggio scales, and soloing scales for folk, country, rock and blues, and movable Mandolin arpeggio scales. Includes a variety of 4 and 5 string banjo tunings. The charts are designed to be easy to read and follow.

Left Hand Chords also includes blank sheet music and chord box pages for each instrument that you can photocopy. Each sheet music page has the lines spread apart for ease in writing down your music.
Left Hand Chords are based on instruments that have been restrung for left hand players.



Available at Amazon.com (affiliate link)

Key Left Hand Charts from Left Hand Chords

Below are several key pages for guitar, mandolin and ukulele from our new book Left Hand Chords for Guitar, Mandolin, Ukulele and Banjo

Seven Basic Left Hand Guitar Chords, Major, Minor, and Seventh Chords, A, B, C, D, E, F and G

Seven Basic Left Hand 2 Finger Mandolin Chords, Major, Minor, and Seventh Chords, A, B, C, D, E, F and G

Seven Basic Left Hand Ukulele Chords, Major, Minor, and Seventh Chords, A, B, C, D, E, F and G

NEW! Essential Chords for Guitar, Mandolin, Ukulele and Banjo, 2nd Edition

We are pleased to announce the release of our new 2nd edition of Essential Chords for Guitar, Mandolin, Ukulele and Banjo. Lots of changes and updates, new size, 4 and 5 string banjo chords, and we also have an iPad version.

Book Description
Essential Chords for Guitar, Mandolin, Ukulele and Banjo, Second Edition is an updated version of the original popular chord chart book for the beginning music player. Essential Chords contains fingering charts for guitar, mandolin, ukulele and banjo chords and a variety of other music charts for playing rock, folk, country and blues music. Now in a new, larger size, updated and with new 4 and 5 string banjo tunings, this is the perfect resource for every player.

Simple, clean, easy to read fingering charts for all players showing the 7 basic Guitar, Mandolin, Ukulele and Banjo chords, A-G for Major, Minor and 7th chords. Includes the I, IV, V chord progressions for each key. Plus movable Guitar fingerings for barre chords, arpeggio scales, and soloing scales for folk, country, rock and blues, and movable Mandolin arpeggio scales. The charts are designed to be easy to read and follow.

Essential Chords includes blank sheet music and chord box pages for each instrument that you can photocopy. Each sheet music page has the lines spread apart for ease in writing down your music.

Chord and Music Charts in the Book
• The Seven Basic Guitar Chords, Major, Minor and 7th

• The Seven Guitar Keys with I, IV, V and V7 Chords

• Guitar Barre Chords
• Major Movable Soloing Scale for Folk or Country Music for Any Key

• Minor Pentatonic Movable Soloing Scale for Blues, Rock or Latin Music

• Movable Arpeggio Scale for Any Guitar Key

• Guitar Power Chords

• Diminished Guitar Chords

• Augmented Guitar Chords

• Sus2 and Sus4 Guitar Chords

• Mandolin Chords, Major, Minor and 7th
• Mandolin Two Finger Chords

• The Seven Mandolin Keys with the I, IV, V and V7 Chords

• 2 Finger Mandolin Chords for a I, IV, V Progression

• Movable Arpeggio Scale for Any Mandolin Key

• Ukulele Chords, Major, Minor and 7th

• The Seven Ukulele Keys with the I, IV, V and V7 Chords in First Position

• Banjo Chords, 5 String, A, C, Double C, D and G Tunings Major, Minor and 7th

• Banjo Chords, 4 String, Standard, Celtic/Irish and Chicago Tunings, Major, Minor and 7th

• Blank Guitar, Mandolin, Ukulele and Banjo Sheet Music and Chord Boxes





Available at Amazon.com

Vamping and Getting Different Sounds on Your Guitar

We received this question today here at Acoustic Music TV:

I have a question ---- is there a way you can show how chord progression applies to vamping for playing back up chords to songs in different keys and maybe give examples or explain how this would work?

As I play the banjo.

Answer
HI, and thank you for your question. I know a little but not that much on vamping. What I tend to do is to find the same chord in a different place on the guitar or mandolin and play that, which are the instruments I play the most, I also use the relative minor chords, those work pretty well also for a different sound.  To play relative minor chords you play the chord that is 3 half steps down from the root of any major chord, this is the relative minor. So for G play Em, think G, F, Em, for C it is Am etc. This is sort of chord substitution but you get the idea. You can mix all this stuff together to create progressions and new sounds.

I also tend to sometimes play the opposite chord to the key that is being played. So if everyone is jamming and playing the G chord part of the song I might play the D chord in the Key of G or the C. This doesn't really work if we are playing the song in order with all the correct chords but does work if we just start jamming on the song, like if you are playing the verse over and over again and people are just trying different things. I switch it up, throw in a different chord in that key.

The other thing I do is play the movable arpeggios scale for the key. I just play little made up patterns. Once you know the scale then you can play any of those notes and it will sound correct. Great for making up a quick solo that isn't the melody of the song and it sounds correct. I have those charts in the Essential Chords for the guitar and mandolin but never made one for the banjo. I should work on that. You might be able to figure out what they are for the tuning you are working in.



Another thing I do is play a lower sounding version of the chord for the verse and then a higher sounding version of the chord for the chorus or to just throw in a different sound. Lets take a G chord, normally I would play it in the 1st position and it would sound fine, but I could also play it up on the 7th fret on the top three strings. It has a much higher sound but it is still a G chord.

hope this helps, great question

New Double C Tuning Chart for 5 String Banjo

Here is the last of the new banjo chord charts, this rounds out a collection of five tuning charts for the banjo. D, G, A, C-Standard, and Double C. These will be a great addition to the revised edition of Essential Chords coming out soon. Every chart in the book will now also have a matching Key chart, highlighting the I, IV, V and V7 chords. Along with an expanded page size and some other tweaks it should make for a great update. Here is the Double C banjo chart

5 String Banjo Chord Chart for Double C Tunings, g C G C D. As always we love comments and suggestions. Make sure you are signed up in our mailing list so you can get the details of when it releases. We will be offering a special gift with each book. And just a hint, once this book is done we will be working on a version for left handed players. A little late getting it out but it is coming.

New Banjo Chord Chart, C Tuning, or Standard Tuning

Below is another chord chart from the upcoming Essential Chords for Guitar, Mandolin, Ukulele and Banjo. This is a 5 string Banjo chord chart in C Tuning. This summer I learned basic banjo with Riley Baugus at the Summer Acoustic Music Week camp run by WUMB in Boston. The camp is held twice each summer on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, great time. Riley was excellent, I also took his Round Peak Banjo class which was really interesting on the music of the Round Peak area of North Carolina. Anyways here is the second of 3 new charts.

 

5 String Banjo Chord Chart for Standard C Tuning from the upcoming 2nd edition of Essential Chords for Guitar, Mandolin, Ukulele and Banjo. Make sure you are on the list for notice of the special offer when the book goes on sale.

New 5 String Banjo Chords, A Tunings

Oh, it has been a while, we have been very busy and haven't been able to do much blogging, but we have some great news. I have been hard at work on a new revised version of Essential Chords book. I have increased the size a little, up to 8.5 x 11, trimmed up the pages and added a bunch of new banjo chord charts. I went to guitar camp this summer and took a class in banjo and learned about some chords I should add. I still have work to do on the book but this will give you a sample of the A tuning chords for 5 string banjo. The book is coming, getting closer every day, we are also going to have special offer when the book goes on sale. I will let you know as we get closer.

5 String A Tunings banjo chords, a E A C# E. Each chord sheet will now have a matching Key sheet with the 1, 4, 5 chords.

Summer Acoustic Music Week, SAMW, and iPad Chord Book

I have been so busy lately working on a ton of projects. One that is just about done is an iPad version of my Essential Chords book. I have basically rewritten then entire book because I discovered something about my book and iPads. Ebooks seem to work best when each page is the same direction. If you have seen our Essential Chords book you will see some pages are vertical and some pages horizontal, well that is cool and it works nice but not on an ereader. You end up having to turn and turn the ereader as you chase the page around the reader getting it to read correctly. So what I have done is reconfigure every page back to a vertical format.

The second thing I have done is to add in tons of new charts especially banjo chords. I have tried to set up each instrument with the basic chords and their 1, 4, 5 chords for each key so you can figure out the basic structure. So the Key of A has the 1 chord, the A, the 4 chord the D and the 5th chord the E and also the 7th version of that chord, so E7. I have now gone through all of the 4 instruments and done this for each key. Including the banjo for both 5 and 4 strings. It took way longer than I thought, but it is just about done. I had promised to make a left hand Essential Chord book but I needed to fix this first, and it took a while. Now I can convert this book over to a left hand version.

Ok number 2, SAMW, what is this? SAMW (WUMB - Summer Acoustic Music Week) is just the best adult music camp, this will be my 10th or 11th time, I can't quite remember. It is run by the Boston folk radio station WUMB and is held up in New Hampshire, in July, and again in August. About 100 students, 20 faculty, classes, workshops, performances. Songwriting, playing, sound, performance, great swimming and dancing. It is a great time. Next week I am off for a vacation of playing music.

Anyways when I get back I will be figuring out how to release the new iPad version, it came out pretty cool and get to work on the left hand version and a bunch more ideas.