Creative Guitar Exercise

This is a favorite creative guitar exercise: building guitar chords from a given map. Students always come up with some seriously creative and cool chord progressions.

We will be using open strings (5, 2, & 1) with fretted doublestops on the two inside strings (4 & 3). The 6 string will be muted. The open 3 is also available (light blue dot).

We are using standard tuning for this exercise (E-A-D-G-B-E), yet this kind of approach can
be used for any tuning (e.g. D-A-D-G-A-D).

The Map

The Shapes

Extraction 1

Extraction 2

Extractions 1 and 2 in Tab

Now that you have a set of chords, strum or fingerpick, &/or arpeggiate these sounds in the rhythms which feel most natural to you. Feel your resonant rhythms (naturally occurring beats within your inner space). Act from that level.

Do you need to know what these chords are called? Not for this creative exercise. Simply riff and strum and arpeggiate until you experience an 'aha'.

You can easily create an entire song, or part of a song by using the guitar chords you discover. So, use these sounds for songwriting.

Are you in a key? By leaving the A string open, you are treating it like a drone - an everpresent single tone that vibrates throughout. All of these fretted tones, and the open 2 & 1, are all interacting against the open A, so in a way, they can all be heard as A type things.

For this exercise, again, forget names, and use your ears. Get creative with sound.

For this exercise, instead of muting the low E, trying dropping its pitch to low A (works best on acoustic guitar).

This exercise could also be applied down a level (string set you are fretting) - fret the 2 & 3 strings. This would create D type things (leaving the A open too). You can mix D & A type things to create some very interesting guitar sounds/riffs/progressions.

If you are applying this down a level (to the D), drop your low E to a D to get the growl going (drop D).

That's a wrap. Hope you discovered some cool guitar chord sounds with this creative guitar exercise.

Another Creative Guitar Exercise - Cascade