Melodic Chord with Four Different Voicings

Fingerstyle Guitar

Hey guys, I hope you are having a fantastic day, today I want to show you how you can create beautiful sounding melodic chords that have four different voicings.

This fingerstyle guitar lesson shows you how to finally create chords that sound different without necessarily have to play new shapes or more difficult chords.

Each chord we are learning will have four different voicings!

I am going to show you this example in the key of G major but you can apply this concept to any chord or key.

About this lesson

Key: G major

Technique: Chords with different voicings

Plucking pattern: P i m a

Level: Beginner and intermediate

How to Practice: This fingerstyle lesson is perfect for beginners who want to learn new melodic chords. If you know how to play basic chords in G major such as G, D, C and E minor you should be able to benefit from this lesson. However, some of the chords I am about to show you can be stretchy. If you just started playing guitar, I suggest you take things step by step and learn one chord at a time.

Each chord will have four different voicings which will change the name of the chord. If you want to know more about chords, extensions and music theory behind the chords I suggest you do a little bit of research while practicing this lesson.

Tab Available on Patreon!

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The Video

The Chord Progression

In this guitar lesson we are going to work on a super simple chord progression in G major: G – Em – C – D.

Each chord will be played using four different voicings. This way of playing makes the chords really melodic hence the name“melodic chords”.

The G major chord

The first chord you will learn is the G major chord. In this lesson you will play a G, G6, Gmaj7 and Gadd9 chord.

Notice that we only change one note each time. Below the notes of the chord:

G major: G – B – D
G6: G – E – B – D
Gmaj7: G – B – D – F#
Gadd9: G – A – B – D

The Em minor chord

We will start with an Em7 then Em, Em9 and Em7/9.

The E minor is one of the most beautiful chords on guitar and there are a ton of different possibilities and variations.

I find the Em7/9 to be one of my favourite chord you can play on guitar!

Let’s break down the chords:

Em7: E – G – B – D
Em: E – G – B
Em9: E – F# – G – B
Em7/9: E – F# – G – D

The C major chord

This is another beautiful chord to expand! We are going to begin with a Cadd9 then Cadd9#11 and Cmaj7/9.

This melodic chord can be quite stretchy so really take it step by step and learn one shape at a time.

Cadd9: C – D – E – G
Cadd9#11: C – D – E – F# – G
Cmaj7/9: C – D – E – G – B

The D major Chord

Another great chord to work on. The D chord is a beautiful sounding chord easy to play. In this example we will learn how to play a Dsus4, D and Dadd9.

Notice that the same Dadd9 will have different shape due to the different voicing.