Chords for Bouzouki Lesson 3 - Chords in First Position

_ _ _ Right, so there's that position.
And now, _ if you do want to play a D chord that has the major third in it, then you start
with the D chord that I showed you before, _ just the one finger, and then [F#m] you add in this
note, which is the F sharp on the D string.
[D] _ _
And you know, it could be the F sharp on that D string, or it could be the F sharp on that D string.
_ _ Either way, it makes a nice chord.
And sometimes you're going to want a D minor, and that's very simple.
All you have to do is change the major third into a minor third, and major means big, minor means little.
So instead of doing this, [Dm] you do this.
_ Or same thing on this [F#m] string.
That's major, _ that's minor.
_ [G] _ You can do the same thing with a G chord.
In this case, the third in [B] the chord _ is represented by that note, which is a B. _
So that's the
second fret on the A string.
_ [G] _ _
And major is big, minor is little, so _
_ [Gm] _ _ there's [D] that [E] G minor chord, [D] if you should ever need it.
You'll need it eventually. _
_ _ Alright, now just in case you need one more chord, because _ most songs have three chords.
_ _ _ _ [G] So you've got a G chord, you've got [E] a D chord, in fact you've got a few variations of a D [D] chord.
_ _ _ But another one that's fairly easy to play is a C chord.
So if you put yourself back in that shape that you were using for the G chord, which
is just one finger, and you go one fret above B, one fret above the second fret is the third
fret on the A string, [C] and that'll be a C note.
_ _ _ _ And once you've got your third finger, well, I told you that normally you would use a second
finger to play the third fret, but in this case, _ _ _ _ when you're playing chords, you can
kind of make it up.
It's whatever _ _ [C] is comfortable, and sometimes you need fingers to go _ _ on several strings
at once, so you can see what's comfortable for you.
Anyway, I'm going to use my third finger _ to play the C [F] natural, and then the first finger
that I had [E] on the A string, I'm just going to move one string over to play it on the D string.
That'll give me an E note.
_ _ _ _ Now, this is a strange C chord because [Dm] _ I've still got the [F#] open D string over here, so
if I wanted to play _ a completely correct C chord, _ I would try and put _ _ a second fret on
both D strings. _ _ _ _ _
So that's one way of playing a C chord. _ _
I think that if [G] you're in the key of G, _
_ [D] _ _ [G] _ _ [C] _ _
leaving that [E] D string _ [Dm] open, it's kind of tricky to
do, of course.
You've got to avoid letting this finger touch _ the open [C] D. _
_ But in context, [G] it's kind of nice.
You get_ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [E] I'm a little out of tune, [D] actually. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Fm] But anyway, it's kind of a nice sound.
[G] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ And [E] that's just one way of playing a C.
There's tons of other ways.
I mean, _ _ [Em] the E note is in a C chord, but a G note is also in a C chord.
[C] _ _
So there's a nice way of playing a C chord.
Now, all of these are a little odd because they're not C in root position. _ _ _ _ _
By [G] that, I mean that the bass note is still G.
[C] _ And if you wanted a C chord in root position, you'd have to have that note, a C.
So, well, there's different ways of doing that.
You can kind of do this.
You've got this shape to give you your C chord.
And then if you can, just stretch over, put the pinky on the fourth fret_
Sorry, fifth fret.
_ _ _ And you get a C chord.
Now, you [Dm] might want to leave the D string open, as I said, that last one [C] there.
[E] Or you might want to find some way of barring with the first finger so that you get an E on the D string and E on the other D string,
a C on the A string, and another C on the G string. _ _ _ _
That's kind [G#] of tricky, and I don't use that very often.
_ Here's another one you can do.
It's pretty tricky, too.
_ But this has the advantage of actually having the three notes in the major triad, which is [C] C, [E] E is going to be [F#] over there,
and then with my pinky, [C] I'm also going to get a G note.
So _ _ _ _ _ that's _ a nice way of playing _ a C.
I mean, it's a nice _ _ voicing of it.
It takes a lot of tension in the hand to get that.
So, _ _ [E] again, that's not one that I'd use that often.
Probably what I'd do is just change the whole _ position of the hand until I get [G] up here.
Since this was a G chord and I had open strings, if I think of that _ open string as being _ _ my fretted string, in a way, _
_ then really I've got this shape, and that shape can be moved anywhere to get any chord.
So, in other words, here it's G, [A] _ _ here it's A, _ [B] _ here it's B, [C] _
and here it would be C.
Now, [E] again, this takes a fair bit of pressure because you're barring all strings.
_ So you might _ _ want to use two fingers to get some extra pressure, and of course squeezing against the thumb.
I [C] _ _ _ _
_ _ don't know if I actually [G] use two [Cm] fingers for pressure there or not, but you can kind of experiment with it.
I guess I probably don't use it because [Bm] I'm always prepared to move that finger to somewhere else.
Well, that's probably a good start.
Maybe I'll just send that to