Chords for Chords of Darkness, Part 1

Hey everybody, it's Corey from Gemini Guitar and in today's feature we're going to be beginning
a series focusing on some of my favorite chords of darkness.
These will be primarily in the
gothic, darkwave and atmospheric metal genre.
Each feature will focus on just singular voicing
and some techniques we can use to bring out the flavor and characteristics of that voicing.
So
without further ado let us begin and take a look at today's example.
Okay just to begin with just
like to mention there is a transcription of this feature over the website geminiguitar.com.au
_ and also if you want to support my work here on the channel you can do so by purchasing lessons
at the download store.
So if you're able to do that that would be greatly appreciated.
This voicing is basically an e power chord if you [B] analyze the notes with the addition of a minus six
from the e minor scale or root.
_ So what does all that mean?
Well let's have a look at the notes
and find out.
So we'll do the [Ab] chord first and I'll explain all those intervals as we go.
First we've got the low e string so that's easy we don't have to fret [E] anything for that. _ _
We're then going to place the middle at fret seven on the a string that is an e note once more in the
higher octave so that's still the root note. _ _ _
Then we've got the fifth which is the b note that's
where my fourth finger is and it's a fret nine on the d string.
_ _ So those three notes there make up
an e power chord.
_ _ _ Now before we get to the minor six interval let's look at the two high open
strings that's the open b that's [B] string two _ and [Em] open string one. _ _
Now those notes are e and b which
are actually the same as these two where my middle and fourth finger are also the low e root.
[G] They're just in a different [E] octave. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Em] Now I did mention the minor six interval.
What that means
is that from the root e if we [N] play it up in the e minor scale we would root sorry not return that's
what I was just about to say we would just simply get the c note at fret 10 on the d [E] string like
this.
E minor scale we have e f [Em] sharp g _ then we [Ab] have on the next string [Am] a [B] b and c [C] _
and that c note
is our minor six one two three four five six.
[N] _ Okay so with that out of the way what you want to do
is just make sure that you're fretting everything correctly so you'll notice by my left hand here
notice the fingers are in pretty much a nice curved shape so you definitely don't want your
fingers flat or straight you want them curved this can be a bit of a tough stretch which is
why I recommend using the middle finger for the root note and then the fourth finger then the
first thing you look like I'm doing. _ _
Now what you want to do this is protocol in general for
any beginner or guitarist wanting to improve their chord fretting [Eb] technique you want to just
play each string [E] individually just to make sure the chord is ringing out [Gb] properly like this.
[E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
So there shouldn't be any strings that are muted if there are you'll need to
adjust your fretting technique so that they are not muted.
[N] Now there's a couple of ways we can
approach this I'm going to show you two.
Now the first way would be to arpeggiate it.
Okay so as
for the strings we're going to hit we're going to mix it up a bit.
Okay so the first thing to do is
play from the low e string to the [E] a to the d and then the g string like this _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ and then things are
going to get a bit more interesting so we're going to go from the [A] d string to the b string then the
g [C] string to the e string and there is a pattern at work there that will sound like [Ab] this from the
[E] beginning of the bar.
_ [C] _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [N] Then to finish with what we're going to do is we're going to mix it up a
little bit more and we're going to play low e to the a string then skip to the g string and back
to the d [E] string [C] [Em] and _ then play the b string and the g string.
[C] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Okay so let's listen to that twice at a
slower tempo and then you can check out what my right [Db] hand's doing.
_ [E] _ _ [C] _
[Em] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Now _ [G] the second approach involves
holding the pick very lightly between the index and thumb as always but what I like to do here is
I let more of the point show.
I'll just see if I can show you that _ _ so it looks like that _ _ _ _ and then
what we're going to do is we're going to go right where the bridge is meets the saddle in the SG's
case it's just here [Am] and you get right there just where the strings join the saddle so we're going
to start on the high e string [Abm] and we're just going [Em] to rake back like this.
[E] _
_ _ _ _ Just do that again _
and _ _ _ you can also go in the other direction downward which is a little bit easier. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
So the reason I'm doing it at this point is because it produces a much more interesting sound.
It's got a more of a trebly sort of tone to it so it really does cut through. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [N] _ _ Okay so that wraps
things up for today's lesson.
I hope you've enjoyed it.
Be sure to check out the website
geminiguitar.com.au where you will find the transcription and many more lessons with
transcriptions too.
Hope to see you at the next lesson.
Until then, bye for now. _