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Beginner-friendly guitar slides (Keys of D and A)

Lesson #366 • May 22, 2021

Video lesson

Instructional PDF 1 page

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Follow along with the print-friendly PDF!

It includes all of my notes for this lesson, allowing you to follow along at your own pace. You're free to download, print, and share the PDF across your devices.

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Editor’s notes

Hey friends! New video and PDF today, where I teach how you can slide between different chord voicings for any given chord. Using D-major and A-major specifically, I take 3 different ways to play each of these chords – and show how you can slide “up” to each position using your left hand. This sliding technique is itself one that sounds cool & adds some distinction to your playing. Even if you want to skip the slides, the chord positions I teach here are good to be familiar with…. as there’s more than one way to play any given chord! Be sure to check out my PDF that accompanies this lesson – as it gives you a handy diagram of the fretboard, showing the 3 shapes in both keys – plus showing the same shapes in tab form.

Video timestamps:

  • 0:00 Preview & lesson summary
  • 2:56 D major: chord shapes
  • 7:48 D major: sliding, w/ tab
  • 12:38 A major: chord shapes
  • 17:47 A major: sliding, w/ tab
  • 19:36 Misc tips & final advice

Playing A-major with barred index finger

One concept I use in this video, is that of playing the A-major chord with just one finger (left index, barred across second fret). Here’s a video I made showing how to do that! This is a very handy voicing to have in your back pocket, as sometimes using this chord position is advantageous based on context.

Here’s my video, and be sure to check out my written lesson notes for additional details on this technique.

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