I know a lot of people where almost every time they pick up their guitar, the first chord they play is A minor. Where they have to purposely tell themselves to avoid it when doodling around trying to write a song. Where they have simply worn out the Am-Asus2-Asus4 motif. I guess, the chord, it's very comfortable for a lot of people, and from just relying on their immediate reaction, they want to play what feels good.


However, What's your favorite chord? The one that your fingers will always make unconsciously when you're stuck in the moment?

Theres something about the acoustic guitar, lately I've been drawn to it, especially with all my electric guitars lying around. Theres just that simplistic feeling whenever you pick up an acoustic, where its much easier to write new songs, and it's easy to get into a nice groove without too much pressure. When I'm alone without any distractions, thats when I wail away with my electric guitars..

Yeah, it's safe to say that A minor is a chord that a lot of us tend to start out with, I guess out of mere habit, because this chord is so easy to form. I guess whenever I pick up the guitar, whether or not I'm just playing a simple progresssion, I'm always trying to apply new found knowledge to familiar territory, :).Which is inevitably how we grow as musicians. Lately I've naturally been looking for substitute chord voicings, replacing Em with em7 or EM9, it's a nice way to spice up things especially when writing new songs, and if you're not quite comfortable with your singing voice.

Another common practice in substitution is the interchanging of chords that share the same notes. For example, a Gmaj7 chord contains the notes g,b,d and f#. Since bm contains b,d,and f#, the two chords can often be interchangable. All of the notes of both chords don't necessarly have to correspond for this method to work. Sometimes somply by changing the root note of a chord, you can come up with a suitable subtitution...

Overall, the only limitation is in how far you want to go with the complexity of your voicings. In other words, let the style of music you are playing be your guide.



-Joseph