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Mike Olekshy
Guitar Tricks Instructor
Joined: 09/21/10
Posts: 1,056
Mike Olekshy
Guitar Tricks Instructor
Joined: 09/21/10
Posts: 1,056
02/07/2023 6:01 pm
#5 Originally Posted by: martjor854

Hi Mike,


sorry I know this is a bit of a silly question I just want to check 


Is the A major riff a separate piece from the 12 boxes which are played as dominant seventh chords as follows


A7 four times


D7 twice


A7 twice


E7 twice 


A7 twice 


 


when playing the A major riff is the A string played open with a downstrum  then fret 2 played with a upstrum of the D string, then A string played open again with the D string fretted at the fourth fret, this is repeated to give one bar. 
based on the riff we are playing 


every note on the A string open ( because the root note for A major is here


On the D string we are playing E E  F#F#   EE  F#F#


but there is no F sharp contained within the twelve bixes and the D major is not shown on the riff.


why is the riff played this way could other riffs be done in this key of A major?


This particular riff is rooted on the open fifth string because it is an A major riff


If we were to do the following the following:


play the A string at the second fret instead of open string would this give a B major riff,


Would we then move the D string notes also up by two frets ? 


Can I use the Jamming tool provided by guitar tricks, how would I set this please.


you said in your last repl


 


Hi Martin!


 



  1. The A major riff can be played instead of strumming the dominant 7 chords, but you would have to adjust the location of the riff to fit the chords since it is only shown for the A chord.  You mention later on in this post that you could move the location of the riff to get the other chords in the progression, which is correct.

  2. When you play the riff, the idea is to play the A string and 2nd fret of the D string all at once, so each group of 2 notes is making a chord strum.  So you will have 8 strums to make a complete bar.  You could play all 8 strums with downstrokes, or alternate down/up strokes.

  3. The riff is using “Power chords” which just uses 2 notes. So even though we are not playing the full A chord, we are still outlining that chord. It is just a musical choice.


 


I highly recommend you work through chapter 2 of the Blues Level 1 course to get more detailed instruction on this.


 


Hope this helps!


Mike


 


 


Keep rockin!
Mike Olekshy
GT Guitar Coach