Guitar Tricks Online Guitar Lessons

Root Note On Another String

 
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Now let's check out how to approach the root-chord strumming when the root note isn't on the low E string. This gets a bit more tricky for the picking hand, and you're going to miss the bass notes many times, but that's all part of the process, and it usually doesn't even sound bad when it happens.

For E minor you saw that we had our our root note or main bass note on the low E string. That's also the case for our G major chord.

But now how about our A minor chord? What's the root note of A minor? Remember that's not a hard question. It's A of course! Do we have an open A string? We sure do! Try and pick that by itself. That's even trickier than the low E string, but again it's not a high stakes game, because it'll sound good even when you mess it up.

Instructor Anders Mouridsen
Tutorial:
Root Chord Strumming
Styles:
Any Style
Difficulty:
print notation download lesson open guitar tuner
Root Note On Another String song notation

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Questions & Answers

3 months ago
Twanging on the A stringlike that got a melody stuck in my head. Took me a half our of mumbling to myself to figure out that it was the vocal track to "The Sound of Silence" and then I had to go spend the rest of the afternoon figuring out the tabs for that on the guitar. Maybe there is musical hope for me after all.....
Mike Olekshy 3 months ago

Nice work!! I love when things like that happen - inspiration that can strike from any little thing! Absolutely there is musical hope!! Keep at it!

2 years ago
is it okay to use fingers for strumming?
Josh Workman 2 years ago

Yes, of course! It will have a different sound than a pick and sometimes that is the sound you want for certain songs but sometimes not.