In your lesson, Fretboard Mastery with Chord Tones, you learned the tones that make up the major chords E Major, A Major, D Major, G Major, B Major, C Major, Major, B♭ Major.
When you played those to help you learn the fretboard, did you hear something? Did you hear a hint of something musical sounding?
Well today, let us build on what you have done.
I want you to focus on three tones, C, F and G. If you learned the chord tones for the matching major chords of the tones C, F and G, you are ready to begin playing some music.
| Major Chord | Root | M3 | P5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| C | C | E | G |
| F | F | A | C |
| G | G | B | D |
The C-F-G Diddy
- Find the m3 on A, that is find C on A.
- Play the chord tones for C Major.
- Find the m3 on D, that is,find the F on D.
- Play the chord tones for F Major.
- Find the P4 on D, that is, find the G on D.
- Play the chord tones for G Major.
- Now slide down and play the chord tones for F Major again.
- Now move up from the D string to the A string and play the C Major chord tones again.
There! You have played your first bit of music!
Practice this little diddy repeatedly. It might seem trivial and hokey right now, but years from now, after you have become a guitarist who amazes all, you will remember this little exercise and how truly it helped lay the foundation for your playing.
Also, find other frets on the fretboard from which to play the C-F-G Diddy. You can find C on the 8th fret of E as C is a M6 on E.
Where else can we find C? How about playing from the 10th fret on D?
Beware though! Though the F falls on the 10th fret of G, because the B string is tuned as a M3 from G rather than a P4, you must slide up one fret to play the M3 of F, which is A. A M3 always is one fret less than a P4. You must move up one fret to play the M3 above F on B, otherwise you will end up playing a m3, which is an A♭.
The same holds true for G. As the G is on the 12 fret of G, which is a P8 on the G string, its M3, which is the B, falls on the 12th fret of the B string,
Variation #1
So now that you have the hang of the C-F-G Diddy, let us make it a bit more challenging. Rather than start on the root tone C and play C-E-G, start on the P5 tone, which is G and play backward, G down to C as in G-E-C. Do the same for the F part of the diddy, by playing C-A-F instead and also play down the G part as D-B-G.
And so you should now experience how this simple diddy can be quite challenging to play since you are starting out on guitar. Likely, there are many players if they have discovered Riptide Guitar, who, even if they have been playing awhile will find this a challenge. So you are in good company.
Variations #2 and #3
Now, mix up the two styles of runs, the ascending C-E-G, F-A-C, G-B-D with the descending runs G-E-C, C-A-F and D-B-G.
You might play it as C-E-G, C-A-F, G-B-D (Variation #2) and then as G-E-C, F-A-C and D-B-G
Improvise!
Come on now and have some fun! Challenge yourself. Make up your own variations. After all that is what improvising is all about and when you learn to improvise on the guitar, you will learn to play the guitar!
