Richard Barrett

Sometimes finding the right chord is a process of subtraction. Here are five examples of how you can jazz up your chord vocab

Blues legends like Muddy Waters often preferred playing slide in standard tuning. This lesson might convince you, too – and it makes a great introduction to slide

By recycling open chord shapes in different positions, you will uncover a wealth of fascinating voicings – just ask Jimmy Page. Here are 5 chords to get you started

Despite the ‘four lads from Liverpool’ tag, The Beatles used some very sophisticated chords in many of their songs, and the audience lapped them up

In this lesson, we are using just four notes to construct four blues examples that put expression first

All the greats put themselves into their phrasing, and that identity was not only note choice but rhythm. Here are four ways you can add rhythmic interest to great effect

Taking cues from John Mayer, Jimi Hendrix and Nile Rodgers, this lesson offers three examples of phrases that add rhythm and movement to blues

Because sometimes retuning your guitar is, well, a pain in the backside – and there are workarounds

Inspired by Big Bill Broonzy, Lightnin' Hopkins and the O.G. blues great Robert Johnson, this lesson just requires an acoustic guitar. Heartbreak optional

James Honeyman-Scott of The Pretenders was a master at creating interesting parts from simple alternate chords. We look at five you can use in your playing

Soloing over changes is cool, but sometimes the blues is all about exploring melody over a single chord

Altered chords can be intimidating at first, but here we demystify the naming conventions, and once you understand that, you can easily find your own

In this lesson, we reimagine folk, jazz, blues and Celtic music for a blues roadmap that takes the road less traveled

This primer in 13th chords will give you five voicings to use in your playing – and an explanation on how they get their name

Time to show the Marshall amp no mercy and engage the Tube Screamer – this solo lesson works mid '70s Thin Lizzy into Parisienne Walkways and Still Got The Blues and doesn't hold back

Today in extended chords 101, we look at 11th chords – both minor and major – and explain how these “harmonically dense” voicings look on the fretboard

A little knowledge with naming conventions goes a long way to understanding complex chords and how they might sound

Peter Green, George Harrison, Gary Moore, David Gilmour... These are just some of the players inspiring this lesson in stylistic restraint, all in the pursuit of the blues

If the idea of third inversions seems all upside down, fear not: these five examples show how easy they are to put together – and how musical they are when you apply them in a song

When you’re the only guitarist in the band, triads are your best friends in a guitar solo – and Hendrix and SRV were the masters

Whether you call these solo ideas minor blues or embellished pentatonic/blues scale, the effect is the same, freeing you up from established patterns to hold your audience's attention

A lesson in second inversions sounds like advanced physics but it's simply swapping the root note for the 5th, expanding your chord vocabulary with a minimum of fuss

Don't be intimidated by the terminology. First-inversion chords is the fancy name for slash chords and they can add some range and spice to your songwriting

In this tab and video lesson, we show you how open C tuning is great for slide, it can present adventurous players with fresh chords and help them reach notes they couldn't in standard