We spend a lot of time talking about chords from the standpoint of how to make them with the left hand. (This article assumes you fret with your left and strum, pluck and pick with your right.) We give patterns for the left, "don't strain your left hand," here's a shape for you to make with your left hand, and so on. The poor right hand is neglected, which is unfortunate because what the right hand does determines whether you want to dance, groove, shimmy and shake to your playing, or whether you're gonna fall out of your chair into an instant coma from boredom.

Let's intro a couple of important right hand topics. First, there's strumming. Assuming you do strum, instead of plucking or using another technique, do you consciously choose the pattern you strum? Or, do you just kind of fall into a ONE two THREE four pattern? If you find yourself getting into a rut with your playing, or feeling bored and not knowing why, consider changing your strum pattern. Instead of 4 quarter notes per bar, replace a couple of quarter notes with eight notes, or dotted eighth notes. There are *many* alternatives to four quarter notes per bar. Explore them to add life to your tunes.

You might need to step back a bit if you're a beginner, and get a primer on rhythm notation and how to count or tap out a rhythm. For example, do you know how to tap out and them strum patterns that mix up quarter, eighth, dotted eight and other rhythmic note values? If you don't, worry not. Check out this friendly and helpful page from player Ron Lukiv: http://web.cuug.ab.ca/~lukivr/RhythNot.html . The page gives you a clear approach to understanding rhythm notation. Ron shows you note values from the whole note to the sixteenth note, how to count 'em, and what they look like on a sheet of music. He also gets into triplets, and swing. Check out Ron's page if you need a primer. Also, keep in mind WholeNote's many excellent articles on rhythm.

I want to intro another right hand topic you might find useful in your playing. You can call it the Pick Fingerpick because it combines both normal picking and fingerpicking. With the Pick Fingerpick you have the option of strumming, because you're still holding the pick as you normally hold it. However, you also have the option of using your pinky, ring and middle fingers (fingers 4, 3, and 2, for those who dig numbers), to pluck out a chord.

Here's how to apply the Pick Fingerpick. Hold the pick as you probably already are doing: between the thumb and the first finger. Now, loosen up fingers 3, 4 and 5 -- you're gonna put 'em to work! No more Freddie Freeloader for those guys.

Now, look at this tab carefully:

|-0-- pinky
|-1-- finger 3
|-0-- finger 2
|-2--
|-3-- pick
|----

This tab shows you where to put each finger to play an open position C major chord using the Pick Fingerpick technique. Notice we have no more fingers left to cover the E note on the D string. This is one drawback to an otherwise cool technique. Possible solutions: just ignore that note. You won't need it in most situations. Or, nix the pick completely, and go totally fingerstyle. Or, neglect another string instead, like this:

|-0-- pinky
|-1-- finger 3
|-0--
|-2-- finger 2
|-3-- pick
|----

This technique might feel uncomfortable at first, but you'll soon get the hang of it. The result is well worth the time you put in to learn, because you'll gain much greater control over your chord playing. For example, you'll be able to play chords that have muted notes much more easily. Instead of giving your left hand extra work to mute those notes, your right hand will pluck only those notes in the chord. An example of such a chord is the open D chord. Instead of worrying about getting your strumming just right so you don't hit that bottom E string, or using your left thumb to mute that string, use the Pick Fingerpick to just play the D, F, and A notes.

There are more right hand techniques described in Guitar Chords: a Beginner's Guide. We cover flatpicking, fingerpicking, flea flicking, balloon sticking, and sheep shearing, and we put these topics in a context that's as fun as frijoles to learn. There's even a nifty little blues fingerpicking number in there that your fingers are probably already itching to play. Read more about Guitar Chords at www.MaximumMusician.com/chordbook.htm. Also, check out the free newsletter and All About Chords lesson series at Max Music.

By Darrin Koltow www.MaximumMusician.com Guitar lessons that don't suck.