Tritone substitution

First inversion chords

This month, Richard Barrett explores how a chord can sound completely different when its basic note order is rearranged

Richard Barrett is on a mission to make you a better blues player – with full audio examples and backing tracks

Second inversion chords

This month Richard Barrett demonstrates how changing the order of the notes in a chord can open up a lot of harmonic possibilities

Tying it all together

AN ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL element in blues guitar is the turnaround. It is a basic function of blues music that the turnaround happens at the end of the progression and flips it over back to the beginni

Richard Barrett is on a mission to make you a better blues player – with full audio examples and backing tracks

The big picture

LAST MONTH, I talked about how I devised the primary riffs in the title track to my 2023 album Hard Wired, which is played in drop D tuning (low to high: D, A, D, G, B, E). I’d now like to share some

First inversion chords

This month, Richard Barrett explores how a chord can sound completely different when its basic note order is rearranged

Richard Barrett is on a mission to make you a better blues player – with full audio examples and backing tracks

Second inversion chords

This month Richard Barrett demonstrates how changing the order of the notes in a chord can open up a lot of harmonic possibilities

Tying it all together

Richard Barrett is on a mission to make you a better blues player – with full audio examples and backing tracks