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Playing in Thirds on the 1st and 3rd String

 
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Description

I do this a lot, and every player uses this concept in one way or another. It's been used in so many ways, and I'm sure you will recognize this when you hear it. It's been used in "Margaritaville" "Brown Eyed Girl" "Third Rate Romance" "When The Sun Goes Down" and probably hundreds of other songs.


I learned this concept flat picking Bluegrass, but have used it in many styles of music since then. I've used it while playing Blues, Country, Rockabilly, and Rock too.


You can use this for fills, starting a solo, during a solo, or to end a solo. I use this a lot with string bending combinations, triplets, pull offs, and hammer ons too.


We're using two finger positions for this, and in this one you play both notes at the same time. For the first position I put my index finger on the 1st string, in the 3rd fret, and middle finger on the 3rd string, in the 4th fret. For the other position I use my middle finger on the 3rd string, and my ring finger on the 1st string.


In the video I also mentioned that the 1st, 3rd, and 5th note of the major scale is the triad for the chord. Anywhere you can put these notes together, is another position for the chord. Here we used the G major scale, it has only one sharp note which is F#. The G, B, and D notes are the major triad, so those notes played together are the chord. Here we're playing the 1st, and the 3rd only, so that's the G, and the B note.


If you have any questions, comments, or want to be added to my mailing list, feel free to post a message for me in the forum.

Lesson Info
Instructor J.D. Jarrell
Styles:
Difficulty:
Published
Tutorial
Playing in Thirds on the 1st and 3rd String