Category: E Guitar Chords

Jimi Hendrix Chord – E7#9 Guitar Chord Lesson

The E7#9 guitar chord was the main sound of Jimi Hendrix. Songs such as Purple Haze and Voodoo Child feature this chord well, and nearly all his songs feature this chord shape in some key, usually played as a thumbed chord! Check it out:

The notes in an E7#9 chord are E (root note), G# (major 3rd), D (dominant 7th) and G (#9). First you’ll learn the main shape played at the 7th fret, starting at the A string:
Jimi Hendrix chord

Of course, the low and high E strings can be included for this E chord, since they are the root notes! However, the video shows that this doesn’t work well when you move this shape around and out of the key of E! Next, you will learn this 7#9 chord with a root note on the E string, starting in the key of G and then moving the shape up into the key of A. These chord shapes are a great way to add a funky sound to your playing when you strum the high notes with an accent, as shown in the tutorial.

G7#9 guitar chord:
G7#9 guitar chord
A7#9 guitar chord:
A7#9 guitar chord

The main challenge with playing these type of guitar chords is to be able to reach your pinky finger to the B and e strings, while holding the lower octave shape with your thumb and ring fingers. The final shape we learn is the open variation of this thumbed chord, in the key of E of course!

E7#9 open chord:
E7#9 open chord

So have fun playing these chords and remember to add that funky psychedelic sound by trying picking variations of playing the lower octave parts, followed by quick stabs from the high strings, which are containing your #9 and dom7 notes! You can also get a free chord book when you sign up here!

Spanish Guitar Chords

These Spanish guitar chords are easy to learn and sound great as they each contain an open string with a low root note. These chords are also unique because they are played at the 5th fret position which is a lesson common way of voicing them, especially together.

This lesson is shown with a 12-string acoustic guitar, but a regular six string will do just fine. The first chord we play in this progression is a D minor, at the 5th fret position. This chord can be played as an arpeggio (which means to pick the notes individually) or alternatively it can be strummed. Sometimes it can be more interesting to listen to if both methods are employed, one after the other, as shown in this video.

The next chord in this Spanish progression is an A minor guitar chord. It’s played by using the index finger to bar the 5th frets of G B and e, while the ring finger is holding down the 7th fret of the D string. This leaves us with an open A string to play along with this chord, which we can either strum or play as an arpeggio, or both!

The third chord in this progression is a hybrid form of an E7 guitar chord, that sounds very good since all six strings are used to play it in this position, and two of these strings (the E and B string) are played open. Once this is played we go back to the A minor chord, as shown in the video. So have fun with these unusual and exotic Spanish guitar chords, and experiment with both the strumming and the arpeggio variations.