For all those people who have a guitar at home gathering dust because they’ve never had the discipline to really learn how to play it, or those who have picked up a few tricks from their musical friends but are lost when it comes to working out more sophisticated songs on their guitars, Rick Peckham has the course for you. A guitar veteran with decades of experience as a teacher and professional musician, culminating with the release of his critically acclaimed CD, Left End, he knows that the best way to inspire students is to engage them with the music they love. His 12-week course helps guitar players bring greater dynamics and expression to their playing, whether in jazz or rock ‘n’ roll, and gain a greater feel for their instrument by learning how to visualize chord structures anywhere on the neck of the guitar. “We are really trying to get away from the idea of thinking of grips on a guitar, and more thinking about voicings in a musical way,” says Rick Peckham, who teaches the online course Guitar Chords 101. “In all styles, there are chords, and some chords are used more than others, but there is really a basic foundation of triads and 7th chords. And so the idea of this course is to make it so that people will be conversant with those chords, and so they can be used in any style.”

Interactive Practice Activities

Left and right hand technique.

Power chords.

For their assignments, students record themselves playing along with practice tracks, and upload the file to Rick for review. Peckham then gives them feedback about their technique and areas in which they could improve. For Peckham, the interaction between students and their instructor and classmates allows them to learn more quickly and with less aggravation than they would if studying an instruction book alone at home. “A lot of books are well constructed, but the person that buys the book takes the book home and tries their best to get through it, and there really isn’t anything for them to do if they get stuck at any point,” he says. "With this online course, there's going to be interaction, not just between the students and the instructor, but also amongst the students themselves. Essentially there will be a whole field of people going through the material at the same time - it really has all of the best aspects of having a buddy that's going through the program with you."

7th chord knowledge practice.

Fretboard note knowledge practice.