Let's start out learning the E chord which is one of the most essential chords for acoustic traditional acoustic country blues guitar goes like this sounds like this. Really a pretty chord with my left hand, I've got my first finger on the first fret of the third string. And then with my second finger, this is a little tricky, but you'll get used to it if you practice. My second finger is on the second fret getting both the fifth and the fourth strings. Now most people when they play an E chord, they'll use two fingers on the second fret, second finger on the fifth string, ring finger or third finger on the fourth string. That's not how we're going to do it here though.

Trust we're going to play with two fingers, and one finger the second finger is going to get both the fifth and the fourth strength. One of the things that makes the equal sign So cool is the fact that you've got some open strings in there, the open six and the open first, those are both East strengths. And then you've got the B. The second string which is also open, open means you don't read it with your fingers. So there is an E chord. Now with the E chord, the right hand for the E chord, if we're playing an alternating bass, typically we use the sixth and the fourth string.

That's what's called a six, four bass and we'll use these terms with all the other chords that we learn. So the sixth string and then the fourth string, the sixth string is open, that's an E, and the fourth string I have threaded with my second finger at the second fret. Good way to get started practicing the alternative bass is just to sit there with your right hand thumb and just play that alternating bass over and over again, and see how long you can keep it going before you screw up and start over again. Now, the monotonic bass is pretty simple, I'm just going to be the open on sixth string. And as I explained in the previous lesson at the beginning and introduction, you're going to use your right hand palm and rest it gently on the sixth string near the bridge of the guitar, to mute it, to dampen it.

So when you play the monotonic bass with the key of E, you're dampening it with your right hand, Paul, you're just playing the open sixth string. So we've got an E chord, E major. And then I showed you the bass pattern. Now another version of the E chord, which is pretty commonly used in country blues guitar is the seventh chord. So I'm going to show you that one too, to make any sense chord you keep the same shape with your first two fingers. And then you use your third finger or you can use your pinky and put it on the third fret of the second string.

You've got this which is an E seven. Note right there is the seventh note of the E major scale. So the seventh chord, so you should be able to play an E major and an East seven. Now with the seventh chord, your bass notes are exactly the same six for if you're playing an alternating bass, and the open sixth string if you're playing a monotonic bass, so there's our first country blues chord, the E chord, along with the East seventh chord.