Creative Chords and Fingerstyle Melody

February 20th – 22nd 2025 , Thursday 11.30am – Saturday 12pm, Wiltshire, UK

Understanding how chords are made and being able to create your own is a valuable skill which can make your playing much more interesting and exciting both for yourself and your potential audience. Barre chords can be difficult to master for many players and so Mickie Ritchie will be teaching alternative open shaped chords which are often more interesting and easier to play. In this course she will cover a variety of genres including Folk/ Americana, Bossa Nova/ Latin and pop standards. This retreat is particularly suited to acoustic guitar and for nylon strung classical guitars.

Discover new ways and places to play the basic chord shapes.
Explore the whole fretboard without using barre chords.
Expand your chord colour palette and vocabulary, progressing from basic chord shapes.
Learn how to create melodies and riffs within chord patterns.
Apply these techniques to use in any genre.

• Right hand Fingerstyle technique for finger picking and rhythm playing
• Incorporating melodies into chord sequences
• Exploring different ways to play basic chords
• Adding 7ths, 9ths, 11ths, sus 2’s, sus 4’s and the occasional jazz style chord to spice up and expand your chord vocabulary
• Moving chord shapes up and down the fretboard (with and without barring) creating interesting chord harmonies and sequences
• Learning ‘easy to play’ Jazz versions of standard chords and playing a Bossa Nova / Latin jazz style groove.
• Picking for riffs and fretting hand techniques 
• Drawing inspiration from artists like James Taylor, Alison Krauss, Kate Rusby, Sade, Paul Simon and more.