Now let's apply these shell voicings we've just learned to a chord progression and specifically a blues pattern.
The blues is a great place to start for this as it usually only contains three chords and they're all dominant 7ths.
For our example here we'll be in the key of G so our blues contains these chords:
G7 (chord I)
C7 (chord IV)
D7 (chord V)
Now, you could play all of these as nice open string chords, but that would sound a bit clumsy and not very sophisticated. Therefore, let's try these out with shell voicings.
We'll play our G7 with the root on the 6th string at the 3rd fret, our C7 on the A string also at the 3rd fret and the D7 at the 5th fret of the A string giving us the progression shown below.
Note how nicely the progression sits on the fretboard and how easy the shapes are to play.
A quick thing to note which is not mentioned in the video is that I'm playing these shapes using both my pick and fingers. If you strum the chords though be careful when you hit the unwanted strings. Mute them if possible with your left hand as you play the chord. Just rest on them lightly and they'll not make any noise. If you're not used to this it may seem weird at first but it's a very useful if not vital technique.
In the next video we'll enhance this progression with some other shell voicings.
