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Get hip with the real bossa nova with these free guitar lessons from Fareed Haque’s course 1-2-3 Bossa Nova. In this course Fareed shows you authentic bossa nova rhythms and chord voicings used by Brazilian greats including Joao Gilberto, Luis Bonfa, Baden Powell and many, many others. He breaks this style down into a single basic rhythm pattern that underlies almost every bossa nova rhythm in the book. From there, we will follow classic chord voicings and jam out with some chord progressions to get you playing authentic bossa nova.

Guitar Lesson #8: Rhythm Pattern #3

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This is just rhythm pattern #2 turned around. 2-3, 2-2, 2-3-2. The toughest part is starting your fingers ahead of beat 1.

Guitar Lesson #13: 6/9 Chord Root

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By far the most common major chord sound in the bossa nova is the 6/9 chord. There are multiple places to play this voicing on the guitar, and happily all of them use the same fingering, same shape – weird but true. Keep in mind that this voicing has 1, 3, 5, 6, and 9 but usually no 7th. The 7th is dissonant against the root so it’s often left out. Since 3, 6 and 9 are all 4ths apart they have a smooth, modern sound with very little dissonance and are usually stacked on top of each other, in 4ths, to bring out that fourthy sound.

Guitar Lesson #22: Chords and Embellishments

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So there you have it: Cool chord grips, a few licks to toss in, and some theory to boot. Next we start to put in all together so practice these grips until they are pretty easy to grab.

Guitar Lesson #24: Gilberto’s Jam – Performance #3

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This is taken from the chords to Joao Gilberto’s tune “E Presiso Perdoar”.

Guitar Lesson #25: Gilberto’s Jam – Breakdown

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This is just the main chord progression, without the bridge. Note the F minor triad in first inversion is also a 1/2 diminished with no root or an Ab6. It’s this kind of chord ambiguity that is so cool in bossa nova guitar!

Guitar Lesson #26: Gilberto’s Jam – Playalong

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As you get more and more comfortable with the right hand patterns they will start to become more automatic. Make sure to always double check that the bass is steady and straight not pushed or syncopated or jumpy.

Dig these bossa nova guitar lessons? Download Fareed Haque’s 1-2-3 Bossa Nova for much more including tab, notation, and jam tracks!