Creating Chords And Lines From Any Scale – A Harmonic Combinatorics / Spread Voicings Lesson

Posted on December 18, 2011 by GuitArchitecture

Hello everyone!

I wanted to post a lesson up that uses one of my approaches to harmonizing scales from my Harmonic Combinatorics book. It’s a cool way to not only get away from stock voicings but also to generate new lines as well!

I’m using C Major as the tonal center for this lesson but the approach can (and probably should be) be adapted to any scale.

A couple of lessons ago, I talked about the modal microscope – which was a term I used to discuss examining modes on multiple levels and the advantage of viewing modes as subsets of a parent scale. Before I get into the harmonization approach I want to expand on this idea of the microscope analogy and apply it to harmony.

The Harmonic Microscope

If I harmonize a parent major scale in the key of C, I’ll end up with the following chords on each scale degree.

So if you’re playing in the key of C and want to get into more harmonic depth on an E minor chord, it’s time to reach into your chord bag and pull out your stock minor 11 (b9, b13) voicing. Oh, you don’t have one? Don’t worry – most guitarists don’t. Learning stock voicings and inversions for this specific chord form probably isn’t the best use of your time anyway.

Using the microscope analogy, this is really looking at the chord on a 2x setting.

Here’s the 1x setting for this example:

playing any combination of the notes from C Major over the root E creates some variant of an

E min / min7 / min7 (b9) / min 11 (b9, b13) chord.

And here’s the bigger picture:

Once you are aware of the types of sounds that are created from various chord types, you can start thinking about chords and chord voicings on the macro (i.e. parent scale) level. This means that if I’m playing over a D minor chord and using notes from the C major scale, I don’t have to analyze each indidual chord because I know it’s all under some type of generic D minor 7/minor 9/minor 11 or minor 13 umbrella.

Harmonic Combinatorics

Harmonic Combinatorics refers to a process of identifying “countable discrete structures” harmonically. In other words, it examines unique combinations of notes on all of the possible string combinations for the purposes of develop harmonic and melodic possibilities. One way to do this is through a method that I use to generate unique ideas through a process that some people refer to as spread voicings.

A Systematic Method For Harmonizing Any Scale Or Mode On The Guitar

It’s important to state at the outset that the method I’m employing is only one possible way to approach this exploration. I’ve taken this approach to maximize the number of unique voicings, but you should feel free to take any of the rules that I’ve applied to this approach (like eliminating octaves) with a grain of salt. The object is to gain new sounds – so change the patterns here in whatever ways necessary.

Here’s an approach that will give you more voicings and lines than you might have thought possible.

Step 1: Write out a scale and write the scale degree under each note.

(Example: C Major)

Step 2: On a blank chord sheet – write out the scale degrees on each string up to the 5^th fret.

(To clarify: The numbers on the left hand side of the diagram are the fret numbers ).

Step 3: Starting with the lowest note on the lowest string, write out all the initial voicing of all possible 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 note harmonies by scale degree on different string sets.

For example, if I was looking at the G, B and high E strings, some sample initial voicings would be

573, 574, 576, 513, 514, 516, 523, 524, 526, 534, 536

673, 674, 675, 613, 623

713, 723

173, 174, 175, 176, 123

You may have noticed that I skipped some voicings:

If you want to save some time and increase the number of unique chords try the following parameters:

No doubling of chord tones (Ex. 363). (Again – if you like that sound – use it! but the point of this process is to generate unique voicings with unique notes.)

At least one note in the voicing has to be the lowest on a string. If you look at 614 on the G, B and high E strings you’ll see that it’s really the second voicing of 573 on the frets below it. Having at least one note be the bottom note on any string will help ensure that you’re not just working out voicings that you may have already done.

The highest fret to be used in the first voicing is the 5^th fret. This last step is going to produce some voicings that aren’t playable on the lower frets, but might work in the upper registers.

Step 4: Select a string set and move the voicing in scale-wise motion up the strings to the octave.

For the purposes of this lesson – I’m going to focus primarily on 3 string groups, but this idea is applicable on any 2-6 string set of strings. (It’s worth mentioning that – Harmonic Combinatorics does all the work for this process for all string sets – (it’s also why it’s over 400 pages long!!)).

(Again, while this book follows this process through the key of C Major, this process can be applied to any tonal center.)

I’ve written out an example based on the D, G and B string set (i.e. 432) and gone with an initial voicing of a F, G and D (or 452).

(Note: The reason I start with numbers instead of notes is 1. It’s a lot easier to see if I’ve missed a number in a sequence when working these things out and 2. It eliminates the initial step of wondering what harmony I’m creating. This is simply a process that I’ve used with good results. If the numbering is weird for you, just use what works for you.)

This creates seven different voicings which could be played as a modal chord progression, used as the basis for a melodic idea or even isolated into individual chords. If this process yields even one chord that you like it’s worthwhile.

The function of the voicings will depend on the root. If you want to dig deeper into this area, you can use other notes as a root (note Harmonic Combinatorics includes a chart which shows all chord tones based on scale degree). I’ve posted the sound of the chords being played against an A root below. A was picked as a root because it’s an open string, but you could just as easily tap any note from the C major scale to create various modal sounds:

Playing C as the bass note will give you C Ionian sounds
Playing D as the bass note will give you D Dorian sounds
Playing E as the bass note will give you E Phrygian sounds
Playing F as the bass note will give you F Lydian sounds
Playing G as the bass note will give you G Mixolydian sounds
Playing A as the bass note will give you A Aeolian sounds
Playing B as the bass note will give you B Locrian sounds

Check out these chord sounds over A. In addition to possible comping ideas, these can be arpeggiated for melodic ideas as well.

A few notes on working with voicings

Here are some additional points to consider when using this process:

Common sense is your friend. If a chord seems difficult to play:

there is almost always an easier way to play it on another string set.

.
Since the voicings presented are in the key of C Major with no sharps or flats, the information (and approach) here is easily adaptable to other scales, modes etc…

If you find a voicing in C Major you like, just move it to whatever other key you’re playing in.

To create all of the C Melodic Minor (i.e. Jazz Minor) voicings – just change any E to Eb.

To create all of the C Harmonic Minor voicings – just change any E to Eb and any A to Ab.

Now I’ll talk about making melodic lines from this material.

Melodic Variations

As I mentioned earlier, these voicings can be played as melodies simply by playing the notes one at a time. In The GuitArchitect’s Positional Exploration and the GuitArchitect’s Guide to Modes: Melodic Patterns, I’ve outlined a series of methods for generating melodic variations. But since this approach is about combining things, it makes sense to at least look at some melodic possibilities with regards to note choice. I’ve decided to take a three-note voicing as it offers enough possibilites to be interesting, but not too many to be over-whelming and have chosen this pattern simply because I like the first voicing.

It sounds a little deceptive if you play it as is. This is because the first voicing is actually a G major chord in 1st inversion (i.e. with B in the bass). Here it is with the root of each chord added to the low E string (Try working them out and playing them!! There are come challenging chords there.)

but when you play it with the B as the lowest note it sounds like a B minor with the b3rd on the B string.

If you play it without harmonic backing, try changing any F natural to F # and it should sound more pleasing to you.

“Variety is the spice of life”

There are six unique melodic variations of any three-note chord or pattern.

These numbers represent note order. Assigning 1 as the lowest note and 3 as the highest – here are the unique variations on the first three notes.

Applying this idea, one possibility for 123 looks like this:

Two things to consider:

1. I’ve notated this as triplets for ease of reading, but the very first thing you should probably do (after getting the notes under your fingers is look for a more musical phrasing).

2. Again, if you play this without harmonic backing this may sound more “right” to you:

Alternating groups of 123 and 321 for each chord produces:

Combining the first 2 chords into a 6-note pattern allows even more flexibility. Here, I’ve moved the number order around and made a more interesting line.

One part of this phrase has caught my ear:

When I add a low E root, I get a cool little Phrygian phrase (with a couple of notes snuck in on the high E string).

The GuitArchitect’s Positional Exploration and the GuitArchitect’s Guide to Modes: Melodic Patterns, has a systematic approach to exploring these types of variations. Having said that, those of you who want to do the work, could just write down a collection of numbers and apply them to different ideas and see what happens.

The first important thing, however, is to experiment with different rhythms (including rests!), phrasings (like slides, hammer-on/pull offs) and make some music out this raw material.

The second important thing to consider is that with any approach like this you should:

take the things you like

use them in what you’re currently working on (songs, solos, etc)

make what you keep part of your sound and discard (or ignore) what you don’t use.

I cover some other approaches and break down the theory a little more in depth in Harmonic Combinatorics but I hope this lesson here helps and if you like this idea – you should check out the book (if you haven’t already)!

Thanks for reading!

-SC

If you like this post you may also like:

.

Books:

The Modal Microscope And A Sequenced Arpeggio Approach

Slash and Burn – Creating More Complex Sounds With Slash Chords

Making Music Out Of Scales

.

Chords/Triads/Superimposition/Arpeggios:

AUGMENT YOUR KNOWLEDGE: SONIC SHAPES AND GETTING MORE FROM AUGMENTED CHORDS

.

GETTING HIPNESS FROM A MAJOR TRIAD OR MORE CHORD RECYCLING PART 3

Getting Hipness From A Major Triad Or More Chord Recycling Part 2

GETTING HIPNESS FROM A MAJOR TRIAD OR MORE CHORD RECYCLING PART 1

.

Getting Through The Gig – Negotiating A Chord Chart Part 3

Getting Through The Gig – Negotiating A Chord Chart Part 2

GETTING THROUGH THE GIG – NEGOTIATING A CHORD CHART PART 1

.

RECYCLING CHORDS PART II: TRIAD TRANSFORMATION

RECYCLING CHORDS PART I OR WHERE’S THE ROOT?

.

FAVORED CURRY OR SPICING UP CHORD SCALES AND TRIADS PART 2

FAVORED CURRY OR SPICING UP CHORD SCALES AND TRIADS PART 1

.

RECYCLING SHAPES OR MODULAR ARPEGGIOS FOR FUN AND PROFIT

GLASS NOODLES – ADAPTING A PHILIP GLASS ARPEGGIO APPROACH TO GUITAR

.

Augment Your Knowledge: Sonic Shapes and Getting More From Augmented Chords

Posted on December 11, 2011 by GuitArchitecture

Hi everyone!

I wanted to post a lesson that uses some of the material from my Positional Exploration book in a way that I didn’t get to cover in the text itself.

Back in November when Guitar-Muse posted the second part of my interview with Rob Balducci, Rob brought up a process he called chord morphing. When I saw it in the video, I slapped my head forehead loudly as I realized that while I mentioned that any of the melodic exercises in the Positional Exploration book could be played as a chord, I didn’t include chord tablature.

Anyway Rob had this cool idea of taking a 1-2-3-4 chromatic shape and playing it one note per fret on the bottom 4 strings which produces an Augmented chord like this:

Note:

Rob play this up on the 12-15th fret, but I’ve moved it to a low pitch of C for the purposes of explanation.

He then goes on to lower each note of the chord chromatically one at a time until he ends up with an augmented chord a 1/2 step away from where he started. I’ve detailed a sample of this below with analysis, when playing it the key to remember is keeping your fingers down and only moving finger playing the individual note that changes.

Sonic Shapes

So, I thought that was a cool way to:
.

warm up
find some new voicings (1 shape yields 4 chords total) and
see how different chord forms can be created by modifying existing voicings.

(You can check out my recycling chords post, for a pretty in-depth exploration of this idea with triads!)

And then I got to thinking about Sonic Shapes. Back in the day, Howard Roberts used to write a column for Guitar Player magazine and he had a whole series of columns that centered around an idea of sonic shapes, which is moving a fingering to different string sets to create different sounds. So here, I’ve taken the same 1-2-3-4 augmented shape and moved it to the 5th string:

And finally moving it to the top four strings:

Going Deeper

Then, because I couldn’t leave well enough alone, I started thinking about augmented chords in general. They’re neat little things because they’re intervallically symmetrical and any note in the chord can be the root.

You can also use them to visualize all of your 3-note major and minor inversions.

Here’s the first trick using augmented chords that I copped from Pat Martino:

If you sharp any note of an augmented chord you create a minor chord with the sharped note acting as the root

In the following chords, I’ve taken the original 4-note voicing I had (with doubled C) and sharped one note at a time which creates A minor, F minor and Db (or C#) minor.

Following through on this process, we can find voicings for every minor chord inversion. First I’ll go through the inversions of the 3-note augmented chord across each group of 3 strings:

With the augmented inversions outlined, try converting each voicing to a minor chord:

Raising C a 1/2 step creates a C#/Db minor chord
Raising E a 1/2 step creates a F minor chord
Raising G# a 1/2 step creates a A minor chord

Since augmented chords are symmetrical – the fingerings for inversions repeat every Major 3rd (i.e. 5 frets higher).

The next step is to move the entire pattern up 5 frets and repeat the process of converting the chords to minor.

Going up another 5 frets gives up the final inversion.

Once you get used to manipulating the augmented patterns to create all three minor chords, try taking one minor voicing (like A minor for example) and using the augmented visualization, try visualizing every inversion of A minor both across the fingerboard as well as on each string set.

Augmented visualization tip #2:

Here’s another cool trick from Mr. Martino:

if you flat any note in an augmented triad, the flatted note becomes the 5th of a major chord.

You can guess that the next step would be to apply this to all of the above inversions like you did with the minor.

To Review:

C / E/ G# (Ab) augmented can be transformed into:

A minor
F minor
C#/Db minor
C major
Ab major
E major

In a future post, I’ll talk about this as a melodic application, but in the meantime think about this:

If all of the above chords are related from C / E / G# augmented, then that augmented chord could be used as a bridge to cross bridge chords in very different key centers.

For Example:

A minor – C augmented – F minor.

A minor – C augmented – Db minor.

For those of you who have read my glass noodles post, you’ll see where this is going for a future lesson.

Enjoy the new voicings and thanks for reading!

PS – If you like this idea, you might find my Positional Exploration book, Harmonic Combinatorics Book, Chord Scale Book or Melodic Patterns book really helpful in generating new melodic ideas or approaches.

For posts here, you may also like:

.

Chords/Triads/Superimposition/Arpeggios:

GETTING HIPNESS FROM A MAJOR TRIAD OR MORE CHORD RECYCLING PART 3

Getting Hipness From A Major Triad Or More Chord Recycling Part 2

GETTING HIPNESS FROM A MAJOR TRIAD OR MORE CHORD RECYCLING PART 1

.

Getting Through The Gig – Negotiating A Chord Chart Part 3

Getting Through The Gig – Negotiating A Chord Chart Part 2

GETTING THROUGH THE GIG – NEGOTIATING A CHORD CHART PART 1

.

RECYCLING CHORDS PART II: TRIAD TRANSFORMATION

RECYCLING CHORDS PART I OR WHERE’S THE ROOT?

.

FAVORED CURRY OR SPICING UP CHORD SCALES AND TRIADS PART 2

FAVORED CURRY OR SPICING UP CHORD SCALES AND TRIADS PART 1

.

RECYCLING SHAPES OR MODULAR ARPEGGIOS FOR FUN AND PROFIT

GLASS NOODLES – ADAPTING A PHILIP GLASS ARPEGGIO APPROACH TO GUITAR

.

Books

Getting hipness from a major triad or more chord recycling part 3

Posted on April 19, 2011 by GuitArchitecture

In part one of this post, I looked at generating different major chord variations based on flatting the root and the 5th. In part 2, I sharped those pitches and then combined the two approaches to create additional chords and textures. In this post, I’m going to look at applying these chord tones to melodic (or lead) ideas. But first…

The Relative Minor Explanation:

The second post of this series ended on a cliffhanger when I said that all of the A major upper extensions would work as substitutions for F# minor chords. You can read the rest of this Relative Minor explanation if you want to understand why this works – otherwise you can just skip ahead to the next section for some melodic ideas.

Here’s the explanation for this.

In a major chord, the 4th is sometimes known as an avoid note. In the key of C, this means that the note F is usually viewed as a note to avoid either melodically or harmonically. If we look at a major scale:

C D E F G A B C

the only 1/2 steps in the scale are between E/F and B/C.

Chromatics are powerful things in music. They tend to act as tonal anchors to where the tonal center is. If you play a simple ascending C major scale and stop on the note B, most listeners will want you to resolve to C. In the major scale the 1/2 step between the 3rd and 4th makes the ear think that F major is the tonal center.

(For those of you familiar with ear training, if you sing a c major scale from C to F – it sounds like you’re singing so la ti Do – instead of Do re me fa.)

One innovation that came about in jazz music was to substitute an #4 for a 4 over chords with a major quality. This put the 1/2 step motion between the 4th and the 5th. Since the 5th is a chord tone in a major triad, it has less of an effect of moving outside of the key.

Here’s how this is applied:

Any Major scale with a #4 is a Lydian mode.

The A Lydian mode is taken from the parent Major scale of E Major.

The Relative Minor chord of A Major is F# minor.

In the key of E Major, F# is the second scale degree and uses the Dorian mode.

Dorian is a popular mode for soloing over minor chords.

Here’s the shortcut:

You can change the chord scale with the chord if you want here – but if you’re playing a chord progression that goes between a major and the relative minor chord (and you’re using Lydian for the major chord) – you can keep using the same scale to create a Dorian sound over the minor chord

(and vice-versa).

A Quick Review

Here’s the Major chord shape I’ve been modifying over the first 2 lessons:

A Major

If the root and the 5th are strategically sharped or flatted, other chord tones (7, #11, 9 and 13 can be created).

Since the b (9th) on the high E string is available, the 9th on the g string is something that can be incorporated as well.

A Lydian/F# Dorian Chord tones based on an A major chord shape

If I’m soloing over A major (or F# Minor) – all of these notes are fair game.

Try all the licks below over an A major type chord or F# minor type chord.

Lick 1 (Double Click any notation to see full size)

Lick 1

I try to stay with consistent note-per-string fingerings on strings when playing melodically, so here I’m going to take the same idea and just move the last note to the g string to create a 3 note per string pattern.

Lick 1: Three note-per-string shape

Here’s how it sounds at 1/2 speed.

Here’s how it sounds at tempo.

Lick 2:

Here, I’m taking the same notes and breaking them up intervallically into 4ths (except for the 5th in the last 2 notes which adds some variety in the cycle). Licks like these are easy to visualize (and therefore easy to manipulate when improvising).

Here’s how it sounds at tempo.

Note:

When I improvised this- I played it as transcribed – but when I recorded it – I played the last 2 notes as 1/8th notes instead – please take any of the ideas here and manipulate them as you see fit.

Here’s a similar (but shorter) idea with a scalar pattern at the end.

4ths lick 2

Here’s how it sounds at 1/2 speed.

Here’s how it sounds at tempo.

Lick 3:

Here’s an arpeggio idea that incorporates chromaticism.

arpeggio lick w. chromatics

Here’s how it sounds at 1/2 speed and then at tempo.

A couple of notes:

In the beginning I’m visualizing a C# min7 arpeggio (C#, E, G#, B) starting on the B.

The chromatic motion isn’t random – instead it specifically emphasizes the A and the C# in the A Major chord.

In the 3rds pattern that ends the lick – I’m skipping the middle note of the 3 note per string pattern in Lick 1. I like using 3rds in patterns because it breaks up the monotony of just running scales up and down.

Going Further – Dominant Superimposition:

Now that some initial options have been explored – I’ll take a look at the upper notes of the voicing. If I take the previous fretboard diagram and extend a note on the g string I’ll have something that looks like the diagram below:

Here’s a chord voicing I discussed in part 2 of this series (B7/A)

And here’s how it sounds.

Short cut 1:

Playing a dominant 7th chord on the second scale degree of a major chord will get you all of the upper extensions and the root)

(i.e. B7 over A major)

Short cut 2:

When soloing over a major chord – you can play a dominant arpeggio on the second scale degree (i.e. B7 over A major).

In the example below, I’m combining a B9 arpeggio and an A major arpeggio to create a melodic idea. The A and C# on the D string are the linking material between the 2 arpeggios (they act as the 7 and 9 in the B9 chord, or as the root and 3rd of the A Major).

The important thing with any superimposition like this is to resolve it to a chord tone in the chord you’re soloing over (in this case A).

Here’s how it sounds at 1/2 speed.

Here’s how it sounds at tempo.

Going Further – Minor Superimposition:

Here’s another chord voicing I discussed in part 2 of this series (G# min7/A)

Short cut 1:

Playing a minor chord on the seventh scale degree of a major chord will get you upper extensions (7, 9, #11 and 13) of the chord.

(i.e. G# min7 played over A major)

Short cut 2:

When soloing over a major chord – you can play a minor arpeggio on the second scale degree (i.e. G# min7/A).

In the example below, I’m combining a sextuplet idea from the earlier licks and a G#min arpeggio to create a melodic idea. Again, an important thing with any superimposition like this is to resolve it to a chord tone in the chord you’re soloing over (in this case A).

I’m not a fan of the shift from E to D# in this fingering as it requires quickly barring to get the rest of the arpeggio. As an alternate fingering, I recommend this:

The “picking” is just a suggestion. (For example: you could also pull off the D# to the B on the g string and then just continue the sweep picking motion.)

Here’s how it sounds at 1/2 speed.

Here’s how it sounds at tempo.

Wrapping it up:

This is really only the beginning of where these approaches can go. Hopefully this will give you some ideas to explore both in comping and soloing. If there’s enough interest, I’ll expand this approach to minor and dominant chords in future posts.

Final Tech Note:

For those of you who are interested, these are the approximate settings I’m using in Pod farm for the distorted tone here:

Thanks for reading!

-SC

Getting Hipness From A Major Triad Or More Chord Recycling Part 2

Posted on April 4, 2011 by GuitArchitecture

In part one of this post, I looked at generating different major chord variations based on flatting the root and the 5th. In this post, I’m looking at sharping those pitches and combining the two for additional textures (if you came here directly – you may want to review the A major variations in part one before continuing).

Start with a map:

Adapting chord forms requires the ability to visualize chord tones around the shape you’re using. As a starting point, here’s a fretboard diagram of an A major chord (with the A being on the 7th fret of the D string). I’ve added some additional chordal extensions on the E and B strings (but this process could be applied to any string-set).

In the last lesson, I looked at creating sounds with the 6th (or 13 – see post 1 for the difference between the 2) on the E string. This time, I’ll add the 6th (6th or 13th) on the B string by raising the E up to F#.

A Major 6th no 5th

Here is the sound of the A Major 6th (no 5th) chord.

Comparing this to the A major 6th voicing in part 1:

A Major 6 - Watch the 1st finger stretch - if it hurts - stop Immediately!!

Here’s an mp3 of this chord.

The new voicing is certainly easier. If I was really stuck on the close voicing of the E and the F# in the A major 6th, I could simply move the F# to the B string and move the E to the open string like this:

A maj 6 with open E string

Several Notes:

This voicing wasn’t included in the first lesson as I wanted to show the process of how to derive these chords.

The upside to this approach is it makes this specific voicing easier to play – but the downside is it’s not movable – which may or may not be problematic for you.

If a chord is really difficult to finger – there is always an easier way. You may not get the specific notes or voicings you’re looking for – but there’s always an easier way.

Now I’ll extend the initial Major 6th sound by flatting the 7th. This is done by lowering the A to G#.

A Maj 7 add 13 no 5th

Here’s how it sounds.

Again, I’m a sucker for chords with seconds in the voicing (in this case the F# and G#). It adds a little but of tension and elevates the chord a bit.

Adding in the 9th:

First let’s create an A major add 9 chord.

A add 9

Here’s how it sounds.

Note:

The reason this is an add 9 chord and not a major 9 chord is the lack of a 7th.

Since the chord is a major chord with a 9th added, it’s called an add 9.

Now I’ll add a sharp #11. This is done by lowering the E to D#.

A maj 9 sharp 11 no 7th no 5th

Here’s how it sounds.

Another Note:

The further you extend the harmony and remove initial chord tones, the more vague the sound of the chord is as related to the tonic.

For example: The chord above could be analyzed as an A major 9 # 11 with no 7th and no 5th. But the notes are A, C#, D# and B. If those tones are centered around B – you have a B, D#, A and C# or a B dominant 9 (no 5th)/A.

If you have to analyze a chord with more than 1 elimination (i.e. “no 7th no 5th”) there’s probably a simpler analysis of the chord.

Going Further:

Now that some initial options have been explored – I’ll take a look at the upper notes of the voicing. If I take the previous fretboard diagram and extend a note on the G string I’ll have something that looks like the diagram below (again the A listed below is on the 7th fret of the D string):

If I’m willing to be a little adventurous and replace the 3rd of the chord (C#) with the #11 (D#) , I’ll get a voicing with a root and then all upper tensions (9, #11 and 13). Here it is notated:

B7/A

And here’s how it sounds.

While you could analyse this related to the key of A Major (A major 13, #11, no 3rd, no 5th, no 7th) you may have noticed that shape is the upper chord voicing for a VII position B 7 barre chord.

Short cut 1:

Playing a dominant 7th chord on the second scale degree of a major chord will get you all of the upper extensions and the root).

(i.e. B7 over A major)

But isn’t a stable sound on its own. If you play this chord and then the standard A major, it will probably feel resolved to you when you play the A. If you have a song with a number of bars of A major – switching between these two chords is a nice way to generate a little harmonic motion.

Now, I’ll take this idea a little further by lowering the A to a G#:

G# min 7/A

Here’s how it sounds.

This gives the chord a 7 (G#), 9 (B), #11 (D#) and 13 (F#) – or all of the upper chord tones.

Short cut 2:

Playing a minor 7th chord on the seventh scale degree of a major chord will get you all of the upper extensions of the chord.

(i.e. G# minor 7 over A major)

Like the B7/A, this isn’t a stable sound on its own. If you play this chord and then the standard A major, it will probably feel resolved to you when you play the A.

Quartal for your thoughts?

Here’s one last transformation for now. Here I’m going to lower the D# to C# to create a quartal chord.

Quartal Chord

And here’s how it sounds:

A quartal chord is a chord that is built on 4ths (G#, C#, F#, B) as opposed to being built on 3rds like A Major (A, C#, E). To me, quartal voicings have a nice “airy” or “floating” quality . This is just one of many possible quartal voicings built from A major. Quartal voicings will be discussed more in-depth in a future post.

How to double the number of chords that have been covered.

So far, I’ve looked at a series of chords that either work as substitutions and/or extensions for major chords I’m going to go into more depth about why this works in the next post but for right now – here’s a quick tip that gives a whole other dimension to using these chords.

Every chord presented here also works over the relative minor (i.e. F# minor chord).

Try taking this chord:

and after you play it add an F# by tapping a fret hand finger on the 2nd fret F# on the low E string for a very hip F# min 9 extension.

F# min 9 add 13 no 11

Hopefully this has given you some new chordal ideas!! You may want to go back to the first post and apply this idea by playing through all of the voicings covered there and adding the F# as a root.

In addition to explaining this approach more in-depth, in part 3 of these posts I’m going to explore a number of ways to use these ideas in your soloing.

Thanks for reading!! Please feel free to post any questions you might have.

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Getting Hipness From A Major Triad Or More Chord Recycling Part 1

Posted on March 31, 2011 by GuitArchitecture

When I was at Berklee, one thing that took a while for me to really get my ear around was upper chord tones (7ths, 9ths, 11ths and 13ths). Growing up listening to a great deal of rock music – basic triads sounded “right” to me. I learned a lot of esoteric chord voicings to try to expand on those forms – but my ear wasn’t ready for it and so I had no real motivation to develop it at the time.

As I mentioned in the getting through the gig and the recycling chords posts, simple triadic forms can be manipulated in a way that allows players to get more complex harmonic textures in real-time. Additionally, these approaches can be adapted to lead playing as well. This short series of posts are going to go deeper into adapting one specific chord voicing. As a starting point I’ll use the major triad.

The following examples are based around a 5th position A major chord played on the D, G, B, and E strings.

The reason I’m using this specific voicing is to allow the open A string to ring while playing the chord to help reinforce the root. Here’s the basic rhythm of the chordal examples:

While notated this way for simplicity, all the examples are played with a slight arpeggiation to help accent the different notes.

Here’s an mp3 of an A Major Triad.

Rooting around for extra tones:

The first way to generate some additional substitutions for a simple major chord is to lower the root chromatically.

While there is a root on both the D and the high E string, for now these examples will focus on manipulating the root on the high E string.

Lowering the root of a major triad a 1/2 step (1 fret) produces a Major 7th chord:

(This can be used in place of any A major triad)

A Major 7 Chord

Here’s an mp3 of this A Major 7 chord.

Lowering the root of a major triad a step (2 frets) produces a Dominant 7th chord:

(This can sometimes be used in place of an A major triad

Example: When the A acts as a V chord in a chord progression (A -> D becomes A7–>D))

A7 Chord

Here’s an mp3 of this A 7 chord.

Note:

While dominant 7th chords contain a major triad in them – they are their own unique animal. A future post will go into generating dominant chords – in depth – but this voicing is presented here as part of the process of generating chords by altering the root.

Lowering the root of a major triad a step and a 1/2 (3 frets) produces a Major 6th chord:

(Typically this can be used in place of any A major triad)

A Major 6 - Watch the 1st finger stretch - if it hurts - stop Immediately!!

Here’s an mp3 of this A Major 6th chord.

Another Note:

There are certainly easier ways to generate this chord – but any chord form with a 1/2 or whole step between notes on the B and E strings will require some limber hands. Again, this voicing is not the only possible voicing of this chord but instead is just one possibility.

6th chord/13th chord Tip:

Frequently, I’m asked about the difference between a 6th chord and a 13th chord. Since the note is the same for both the 6th and the 13th, the terms are sometimes used interchangably – but the difference is based around whether the chord has a 7th in it. In the example above, the F# acts as a 6th, because no 7th is present in the chord. If a seventh was in the chord, the F# would be viewed as a 13th.

The #4/#11:

One hip tone to use in a Major based chord is the #4 (or #11). This is generated by flatting the 5th a 1/2 step (1 fret).

A Major add #4

Here’s an mp3 of this A Major add #4 chord.

I like voicings like this where the top voices (C#, D# and E in this case) are all close voiced (i.e. in the same octave). The technique of combining these close voiced ideas with open strings is a favorite approach of mine.

This idea can be expanded on by flatting the root as well.

This produces an A major 7 add #11 (no 5th) chord (A favorite substitution of mine for a major chord).

A Maj 7 # 11 no 5th

Here’s an mp3 of this chord.

Shortcut:

If you flat the top two notes of a major barre chord with the fifth and root on the B and high E string – you get a pretty hip major chord substitution. This works in any key.

In part 2 of this series, I’ll look at sharping the 5th and the root to generate more chord voicings, combining both approaches and extrapolating lead ideas from these approaches as well.

Thanks for reading!!

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Getting Through The Gig – Negotiating A Chord Chart Part 3

Posted on March 23, 2011 by GuitArchitecture

I took the wrong weekend to sleep in! Guitar Squid distributed a link to part one of the post and by the time I got to check my stats for the weekend I had already missed my record keeping days.

However, you got here – welcome.

In the previous posts (part 1 and part 2), I talked about deciphering chord symbols and developing shortcuts for playing them. In this post I’m going to talk about my approach and how I ended up reading the chart.

One final time – here’s the 232 chart with upper extension triads written in:

Full Triadic Substitutions / Shortcuts

Here’s an mp3 of the track. This was recorded with an FnH Ultrasonic recorded directly into AU Lab with PodFarm 2.0 @ 44.1. The goal was an ambient wash of sound but in retrospect, I should have gone with a longer delay time/wetter reverb to hold the sustain.

Here’s the PodFarm Patch:

Here’s Bar 1 of the chart:

232 Measure 1

Notes:

Simple is better. I usually start with 3-4 note voicings and then add from there on subsequent passes.

I chose the F minor chord in the first position to make the C in the chart the top note of the voicing (and thus accent the melody) – this kept my initial focus on voicings primarily on the D, G and B strings.

I added the bass note on the E and A strings so I could get a little more of the chord texture.

On the B minor 11 chord, I made some alterations on the fly. To get the melody note on top of the voicing I doubled the 11 (E on the 5^th fret). Technically this isn’t a minor 11 chord as there’s no 3^rd – but in this case Chris was playing the full voicing anyway, so I’m just adding texture. Depending on what the bass was doing on the second pass I would probably add the 3^rd of the chord (D) on the 5^th fret of the A string.

The 3^rd and 4^th chords follow a similar pattern so I used the same voicing.

I decided to drop down to 1^st position for the last chord to get some low-end emphasis. I’d probably add some harp harmonics as well.

The same voicings and approach are used in Bar 2.

Bar 2

232 Measure 2

Bars 3-4

232 Measures 3-4

Notes:

A 9 (sus4) – This went to g,b and e strings to facilitate the melody note. With the kind of ambient swell sounds that I used – muting the strings with the pick hand between chord changes becomes important to maintain smooth delay.

Bb Maj 9 – Here I was actually thinking Dm 7/Bb. So I’m just using the top notes of the voicing.

E min 9 – This is a stock A string minor 9 voicing I use. I have a couple of these for E and A strings I throw in when I need to.

F#9 (sus 4) – E maj/F# voicing based off of a VII position E barre chord.

G maj 9 – I was thinking B min but then added the A on the 10^th fret for the melody and the G on the A string for the root.

C#min 9 – I moved the melody up an octave on the last 3 chords to amp up the arrangement. Stock E string rooted voicing. Sometimes I’d play the B on the D string and sometimes not.

D Maj 9 – Variation on the C#min9 shape – 2 useful voicings to have at your disposal.

E9 sus 4 – Just kept the D Maj 9 voicing, added the F# on the top string and played the low octave E. I addition to filling out the chord the voicing puts me in a good spot space wise if we decide to repeat bars 1-4.

This has been a long series of instruction for a pretty simple chord chart, but the purpose of it was to detail the process behind those short cuts. It might seem long and involved – but it gets easier over time. In reality – the voicings took about a minute to suss out.

I hope this helps! Please feel free to reply here or send an email to guitar.blueprint@gmail.com with any other questions you might have about this.

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Getting Through The Gig – Negotiating A Chord Chart Part 2

Posted on March 15, 2011 by GuitArchitecture

In the previous getting through the gig post, I talked about how to interpret chord symbols to determine what a song is asking for. Today, I’m going to use upper structure triads (triads built on chord tones other than the root) to simplify the chart. If you’re unfamiliar with the chord symbols below, you may want to start with Part 1 of this lesson.

This lesson will continue to use the 232 chart used in part 1.

For now – let’s assume that you know how to play at least some major and minor triad shapes. (If you didn’t take my advice to review the triadic inversions at the end of the last post – you may want to do so now.)

Getting through the Charts part 1 – Unfamiliar and familiar

When sight-reading a chart, my goal isn’t neccessarilly to have a brilliant interpretation playing it the first time (although if I can make it better – great) . I just want to make sure that I’m playing the chords as written and then try to adapt it to the song. So if I have stock voicings at my fingers for chords on the chart and they make sense, I’ll play those and then voice lead or tailor the approach from there.

Let’s assume for a moment that it’s a worse case scenario – you’re given this chart to play and all of these chords are alien to you.

Step 1:

Look for common chord types.

In this case, there are only a few different types of chords in the piece:

major9 #11
minor 11,
9sus4,
major 9 and
minor 9.

If generic voicings can be developed they can just be moved to the roots of the chords that need to be played.

Step 2:

Convert to the key of C and figure out the chord formula.

The reason to convert to the key of C – is that the lack of sharps or flats in the key signature makes it easy to alter chord formulas as need be.

Here are the chords in question in the key of C:

C major9 #11: C, E, G, B, D, F# (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, #11)

C minor 11: C, Eb, G, Bb, D, F (1, b3, 5, b7, 9, 11)

C 9sus4: C, F, G, Bb, D, (1, 4, 5, b7, 9)

C major 9: C, E, G, B, D (1, 3, 5, 7, 9)

C minor 9: C, Eb, G, Bb, D (1, b3, 5, b7, 9)

Step 3:

Focus on the upper notes (7, 9, 11, 13) of the voicing (and/or any alterations) and make a short cut:

Note:

This process assumes that there’s a bass player who will be playing the root. You also loose the 3rd in the voicing, but you can always add the root, 3rd or any other chord tone in later. The initial step is to just get through the chart, and then spruce it up as you gain familiarity.

In the C major9 #11, the upper notes are the 7, 9 and #11 (B, D, F# ) this is a B minor triad with a C in the bass (also written B min/C).

The shortcut here is –

if you play a minor triad a ½ step down from the root

you’ll have the upper extension of the major 9 #11 chord.

Here are the transposed voicings

Gb major 9 #11 = F minor/Gb

A major 9 #11 = G# minor/A

F major 9 #11 = E minor/F

C major 9 #11 = B minor/E

D major 9 #11 = C# minor/D

Bb major 9 #11 = A minor/Bb

Here they are penciled into the chart:

Maj. 9 sharp 11 Shortcut

Note:

I’m going to into specific voicings in the third and final post – the idea here is to just to document how to figure out some basic chord substitutions. While I haven’t written in the bass note (i.e. Gb major 9 #11 = F minor/Gb – written on the chart as simply Fm), the bass note is still in the original chord voicing, so I can work it into the tonic as necessary.

In the C minor 11, the upper notes are the b7, 9 and 11 (Bb, D, F) this is a Bb major triad with a C in the bass (also written B/C).

The shortcut here is –

if you play a major triad a step down from the root

you’ll have the upper extension of the minor 11 chord.

Here are the transposed voicings:

B minor 11 = A/B

C# minor 11 = B/C#

E minor 11 = D/E

Gb minor 11 = Fb(E)/Gb

and applied to the chart:

Minor 11 Triadic shortcuts

Next, let’s look at the 9 sus4 chord

C 9sus4: C, F, G, Bb, D, (1, 4, 5, b7, 9)

Here the upper extensions are the b7, 9 and the added sus4 (Bb, D, F)

The real difference between the C9 Sus4 and the C minor 11 is the Eb.

The shortcut here is –

if you play a major triad a step down from the root

you’ll also have the primary tones of the 9sus4 chord.

Here are the transposed voicings:

A9 sus 4 = G/A

F#9 sus 4 = E/F#

E9 sus 4 = D/E

and applied to the chart:

9 sus 4 Triadic Shortcuts

For 11 and 13th chords, I tend to think in terms of triads based on the 7th or the 9th. Major and Minor 9th chords can be seen as triads starting from the 5th (but I usually see them as 7th chords from the 3rd – more on that in part 3 of these posts).

Major 9th shortcut –

if you play a major triad chord a 5th up from the root

you’ll have the upper extension of the major 9th chord.

Here are the transposed voicings:

C major 9: C, E, G, B, D (1, 3, 5, 7, 9) = G/C

Bb major 9 = F/Bb

G major 9 = D/G

D major 9 = A/D

and applied to the chart:

Major 9th Triad Shortcuts

Minor 9th shortcut –

if you play a minor triad a 5th up from the root

you’ll have the upper extension of the minor 9th chord.

Here are the transposed voicings:

C minor 9: C, Eb, G, Bb, D (1, b3, 5, b7, 9) = G Minor

Emin9 = B min/E

C#min9 = G# min/ C#

And the big reveal or…

GET ON WITH IT ALREADY SCOTT – WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN?

Okay here’s the initial chart again:

and here’s the modified chart with triadic substitutions written in (click on the chart to see it full-sized).

Full Triadic Substitutions / Shortcuts

Which do you find easier to read chord-wise?

“Hey take a solo…”

As an additional bonus to this approach, these upper extension triads can also be approached as arpeggios that can be played over each chord for soloing or as a simpler tonal center for chord scales (just realize that not all chord scales that work for the upper extension triad will work for the initial chord – but experiment and use your ear to guide you for what works.)

In the final post of this series, I’ll show how I ended up voicing the tune.

Thanks for reading!

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Getting Through The Gig – Negotiating A Chord Chart Part 1

Posted on March 14, 2011 by GuitArchitecture

In the previous surviving the gig post, I talked about some memorization skills that can help get through gigs that require learning a lot of tunes. In this series of posts, I want to focus on how to get through gigs that may have unfamiliar chord changes.

In this post, I’m going to be discussing how to interpret chord symbols and then developing some short cuts for how to generate chord voicings on the bandstand as it were. If you are already familiar with how to read chord voicings – you may want to skim this and just go to part 2.

There will be a lot of detail over these posts for how I’m doing what I’m doing, but once you get the concept under your belt. It should be something you can do on the fly if need be.

As an example, I’ll be look at part of a chart Rough Hewn touch/stick/Warr guitarist Chris Lavender sent to me, called 232

First Step – Know what notes the chord symbols are asking for.

It’s not that hard to figure out chords if you know what the symbols mean. Here are some general shortcuts for chord types beyond triads. There are only 3 basic categories that we’ll look at: Major, Minor and Dominant:

Major

(Sometimes designated by “major”, “maj” or a triangle)

Any type of major chord always has a major triad (Root, 3^rd and 5^th) plus a major 7^th in the full chord voicing unless it states otherwise. If a chart has any type of C Major chord variation (C Major 7, C Major 9 or C Major 13) – the voicing has a C, E, G and B.

Note:

When removing notes from any voicing the 5^th is usually the first to go (unless it’s altered like #5, or b5).

The initial short cut is: any major type chord starts with (1,3, 7) or (C, E, B) in the key of C.

Minor

(Sometimes designated by “minor”, “min”. or “-” )

Any type of minor chord always has a minor triad (Root, b3^rd and 5^th) plus a b7^th in the full chord voicing unless it states otherwise. If a chart has any type of C Major chord variation (C minor 7, C minor 9, C minor 11 or C minor 13) – the voicing has a C, Eb, G and Bb.

Note:

When removing notes from any voicing the 5^th is usually the first to go (unless it’s altered like #5, or b5).

The initial short cut is: any minor type chord starts with (1,b3, b7) or (C, bE, bB) in the key of C.

Dominant

(Sometimes designated by “dominant”, “dom”. or no designation

i.e. “C7”, “C9” or “C13” refers to a dominant chord unless otherwise stated)

Any type of dominant chord always has a major triad (Root, 3^rd and 5^th) plus a b7^th in the full chord voicing unless it states otherwise. If a chart has any type of C dominant chord variation (C 7, C 9, C 11 or C 13) – the voicing has a C, E, G and Bb.

Note:

When removing notes from any voicing the 5^th is usually the first to go (unless it’s altered like #5, or b5).

The initial short cut is: any dominant type chord starts with (1,3, b7) or (C, E, Bb) in the key of C.

Beyond this, you just need to add in additional pitches based on what the voicing indicates.

Here’s a chart that relates all of the potential chord tones that you might see to a scale degree for quick reference.

Putting the chart to use:

The first chord in the 232 chart is a C major 9 #11. As a reminder – any extended C major chord will have C, E, G, B in the full voicing. Since it’s a C major 9, a 9th – which in the chart above is a D – will have to be added. The #11 means an F# will get added to the voicing as well. This brings the full voicing to (C, E, G, B, D, and F#).

Again, the only time you would probably play a full voicing is for a solo guitar or perhaps a duet performance. In the next post, I’ll discuss how to extract what you need to get through the chart.

Second Step – Know some chords

When I went to Berklee, I was advised that I should learn at least 2 chord voicings for any chords that could be put on a chart in front of me. These stock voicings are typically low E or A string rooted (as it helps with visualization) and are the default voicings that you would use if you were sight-reading a chart. These typically include triads, Major /Minor / Dominant chord 7^th, 9^th, 11^th and 13^th chords.

While this is, generally, useful advice, I should state for the record that while I did the initial memorization required for school proficiencies – I quickly forgot the majority of voicings I wasn’t using all the time. Learning every inversion of every possible 7^th, 9^th, 11^th and 13^th chord on multiple string sets will take YEARS. For some people, it’s the best method, but it never worked that well for me.

Once I understood how chords worked, I never bothered to memorize many specific voicings above a 9^th chord because I found some shortcuts to get the sounds I needed.

Note:

This is not to say that you should be lazy.If you follow through on the suggestions that I have – you should plan on learning triads and 7^th chords at a very deep level (i.e. you should have the goal of being able to play any triad or 7^th chord in any inversion in any position).

(more on how to do that in a future post)

I hope this helps! In the next post – I’ll simplify the 232 chart with some harmonic shortcuts.

While digesting this – I’d recommend you take some time to work on your chord inversions. If you’re unfamiliar with them you may want to check out the D major inversions I’ve posted below, and adapt this process to minor triads (just flat the third – F# and make it F in the examples below), and 7th chords (major, dominant and minor).

(The following is adapted from another post (Recycling Chords Part II: Triad Transformation).

Thanks for reading!!

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Note: D major is used in the following examples instead of C major because the original post dealt with transforming triads. Each note of a 1^st position D major chord can be lowered to another note on the fingerboard, without using open strings. In other words, each chord is a moveable voicing on the fingerboard. The following should be adapted to C major and other keys as necessary.

The first step to adapting voicings is to make sure you can visualize triads both horizontally and vertically across the fingerboard.

Horizontal (i.e. positional) Visualization

Here’s a series of D major chord inversions in the 2^nd position.

Helpful Tip

As you play through these voicings pay particular attention to which chord tone each finger is on (i.e. for the first D Major chord voicing – the first finger is on the 5th of the chord (A), the third finger is on the root (D) and the second finger is on the 3rd (F#). More on this later.

Here are the D major inversions in the 5^th position

and in the 10^th position.

Vertical Visualization

Note:

the important thing with both the horizontal and vertical voicings is knowing where each chord tone is located in the voicing.

One way to practice this is to play through the chords and stop at random points and ask, “where is the root?” “where is the 3^rd?” “where is the 5^th?” This has to be full internalized to be able to realize the goal of instant chord tone identification.