Chords Guitar: March 2015

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Easy Jazz Arpeggios ? ii V I VI Chords - The Jazz Guitar Blog

Posted: 24 Mar 2015 06:04 AM PDT

One of the big struggles that many guitarists face when first learning jazz guitar arpeggios, is that they learn large shapes (usually two octaves), which can be hard to connect when applied to a soloing situation. While two-octave shapes are essential learning, there is an easier way to get started with arpeggios.

This approach involves learning one-octave shapes for each arpeggio, and then placing them in one position on the fretboard when applied to a jazz chord progression, which will be the focus of this lesson.

Learning smaller, one-octave, shapes, and then working them out on a single position over chord changes will allow you to quickly and easily move between shapes, without any shifting, in your jazz guitar solos.

Easy Jazz Arpeggios – Position 1

The examples in this lesson are all in the key of C major, so start by learning these shapes in that key before moving them to other keys on the fretboard.

As well, once you can play these shapes from memory, put on a ii-V-I-VI backing track and solo over those changes using the shapes from this lesson to create your lines. Here is a Dm7-G7-Cmaj7-A7b9 backing track that you can use in your practice sessions.

Listen & Play

Here is the first position for the easy jazz arpeggio fingerings, starting with the Dm7 shape on the 6^th string and moving to the other chords in that same position from that starting shape.

Notice that you can play all four arpeggios, meaning you can now solo over all four of those chords, without moving your hand – you are staying in one position on the fretboard the whole time.

Listen & Play

To help you take these shapes to a musical situation, here is a sample lick that you can learn that uses these four shapes in its construction.

Listen & Play

Easy Jazz Arpeggios – Position 2

Moving on, let's take the easy arpeggio approach to a new position, this time playing the Dm7 arpeggio from the 5^th-string root note, with the rest of the arpeggios being in that one position from there.

Listen & Play

Again, here is a sample lick that you can practice to help you take these shapes from a technical to an improvisational standpoint in your practice routine.

Listen & Play

Easy Jazz Arpeggios – Position 3

The final easy jazz arpeggio position begins with the Dm7 arpeggio on the 4^th string root, with the rest of the changes played in that same position.

Listen & Play

Lastly, here is a sample lick that you can learn which demonstrates the arpeggios in this position over the ii-V-I-VI chord progression.

Once you have learned this lick, and the other two in this lesson, try writing out a few licks of your own to see and hear how these shapes sound over the chords before you being improvising with them over a backing track.

Listen & Play

Any questions or feedback? Let us know by leaving a comment below…

10 Solid Reasons to Learn New Chords Now and How - Guitar Habits

Posted: 26 Mar 2015 11:21 PM PDT

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You might already know a bunch of chords. You can play a good number of songs and you're doing just fine. You don't want to burden yourself any more than necessary.

Why would you need to continue to learn and memorize new chords? You can look them up right?

Right and wrong!

When you are writing or creating and your mind doesn't have that big beautiful chord vocabulary, your imagination can't benefit from all this creativity that is going on inside your head and you're holding back from your true potential. You've got the creativity, but you're missing the input.

Also when you're playing guitar in a band you want to feel confident right? You want to be a pro, so act like a pro. Study and learn as much as you can. Be in control of your game. It builds confidence and increases the fun.

Let's work on it!

Here are the 10 reasons to keep learning new chords and how to go about it.

LEARN NEW CHORDS TO

1 – benefit your creative imagination.
Expanding your chord vocabulary will lead to more chord choices, more variety, more ways to go about a song which is awesome for playing, improvisation and songwriting.

2 – expand your visualization on the fretboard.
Learning chords in different positions and voicings creates a road map for the guitar neck around which you can build and extend your playing.

3 – develop and broaden your insight.
You'll learn to understand how everything (chords, progressions, licks, scales and arpeggios) works together as a whole. Knowing chords and the theory behind chords is one of the most valuable tools for a guitar player.

4 – increase the fun in your playing. There are so many beautiful chords to learn there's no stopping. I still discover new sounds and chord tricks that make me fall in love with the guitar over and over again.

5 – improve your left hand dexterity.
Your left hand technique will improve significally. The more chords you can play, the easier it gets to learn a new chord and make fast chord transitions.

6 – build confidence in your playing.
Applied knowledge is power. Having a big chord vocabulary will make you more bold in your rhythm playing and gives you the courage to play with other musicians. It feels good to own that knowledge and translate it to the guitar anyway you want.

7 – create overall flexibility
The more chords you know, the more you can choose between different chord voices that suit your taste or that match the sound of the song you want to learn. Sus chords, 7th chords and chord extensions played in different positions also sound and feel different. More choice, more flexibility.

8 – build your infrastructure.
Chords are your building blocks. Without chords you can't play rhythm guitar and without rhythm guitar there's not much use in playing solo. Learning chords is building the groundwork for everything else that is to come. Without it you're lost.

9 – add more color
Bring more color and flavor to your song with all those different sounds and create the mood and atmosphere you want to convey.

10 – feel free and liberated.
When you have a acquired big chord vocabulary you don't have to look up and learn every new chord that you come across in a new song. It makes it much easier and less time consuming. If you don't know the words you can't speek freely. Having that vocabulary means freedom.

HOW TO DO IT

1 – Create a habit
Make a commitment to yourself. Practice daily or every other day. Set a time to practice and choose a quiet place where you can study and build that impressive chord vocabulary. Set the alarm on your cellphone to remind yourself. Tell people in your environment that you need some private time and don't want to be disturbed during practice. You want to improve don't you? Now is the time.

2 – Practice thoroughly
Pick the six strings one by one to make sure your chord sounds clean and clear all the way through. With each session practice new chords and the ones you've learned before. Make sure you also memorize the chord names. During practice speak out the name of each chord out loud.

3 – Train your muscle memory
Play the chord and strum it once. Lift your fingers off the strings entirely and put them back on (Try to place your fingers in the shape of the chord and try to move all your fingers simultaneously when you reach for the strings). Take them off again… and put them back on. Practice this a couple of times for each chord.

4 – Incorporate
It's mandatory that you incorporate your new learned chord in a song and apply it regularly to your playing to make it part of your long term memory. Use it in a new song, as part of your songwriting or for improvisation. Repetition and application is the key to memorization.

5 – Create interest
Study chord theory. If you know the theory behind chords and chord progressions, learn how and where to apply a chord, you automatically get more passionate and excited to build and expand your chord vocabulary. Learning chords becomes a delight.

Exceed your limits!

Please share. I'd appreciate it.

Chords Guitar - Google Blog Search

A Clean Guide to Understanding Seventh Chords - Guitar World
Using Blues Guitar Scales – How to Play Over Dominant 7th Chords ...
Easy Jazz Chords - The Jazz Guitar Blog - Jazz Guitar Online
How to Play 13th Chords for Jazz Guitar - Matt Warnock Guitar
Top 30 Easy Guitar Chord Songs for Beginners - Guitar Habits
Jazz Guitar Corner: Learn the Fretboard Like Joe Pass | Guitar World

A Clean Guide to Understanding Seventh Chords - Guitar World

Posted: 12 Mar 2015 12:00 AM PDT

Posted 03/12/2015 at 3:19pm | by Bobby Kittleberger

This is a compressed version of The Complete Guide to Actually Understanding Seventh Chords, which is published at guitarchalk.com. Both versions contain the same core information.

We can always memorize new chords. That's not hard.

But what if we learned the structure and the music theory behind those chords first? What if we put the time into gaining a complete, academic understanding of what we're playing?

People shy away from music theory because it's hard. And I'm not going to tell you otherwise.

Quite the opposite, in fact; music theory is incredibly difficult.

But if you take it one piece at a time, theory isn't nearly as daunting, and it eventually comes together as you understand why you're playing what you're playing.

It's a better alternative to raw memorization because it provides structure.

Learning and memorizing, though they can cross paths, are not the same and certainly don't benefit the human mind in the same manner.

So we'll tackle some real, substantive learning by looking at the theory behind seventh chords. We'll learn how to build them from the ground up.

Step 1: Learn the Formal Definition of Chords and Triads

To begin, we need to know the formal definitions of a chord and, more importantly, a triad.

#1.jpg

Chords are straightforward, either two/three or more notes depending on who you ask. Now, a triad:

#2.png

Howard Hanson and Carlton Gamer, 20th-century music theorists, expanded the term "triad" to refer to any collection of three different pitches, regardless of interval. While that definition is more palatable, we need to stick with the formal definition here.

Thus, our triads are constructed in three parts:

01. A root note
02. Third interval (major or minor)
03. Fifth interval (diminished, perfect or augmented).

The following is an example of a triad.

#3.jpg

In order to find each interval, we have to count semitones (frets) from the root note. For example, a perfect fifth is seven frets from the root, a major third is four frets from the root and so on. For help counting, refer to this guitar interval chart or the full article at Guitar Chalk.

If you're comfy, we're ready to define and build our seventh chord.

Step 2: Learn the Formal Definition of a Seventh Chord

Yes, they have a "bluesy" sound, but what does that mean? A seventh chord is a triad with an added seventh interval from the root. That seventh interval can be either major, minor or diminished, and is typically what makes the chord sound bluesy.

Thus we need the following components to build our seventh chord:

#4.jpg

When building our seventh chords, we want to focus primarily on the root note and the three additional intervals. To do that, we'll build two common (tertian) seventh chords:

01. Major Seventh
02. Minor Seventh

We'll start with a root note, examine the necessary intervals for our chord (available on the seventh chord wiki page) and then build out accordingly.

1: Major Seventh

Interval Pattern: Major Third - Perfect Fifth - Major Seventh

Consider the following root note:

#5.png

Per the interval pattern, we can start by adding a major third and perfect fifth. The major third is four semitones above the root while the perfect fifth is going to be seven semitones above the root.

#6.png

If you count straight up, seven spots from the second fret on the sixth string, the note you fall on is C#. That means the same C# note at the fourth fret on the fifth string will suffice as our perfect fifth. The same reasoning can be applied to the major third (third string and third fret).

We can use the same counting tactic to place our major seventh interval.

#7.png

Our major seventh interval (an F) falls on the fourth string at the third fret. How did we get there?

If we know that a major seventh interval falls 11 semitones from the root note (from this graphic), which is an F sharp, we count up 11 frets giving us our F, which can also be played at the fourth string on the third fret.

2: Minor Seventh

Interval Pattern: Minor Third - Perfect Fifth - Minor Seventh

Start with the following root note.

#8.png

Per the interval pattern, we add a minor third and perfect fifth.

#9.png

The perfect fifth is easy, since it forms a power chord shape (fifth string, seventh fret) with our root note. Since a minor third on the fifth string falls at the third fret (three semitones above the root) we can use the octave of that note on the third string at the fifth fret, to grab our minor third.

Lastly we add our minor seventh interval, falling ten frets up from the root.

#10.png

Ten frets up from the root note (A) would be a G, which can be played by your pinky finger on the second string at the eighth fret.

Other Chords and Resources

Some other tertian seventh chords would include the dominant, diminished and half-diminished, all of which are covered in the full article. Now that you know how to build a seventh chord, it'll be a great deal easier to understand and memorize others.

Best of luck!

Robert Kittleberger is the founder and editor of Guitar Chalk and Guitar Bargain. You can get in touch with him here, or via Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus.

Using Blues Guitar Scales – How to Play Over Dominant 7th Chords ...

Posted: 24 Jan 2015 06:56 AM PST

January 24, 2015

In this guitar lesson, Desi Serna teaches you how to mix scales over dominant 7th chords. The following licks and tips are common to Blues, Rock, Country, and Jazz music.

"Desi_Serna-Blues_Lesson.gpx"
(click on the image to download the Guitar Pro tab)

"Desi Serna – A7 Backing Track.mp3″
(click on the image to download the .mp3 backtrack file)

To learn more about music theory for guitar, including scales, chords, progressions, modes and more, sign up for a free preview of Desi's guitar theory books and DVDs at: http://Guitar-Music-Theory.com/free.

About the author

Hailed as a "music-theory expert" by Rolling Stone magazine, guitarist Desi Serna is the author of the very popular Fretboard Theory line of guitar instructional material as well as Guitar Theory For Dummies and Guitar Rhythm and Technique For Dummies. He is known for his practical, hands-on approach to music teaching, with a focus on the guitar fretboard and popular songs. Desi honed his craft through decades of teaching, performing, and publishing. He's online everyday posting lessons to Guitar-Music-Theory.com and discussing various guitar music-related topics with his group of social media followers. In 2014, he relocated from his hometown of Toledo, Ohio, to an area near Nashville, Tennessee, to be closer to Music City and its community of guitar players.

Tags: blues, chord, desi serna, dominant, Guitar Pro, lesson, scales, tab

Easy Jazz Chords - The Jazz Guitar Blog - Jazz Guitar Online

Posted: 14 Jan 2015 04:09 AM PST

When first learning how to comp jazz chords, many of us are intimidated by the sounds and shapes of these four-note and beyond jazz chords, but they don't have to be difficult to get under your fingers if you begin with the right shapes in your studies.

This lesson is designed to introduce you to the various families of jazz chords, with a focus on easy-to-play shapes, all with the root as the lowest note, in both a grid and chord progression layout.

By studying the chords in this lesson, you will not only introduce yourself to the world of jazz guitar chords, but you will learn how to apply them to chord progressions as well, getting you ready to jam with friends or comp along to your favorite backing track in no time.

Easy Jazz Chords Introduction

What exactly are jazz chords?

This is a tough question to ask, as many chords associated with jazz are also found in pop, classical, rock, and other musical genres. But, for the purposes of defining jazz chords, these are shapes that use at least 4 notes in their construction, so chords that go beyond the 3-note triad and include the 7^th, 9^th, 11^th, and/or 13^th.

This means that if you want to play a major chord in rock, you would normally just play the major triad, so playing G for a G major chord. But in jazz, if you want to play a major based chord, you would play G6, Gmaj7, G6/9, or another major chord that extends beyond the major triad.

As you will see in this lesson, these four notes often mean skipping intervals in the chord to make these shapes fit on the fretboard. For example, the notes for D9 are D-F#-A-C-E, but to make it easy to play on the guitar, you will leave out the A and just play D-F#-C-E.

In order to help you learn the construction of each chord in this lesson, the intervals for each shape have been written on the fretboard, which will help you understand how all of these chords have been constructed. As well, if the theory behind these shapes is a bit beyond you at this point, don't let it hold you back. Start by learning to play these shapes, and the chord progressions below, and then keep working on chord theory, as it will come over time.

To begin, here are the easy jazz chords laid out on the fretboard for you to play through, and use as a reference guide for further study.

Easy Jazz Chords – Major Chords

The first set of easy jazz chords you will learn in this lesson are major based chords, which include maj7, 6, and 6/9 chords. These major jazz chords are often used at the Imaj7 chord in a major key ii-V-I progression.

Easy Jazz Chords – Dominant Chords

You will now move on to working on easy dominant jazz chords, which will focus on 7, 9, and 13^th chord shapes. These chords are used in jazz blues chord progressions, as well as the V7 chord in a major key ii-V or ii-V-I progression.

Easy Jazz Chords – Minor Chords

In this section, you will work on minor family jazz chords, which include m7, m6, m9 and m11 chord shapes. Minor jazz chords are often used as the iim7 chord in a major ii-V or ii-V-I progression, as well as the Im7 chord in a minor ii-V-I progression.

Easy Jazz Chords – Diminished Chords

The next group of chords focuses on the Half-Diminished, written m7b5, and Diminished chords. Because there is only one easy shape per string set for these chords, you will only need to learn 3 m7b5 and 3 dim7 chords in this part of the lesson to get these shapes going in your playing.

m7b5 chords are used as the iim7b5 chord in a minor key ii-V and ii-V-I progression, while dim7 chords are often used as passing chords, such as Imaj7-#Idim7-iim7, or in place of a 7b9 chord, such as playing C#dim7 instead of A7b9 in your comping.

Easy Jazz Chords – Altered Chords

The last set of chords that you'll explore are Altered chords, which you will often see written as 7alt on lead sheets. These chords feature the b9, #9, b5 or b13(#5), or any combination of those notes.

Since we are looking at easy jazz chords in this lesson, you will only use one altered note per chord, but over time you might find yourself drawn to use two altered notes when playing these types of chords, such as 7(b9,b5) for example.

Lastly, these chords are often found as the V7 chord in a minor key ii-V or ii-V-I chord progression, which you will see in the chord progression examples below.

Major ii-V-I-VI Comping Patterns

Now that you have checked out these easy jazz chords on their own, it's time to bring them together and apply them to common progressions as you use these chord shapes in a practical, musical situation.

To begin, here are three ii-V-I-VI chord progressions that use the shapes from this lesson in their makeup. After you have learned these initial examples, make sure to take them to other keys in order to practice them around the entire fretboard. You can substitute any other chord from the same family into these progressions in order to expand upon them in your studies. For example, if the chord is Cmaj7, you could play a C6 or C6/9 chord in its place as they are all from the same family of chords.

To start off, here is a ii-V-I-VI in C major that begins with the iim7 chord on the 6^th string, and moves around the changes from that starting point.

Listen & Play

Next you will work out the same progression, but this time the iim7 chord is on the 5^th string and you will move to the other chords from that initial chord.

Listen & Play

Lastly, here is a progression that moves around the fretboard a bit, which is something you might want to do when comping behind a soloist, beginning with the iim7 chord on the 4^th string.

Listen & Play

Minor ii-V-I-bIII Comping Patterns

The final exercise in this lesson will feature three minor key chord progressions that use a number of the chords featured in the lesson above.

As was the case with the major key examples, feel free to expand upon these chord progressions by taking them to other keys, as well as substitute other chord shapes from this lesson into these progressions to take them further in your studies.

To begin, here is a minor ii-V-I-bIII progression that begins with the iim7b5 chord on the 6^th string and works around the chords from that starting point.

Listen & Play

Next, you will begin with the iim7b5 chord on the 5^th string and work your way around the progression from there.

Listen & Play

Finally, you will begin with the root of the iim7b5 chord on the 4^th string, with the subsequent changes being closely related to that initial shape.

Listen & Play

As you can see, jazz chords don't have to be that intimidating, or sound way out there and strange, and they can also be fun to learn in the practice room.

After you have explored these shapes, and if you got stuck or have any observations on this lesson, share your thoughts in the comments section below.

How to Play 13th Chords for Jazz Guitar - Matt Warnock Guitar

Posted: 07 Mar 2015 07:42 AM PST

How to Play 13th Chords for Jazz Guitar

One of the most common questions I get asked by students and readers is, "I know my basic four-note chords, but what is the best way to learn larger shapes such as 13^th chords?"

The best answer to this question, and the subject of this lesson, is to take shapes you already know and apply them to new harmonic situations in order to create 13^th chords, rather than learn all new 13^th shapes on the fretboard.

In this jazz guitar lesson, you will learn how to use maj7#11 shapes to create 13^th sounds when applied to dominant 7^th chords in your comping lines and phrases.

13^th Chords Background

The first item to dig into is the basic theory behind these 13^th chords, which will allow you to take any maj7#11 chord shape and use it to create a rootless 13^th sound over a dominant 7^th chord.

Building 13^th chords in this manner is fairly straightforward, here is the formula to memorize and apply.

Find the root note of the 7^th chord you are playing, go down two frets, then play a maj7#11 shape to create a rootless 13^th chord.

This means that if you have a G7 chord, you go down two frets, which is the note F, and play an Fmaj7#11 chord to create a rootless G13 chord.

When doing so, you are outlining the intervals 3-b7-9-13 over the underlying chord.

Here is an example of how an Fmaj7#11 chord looks from the F root note, and then next to it you will see those same notes as compared to the G root.

Notice in the audio how I play the same notes, but the root note changes in the bass to create the 13^th sound over the second chord.

Click to hear 13th chords 1

To help you hear the difference between a standard G7 and the new G13 chord, here are the two back to back for you to play, and listen to in the audio example below.

Click to hear 13th chords 2

Once you have played through these two examples, you are ready to take this knowledge and apply it to your playing.

You can do this by creating V13 chords in a ii-V-I progression, or applying it to a blues, both you will see below, or using it to spice up any dominant 7^th chord you are comping over in a tune you enjoy playing.

13^th Chords Fingerings

To help you get these 13^th shapes under your fingers and into your playing, here four of my favorite rootless chord shapes to practice and apply to your comping.

Each of these shapes is an Fmaj7#11 chord that is used to create a G13 sound when applied to the G root note.

Once you have learned these four shapes, practice them in other keys, and apply them to progressions and tunes as you explore them further in your studies.

13^th Chord ii V I VI Examples

Now that you have explored the theory behind 13^th chords, as well as learned four of my favorite grips for these harmonies, here are four different ii-V-I-VI progressions that use maj7#11 shapes to create V13 voicings in each progression.

Start by learning these progressions as written, then take them to other keys, and finally to tunes you are working on, or a tune like "Rhythm Changes" or "Tune Up," which are a great practice tunes for material such as this.

Click to hear 13th chords 4

Click to hear 13th chords 5

Click to hear 13th chords 6

Click to hear 13th chords 7

13^th Chord Blues

Now that you have worked on 13^th chords in a ii-V-I setting, lets apply that knowledge to a jazz blues chord progression.

I've kept the rhythm simple for this example, to allow you to keep your focus on the shapes and sounds of each 13^th chord itself, so make sure to experiment with the rhythms after you have memorized the shapes in your studies.

Click to hear 13th chords 8

Do you have a question about 13^th chords for jazz guitar? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Top 30 Easy Guitar Chord Songs for Beginners - Guitar Habits

Posted: 19 Dec 2014 11:46 PM PST

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If you are a beginner guitar player or you just need some inspiration for easy guitar songs you've come to the right place.

I've put together a list of 30 easy guitar songs that are great to strum along with and a lot of fun to play.

Make sure you practice the chords and switching between chords for each song thoroughly. It will benefit your playing.

I've put a Youtube link on each song title and two chord links next to it. The "Chords" link will take you to the chords and lyrics for the song and the "More Chords" link will show you the official transcribed chords if you want to learn more songs of the artist concerned.

Some of the songs in the list below are played with a Capo.

The capo is commonly used to raise the pitch and change the key of a song while still using the same open chord fingerings, but a capo makes it also possible to play a different set of chords for a song which makes the song easier to play while still remaining in the original key of the song. This is a common thing in guitar playing and guitar players do it all the time, not just beginners.

Professional singer songwriters use the capo frequently so they can sing in a particular key but still use the beautiful sounds and possibilities of open chord fingerings.

Life is too short not to use a capo.

That being said you still want to improve your guitar playing once you can play these songs because the more you improve, the better it gets! The world of guitar playing is full of infinite discoveries that will make your life more awesome each time you get to the next level.

I want to wish everybody a merry christmas and a happy new year.

Enjoy the songs!

1 – Knockin' on heavens door – Bob Dylan Chords – More Chords

2 – Love me do – The Beatles Chords – More Chords

3 – Horse with no name – America Chords

4 – Proud mary – CCR Chords – More Chords

5 – Sweet Caroline – Neil Diamond Chords – More Chords

6 – Wonderful world – Sam Cook Chords

7 – Stuck in the middle with you – Steelers Wheel Chords

8 – Fire – Bruce Springsteen Chords – More Chords

9 – Hand in my pocket – Alanis Morissette Chords – More Chords

10 – Teach your children – CSNY Chords – More Chords

11 – Runaway train – Soul Asylum Chords – More Chords

12 – Need you now – Lay Antebellum Chords – More Chords

13 – The one I love – REM Chords – More Chords

14 – Wonderful tonight – Eric Clapton Chords – More Chords

15 – Leaving on a jet plane – John Denver Chords – More Chords

16 – Stay with me – Sam Smith Chords

17 – Mull of kintyre – Wings Chords – More Chords

18 – What's up – For non Blondes Chords – More Chords

19 – With or without you – U2 Chords – More Chords

20 – Eleanor Rigby – The Beatles Chords – More Chords

21 – Redemption song – Bob Marley Chords – More Chords

22 – Brown eyed girl – Van Morrison Chords

23 – Have you ever seen the rain – CCR Chords – More Chords

24 – Three little birds – Bob Marley Chords – More Chords

25 – Lazy song – Bruno Mars Chords – More Chords

26 – Zombie – The Cranberries Chords – More Chords

27 – Chasing Cars – Snow Patrol Tab – More Chords

28 – Clocks – Coldplay Chords – More Chords

29 – Good year for the roses – Elvis Costello Chords – More Chords

30 – Otherside – Red hot chilli peppers Chords – More Chords

Please share. I'd appreciate it.

Jazz Guitar Corner: Learn the Fretboard Like Joe Pass | Guitar World

Posted: 09 Mar 2015 01:38 PM PDT

Posted 03/09/2015 at 4:38pm | by Matt Warnock

Matt Warnock

One of the biggest hurdles many jazz guitarists face early in their development is being able to connect chords, scales and arpeggios in their playing without having to jump all over the fretboard between shapes.

When I was first learning how to play jazz, one of the best lessons I ever learned came from a comment I read from Joe Pass.

To paraphrase Joe, he said, "Always know the possible soloing notes around any chord you're playing so that you can quickly move between chords and single notes in your playing."

After reading Joe talk about this concept, I began working on always having a scale and arpeggio under any chord shape I knew on the guitar, which greatly opened up my fretboard knowledge and helped me always have a harmonic and melodic device close by when playing over jazz tunes.

In this lesson, you will dig into this concept of applying scales and arpeggios to chord shapes, as well as learn how to practice this concept, explore sample shapes and learn a sample blues solo based on this Joe Pass fretboard concept.

Chord Scale Arpeggio Fingerings

The Joe Pass system of always having a scale and arpeggio under your fingers for every chord shape you use is a great way to learn the fretboard, providing you with soloing material at the same time.

To help you get started with this system, here are a few examples of how to learn chords, scales, and arpeggios in one position on the guitar.

From here, you can apply this system to any chord type, maj7, m7, 7, m7b5, etc., and to any chord position as you expand upon this exercise in the woodshed.

This first example shows a common Gmaj7 chord shape with the scale and arpeggio directly underneath that chord shape.

Chord Scale Arpeggio 1.png

You can apply the chord, scale, arpeggio concept to any string set, such as the top four-string chord you see and hear in the next example. Here, you will fill out the scale and arpeggio based on the area surrounding the Gmaj7 chord at the start of the example.

Chord Scale Arpeggio 2.png

The final example shows a Gmaj9 chord, followed by the G major scale and Gmaj9 arpeggio. As well as applying this technique to maj7, m7, 7th, etc. chords, you can also apply them to 9th, maj9, maj6, 13th, 7#11 and any other chord extension you can think of on the guitar.

Chord Scale Arpeggio 3.png

Chord Scale Arpeggio Exercises

Now that you know about the theory behind the "Joe Pass Chord, Scale, Arpeggio" approach and have checked out a few examples, here are a few exercises you can do in order to bring this technique into your practice routine.

1. Pick a chord shape you know, such as C7, in any position on the fretboard
2. Play that chord, and then work out the scale notes surrounding that shape on the guitar, so for C7 you would play C Mixolydian
3. Work out the arpeggio based around that chord shape, so for C7 you would play a C7 arpeggio
4. Once you have all three shapes, chord, scale, arpeggio, then you can move this to all 12 keys around the neck
5. Put on a C7 backing track and solo over that chord using the chord, scale and arpeggio you have worked out
6. Take the above five exercises to other chord types, shapes, string sets and keys, as you expand on this idea in the woodshed.

After doing these exercises with a few chords, you might find you will be able to visualize scales and arpeggios around any chord shape you are playing on the guitar. This is the ultimate goal of the system, to be able to visualize the scales and arpeggios in the moment around any chord shape you are playing on the guitar.

Chord Scale Arpeggio Blues Solo

To help you see and hear this system as applied to a musical situation, here is a sample blues solo in the key of Bb that brings together chords, scales and arpeggios over each change in the progression.

Here are the shapes used in the solo in order to check them out before you learn the entire 12-bar solo below. I've only written out the Eb7 shapes, as the F7 shapes are the same, just played two frets higher on the neck.

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Once you have these shapes under your fingers, learn the solo below to see how I used these chords, scales and arpeggios to create a 12-bar blues solo in Bb.

When you have this sample solo under your fingers, put on a Bb blues backing track and try soloing with these shapes to create your own solos over the blues with this fretboard system.

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Do you have any questions about the "Joe Pass Chord, Scale, Arpeggio" approach to learning the fretboard? Please post your thoughts in the COMMENTS section below.

Matt Warnock is the owner of mattwarnockguitar.com, a free website that provides hundreds of lessons and resources designed to help guitarists of all experience levels meet their practice and performance goals. Matt lives in the UK, where he is a lecturer in Popular Music Performance at the University of Chester and an examiner for the London College of Music (Registry of Guitar Tutors).

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