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- Jazz <b>Guitar</b> Corner: Jazz <b>Guitar Chord</b> Exercises — with Tab and <b>...</b>
- A Clean Guide to Understanding Seventh <b>Chords</b> - <b>Guitar</b> World
- Symphony of Instruction with Dave Mustaine: Exotic <b>...</b> - <b>Guitar</b> World
- Hand <b>Chord</b> Presents an Alternative to Learning <b>...</b> - <b>Guitar</b> World
- <b>Guitar</b> Chalk Sessions: Adding Dynamic Appeal to your Power <b>...</b>
- Jazz <b>Guitar</b> Corner: Using Two-Note <b>Chords</b> to Play the Blues, Part 1 <b>...</b>
| Jazz <b>Guitar</b> Corner: Jazz <b>Guitar Chord</b> Exercises — with Tab and <b>...</b> Posted: 13 Jan 2015 12:36 PM PST   Matt Warnock One of the most common questions I get from my students and readers is, "I know what jazz chords to study, but how to I practice them in a practical, musical way?" To help answer this question, I've put together an exercise that uses all the inversions of any chords you are learning, while playing them in a common chord progression at the same time. In this lesson, you will learn how to practice Drop 2 and Drop 3 chords in all inversions, applied to a major ii-V-I chord progression to keep these shapes practical and musical in your woodshedding. I've provided examples for one string set of each chord shape, Drop 2 and 3, but feel free to apply this exercise to any string set your are working on in your jazz guitar studies. I've also written out each example in the key of C, so to take this exercise further, make sure to work these shapes together in all 12 keys around the fretboard in order to get an in-depth understanding of how they lay on the neck of the guitar. The Jazz Guitar Chord Exercise The exercise is a fairly straightforward concept, but applying it to the fretboard can take some time and effort in the practice room. Here is the exercise: 01. Pick a chord shape such as Drop 2 That's it. Pretty simple, but playing and memorizing these shapes in four areas on the neck can take some time in the woodshed. So, let's take this exercise and see how it lays on the fretboard in the next section of this lesson. Drop 2 Chord Exercises Now that you understand what the exercise is, let's take it to the fretboard, beginning with Drop 2 chords on the top four strings. You will begin with a root position Dm7 chord, moving to the closest G7 chord, and finally landing on the closest Cmaj7 chord from there. I've written the inversion under each chord so you can memorize that movement as well, which will make it easier to transfer this exercise to other string sets and keys in your practicing. Now, you'll move on to the first inversion Dm7 chord, with the other chords being as close to that initial chord as possible. Next, you are playing a second inversion Dm7 chord and following on to the closest G7 and Cmaj7 chords from that initial shape on the fretboard. Lastly, here is a third inversion Dm7 chord that then leads to the closest G7 and Cmaj7 chords from there. Drop 3 Chord Exercises To help you take this exercise to another common jazz chord shape, here are four examples of applying this idea to Drop 3 chords on the 6th-string root groupings. Again, you can take these shapes to other keys on the sixth-string root, as well as apply them to other string sets for Drop 3 chords as you expand on them in your studies. To begin, here is a root-position Dm7 chord that then moves to the closest G7 and Cmaj7 chords from there. Then, you can move on to a first inversion Dm7 chord, which moves to the closest G7 and Cmaj7 from that initial shape. Following our pattern, the next example uses a second inversion Drop 3 Dm7 chord, which moves to the closest G7 and Cmaj7 chords from there. And finally, you can start with a third inversion Dm7 chord that moves to the closest G7 and Cmaj7 shapes from that starting point. Do you have a question or comment about these chord exercises? Share 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).   |
| A Clean Guide to Understanding Seventh <b>Chords</b> - <b>Guitar</b> World Posted: 12 Mar 2015 12:00 AM PDT  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. Chords are straightforward, either two/three or more notes depending on who you ask. Now, a triad: 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 The following is an example of a triad. 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: 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 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: 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. 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. 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. Per the interval pattern, we add a minor third and perfect fifth. 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. 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. |
| Symphony of Instruction with Dave Mustaine: Exotic <b>...</b> - <b>Guitar</b> World Posted: 11 Nov 2014 09:24 AM PST  I'm writing this column while in Europe, where we're currently on tour. As you've probably already heard, we have a new guitarist, Chris Broderick [Nevermore, Jag Panzer]. Chris is heavily influenced by Marty Friedman, which is great, because Megadeth play more music from that era of the band than any other and I've always liked that particular style. I look at Chris as raw talent. He sounds just like Marty, and with him in the band we have a new lease on life. Glen Drover, who recently left the band, endorsed Chris as his replacement, and Chris has come in and kicked everything up to a whole new level. Last time out, in the April 2008 column, I touched upon the technique of picking chords upside down, meaning with an upstroke strum. This month I'm going to continue with this topic and give you some examples of how to use this move to good musical effect. DIAGRAMS 1-3 show three somewhat unusual chord voicings where, if you strum them upside down, you get the high notes sounding before the low ones have a chance to eat them up. I don't know what the names of those chords are, but I'm sure that the guys at Guitar World and some of you readers could tell me. During the earliest days of Megadeth, even before David Ellefson was on bass, I jammed with a strange guitarist a few times, but we never played a gig together. He played a lot of really weird, cool chords, like those George Lynch and Warren DiMartini used sometimes. I watched what he did, took several of those chords that I liked and worked them into a progression that I thought was pretty scary sounding. FIGURE 1 shows what I came up with, which is similar to something I do in "Looking Down the Cross." As you can see, I used the chords from DIAGRAMS 1 and 2, and they're picked upside down. FIGURE 7 is a progression similar to one I play in "Holy Wars…The Punishment Due," and FIGURES 2–6 show this part broken down into five small, simplified sections. I'm using upside-down picking for all the chords, most of which are major or minor diads. All I'm doing with these chords is playing a root note and a major or minor third above it, instead of the more typical root/fifth power chords. There's no mathematical reason for me doing this; it was merely for the colorful sound of the chords. I was listening to a lot of Merciful Fate and Diamond Head at the time, two bands that have a lot of really great riffs built around these same kinds of two-note major and minor-chord voicings, and I found myself really enjoying their songs. To truly appreciate how much color these kinds of major and minor diads add to a riff, try playing FIGURE 7 again, this time substituting a root/fifth power chord for every chord. You'll hear the difference immediately. |
| Hand <b>Chord</b> Presents an Alternative to Learning <b>...</b> - <b>Guitar</b> World Posted: 30 Mar 2015 07:44 AM PDT  We know you guys (and gals) enjoy hearing about new pieces of gear—including gear-related oddities that appear on Kickstarter from time to time. Ergo, we present the Hand Chord, a new product that's the subject of a new Kickstarter campaign. According to Hand Chord's creators: "The number one reason people give up playing guitar is because of finger pain. Hand Chord takes away the pain and frustration; no more hurting fingers, just a soft cushy rubber feel. "It's also a shortcut for people who don't have the time to learn guitar and can also be a gateway for people learning guitar to help them concentrate on strumming and getting a feel for playing guitar without months of practice." In other words, Hand Chord—which looks a bit like brass knuckles (albeit plastic)—presents itself as an alternative to learning how to play barre chords (What are your thoughts on that?). Hand Chord, which can be set up to "finger" several different chords, lets you just line up the Hand Chord (we don't know what else to call it) on your strings, squeeze it on the neck and strum. There's also an attachment that is said to be suitable for playing slide guitar. You can find out more on the Hand Chord Kickstarter page right here. |
| <b>Guitar</b> Chalk Sessions: Adding Dynamic Appeal to your Power <b>...</b> Posted: 12 Dec 2014 08:10 AM PST  Flickr Commons Image Courtesy of maury.mccown Power chords, once your fingers are comfortable with the stretching, are mind-numbingly simple. That's not a bad thing and I wouldn't say that power chords are "cheap" or "too easy." That's dumb. Because they get the job done, right? So why wouldn't we use them? They're functional and adequate to the task. In the right context, power chords are a beautiful thing. When music demands a heavy, smooth and easy-to-digest chord progression (like in modern rock, pop, metal, etc.), a root note, a consonant interval (perfect fifth) and perhaps an octave thrown in for good measure, are all you really need. We can play as many chords as we want all using the same shape; just shift frets or strings. But what if we wanted to dress things up a little bit? What if we wanted to make our power chords more dynamic and melodic? Adding some flavor and variety to your power chord progressions can really take your playing up a notch and set you apart. It's an especially handy technique for those who fill the role of both a lead and rhythm guitar player. There are two primary techniques you can use to do it; intervals and dyads. Let's cover intervals first. First Technique: Add Major or Minor Intervals Assume you're lucky enough to be playing a chord progression that is entirely in a major key. Even better, let's just say you're going from D to A. Tabbing it out would look like this: What if you wanted to add some melody or even just variety? We can use major intervals to do so, since we're theoretically dealing with two major chords. So where do we put these intervals? You'll need to target areas where you have long pauses or holds on a single chord. So in this situation, we can assume (for illustrative purposes) that the D chord gets held for a short few beats, while the A chord is held longer. That means the A chord is where we can move a bit more and add some creative intervals. Use the open A note to play your second A chord (bracketed). We can now start adding intervals to our A chord. Here are a few options: It's a simple, but effective, strategy. You can employ the same interval shifts with any other power chord. Say we don't have an open chord to work with, like in the case of this G: We can still add intervals by shifting the note at the fifth fret, currently a perfect fifth, in relation to the root note at the third fret. Here's what I came up with. As you can see, the only note that needs to change is the interval of the root. The root note itself doesn't move. That means you can use this tactic as often as you want within any power chord in any given progression. If the progression contains minor chords, you'll have to make sure to hit notes that resolve to a minor tune. But that will come with habit, muscle memory and time. Second Technique: Add Octave Dyads A second strategy is to use simple, two-note dyads to add short melodies over power chords. This has become a widely used technique in the post-grunge era and has been typified by many modern guitarists. To illustrate this example, I find it best to start with an open D chord in drop-D, like the following tab: Start with your D root note on the second string (fifth fret), add its corresponding octave (third string, seventh fret) and reapply some of the intervals we already covered by simply moving the octave shape up the fretboard. We can apply the same principle with the G chord as our base and the 2-3-5 fret climb is our melody. Once you get comfortable, start planting these runs in between chords. Like this: Not only does this break the monotony of a chord progression, but it adds some melodic flavor to what is otherwise a one-dimensional and linear sound. Because sometimes a guitar player needs to handle both rhythm and lead, especially today when many groups employ only one guitarist. Being able to play heavy, while also having enough skill and musical awareness to add melody and variety to your chord progressions makes you a far more valuable musician. And while they aren't all you need to accomplish that, dyadic octaves and intervals can give you a lot of mileage as they're excellent tools to work with. If you play a lot of power chords you shouldn't feel bad about it. Just learn how to make them count. Flickr Commons Image Courtesy of maury.mccown 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. |
| Jazz <b>Guitar</b> Corner: Using Two-Note <b>Chords</b> to Play the Blues, Part 1 <b>...</b> Posted: 30 Jul 2013 03:23 AM PDT  Matt Warnock When learning how to play jazz guitar, one of the main items we need to tackle is playing effective, jazzy-sounding chords that properly outline the chord changes all at the same time. While this may seem like a tall order, there are some easy-to-play and effective shapes we can learn in order to quickly and effectively outline any tune or progression we are jamming on in the woodshed or on the bandstand. In today's lesson, we'll be looking at some of my favorite chord shapes, 3rds and 7ths, as applied to the third and fourth strings of the guitar, and then played over an A blues chord progression. We will be exploring these shapes further in this series of articles, so make sure to check back for more articles that dig further into two-note chords as applied to various jazz-guitar situations. What Are 3rd and 7th Chords? Before we learn how to apply these shapes to the third and fourth string set on the guitar, let's take a look at exactly what 3rd and 7th, two-note shapes are and why they work so well when used in a harmonic situation on the guitar. The biggest reason these shapes work so well on the guitar? They are small, easy-to-play shapes — but they still outline the underlying chords and progression at the same time. Here's an example of an A7 chord broken up into an arpeggio and then laid out as a chord, with the 3rd and 7th from each of those shapes extracted in the bar next to the arp and chord. As you can see, the 3rd and 7th are found in both the A7 arpeggio and chord. You are simply removing the root and 5th of both of those shapes, leaving you with a two-note chord grip on the fretboard. You may be asking yourself, "But if we remove the root, how can we hear the underlying chord?" That's a good question and something we should address before moving on. Even though there is no root in these shapes, you can still hear the underlying chord and progression when applying it to a tune for the following reasons: 01. The 3rd of any chord tells you whether it's a major- or minor-based chord. So, as you can see, even though the root isn't in the chord, these two notes can still outline the given harmony very effectively when applied to any tune you know or are working on. There are some situations where you would need another note to fully outline a chord, such as m7b5 or dim7 chord, but for now, we'll just be looking at m7 and 7th chords over a blues chord progression. We will deal with those shapes in future articles in this series. 3rds and 7ths Over A Blues Chords Now that you have an idea of what 3rd and 7th, two-note chord shapes are and how they are built, let's take a look at how you can apply these fun and cool-sounding chords to an A blues chord progression. Start by playing these chords on your own, with no backing track, so that you can hear how they can sound the harmony of the tune without needing any more accompaniment. From there, try putting on a backing track and using these chords to comp along over an A blues progression to hear how they sound when applied to the underlying harmony. Here's an example of applying 3rd and 7th chords on the third and fourth strings beginning with the notes G and C# for the A7 chord in bar one of the form. And here's an example of applying those same 3rds and 7ths, on the same string set, but this time with C# and G being the starting notes for the A7 chord in bar one of the form. Though you are only using two notes per chord, when you play through the above examples, you can still hear the harmonic movement and chord progression for the underlying A blues form. This is one of the reasons two-note chords are so important to learn. They perfectly outline a chord progression and they also are very easy to play on the guitar, freeing up your fingers to add extensions and other colors on top of these shapes as you take them further. Practicing 3rds and 7ths Over Blues After sampling the two-note chords in the above examples, here are five exercises you can try in order to take these shapes further in the practice room: 01. Sing the root of each chord in an A blues while playing the 3rds and 7ths from the first example on the guitar. There you have it — a brief introduction to using two-note chords to play an A blues on the guitar. Simple, fun to play shapes that are highly effective and sound great when applied to a solo, duo or combo situation. Do you have a question about these two-note chords? 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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