i Love Guitar

How about some super sweet sounding chord voicings? Some of these you may recognize, while others may be new.

As we build chord preferences [a catalog of those we like to use], one of the main questions is “Does this meet my standard for a great sounding chord?”. There is a threshold that chords need to meet, to get added to our preferred chords. This threshold involves the degree of difficulty in fingering, how it resonates, & where it may fit [where it is 'appropriate'].

Here, I provide some my favorite chords; some were taught to me, some I discovered. This is by no means [because this is endless] an exhaustive list, but it can show you chords that set a threshold, & thus provide a way to start searching for similar types of fingerings & sounds [ones with beautiful resonance].

Take in the tab, play these chords, start searching for others, name them if necessary, & add them to progressions [find out where they work]. Hopefully you’ll be adding them to songs you write.

We’ll be updating this page, adding more cool chords. Our first installment is some E Major type chords.

An interesting thing happens when chords move up the fretboard. The Root moves to the 3rd of the chord, the 3rd moves to the 5th, & the 5th moves to the Root. They go in a cycle.

We can play melodic arpeggios up a single string. When we do this, we can see the fret spacing of the type of chord we are playing. In this lesson, we are playing Major chords, which are built as a 4-3, where the 4 is a Major 3rd [4 half steps = 4 frets] & the 3 is a minor 3rd [3 half steps = 3 frets]. The 3rd is 4 frets away from the root, the 5th is 3 frets away from the 3rd, & the root is 5 half steps away from the root [it's a Perfect 4th back to the root].

We can also stack the Root, 3rd, & 5th on 3 adjacent strings. When we do this, the chord is either in Root Position [the root is on the lowest string], 1st inversion [the 3rd is on the lowest string], or 2nd inversion [the 5th is on the lowest string].

What follows is the C Major Triad on 3-string sets. As we look for the next way to play the same set of 3 tones, the root moves to the 3rd, the 3rd to the 5th, the 5th to the root. Brilliant!

A change in color [black/white] is a new chord.

Play through each string set, & realize the chord components along the way. We’ve broken C down into chunks. All of these chunks are C Major triads. They are all fragments of the CAGED cycle as well [forms are skipped].

This is one of our primary picking & fretting hand synchronization exercises. We like it.

You can play this on any string [#], plus change the finger order. For exericises like these it’s also good to explore exchanging vs. setting in the fretting hand.

Exchanging is swapping out one finger for another [only one finger is down at a time].

Setting is lifting fingers only when they have to be lifted [we leave them set until they need to move].

In our example, for setting:

1. On the 1-2-3-4’s you leave the fingers down until they are all on, then lift but don’t let go [touch] as you shift & guide to the next position.
2. Then in the new position press all together, at the same time, then lift 4, then 3, then 2 when new tone is to be played.

This way you are maintaining maximum contact with the strings & only lifting when needed. Experiment.

Fingerpicking training involves a number of very important types of technical exercises. One of these is Blocks. Asking your fingers to work in blocks [as a unit], helps you gain control of your motors, find your hand angles, & develop solid string notching. With picking & fingerpicking, we are searching for our picking pocket [where we know it's right - we can feel it].

Blocks

Use any chord, such as E Major, Em or C/G [6 string chords work best for these 2 exercises]. Open strings work as well [isolates motor hand].

To Do

1. In the first ‘measure’, we are plucking all of the fingers at the same time. Once you have selected a chord, repeat the 1st measure over & over. Stay on any of the string sets for as long as you like. You can also skip around.
2. In the 2nd, we are splitting the thumb away from the ima block & alternating them. Again, go in any order & stay on any string set for as long as needed.

You primary drivers are your main knuckles. For the fingers, this is the largest joint at the base of your finger, & for your thumb, it is the joint at your wrist. When you use these drivers, the fingers automatically rebound to wherever your arm allows them to end up. Stay as relaxed as possible & allow the fingers to return. Be sure also to follow through, even sometimes touching your fingers to your palm.

For every tone, every tone holds a numerical space. I call these inventories.

Inventory chart for all 12 tones

Beneath the F inventory, you see U, m2, M2, etc. These are the typical musical interval names (abbreviated).

Abbreviations for Typical Interval Names

• U = Unison
• m = minor
• M = Major
• P = Perfect
• TT = Tritone

It is important to know what every tone means to every other. As we build tuning maps, whatever is Zero sets up the numerical scheme. All of the tones will occupy a particular melodic & harmonic space, and, we can identify them as a numerical equivalent [as well as a traditional music theory name such as Major 3rd or Perfect 4th].

From Standard Tuning, we can make tuning alterations to individual strings to get new tunings. Your guitar can be tuned to roughly 150,000 different tunings. Some useful, some rather ugly. There are a handful of common tunings, with ‘agreed upon’ names. Let’s make a few changes.

The strings we are changing from the previous tuning are in black. The gray letters are strings that stay the same.

Guidelines

1. Always know at least one of your strings at all times [something to measure from].
2. Monitor string tension, don’t turn peg too fast or too far [too tight].
3. Have extra strings with you when experimenting, they can break.
4. You can use a tuner, yet also use your ear. Listen for the ‘beats’ as tones become the ’same’. The beats [harmonic flutter] will even out when strings match.
5. When changing one string’s tension, other strings may go out of tune. This is because of neck warp [relief]. The neck will move when tension is added or subtracted. Make a couple of passes through the strings to ensure accurate tuning. Even while playing, strings can slip or change. Don’t be surprised if you have to touch up tune along the way. Tunings have to settle in.

A figure is a short rhythmic or melodic device that has the potential for creating sequences. We also classify technical & fingering patterns as figures.

Melodic Sequence

A melodic sequence is taking a melodic figure & repeating it, at a new pitch level. It the following descending fingerstyle cross-stringing figure, the motor hand figure remains the same [p-m-i]. p = thumb, m = middle, i = index for a new string couplet.

Cross-stringing can describe a number of things. In this instance, we are using the term to describe strings ringing against one another. Let the open strings ring over the fretted tones [campanellas].

The thumb starts the figure, the m is always an open string, then the i picks up the last tone in the figure. Besides the open B string in the 2nd measure, this is the A minor pentatonic.

The bracket connecting these two lines of tab indicates that they are the same thing. We call the bottom tab line, pima tab. It’s motor hand finger labels on tab. Use those fingers on those strings for whatever is above [in the normal tab], just like with regular tab.

You can use any fret numbers, & we encourage you to do this. Once you get the feel of the motor hand [always moving the hand over the string sets - keep the relative position the same for whatever string set you are picking], experiment with changing the fretting tones, either within P5 [Position 5], or shifting to other positions. If you shift, you may consider using the Pentatonic frames in A minor for the fretted tones.

This is a fun blues comp. To comp is play accompaniment. Comping is to space chords in some type of pattern for the purpose of providing a backdrop for a soloist.

This blues comp follows a standard blues progression – I-IV-I-I-IV-IV-I-I-V-IV-I-V, where each Roman Numerals gets 4 beats.

Play the bass line separate. Then add the the chords. You have two choices when adding the chords: stab the chords quickly, or figure out how to finger the chords (or parts, most likely the tritone) so that you can hold the chords while playing the bass line. This thing is a finger logic puzzle that can teach our hands quite a bit.

You can also just follow the changes using the full chords, without the bass line.

Download a PDF of this Comp [opens in new window or tab - right click to save].

Guitar modes are scales. Scales with special names. Scales with particular flavors. The 7 modes derived from the Major scale system are named after early Greek tribes [the Ionians, the Lydians, etc.]. Modes have become almost mythic in their status. They are scales; very simply, scales. They provide particular sounds based on the harmony that they are played against [over].

The Major scale has 7 tones, & all of them can be a ‘beginning point’ for a scale. All 7 are starting points. Without over-explaining, we provide this chart for modes in A Major.

Modes have other names

• Ionian - Major Scale, Mongolian Scale, Bilaval Raga
• Dorian - Japanese Ritso Scale
• Phrygian - Bhairavi Raga
• Lydian - Kalyan Raga, Japanese Ryo Scale
• Mixolydian - Dominant 7 Mode
• Aeolian - Natural minor Scale, Ethiopian Scale
• Locrian - none that we know

Ragas are melodic modes used in India.

The Major modes are Ionian, Lydian, & Mixolydian. The minor modes are Dorian, Phrygian, Aeolian. Locrian is a ‘diminished’ mode.

Note: the Mixolydian mode was originally called the Lesbian mode until these modes became church modes. No explanation needed there. [If you know a different version of this, please share].

A Root position chord means that the root of the chord is in the lowest voice [the bass]. In the following chord voicings, the 6th string is the lowest voice. A 1st inversion chord has the 3rd in the bass. A 2nd inversion chord has the 5th in the bass. A 3rd inversion chord has the 7th in the bass.

The R stands for root. The numbers are the other chord components: 3 = 3rd, 5 = 5th, 7 = 7th. The change in colors – black-white-black-white-black – means these are separate chords to be fingered. The inactive strings are muted. The 7 with a strikethrough on the left is one possible chord symbol for a Major 7 type chord.

A Major 7 chord is a Major triad with a Major 7 added. It’s numerical chromatic scheme is 0-4-7-11. In common theory, this means R-3-5-7.

What is fascinating to see is that as chords invert on the same set of strings, up the fretboard, there is a cycle. The cycle is R moves to 3, 3 moves to 5, 5 moves to 7, 7 moves to the R.

Check that this is the case on all of the strings. Triads also work this way.

The grid is for GMaj7 (another way to write a Major 7 type chord), but the shapes apply to all 12 tones.