Insert your custom message here. close ×
+

Incomplete 7th chords

This idea makes 7th chords easier to play, and creates new possibilities. Instead of making them four-note chords, make them three-note chords.

How?

Eliminate a note, of course, but which one? We can’t really get rid of the root or the 7th because they define the sound of the chord. The 3rd also plays an important role in defining a 7th chord’s sound.

But the 5th? We can lose that.

 

Here’s what you do. Just take any 7th chord, say a G major 7, and build the chord: G, B, D, F#. Now get rid of the 5th, and you’re left with G, B, and F#.

Now the fun part. Find those notes on the neck of the guitar, and build some chords.

 

Root in the bass

Keep the root in the bass for now. Put the G of the G major 7 chord on the 3rd fret of the low E string. Now find a place for the B and the F#.

You have three practical choices for the B:

  • 2nd fret, A string
  • 4th fret, G string
  • open B string

 

There are two practical choices for the F#:

  • 4th fret, D string,
  • 2nd fret, high E string.

 

If you put the B on the A string, the F# can go in any of its two locations. Try both. Which is easier to play? Which sounds better?

Put the B on the G string and, again, the F# can go in any of its two locations. Again, try both. Always ask which is easiest to play and which sounds better.

And finally, the open B. Again, the F# can go in either location.

 

The root on other strings

Now go through this process with the root on the A string. As before, identify where you can play the other two notes (put them on higher strings than the A), and figure out how many chords you can make.

Then place the root on the D string, and find the other notes. Finally, put the root on the G string.

Remember that, in all these cases, the root is the lowest sounding note.

And make sure that you’re writing down all the chords that you like. The ones you don’t use now, you’ll use later. You keep ideas fresh by making sure that you have materials you like, and by making sure that those materials aren’t all the same.

Some people never use anything but standard, open string chords…

 

The 3rd in the bass

If you feel like making more chords, put the 3rd in the bass, and then find the root and the 7th on the other strings. So the B (if you’re using the G major 7th chord) goes on the 7th fret of the low E string. Then find the other notes (G and F#) on the other strings. Same process as before.

 

Other things to try

I know. It never ends.

 

  • Use the 7th (F#) in the bass, and put the root (G) and the third (B) on the other strings.

 

  • Do the entire process from the beginning of the post, but get rid of the 3rd instead of the 5th.

 

 

 

Share : facebooktwittergoogle plus
pinterest

Changing 7th chords

Let’s take the C major 7th chord I talked about in the last post.

Cmaj7 chord

As in my post on ambiguous triads…

http://davewallmusic.com/ambiguous-triads/

…start moving the notes around.

 

Lots of chords

In some cases when you do this, you get other functional chords (rather than ambiguous ones).

For example, move the 7th of the chord (the note on the E string) down a semitone and you get a C dominant 7 chord.

Cdom7

 

Move it another semitone down and you get an A minor 7 chord. Suddenly, we’ve changed roots from C to A.

Amin7

 

Now, using the A minor 7 chord, move the note on the G string up a semi-tone and you get an A dominant 7.

Adom7

 

Move that same note up another semitone and you get an Asus4 chord.

So the work is to simply move your fingers one or two frets up or down on each string, just like you did with triads. The difference is that with 7th chords, you get more material.

 

Share : facebooktwittergoogle plus
pinterest

Playing the bass line

It’s an effective move for the guitar player to become the bass player. Even if you never actually play a bass line, it’s a good idea to learn how to construct one.

I love it. It helps me get into the mind of a bass player. It helps me figure what they care about. And what they care about (probably more than anyone) is groove.

Let’s take a basic progression and see what we can do with it. We need the notes before we can sink into groove.

 

bass line

 

What you have here is a G major arpeggio, followed by and E minor arpeggio, a C major arpeggio, and an A minor arpeggio.  Let’s talk a bit about arpeggios.

 

Arpeggios

Arpeggios are simply the notes in a chord played one at a time instead of together. These are the main notes that any bass player in any style will play. But outside of walking bass, no bass player will play them in the way I’ve outlined above. There needs to be some rhythmic interest.

Before we get to rhythm, though, let’s see how arpeggios are built. It’s not all that complicated.

Let’s start with the key of C.

 

C            D            E            F            G            A            B

 

How to make an arpeggio

Arpeggios are made by taking every second note of the scale. If you want a C major arpeggio, take the C, the E, and the G. If you want a D minor arpeggio, take the D, the F, and the A.

How do I know that building an arpeggio from the D is a minor arpeggio?

Here’s how it works in any major key (I’ll use C major as examples here):

  • the arpeggio built on the first note is always major: CEG
  • the second and third notes give us minor arpeggios: DFA and EGB
  • the fourth and fifth notes are major arpeggios: FAC and GBD
  • the sixth arpeggio is minor: ACE
  • and the seventh is diminished: BDF

 

To be totally clear:

C            D            E            F            G            A            B

maj            min            min            maj            maj            min            dim

 

Now you know how to find the main notes for making a bass line. Take a song that you like to play, and find the arpeggio notes on the E, A, and D strings.

 

Share : facebooktwittergoogle plus
pinterest

100 posts

This is my 100th post. Which seems a bit incredible. My other 4 blogs produced maybe 20 posts altogether…

Up until now, this blog has been about helping guitar players work with concepts that might make their songwriting/composition process and product more interesting. That won’t change.

But after 100 posts you start to want to stretch a bit. It will always about making stuff, but I’ll start introducing topics that I notice I’ve been shying away from: more advanced compositional ideas, some tech stuff, jazz harmony, artist reviews from time to time. Other stuff…

Stay tuned.

 

Share : facebooktwittergoogle plus
pinterest

Eastern European scales and making chords

You can’t have chords without scales. Even if you just throw some randomly chosen notes together, those notes would be part of a scale.

You can’t really escape scales. People try. “Too technical,” and “Aren’t they just for soloing?” are a couple of things I hear when the topic arises.

“Too technical” translates to “I don’t want to practice.” And the answer to “Aren’t they just for soloing?” is “no.” They’re also for inventing chords.

I admit, it’s easier to look at a page full of chord diagrams, and make your fingers conform to what’s there. Developing a creative, curious mind takes a bit more effort.

It’s kind of worth it to do the work. It stretches your mind, and it stretches your ear.

 

Eastern Europe

This scale might sound strange. Or beautiful. Both are great. Once you get used to it, it becomes something that adds color, rather than a random, weird sound.

Let’s start by building a random, weird sound…

Here’s a scale from Eastern Europe

 

East euro 1

 

Making chords: Unfamiliar to familiar

Place your middle finger on the C on the A string, 3rd fret, and your index finger on the F# on the high E string, 2nd fret. Add the open B string. Or you can use the B at the 4th fret of the G string (that’ll make the next move a bit more challenging, though…)

Might sound a bit different than what you’re used to. Might not. In any case, let’s reduce the tension. Move the F# to the G on the 3rd fret of the E string (leave the C and the B where they are), and play the new chord.

Might still sound a bit strange. Try moving the C to the open string D (or the D on the A string, fret 5). Better?

The point here is to use the scale to randomly choose notes with which to build chords you would never have otherwise found. And then to resolve those chords by moving the notes in the chord to new notes.

This is a process of discovery and experimentation, of trial and error. The point is to take the stuff you’re used to (and maybe getting bored of?) and add interest.

 

Familiar to unfamiliar

Another way to approach this is to go from familiar to unfamiliar. Place your index finger on the G, 3rd fret, high E string; middle finger on Eb, 4th fret, B string; ring finger on C, 5th fret, G string. That’s a C minor chord.

Now just move the fingers to other notes in the scale and back. The G can go back to the F#; the Eb can go to the D; the C can go to the B. These can move together or one at a time. Work with this, and you’ll find ways to introduce this kind of sound into your regular playing and writing.

Check my posts on scale-tone chords for more shapes like this.

http://davewallmusic.com/scale-tone-triads-1/

http://davewallmusic.com/scale-tone-triads-2/

http://davewallmusic.com/scale-tone-triads-3/

 

 

Share : facebooktwittergoogle plus
pinterest

Speed and relaxation

Musicians want to play what they hear in their heads. They also want to play what they hear on recordings. Often that means playing something faster than their body is comfortable with. This leads to muscular tension and mistakes.

But there are things you can do to make your playing feel relaxed. As you might expect, it takes some practice.

 

The brain

Your motor cortex doesn’t think in terms of slow and fast or good and bad. It just records movements needed to complete an action. If you do something too fast and make mistakes, it thinks that that’s correct. Then it keeps doing that until you tell it to do it a better way.

 

Making it better

Bring intention to your practice. Be aware of your mental states. If you’re playing something that you find difficult, be aware of thoughts like, “Oh, oh, this part’s hard.” Or “I should be playing this faster.” Or, “I wish I could play it like that guy.” These kinds of thoughts create tension.

Thoughts like, “smooth”, “easy”, “light” communicate a feeling of relaxation. Try placing those kinds of thoughts in your head as you practice.

 

Metronome

You can program you brain and body to function fluently using a metronome. Set it to a comfortable speed. Too slow or too fast won’t work. Most musicians tend to think of slow as easy, and sometimes it is. But sometimes it feels unnatural and we struggle to make our muscles conform to the slowness.

Everybody has a speed where things feel loose and natural. Strum a simple chord progression and adjust the metronome until you find that speed. It might take a while but it’s worth the time.

 

Notching it up

If this optimally comfortable tempo is slower than a song you’re learning, bring the tempo on the metronome up a notch. By notch I mean no more than five. So if the metronome is set at 70, don’t go higher than 75. Accept that you may have to go lower than that. Once you’re comfortable at the new tempo, notch it up again. Continue until you’re playing the speed of the song.

Pay close attention to what your body is telling you. If there’s any tension at all go back a couple of notches. Seriously. If you go too fast and program mistakes into the brain, it will take 6 – 10 repetitions of doing it right to get it to where you want. Going slow and being patient will get you where you want to go faster.

This isn’t easy to do. Most people get impatient and try to go fast too soon. Be patient and honest with yourself, and eventually you’ll be able to play anything you want.

Share : facebooktwittergoogle plus
pinterest

1 2 3 4 5 10