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Old 12-01-2012, 06:08 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2010
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Berger View Post
I don't have fat fingers but try as I might, I just cannot seem to consistently play a nice sounding 7#11 chord much less make a smooth transition to it in a chord melody arrangement.

The 7#11 chord I am referring to is voiced X87887 (F7#11 in this example).

The best I've come up with is leaving out the 3rd (A in this example) which is an OK but not great solution. Works as long as the 'A' is not the melody note.

Any suggestions or workarounds are welcome!
stanton is right that the 9th is superfluous, but I find it easier to include that than find a voicing without it (or to mute it in that shape).

Your shape is always my favoured one for 7#11 (9#11) chords, but I would either omit the root (if there's a bassist you don't need it) - play top 4 strings only - or if I really want the full version (with 5th too!) wrap my thumb over to fret both bottom strings:

-7- = #11 = middle
-8- = 9 = pinky
-8- = b7 = ring
-7- = 3 = index
-8- = R = thumb
-8- = 5 = thumb

That's a nice rich sound, and I find it a little easier than the barre method described above - but YMMV. (And I wouldn't be going for that in an uptempo tune with fast changes...)

Here's an easy alternative with root, and no 5th or 9th:

-7-
-6-
-8-
-7-
---
---

(but I think 9th in place of root sounds better)

F9#11 with root on 6th:

----
-12-
-12-
-13-
-12-
-13-

(maybe a squeeze for F9#11, but OK for others lower on neck)
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