Chords

[Big Band Guitar]

I have given up on chord books long ago, I just don't have the memory capacity to memorize all those forms.

Here is the approach I took.

Pick a chord form and play a C chord, now make it a minor, then a Maj7, then 7, now a 6th. don't leave out 9th

It gets more fun. Find within that chord form a minor 7, minor 6, minor 7 flat5.
Don't forget diminished diminished7 augmented and 6 9.

After several weeks of that, now pick another C in another form/inversion and do it again.

By this time you will find there is almost no chord that you can't play.

It's ok in most cases to leave out the 1 or root, or if the flat5 or sharp5 is hard to get your fingers to do then leave out the 5.

This worked for me and may not for someone else. We all have to find our way.

[Wyllys]

I understand theory, but my memory only grasps things from their contextual application.

Use it or lose it, sort of...

Edit: Most of what I do uses only triads. Four note chords are "expanded triads", two notes together are "collapsed triads"...so to speak.

[rick-slo]

I usually go by chord shapes I have used many times in the past. Rarely think about chord names. Barre chords frequently. Intervals in the melody line. Movement of the chord location I want often goes right along with the melody interval location.

[MC5C]

I am getting more and more into using chords that are not triad based. Often without a root. I have a 9/13 form that I use a lot that has the dominant 7 on the bottom, third, thirteenth and the ninth on top. In context, it works really well. I read recently that Ed Bickert got a lot of his signature harmonically rich sound from chord voicing that left out the root. If you think about it, the root is often implied by the progression of the tune, or is being played by someone else in a group setting.

[ManyMartinMan]

it sounds like you're doing exactly what I show new players who want.... wait...to learn the chord book. You're just doing it in a way that works for you. You ARE learning the chord book. Good work.

[Big Band Guitar]

Most of the time I only need 3 notes to chunk on the beat that doesn't clash with the rest of the band.

The way our rhythm section and most others work is the bass is of course the bottom, piano the pretty stuff, guitar and drums the pulse/heartbeat. I try to provide the melodic "click track" to the tune.

When the guitar and drums are in sync everything else falls into place. That does not mean the rhythm section doesn't listen to the rest of the band.

[TBman]

In playing finger style, chords are the foundation for a lot of things, when I go up the neck I think less in names (at times) and more on positioning. There's more than enough times that I think "Oh yeah, that's a D triad shape (xx0232) but at the 9th fret (an A) and I'll recognize it quickly, but 9th chords? No. I don't think I don't have any 9th chords memorized, but the first thing that hits my mind is C add D for instance which is easy to figure out. I couldn't figure out a minor chord without references if my life depended on it. Every once in a while though I will pull out a chord book and just go over some of the chords that are outside of the basic ones and think about why they are what they are.

[Wyllys]

As I've expressed before, you need just three things for solo guitar arrangements...four if you count the groove:

1. A melody note.
2. A bass or "anchor note" in a harmonic relation to the melody.
3. A "second voice" note to fill the triad/provide counter motion.

You can expand by using a fourth "shading" tone. I call this simply "triads against a bass line".

It seems there are two main camps:

1. Using a comprehensive study of chords/theory to know "the notes".
2. Using shapes/sounds. I have often looked up a fingering/voicing/shape I use to tell a theory-based player what I'm doing, but that's analysis after the fact.


Both are useful and nobody uses strictly one or the other.

Interesting, this...

[rick-slo]

Most people probably are not thinking about chord names while playing and probably could not quickly name all of the chords they are using even if they tried. People writing their own music, and to some small extent when arranging existing pieces of music, fall into preferred patterns of how they go about it (chord shapes and positions on the neck, chord progressions). It often is predictable and thus readily recognizable (for example a James Taylor song).

Noodle around for a bit and you will probably be quite predictable in what chords, etc., you use. Personally in addition to the simple triad chords and dominant seventh chords lately I tend to use maj7, 9th, +7, m7b5 chord shapes and I find relaxing such progression as C#m7b5 - F#7 - Bm7b5 - E7.

An advantage of learning other people's tunes and in dabbling in different music genres is breaking out of ruts.

[s0cks]

I'm surprised at the number of people who don't know how to build chords. I don't have every chord in muscle memory (not even close), but I could figure out any chord you asked me to play because I know how chords are constructed.

And really it's not that hard to learn it, maybe a couple of hours tops to understand it. A bit longer applying it if you don't understand where the intervals are on the fretboard.