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Old 01-03-2020, 03:57 PM
wguitar wguitar is offline
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Default Alternate voicings for Gmaj and Fmaj7 chord

Hi,

What are some alternate voicings for a Gmaj7 and Fmaj7 chord?

Thanks!
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Old 01-03-2020, 04:22 PM
srbell srbell is offline
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For Fmaj7 try X33555. For Gmaj7 slide up two more frets - X55777.
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Old 01-03-2020, 05:24 PM
frankmcr frankmcr is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wguitar View Post
Hi,

What are some alternate voicings for a Gmaj7

Thanks!
X54433

Kind of thing that's more fun to figure out on one's own, really.
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Old 01-03-2020, 06:57 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wguitar View Post
Hi,

What are some alternate voicings for a Gmaj7 and Fmaj7 chord?

Thanks!
Hi wg

How are you fingering/voicing them now? If we don't know what your 'standard' fingering is, we are hard pressed to provide an alternate.

My standard for Gmaj7 is play an A min chord with fingers 2-3-4 and press string 6 with index while using it's pad to mute strings 5 & 1.



Fmaj7 is the same fingering two frets lower.

Another way to play maj7 chords using a moveable shape is:



So for Fmaj7 you would put the 'root' at fret 6 and using the same shape, the Gmaj7 root would be at fret 8.

There are many other ways to voice chords, but these are pretty standard or at least often used positions. The two charts are from when I taught guitar. I used Gmaj7 and Cmaj7 because it is a common progression I to IV in key of C. It was designed for the student to move back and forth between GM7 & CM7 as an exercise till fluidity formed. Both root notes were on the same FRET (not string).


Hope this helps...






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Last edited by ljguitar; 01-03-2020 at 07:10 PM. Reason: added two diagrams
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Old 01-03-2020, 07:37 PM
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rick-slo rick-slo is offline
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A couple I use when fretting on the first few frets:
3X0002 and 3X443X
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Last edited by rick-slo; 01-04-2020 at 02:34 AM.
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Old 01-04-2020, 11:39 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by frankmcr View Post
X54433
Nooo!
Just play these two notes together x-x-4-x-x-3. You really like that sound?

It's never a good idea to put the root of a maj7 chord above the maj7 itself, unless it's just a semitone, and even that's risky. Always keep the root below.

3-5-4-4-x-x is better, or 3-5-4-4-3-x if you can barre and mute (or avoid) the 1st string.

Here are my other choices for Gmaj7 (other than what's already been posted):

x-10-9-7-7-7

x-10-12-11-12-(10) (1st string optional, can be muted to avoid the barre)

x-x-5-4-3-2. Maybe tricky to mute both bass strings.

Fmaj7 would be any of those 2 frets down.

Bert Jansch once played this great Gmaj7 shape in drop D (only briefly, mind):
5-x-0-4-7-7
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Old 01-04-2020, 12:02 PM
tbeltrans tbeltrans is offline
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A useful approach to this sort of problem would be to quickly draw a fretboard and write all the natural notes for each string. Then, circle all the notes contained in the chord you are interested in. From there, you can pick and choose to use whatever combination of these notes you wish. The root, 3rd, and 7 are the important notes. The 5th is of little importance unless you want to play it in the bass instead of the root.

Gmaj7: G B D F#

Fmaj7: F A C E

Do this a few times, you will begin to see this stuff on the fretboard and not have to draw it out anymore. This idea is not at all new. A number of people have published one thing or another describing this same process. Clearly, what you will need to know is how to spell chords and the scales they come from. Just tackle that a little at a time and it will all come together. All this information is available for free all over the internet.

Tony
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