Acoustic Guitar Magazine | 9 years ago
Week One
Review the most common diatonic (within the same key) seventh chords, with roots on the fifth and sixth strings. Ex. 1 depicts fifth-string-rooted chords within the C major scale. (If you happen to be on a 12-fret guitar, don’t worry about playing those chords falling way up on the neck.) Also based on the C major scale,
Ex. 2 uses sixth-string-rooted chords.
Ex. 3 is identical to Ex. 1, except it omits the fifth of each chord—a note that Green generally avoided. The fifth is considered inessential, as it doesn’t define the sound of the chord like the third or seventh do. And Ex. 4 shows fifth-string-rooted voicings on the adjacent strings 5–3 also containing just roots, thirds, and sevenths. Then, in Ex. 5, you’re back to sixth-string-rooted chords, this time without fifths.
Week Two
Ex. 6 uses the same chord shapes from Ex. 1 and 2, but in common chord progressions. The first two bars are based on the I–vi-ii–V in C major; the second two on the iii–VI–ii–V. The fifths from these chords are omitted in Ex. 7, for a more Freddie Green–like sound. In the third and fourth measures, note the use of common tones—the Em7 and A7 chords share the fifth-fret G and the Dm7 and G7 chords share the third-fret F. This makes for smooth transitions between chords.
Ex. 8–9 take the same approach as Ex. 6 and 7, but the first chord in each bar is rooted on the sixth string and the second one on the fifth string. In Ex. 9 you’ll see another common tone in action; the highest note of both the Dm7 chord and the G7 is the 10th-fret F. See if you can extend the pattern to the Em7 and A7 chords.
For the entire lesson check out the October 2015 issue of Acoustic Gutar
