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Posted by: Caelumamittendum Apr 6 2021, 06:57 AM

...for new chords and chord voicings. I don't know the actual term for this, to be honest. Open chords that is.

This came about from a thread on Sevenstring.org, where a person asked what other people's favorite chords are at the moment. This is more or less my response:

I thought I'd chime in with a shape that I quite like, rather than one single chord. The shape can easily be moved around, up and down the fretboard, but gives a few different flavors and chord and chord voicings. It goes through sus2, maj7, maj7(b5) and maj9.

Notice how the fingering stays exactly the same throughout:

• Bsus2/D:
• X 5 4 6 0 2
• Emaj7:
• X 7 6 8 0 4
• Fmaj7(b5):
• X 8 7 9 0 5
• Gmaj7:
• X 10 9 11 0 7
• Amaj9:
• X 12 11 13 0 9
• Bmaj7:
• X 14 13 15 0 11
• Cmaj7:
• X 15 14 16 0 12
• Bsus2/D:
• X 17 16 18 0 14

And then you are back at the "beginning" in the octave above the first chord. If you want to spice up the end of the sequence, you can alter the shape a bit to X 16 15 18 0 14 giving you a C#7add11 kinda thing..

I made a little thing using some of the chords (Bsus2, Gmaj7, Amaj9, Bmaj7, C#7add11, C#7add13):

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Apr 6 2021, 04:57 PM

Love it! I'm already experimenting with this chord. Thanks for sharing!!

Posted by: Caelumamittendum Apr 6 2021, 05:25 PM

I really like open chords like that and moving them around

Posted by: Monica Gheorghevici Apr 6 2021, 05:56 PM

As you already know, I also love it!!! In the last hours I listened this many times. It gives me a very, veeery good mood.
BTW Ben thanks soooo much because you told me about the Develop Device studio. I'm definitely a fan of this drums sound.

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Apr 6 2021, 05:56 PM

Very cool. Sometimes all that's needed is one common denominator between the chords - for it to sound like a coherent (and futuristic!) chord progression.

In this case, it might be the open B string that does it.

Thanks for providing the chords on-screen, it allowed me to record a quick jam over this one - extremely cool backing! 👌

Posted by: Caelumamittendum Apr 6 2021, 06:09 PM

Develop Device has some cool presets and templates, that's for sure. You have to have the product they are designed for of course, so some of them needs a specific expansion for Superior Drummer. Thanks for listening so many times, Monica!



Yes, I agree that it's the B note/open B string that does it. Funnily enough back when I started out playing in 2002 and when I started writing my own chord progressions, I didn't know about theory, and I thought that to move between chords you had to have at least one common note. So for instance Dm (D F A) could go to any chord with one of those notes in it (F major or even F minor) and then you could move to whatever chord you could find after that which would match the previous one (maybe from F minor to Ab major and so on). It actually gave some interesting results!

Thanks SO much for jamming over the track. It was a pleasure to listen to, and your playing sounds very emotional here, and I like it a lot!

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Apr 6 2021, 06:13 PM

That is a good tool to build chord progressions, another classic one is to have chromatic movement (in the bass line or anywhere else).

Once you have done that, you might want to go for a slightly more melodic movement (than chromatic) - and oopsie all of a sudden you are out chasing chord progressions based on what your ears are telling you 👌 These sure are some good starting points!



Thanks - this type of track inevitably takes me towards Holdsworth land!

Posted by: Caelumamittendum Apr 6 2021, 06:54 PM

I sometimes feel I get too caught up in diatonic movement through chords, or trying to create something from theory knowledge rather than follow my ear and just "playing what sounds cool". It might be moving from a Dm to an Fm to a Bbm with a similar approach to what I first thought was the "right way" to do it. Sometimes it's nice to step away from theory, write something and THEN figure out what's going on, rather than start out with being boxed in It's a balance of course, as with all things.

Holdsworth land is not a bad place to be taken to, and your playing only becomes better and better each time I hear you!

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Apr 6 2021, 06:54 PM

YES! This is a great strategy. Basically anything that forces you to do something different is good. Get out of your routine 👌



Thanks, my jam chops are a bit rusty currently but there was just no way I could stop myself from trying out your track 😎

Posted by: klasaine Apr 7 2021, 04:02 AM

At this point in music 'theory' history, there's no chord progression that can't be, at least in some context, analyzed theoretically.
Move chords around however you want. Figure it out later. If it sounds good, it is good.

Posted by: Todd Simpson Apr 7 2021, 04:06 AM

Very cool chord progression by ben, killer jam by kris and sage advice by Ken. "Scene".

Posted by: Caelumamittendum Apr 7 2021, 04:46 AM

Oh, I completely agree. It's more so the approach of how I go about coming up with things that I was questioning. I.e. theory first or the "just play what you think sounds cool" first.



Thanks, Todd!

Posted by: klasaine Apr 7 2021, 06:02 AM

Guitar (like piano) is super visual. I would imagine that most guitarists started off by moving shapes around the fingerboard and then landing on stuff that sounds cool. I think most still do. I know I do

The great thing about knowing a bit of harmony and theory is that after you discover that 'cool' sounding progression, you can figure out what the hell it is and then be able to apply it and/or fit it in to other stuff you already know or may learn.
I have several little notebooks filled with ideas: licks, chord shapes, progressions, concepts, etc. I store them away and then come back to browse through them and see what I still like. Some of it I decide is trash, some of it is gold.

*That chord shape in your first post is a nice one, and I'll note that I've never played that exact voicing before.

Posted by: Caelumamittendum Apr 7 2021, 06:22 AM

Well, I have tended to think up what sounds "diatonically in key" rather than just explore or try some other chords. I.e. knowing that going from Dm to Bb to Gm to A (i VI iv V) sounds safe, and I'd just stick with that or generally stick with a safe choice in whatever I wrote. That's what I meant by boxing myself in from the get go when writing songs. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but it can yield some cool results to take a different approach, I reckon.

But yes, I agree, you then learn what that progression or idea is based on and you can apply it to another thing, I guess that's either boxing yourself in again or expanding the box you were in - which of course is a good thing. I'm not advocating against theory knowledge at all I need to write more ideas down. Thanks for reminding me!

Yeah, it's a cool voicing and as said moving it up and down yields some interesting ones too. I only noted those I thought sounded cool, but there are of course some more dissonant ones that players like you (i.e. with good chord and jazz knowledge) could get something out of Personally I like the Fmaj7(b5) voicing a lot.

--------------------------------------------

Not related to quoting you or the reply above, but some more cool shapes to move around are of course that "open barre" major chord (1st example) with open B and E strings, the minAdd9-shape with open E (example 2) or the maj7-shape with open B and E (example 3).



Then of course moving some of the standard open chord shapes up can yield some cool results:

Try a G shape (320033) at 1st fret, muting the A string, for a Gsus4/F, or including the note on the A string at 5th fret for a A7add11, an A#6 at the 6th fret. Cadd9 on the 8th fret, Dadd11 on the 10th fret.

Try a C shape (X32010) on the 5th fret for a Em9/D, 8th fret for Fmaj9 etc.

Posted by: MonkeyDAthos Apr 7 2021, 10:47 AM

Ofc them lydian vibes! I all down for the supremecy of #11 Major chords regardless of function. For those sweet cheesy bittersweet memories

Posted by: Caelumamittendum Apr 7 2021, 02:25 PM

Yes, it's a very nice vibe!

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Apr 9 2021, 05:18 PM

These are really nice 'open' chords as well, especially the open barre chord should be easy for people to try out!

Posted by: Todd Simpson Apr 10 2021, 06:46 PM

Any chance you could make a Guitar Pro file for this? Seeing it in full motion would be very cool imho. Very creative chordal structure.

Posted by: Caelumamittendum Apr 10 2021, 07:12 PM

This is a file with some chords to move around first. Just some more standard chords moved around, and then I've included the chords from the initial post too:

Posted by: Todd Simpson Apr 10 2021, 07:49 PM

Very super thanks!!! These sound really cool. I do hope we end up making collab out of something like this as mentioned earlier in the post. Very cool stuff!

Posted by: klasaine Apr 11 2021, 04:09 AM

Here's an idea I was messing around with today using Storm's chord shape. It's just two sections and I am strict about keeping the shape. It needs another different section.

 Moveable_Chord_Jam_Demo___MAIN.m4a ( 2.16MB ) : 184


Chord chart.

Posted by: Caelumamittendum Apr 11 2021, 04:50 AM

Damn, Ken, that's absolutely brilliant!

Posted by: Todd Simpson Apr 11 2021, 06:17 AM

He's right ken that's killer. This needs a video pretty please? I'd be happy to marry up the audio with it.

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO CALL THIS?

Posted by: tflava Apr 11 2021, 07:31 AM

Very nice dreamy maj7 chords. I like the progressions from this topic

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Apr 11 2021, 03:09 PM

Very cool Ken, I am experimenting with some vocals around this, would you like to send me the individual tracks?

Posted by: klasaine Apr 11 2021, 03:27 PM

Thanks man and thank you for the chord voicing! As I mentioned before, I'd never actually played that shape/voicing before. What I was thinking is that maybe something like this could be used for a collab here - ?

Posted by: Caelumamittendum Apr 11 2021, 03:34 PM

I completely agree about using it for a collab. That was my first thought too when I heard your track. It sounds great!

Posted by: klasaine Apr 11 2021, 03:48 PM

Sure!
I only recorded as much as you hear in the mp3 but it's all very symmetrical. You can duplicate cut, paste, re-arrange, add, etc.

Do you have a preferred way to receive files like Dropbox or We Transfer? Would you want Wav or just high quality mp3?

@Todd ... Yeah, I'll make a vid of me playing the open chords over that short track.

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Apr 11 2021, 05:29 PM

@Ken wav file with dropbox works! Yes I am also thinking this could make up for really cool collab 😎

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Apr 11 2021, 08:17 PM

Hey guys!! I'm having lots of fun over this backing! It's not an easy one at all since it requires constant scale shifts...




I'll keep on practicing over this one!

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Apr 11 2021, 11:02 PM

Cool jam Gab, I can sense some common ground in our takes 😎

Posted by: Todd Simpson Apr 11 2021, 11:55 PM

NAME IDEAS FOR THIS COLLAB ANYONE?

Please do! This is going to be a killer collab! I love how organically it is coming about


Todd

It's very advanced in that regard. I hope everyone jumps in!!


Todd

Posted by: klasaine Apr 12 2021, 01:34 AM

Very nice Gab!

*I'll note that this chord progression 'can' be complex to improvise over if you want it to be, but it doesn't have to be.
The first part (main part) of the first section; the E to G chords - E major pentatonic works great. Don't worry about the G# in E maj penta scale, it sounds fine over the G(maj7) chord.
The C to D to E section = E minor penta for the C and D chords and resolve back to E maj penta.
The second half: F to D to E is the opposite. Start with E min penta for the F and D chords and resolve to E maj penta on the E chord.
Two scales - same root. Easy and effective. You can approach in a more advanced way but it's not necessary to sound good over it.

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Apr 12 2021, 01:49 AM

Thanks! The backing is amazing!





That's a very cool simplification! Yes, I've been trying some more complex ideas since the backing sounds me like a complex Satriani. The only thing that I would miss using only pentatonics are some #4 sounds here and there, but they can be added.






I think that your Jam school series, and your Facebook lives have influenced my playing.

Posted by: klasaine Apr 12 2021, 03:32 AM

Absolutely.
I just don't want to scare anybody off. The constant low E pedal forces it all into an overall 'E' tonality - major to minor, minor to major. I find stuff like that really compelling, musically.

Posted by: Todd Simpson Apr 12 2021, 05:14 AM

Maybe if KEN plays the progression in a vid we can all do a sort of call and response on top of it?

Posted by: tflava Apr 12 2021, 06:39 AM

Very nice playing guys.
I would love to join this collab.
I tried to open the backing track in my Phone but it didnt worm.
I will try to download it with my computer today or tomorrow

Posted by: Todd Simpson Apr 13 2021, 01:08 AM

This is a very spiff vid from KEN based on what started as some cool chords from CAEL!! Now it seems to be turning in to a full on collab!

Posted by: tflava Apr 13 2021, 06:46 AM

Very nice. I succeed by downloading the files on my computer 👍

Posted by: Mertay Apr 13 2021, 09:33 AM

Wasn't following this topic but saw the video on youtube, very nice.

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Apr 13 2021, 09:38 AM

Very cool, I am experimenting over this one as we speak!

I was thinking it would be cool for the collab theme to be something in the lines of "Everything for the song" - meaning guitar leads would need to be short (just a few notes maybe) but sound really cool as fills around the vocals.

Typically our collabs are designed to give everyone a spot - which is cool as well. However it's nice to try new ideas, and from an instructional perspective this could be a very powerful learning process.

Posted by: klasaine Apr 13 2021, 03:10 PM

That's great Todd!

Posted by: Todd Simpson Apr 14 2021, 01:24 AM

Sounds like a plan

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Apr 14 2021, 02:44 PM

Good idea! I'll give it a try over your vocals then!

Posted by: Todd Simpson Apr 15 2021, 05:51 AM

Cant wait to hear!