More Unusual Guitar Chord Voicings?

[chardin]

In the Avoid, just avoid thread, Sascha Franck demonstrated a very nice, lush guitar voicing for F#7add4. Listen here. This clip also has 2 other chords (I think Asus2 and Bsus4, please correct me) that are nice. Here is how I play the chords (numbers indicate frets; 0 is an open string):

Code: Select all

F#7add4  244300
Asus2    577600
Bsus4    799800

I had never played those particular voicings before. I'm hoping Sascha Franck and others like BosseJo might share some more of their guitar secrets.

Edit: Please post a nice sounding chord even if you don't know the chord name. Show the fret numbers; zero (0) for open strings; and X for a muted or unplayed string.

[Toxikator]

This progression (which I assume returns to E) is tricky on one level more than the rest: what's with the IIM chord? With or without the E-B pedal tone going on, the progression from IM to IIM to IVM to VM is really odd to me.

I've never seen the IIM used like that, where it would usually just go to the VM.

EDIT: actually, it resolves better to the F#... I wonder if that kind of motion would be a chromatic mediant to I-bIII-IV? I've never seen it used like that, but it's certainly cool

DOUBLE EDIT: Well, it works as a I-bIII-IV-I in F#, but with the B and E it REALLY reinforces the key of E, so it comes back to being a I-II-IV-V... and since it's not a secondary dominant of any kind I'll call the II a modal interchange from the Lydian because I can't figure out what else that would be. I keep playing it, though, it works too well to not 'be' something.

[BosseJo]

In the Avoid, just avoid thread, Sascha Franck demonstrated a very nice, lush guitar voicing for F#7add4. Listen here. This clip also has 2 other chords (I think Asus2 and Bsus4, please correct me) that are nice. Here is how I play the chords (numbers indicate frets; 0 is an open string):

Code: Select all

F#7add4  244300
Asus2    577600
Bsus4    799800

I had never played those particular voicings before. I'm hoping Sascha Franck and others like BosseJo might share some more of their guitar secrets.

Edit: Please post a nice sounding chord even if you don't know the chord name. Show the fret numbers; zero (0) for open strings; and X for a muted or unplayed string.

No they are really, really secret

Experimenting yourself is probably the best and also listen to guitarist like Lifeson, David Gilmore and Allan Holdsworth.

This shape/"progression" is easy and sounds nice:
x02200
x04400
x05500
x07700
x09900
x0 11 11 00
x0 12 12 00

And here's something for you to work on. It's the plucked guitar part at the beginning of "La villa strangiato" by Rush (after the Spanish guitar intro, studio version). Here's the voicing.:

870088

[exquisiteoath]

I'm a big fan of 2000010 and X20030 C variants. I'm not a big "traditional" theorist so I just throw frets together and enjoy the results.

[MadBrain]

One of the chords I'm starting to like is Csus4/A (in theory, you could also write it Am7b6, or Fadd9/A)... On guitar, you can play is as X0301X (a rather close voicing) or X0X011. Works well in parallel voicings too.

[pw]

some favourites of mine:
x06654
x04650

[Toxikator]

One I've been working with in E minor:

055400
022000
055400
033200
022000

It goes i7-i, then i7-N4/2add11*-i

*N4/2add11, for those unfamiliar with the figured bass, means a Neapolitan chord with a diatonic Major 7th added and in the lowest voice (and again in the highest, here) with an added 11th. It could also be classified a straight Neapolitan with the Es and B as pedal tones (which I'd be more inclined to agree with), and it could also be thought of as the diatonic (b)II of E Phrygian depending on how you use it.

[Steve Newton]

577600 move one finger to get...
570670

355400
350450 move one finger to get this and double up some notes

x32013 this C with a high G slides up 2 frets to this beauty...
x54035 lifting the pinky on the high E string gets...
x54030

[Sascha Franck]

In addition to the F#7 rendition, I'm using quite some "open E derivates". Basically it's all just about moving parts of a voicing while leaving certain open strings ring.

So, let's move our open position E chord.
One fret up and you'll get a nicely sounding Fj7/#11. With no F in the bass but still using the E, you're in standard flamenco land. With the F in the bass (so it's just like an F barré chord wih the top two strings ringing opened) it's still flamenco-ish but opens up for some other useage, such as in a modal setting.

The F# is already covered more or less.

Then there's the G. Sounds fine, but nothing that special. Especially since the B would be covered twice.

Let's proceed to G# then, still using our E voicing. Ouch!

A? Ok, another great sounding one. Fine for any Aadd9.

Bb? No! Ok, maybe, but usually not. #11 (the E) and b9 (the B)? Nooo...

B? Yes please! Another "add4" chord, theoretically tough to use but it just sounds great.
If your fingers allow, try to replace the B in the 9th fret of the D string with the C# in the 11th fret. Badd9add4. Great!

C - sure, why not? A rather common guitar-ish Cmaj7 rendition.

C#? Err - better not. The E and E# will defenitely clash in an unholy manner. But you never know... it might come in handy one day as some C#7/#9.

D? Ok. A D6add9. Fine for some stuff to be sure.

Eb?!? Better not. If played without the bass note, it can be used as a really disharmonic suspension for an E though (all three fingered notes resolving nicely up a halftone).


Ok, I'll stop for now. Thing is, you can just finger like everything making sense with openly ringing strings. Then you just move the same shape around. The results sometimes are stunning.
Just try to analyze the resulting chords so you'll be able to re-use them more quickly in case you ever need one of them.

Before I stop for today, another nice one: Open A as a root, two fingers in the same position on D and G string, B and E strings ringing open. Place the two notes on the D and G strings in the 5th fret: cool Amin9. In 6th fret: A nice Amaj7/9. Try the rest for yourself. Then alter one finger (either of the two) and play a halfstep up/down. Tons of very nice options.

[pw]

...and to add to Sascha's examples of moving open chord shapes up and down the fretboard, while leaving the open strings open (the type of trick that all guitarists should learn), try it with-

G5 open chord - 3x0033
g open chord - 320033

as you see, I prefer having the d instead of the open b on the 2nd string. Moving this shape leads to all sorts of zepplin-esque goodness.

[tee boy]

I think that you can make some cool voicings if you use open chords in alternative tunings.

This is one of the cool things about the anatomy of the guitar - you can play this chords in open positions and mix the timbres of the voices (ie, the timbral variation between fretted positions up the neck). I think this can lead to a far more complex texture. Almost as if you have an ensemble of different sized instruments sharing the chord!

TB

[me109]

Another approach would be the exact opposite. You have four fingers, why not limit yourself to four strings and mute the other two.

For example, just using the 2,3,4 and 6th strings, you could play a C7 chord - 3X231X - or G,E,Bb ,C from the bottom up. Then, move up to the next position: 6X555X or Bb,G,C,E. Third position would be 8X898X - C,Bb,E,G, followed by (12)X(10)(12)(11)X - E,C,G,Bb.
With this approach, you can now choose any note for a melody on top, or a voicing with any note in the bass, making melody chords fairly easy. If you want minor, flat the third, if you want 9th chords, drop the tonic (C), leaving it to the bass to play, and move it up to the 9th (D).

After you learn all possible variations of that, do the same thing on the 2,3,4 and 5th strings, the 1,2,3 and 4th, the 3,4,5 and 6th, etc. By then, you can get just about any voicing of any chord anywhere on the guitar.

[lshea]

The Floydian...

X
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10
9
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