Harmony - Chords and Their Symbols Pt.1
(23 Apr 04)
What You Can Leave Out
Decisions - Unlike the piano, the guitar is limited by the amount of notes you can include in a chord. In every chord there are important notes as well as notes that can be left out without anyone missing them.
If you are playing solo guitar, or as a duet with a vocalist, the root is important to leave in the chord but if you are playing with a bassist, especially in a jazz setting, it can be left out.
Sometimes bassists will actually get angry with you if you include the bass notes in the voicings. He is likely to say; "leave the bass notes to me, buddy." I personally make a habit of not playing roots.
The next note of least importance is the natural 5th. Since the natural 5th is present in major, minor and dominant chords, it does not determine the harmonic quality of the chord. If the 5th is lowered or raised, its best to include it in the chord voicing but otherwise it doesn't count for much.
The two most important notes are the 3rd and 7th. These two notes determine everything. That's right, roots are roots and 5ths are 5ths but 3rds and 7ths are what make a chord what it is, minor, major or dominant.
Check out the ii - V - i chord progression below, I voiced the chords using only 3rds and 7ths. It is important to play these voicings with someone playing the bass notes. If you can't find a bass player, just include the roots yourself:
My first experience in a Jazz ensemble:
When I first started playing Jazz, I thought you had to include everything in the chord voicing. The guys in the ensemble told me to quit playing such big, bulky, square chords and play some light airy voicings. The bassist told me; "for starters, leave out the notes on your 6th and 5th strings, I'll take care of those." He then added; "Play from the 3rds up." I learned from that experience that a few strategically placed chord tones work better than six note voicings especially in a large jazz ensemble like a big band. When it comes to voicing your chords, it may help if you just think: 3rd, 7th and the upper extension that is designated in the chord symbol (such as the 9th, 11th or 13th).
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6th chords
6th chords - Back when Jazz first got its start, 6th chords used to be more popular than 7th chords. Both the 6 and min6 chord contain the major 6th in the chord.
You can just think of a 6th chord as a triad (minor or major) with the major 6th added into the chord. Compared to the min6 chord the major version is definitely easy on the ears. Since 6th chords don't contain 7ths, the major 6th chord can replace either a major or dominant chord. The chord symbols are pretty much strait ahead, C6 and Cmin6:
Although the 6 and min6 chords can generally replace their maj7 and min7chord counterparts, the min6 chord sometimes gets used this way:
Points to remember about 6th chords:
Although the major 6th chord can easily replace any major chord, it is important to remember that the min6 chord, containing a major 6th interval can only replace a ii chord. You may want to think of the min6 chord as a "dorian" family chord.
6th chords can also be thought of as inverted 7th chords: C6 (C E G A) = Amin7 (A C E G) , Cmin6 (C Eb G A) = Amin7b5 (A C Eb G).
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9th chords
5 note chords - 9th chords are quite common for all major, minor and dominant chords. The major and minor 9th chords are usually notated as maj9 and min9, while the dominant 9th chord, when the 9th is unaltered, is notated as with just a 9 as in C9. The 9sus chord is also quite common, it can also be thought of and played as a slash chord: Bb/C or Gmin7/C:
Some standard 5th string voicings:
Points to remember about 9th chords:
To be called a 9th chord, the voicing must contain a 7th.
Some other 9th chords that you may want to think about are the min9(maj7) chord from the melodic minor scale and the min9b5 chord from the locrian #2 mode of the melodic minor scale. See if you can construct them yourself.
There have been some adventurous musicians from time to time who lower the 9ths in major and minor chords. Although not standard practice, if you chose to do so, notate these chords the same way you would when notating altered dominant chords: Cmaj7b9, Cmin7b9.
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