Acoustic Lesson Update

[Wyll_Watts]

Hey there fellow guitar geeks!

Well, my big, bloated acoustic lesson is taking me forever with my current work, teaching, and gigging schedule so I'm going to do it in brief installments and try to keep things pretty straighforward. As always, questions, contributions, and flamming are welcome!

Ok, this is a quick installment.. any of you dig Gypsy jazz or the American swing counterpart? Well, Django and alot of other swing players use these three and four note 7th chord voicings that are absolutely PERFECT sounding on acoustic guitar.. whether you're playing a flat-top, archtop, Selmer style, or cheesy Sears catalouge acoustic, when you break out these chords swing is in full sessions!

So what's going on here is that the chords always include the 3rd and 7th (or 6th) but you can drop the root or the 5th.. the shapes can be transposed all over the fretboard, and if you really need that 5th or root you can throw it in as the high voice..
All the voicings are shown in the powertab as three note voicings and some four note voicings.. and at the end are a few very simple examples to help you get your hands around these shapes. Once you've got these shapes under your fingers look up the lead sheets to some good swing standards like I've Got Rhythm or Minor Swing and apply them.. and be sure to get that swinging rhythm going, you know the one! quarter notes with the off beats emphasized and cut short (just release your finger pressure after striking the chord).

Also I'm gonna post two tuned that use these sorts of chords..

questions? please ask since I know I'm not being very detailed here... and go out and buy a Django record, it's good for your health...

Wyll

[Wyll_Watts]

tune number one! South Side Swing, I wrote it a few years back, it's cheesy, it's jamable, it's swing! and the melody is easy to play so be sure to throw some diminished lines and embelished arpeggios in there if you solo over it..

Wyll

[Wyll_Watts]

tune number two! A friend of mine was always annoyed when I got in that Gypsy mood and started chomp-chomping away on those chords and growing a mustache so I wrote this song for her... some nice annoying Wyll cliche licks in there.. and yes.. it swings..

Wyll

[Wyll_Watts]

Bonus! here is another tune.. well the verse from a tune.. Some friends and I wrote some stuff kind of making fun of broadway musicals (but it's good natured fun since we all love that stuff!).. I still like this verse melody.. the bridge turned into a rock song called his Tracks are Covered.. cheese central! the chords you hear in the powertab are drop-2 voicings but try the progression out with those three note chords and speed it up...

Wyll

[Zatz]

Wyll,

swing for kyla is awesome! some ear-catching modal swing in there! south side thing sounds real cheesy 'n tasty - much space - a rich theme tells here - a lot of room for jamming.

Great installment #1! Keep going! I'm really interested in your lessons!

Good luck,
Zatz.

[snufeldin]

Yay!

Keep it coming

[snufeldin]

After looking at your lesson, I noticed that the 6th chords are 9ths with the root lowered a 4th. I harmonized 6th's all the way up a major scale and was just wondering what the names for all the chords were.

I- 6
ii- m6
iii-
IV- 6
V- 6
vi-
vii0-

on the iii and vi the 6th is minor which doesn't make sense to me b/c on the ii it is major, but is called minor 6.

[Wyll_Watts]

hey there..
a m6 chord is R-b3-6

those other chords you were forming are r-b3-b6
which is the same as r-b3-#5 ...most of the time I see these chords named m#5 ..a very dissonant chord, but can still be used creativly... the m6 name is a bit misleading and I have run into a few people who call it m add 6 to clear up the intended voicing..

Wyll

[Wyll_Watts]

oh, a small point.. on those chord formulas I did not include the 5th for the minor 6 voicing since it is commonly dropped.. but it can be added without any adverse results..
so the full formula would be..
r-b3-5-6

also, on that m#5 chord, if you include the perfect 5th and treat the #5 as a b6 you'ld get this voicing..
r-b3-5-b6 .. which is a really raunchy chord.. if you ever see this it will probably show up as r-b3-5-b13 ..

well, anyways..

Wyll

[Zatz]

I guess r-m3-#5 is just a major triad. For ex., Em#5 is spelled as (e g c) which is just C major chord.

Zatz.

[Wyll_Watts]

yeah. the m#5 chord basically is just an inversion of a major chord but if you just throw it as a modifacation in a progression it can give you some clang.. it's the full chord treating the #5 as a b6 and keeping the perfect 5th that's the really dissonant one.. So I really should not have called the m#5 chord a "dissonant" chord in and of itself... sorry for any confusion..

Wyll