JAZZ
GUITAR CHORD OF THE WEEK – 2005
There's no expiration date on hip voicings, man. |
|
| Jazz
Guitar Chord of the Week is a chord voicing that sounds good and is
somehow useful. Or at least thought provoking. They are presented
in seemingly random order (to me, maybe I don't get the pattern?)
— so random in fact that you can request
a voicing for a particular chord type and it will as if by magic
appear on this page in about a week or so. The chords start with January, so begin at the bottom of the page. |
|
|
|
| December
25, 2005 — This voicing will be familiar to many of you as the "So What"
voicing. That's "So What" the famous Miles Davis tune, as
opposed to the "complete indifference" voicing by fill in
the blank. The lesson here is not that this is a new chord, but that
inverting voicings leads us to make connections between familiar structures
that we didn't realize existed before. See you next year! |
 |
 |
|
| December
18, 2005 — While this very familiar chord voicing may not set your hair on fire
(which is good, cuz that's very dangerous) it creates perspective
for the previous two voicings and next week's voicing. Also, when
taking into account possible use as the relative minor (G-) or C7sus,
this voicing and its inversions yield 12 basic applications. Not bad.
Then, consider that many of these voicings can be played in two or
three different octaves, and cancel all of your plans for the rest
of the year and start practicing. |
 |
 |
|
| December
11, 2005 — This inversion has the root on top. It's good to have some options
for this situation that are more than just your regular, plain-old,
garden variety, everyday, ho hum, phone it in, just another day at
the office, boring, bland, vanilla, typical, blah, scratch 'n sniff,
satchel and paige, from bangor all the way to mighty maine, major
chord with the root on top. |
 |
 |
|
| December
4, 2005 — Here's a Major chord voicing made up of the triad plus the 9th. It's
as pretty as last week's voicing was zangy. The whole step and fourth
give it a modern sound. The subsequent inversions may be startlingly
familiar... |
 |
 |
|
| November
27, 2005 — Who knew that Major 7 chords could be quite this cruchy, even in milk.
This'll wake 'em up at the country club. |
 |
 |
|
| November
20, 2005 — This voicing is also very usable as G-6/9. And easy to play to boot.
You don't have to suffer for hipness, man. |
 |
 |
|
| November
13, 2005 — Another raised 4th inversion. Since there is a significant stretch
involved, take it easy when practicing this one. Hurting oneself,
even for a super-hip voicing, isn't worth it. |
 |
 |
|
| November
6, 2005 — Now that the world knows that COTW cheats, we'll keep on doing it.
This time with another Ma7 voicing. This group of voicings replaces
the 3rd of the chord with the raised 4th. Submitted for your approval:
Bb Ma7+4. |
 |
 |
|
| October
23, 2005 — I know this is totally cheating. Using the same four notes, moving
each note up to the next of the four notes and voila, new voicing.
Have I mentioned how indispensable cheating is when learning to play
music? |
 |
 |
|
| October
16, 2005 — This is starting to get strange. It's almost like I'm taknig the same
four notes and reordering them to get a different voicing that works
for CMa7, A-, D7sus. |
 |
 |
|
| October
9, 2005 — Here's
a chord voicing that has a nice, modern sound over a Ma7. The 9th
is in a sense substituted for the 3rd, and the presence of a flat
9 interval between B and C creates a vague sense that something strange
is happening. Also works for A-. It seems to have exactly the
same notes as the previous voicing on COTW. Hmmm... |
 |
 |
|
| October
2, 2005 —This
is a modern sounding voicing for D7 sus that also works really well
for C Ma7 chord (and the relative minor, A1). The half step between
the 13th and the 7th provides the character. |
 |
 |
|
| September
25, 2005 — I got a request for a few more voicings with open strings. How about
this one? You might get away with using this voicing as a D 6/9 chord
also. Starting in October (never mind what the actual month is; we're
on COTW time here, Buddy), I'll start a series of chords that should
last into mid 2009, or so. |
 |
 |
|
| September
18, 2005 — After a brief discussion
with my attorney and accountant, I will return to royalty-free voicings
this week. Actually it's not totally royalty free since this was written
in a lower octave in a different key. It was a little bit too hard
to suggest playing in that octave/key (down a 5th). |
 |
 |
|
| September
11, 2005 — Same gig as last week's chord, subbing for marimba. Very nice major
chord voicing, playable up and down the neck. Soon, I will owe the
composer royalties. |
 |
 |
|
| September
4, 2005 — This voicing was written into a part for a large ensemble piece I
was playing in place of a marimba player. I took a litlle figuring
on my part to play the voicing, since there was no chord grid. You,
on the other hand get to cheat. We here at CF encourage such things. |
 |
 |
|
| August
28, 2005 — At last, resolution's sweet bounty is harvested, using this handy
voicing in fourths. While the voicing may not be totally new to CF
readers, the resolution from the 8/21 voicing is molto useful. |
 |
 |
|
| August
21, 2005 — Here's a simple little 3-note voicing that packs a lot of punch, and
has some - pick one according to your era: nifty, neato, keeno, groovy,
totally dope, phat, schnizzitified resolution possibilities, as you'll
find out next week. |
 |
 |
|
| August
14, 2005 — This is a little
number I came across while trolling the ancient catacombs of mystical
Zlyphetamakis... Okay, while writing an etude for the Comping book.
It is used for F#7sus, but it also has the major third contained within
it. You could use it tof C#-7 or E Maj7+4 and maybe Eb7 alt. |
 |
 |
|
| August
7 , 2005 — I know. That's
soooooo cheating. I didn't make you learn a new voicing. Nothing to
memorize. No contorting fingers. I mean, really. Using the same voicing
for A7 alt and D Maj7. What is the world coming to? |
 |
 |
|
| July
31, 2005 — We conclude National Altered Chord Awareness Month with this hopelessly
cool voicing. Next month (a mere 7 days from now for our purposes)
this chord will resolve to an equally hopelessly cool chord. How equally
hopelessly cool? As equally hopelessly cool as you can get (hint,
hint). |
 |
 |
|
| July
24, 2005 —Who
knew there were so many ways to play an altered chord? In addition
to certain Eb7 chords, you can use the following Bb-maj7 form as well.
This contains the b9 and b13 along with the 3rd and the root on top. |
 |
 |
|
| July
17, 2005 —This
is starting to get ridiculous. If you play an Eb at the 6th fret on
the A string with this voicing you get an Eb9 chord. And while we're
at it, last week's chord was an Eb9 chord too. So now you're trying
to tell me that you can use Eb9 chords for A7 alt? Yes. |
 |
 |
|
| July
10, 2005 —More
"altered" chords. This week's chord is much like last week's,
but with b9 instead of #9. At this point, you might start to feel
cheated. After all, I only moved one note to get another altered voicing.
It's almost like they're related, or something. |
 |
 |
|
| July
3 , 2005 —By
request: "What do you play for A7 alt?" Alt is short for
altered. This means a Dominant 7 chord with any combination of b9,
#9, #4 or b13. How about this: |
 |
 |
|
| June
26 , 2005 —As
promised, on time and in living color, the resolution of the ii-7
V7 I Maj 7. And it's not even "Sweeps Week". |
 |
 |
Bb
Maj 7 |
| June
19 , 2005 —...this
really hip, almost clustery voicing for F7 alt (b9 and #9). This one
has much de "Zang Factor". It's really tense, but you'll
just have to wait a week for it to resolve. Not six months though.
That would be cruel. |
 |
 |
F7alt |
| June
12 , 2005 — Another
voice leading exercise for a ii-7 V7 I Maj7 progression. You can never
have too many ways to play this! Starting with the ii chord (no root),
don't move any voice farther than a whole step and you'll get... |
 |
 |
C-7 |
| June
5, 2005 — Continuing our
backwards voice leading journey through a ii-7 V7 I Maj7 progression,
we arrive at this conventional G-7 voicing. We didn't move any note
farther than a whole step from the altered C7. Now, play it forward
to F Maj7. You dig? |
 |
 |
G-7 |
| May
29, 2005 — Altered
C7 arrived at by moving no more than a whole step from any note in
"last week's" chord voicing. Talk about altered! Ya know,
in retrospect, you could probably play the root at the 8th fret on
the low E string if you wanted (just to hear how it sounds). |
 |
 |
C7alt |
| May
22, 2005 — Here's
a great voicing for F Maj7 that may be familiar to some of you. It
is presented here as part of a voice leading exercise. Working backwards
starting from this chord, I wanted to find an altered C7, then G-7
to create a hip ii-7 V7 I maj7 progression. Tune in next week... |
 |
 |
F
Maj7 |
| May
15, 2005 — Oh, that's
why he went all conventional-like last week. Voice leading to this
really, how you say, "cool" voicing for C-. And it has the
melody note for DTD on top. This will be the end of the discussion
of DTD. Or you could look at it as the beginning of a fresh, new path.
Let's face it, 5 1/2 months is a long time to play the same tune. |
 |
 |
C-9 |
| May
8, 2005 — Soince
the next melody note in DTD is F, I decided to throw in a passing
chord to harmonize it. This is a pretty conventional 9th chord voicing,
but useful. And, yeah there's no half step. But if you can hold on
until next week (actually two minutes from now) you'll see my reasoning.
Or lack thereof, maybe. |
 |
 |
Db7 |
| May
1, 2005 — I quickly
figured out that playing the bridge to Darn That Dream using the half
steps would create some repetition as far as COTW goes, so I will
start the bridge, then abruptly change course to avoid said repetition.
For voice leading purposes I went with G in the bass of the EbMaj7
chord. I also went with G in the melody since the melody is, well,
um, G. |
 |
 |
EbMaj7/G |
| April
24 , 2005 — Oh no I dit'int!
Bb7 with b9, #9, 13 and b13? And no root, to boot, Lute. Call the
half step police! Did I hear JB say "Take it to the bridge"? |
 |
 |
Bb7 |
| April
17, 2005 — Oh snap!
I like, totally reharmonized the GMaj7 and went straight to a Bb7
like chord with no root. Freakin unpredictable fellow, your host.
This is used for the end of the second A section leading to the bridge.
I wonder what's gonna happen next week? |
 |
 |
Bb13 |
| April
10, 2005 — Yeah,
I know, I could have played F natural instead of Eb, thereby creating
the required half step. But I was in a D13b9 kinda' mood. what can
I say? It was also a big stretch to play the F and the root. But not
impossible... |
 |
 |
D13b9 |
| April
3, 2005 — This
one took a while to figure out. How to get a half step and the D in
the melody. But after many hours of ciphering and calculating I arrived
at this one. You, on the other hand have easy access to the desired
voicing. |
 |
 |
A-7 |
| March
27, 2005 — This
voicing has some similarities to the Bb-13 back on January 9, the
half step between the seventh and 13th, for example. The third has
been moved down an octave, and the melody (F) is on top. |
 |
 |
Bb-7 |
| March
20, 2005 —Don't
play this one for an hour straight, please. It sounds cool, but it's
a bit of a stretch. It's a variationon "last week's" voicing,
with the seventh in the melody. |
 |
 |
B-7
(9) |
| March13,
2005 — If you
get away from half steps too long, you kinda' miss 'em. I know right
about now you probably had a hankerin' for a nice, juicy half step.
Maybe even went back and played some of the other voicings. well now,
your wait is over. You don't think that you were getting addicted,
do you? |
 |
 |
C-9 |
| March
6, 2005 — I had
to make an exception to the half step rule here for reasons of um,
uh... national security. Yeah that's it. Not really. The point of
COTW is to have a different voicing each week, not repeat one
from last year, right? Also, this chord here was just too pretty to
pass up for the melody. I'll try and do better next time. |
 |
 |
A-9 |
| February
27, 2005 — Here's
an altered E7 with no third. It still sounds like it wants to resolve.
Soon. Maybe it's a good thing you didn't have to actually wait a week
to play the next chord. |
 |
 |
E7
alt |
| February
20, 2005 — Since
my rule for this exercise is: No half steps, no glory, I had to take
a standard voicing for B-7b5 and add that 11 (E) as an open string.
It provides a nice clustery effect. |
 |
 |
B-7b5 |
| February
13, 2005 — Since
Darn That Dream goes to C Maj7 here, I decided to do that also. This
voicing is similar to the Jan 2 and Jan 30 voicings. You'd almost
think E-7, GMaj7 and CMaj7 had notes in common or something. |
 |
 |
CMaj7+4 |
| February
6, 2005 — Necessity being the smother of all conventions has led me, and hence, you, to
this C#-7 unusual and very hip voicing. How hip? It's so hip that...I
dunno'. You'll notice that I ran out of melody. I decided it was more
important to keep the half step. If I want the melody, I can use the
voicing from January 11 of last year. |
 |
 |
C#-7 |
| January
30, 2005 — You might
have seen this one coming. Or maybe not. It is petty similar to the
first chord in the Darn That Dream progression (you know, from back
in the "first week of January"wink, wink), only different. |
 |
 |
E-9 |
| January
23, 2005 — "Nuttin'
doin'!" No open strings here. But still, acool voicing for B7+4 with
a half step and the melody. The good news is that this one is transposable.
\tran(t)s-po-ze-bel adj playable in a different key, dude. |
 |
 |
B7+4 |
| January
16, 2005 - Next is A-7,
again with a 13th. Unlike the Bb-7 from "last week", this voicing
has the minor third in it, and as always, the melody on top. Will
the open string saga continue? Tune in next week when we'll hear Lil'
Andy say... |
 |
 |
A-7 |
| January
9, 2005 - The second
chord change in Darn That Dream is Bb- (followed by Eb7). For this
exercise, I have combined the two into a Bb-13 with the half step
between the 7th and the 13th. Where would we be without open strings? |
 |
 |
Bb-13 |
| January
2, 2005 - I recently
(like in June, 2005) created a little exercise for myself that consisted
of playing the chord changes to the A section of Darn That Dream with
a half step in every single voicing. Every last one! No exceptions.
Plus, the melody on top of most. The fruits of this exercise are now
presented here on COTW. The first chord is a voicing for Gmaj7 that
is similar to a voicing seen on this page last year, but with a different
root. |
 |
 |
GMaj7 |
