In this lesson, the third in our series of ‘Chord Compendiums’ we examine the Suspended Chord with common sus4, sus7, sus9, 11, 11(b9) and sus13(b9) voicing. FINGERING: In terms of fingering, I will occasionally use my neck-hand thumb to play lower notes (most often the root) in order to free up the neck-hand fingers to play more extensive chord tones, or to create a ‘platform’ (with the thumb and first finger), along which the other 3 remaining fingers can then embellish musical ideas. While I do not recommend this - as it is probably bad technique - I certainly don’t … [Read more...]
September 29, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Lesson 13: JGL Chord Compendium 3 – Suspended Chord Voicings [FL13]
April 5, 2012 by 2 Comments
Jazz Standard Lesson 6: Autumn Leaves [JS6]
Introduction Why did we choose this as our first JGL Jazz Standard? A few reasons – it was the most commonly asked for standard in recent surveys, it was the 2nd jazz tune I learned at school (‘Sugar’, a minor- blues tune, was the first!), it is easy to learn the melody and chords and it has a great underlying chord progression for soloing over. I am a big fan of research – luckily for us jazzers, researching usually just means ‘listening to’ and ‘reading a bit about’ the subject. Find renditions of your favorite guitarists playing each tune you … [Read more...]
March 24, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Lesson 27: Guide Tones [CL27]
Guide tones are a jazz accompanist’s best friend – they give just enough of an idea of how a chord (or progression) sounds to the soloist / melodic instrument by outlining the basic 7th chord structure in this manner: See below for basic guide tone voicings in two positions (roots 5 and 6) While these are not the only possible voicings (try and work out a few more) you will find that the vast majority of standards contain chords that in basic form (non extensions) are shown here Tips: Look at how guide tones can be added into your repertoire of … [Read more...]
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