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Guitar Lab	A single, versatile, chord voicing. By Theo Michelfeld Posted: Jan 14, 2007 Skill level: intermediate Hopefully, as a guitarist, you’re interested in chords. But unless you have a photographic memory, you may have a hard time digesting all of the information in any given chord book. Most chord books give you pages filled with different voicings, a page of Major 7 chords, followed by a page of Dominant 7 chords, a page of Minor 7b5 chords, and so on, in all twelve keys. These chord libraries do provide useful reference material, but they don’t teach the material efficiently, and they don’t make you a self-sufficient guitarist. Your fretboard is laid out in a logical pattern. Learning a page full of Major 7 chord voicings will give you clues to the pattern, but learning one chord voicing and applying it to all the different chord types (Major 7, Dominant 7, Minor 7b5, etc.) will quickly illuminate the pattern. Once you can see that pattern, you can navigate your way through any chord progression, without memorizing six thousand diagrams. So… we’ve set an efficient course, but there is still much to learn. Let’s start with a familiar chord that is easy to fret. (See diagram 1.) Diagram 1. It’s an F Maj7 chord. Have you ever considered the voicing of this chord? In ascending order, you’re playing F, C, E, and A. Speaking in terms of intervals, you’re playing the root of the chord on the A string, the natural 5^th on the D string, the natural 7^th on the G string, and the natural 3^rd on the B string. Or, in ascending order, you’re playing the intervals 1, 5, 7, 3. Before you continue reading, make sure you see this collection of intervals on your fretboard as you fret this chord. Take the time now, make sure you fully understand, and then the rest of this lesson will be a breeze. OK, as I said, the intervals are 1, 5, 7, and 3, so we’re going to call this chord voicing “1573.” It can be moved up and down the neck, to fret Maj7 chords with roots anywhere along the A string. Very handy. But let’s keep F in the root for now. Now look at the same FMaj7 followed by three completely different chord types. (See diagram 2.) Diagram 2. These chords sound different and function differently, but they all use the 1573 voicing. I’ve simply altered a note here or there. Starting with the FMaj7, if I flatten the 7^th I get an F7. Taking the F7, if I flatten the 3^rd I get an Fmin7. And taking the Fmin7, if I flatten the 5^th I get an Fmin7b5. Play the four chords above and make sure you can see that you are maintaining the same chord voicing, but simply altering one new note with each chord change. Hopefully you can already see the pattern emerging. If I asked you to fret a previously daunting chord like an FminMaj7, you would now be able to disregard the diagrams in your chord book, and simply figure out the chord, using the 1573 voicing. For a minMaj7 chord, you want a flatted 3^rd, and a natural 5^th and natural 7^th. Here it is. (See diagram 3.) Diagram 3. Likewise, the 7#5 chord, and 7b5 chord. Using the 1573 voicing, here are those chords with F in the bass. (see diagram 4.) Diagram 4. The beauty of this approach is that you not only become self-sufficient at finding chords on your guitar neck, but you quickly learn the location of intervals that will make you an effective soloist. Those 5ths and b5ths, 3rds, and b3rds, 7ths and b7ths (all very useful intervals) will always be there for you, in consistent relation to a root on A string. The astute student might now say, “But what if I don’t want a 3^rd on top of the chord? What if the melody of the song calls for a 5^th or a root on top of the chord?” Well you are quite right to point that out, and I assure you we will look at other voicings. We must. But we will do so in future lessons. It is in our interests to thoroughly flesh out the concept of a versatile voicing, and to do that we should stay, for now, with a single voicing. Remember, we are being efficient, which is not the same as being hasty. Now I will touch briefly on a concept that I hope you do not find too upsetting. From the standpoint of chord voicings, and even sometimes from a harmonic standpoint, your 6^th serves the same function as your 7^th. To thoroughly explain would distract us from the goal at hand. Let me promise to address the matter in a future lesson. Suffice to say, when you extend your harmony past the 5^th of the chord, your next interval is a 6^th, b7th, or natural 7^th. OK, so if we accept that premise, we can all agree that it does not betray our 1573 voicing to play the 6^th of a chord on the G string where we have recently been playing natural 7ths and b7ths. Here then, using the 1573 voicing, are some useful chords that feature 6ths. (See diagram 5.) Note: that first chord is named a “diminished 7” even though you are playing a 6^th instead of a 7^th. In this case, your 6^th is actually a double-flat 7^th, which I will resist the temptation to explain. Let’s discuss it in a future lesson. Diagram 5. Just as your 6^th serves the same function as your 7^th, your 4^th substitutes for the 3^rd in your voicing (again I promise to address this concept in a future lesson) so using the 1573 voicing, here are some useful sus4 chords. (See diagram 6.) Diagram 6. Hopefully it is obvious from the two diagrams above that, like all of your other intervals, the 6^th (diagram 5) and the 4^th (diagram 6) always have that same spatial relationship with a root on the A string, no matter what else changes around them. Look again before moving on. The engaged reader might now inquire about “9” chords. How does the 1573 voicing translate to 9 chords? Well you’re quite right to bring that up. Playing the guitar would be no fun at all without 9 chords, or min9 chords, or Maj9 chords, not to mention 7b9 chords and 7#9 chords. But now we come to a real limitation of sticking to a single chord voicing. 9 chords cannot be played with the 1573 voicing. Another voicing, or chord substitution, is required. In case you doubt my sanity, let me point out that if you substitute the 9^th for the 3^rd at the top of your 1573 voicing, you are not playing a 9chord, but a “sus2” chord. (See diagram 7.) Diagram 7. This is a nice chord, but it’s not a 9 chord, because you have not articulated the 3^rd. To include the 3^rd and the 9^th in a chord voicing is very possible, but not with a 1573 voicing. Again we are in danger of getting off the subject here, and of complicating a simple matter. Better to keep our eyes on the prize. Please be assured I will address 9 chords, and sus2 chords, in a future lesson. For now, suffice it to say the 9^th is another harmonic extension above the 7^th, and with our 1573 voicing, we are not equipped to voice chords whose tensions stray up past the 7^th scale degree. Take solace in the logic of this. So what have I left out? How about min7#5 chords? But you can figure that out for yourself now, using your 1573 voicing. You don’t need a diagram from me. You can see now where your b5, 5, and #5; your 6, b7, and 7; your 2, b3, 3, and 4 all line up in relation to a root on the A string. So what remains of this lesson? Chords with their root on the D string, for starters. Let’s go back to an FMaj7 chord, and this time we’ll play the exact same voicing, but with the root on the D string. Here it is. (See Diagram 8.) Diagram 8. Lovely. And identical, note for note, to the chord in diagram 1. But shaped differently. Let’s compare the shapes of these two different FMaj7 chords. (See Diagram 9.) Diagram 9. Speaking in terms of physical shape, the 5^th and the 3^rd of each chord has the same spatial relationship to each root. In both chords, the fifth is two frets up the neck and one string higher, and the 3^rd is two frets up the neck and three strings higher. In fact if we were to omit the 7ths from these chords we would be playing the exact same shape, but moving everything up one string, and down five frets. Like this. (See Diagram 10.) Note: you are excused from trying to strum these chords; you are encouraged to pluck the strings with the fingers of your picking hand. Diagram 10. Now going back to diagram 9, where the 7ths are not omitted, the shapes of the chords are not the same, and this is because of the distinctive layout of your B string. Your other strings are all intervals of a 4^th apart. But your B string is a Major 3^rd higher than your G string. Without digressing too far down another tangent, every guitarist should be aware that a musical shape (a chord or phrase) can be duplicated one string higher and five frets lower on the neck, but that the note or notes you move to the B string move only four frets lower. That one fret difference means that, speaking strictly in terms of the shape you are moving, everything moved to the B string is played one fret higher than anything you moved to the adjacent strings. It’s actually very simple, and, like anything worthwhile, more complicated to explain than to observe. Let’s look again at diagram 9. Diagram 9. We’ve moved the chord shape up one string and down five frets, but the 7^th, which was played on the G string and has moved to the B string, is played one fret higher within the shape. This will hold true for all of the chord shapes in the first seven diagrams. Here they are, all of them moved to a root on the D string, and the shapes are all identical, except the note moving to the B string is played one fret higher within the shape. (See diagram 11.) Diagram 11. Note: This interval of Major 3^rd between the G and B strings may seem inconvenient for the purpose of moving chord shapes, but on the other hand, strumming open G and E chords would not be as pleasant without this interval, and, more importantly, the guitar solo on Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall Part 2” would simply not be the same without the shape of this Major 3^rd interval. Whether or not the world’s luthiers foresaw David Gilmour when they first standardized the tuning of a guitar, they did have something musical in mind. In any case, like the rest of your fretboard layout, this odd interval between the G and B strings is something you can count on, and it will become a comfort to you over time. Continuing on, we are now going to play our 1573 voicing with the root on the low E string. Again, because of that odd Major 3^rd interval between the G and the B string, a chord reproduced on a lower group of strings will change shape. This time, let’s look at a CMaj7 chord. Here it is, in 1573 voicing, played first with its root on the A string, and then with its root on the E string. (See diagram 12.) Diagram 12. This time it’s the note moving from the B string that causes the shape to change, and everything else can simply be duplicated, five frets up the neck and one string down this time. To illustrate this previously, we briefly omitted a note. Let’s do that again, this time omitting the note moving from the B string (it’s the highest note.) Now this chord has an identical shape, with its root on either the A string, or on the E string five frets higher. (See diagram 13.) Diagram 13. But of course we don’t want to omit the highest note. We want to play a 1573 voicing. So let’s fret our 3^rd and now move it from the B string to the G string. Sure enough, because of that odd Major 3^rd interval between those two strings, this note must be played only four frets higher, while the rest of its harmonic companions have moved five frets higher. (Look again at diagram 12.) Diagram 12. Again, it’s better to experience this logic than to hear it described. Play the chords below (See diagram 14.) Although we are playing C chords now, and not F chords, the chord types are the same as those in the first seven diagrams, and also the same as the chords in diagram 11. So take note of the shapes and how they compare to what we’ve seen in previous diagrams. Diagram 14. As promised, we’ve covered quite a lot of chords by learning just one voicing. A pat on the back is certainly deserved. But grasping these chords intellectually and playing them instinctively are two different challenges. Ultimately you want to move from chord to chord smoothly and articulately, and in time with a song. At the end of this lesson are a few exercises to get you started. Your goal is to hear smooth transitions between the chords. Strum these chords, or, for a mellower sound, pluck them with the fingers of your picking hand. Then look for other opportunities – lead sheets of jazz standards for instance – to play these chords in tempo and in a meaningful harmonic context. We’ve not addressed chords with extended harmonies, like 9 and #11 and 13 chords, so I will not pretend to have equipped you for every playing situation. In fact, we’ll want to address inversions of the 1573 voicing before we even look at extended harmonies. But that’s for another time. Practice and befriend your 1573 voicings for now. Hopefully I have helped you get a grip (excuse the pun) on your fretboard, and helped to make you a more self-sufficient guitarist. The truth is, from this lesson, the ambitious (and un-distracted) among you can extrapolate everything you need to know about the fretboard and where to find guitar chords. © Copyright 2007 Theo Michelfeld Exercise 1. Play through these changes in sequence, and in 4/4 time, one beat per chord. Exercise 2. Play through these changes in sequence, and in 4/4 time, one beat per chord.