CHORDS MASTERCLASS VOL.1 m TT Nea ateD a7 ere MTT OLE WITCSITC Luca Mantovanelli CHORDS a tet MASTERCLASS “eS VOL.1: CREATING MELODY cre) INTRODUCTION Welcome to part of my chord mesterciess! We're going to work on 2 whole range of chord tend rhythm guitar disciplines. Pay attention to the title of the masterciass, though... we're Not ust going to play block chords. We can build moiodies within chord progressions, crea ‘ung more Interasting sounds. PART 4: BEGINNER Basic shapes Let’s start with some basic shapes. Its important thet you know three shapes for major chords and three shapas for minor chords. [Video & Tab: Basic Major, Basic Minor) Now, | only played shapes for G major and G minor here, but the important thing about these shapes is that they can be moved all aver the fretboard. In these diagrams, you'll see that each note is shown with its function... root, 3rd or Sth. At this point, the most important one is the root, because this is how we find chord shapes all over the tretooard. WWW JAMTRACKCENTRAL.COMwre CHORDS WATERSS. Inthe first major chord shape, there's a ract note on the 6th (oottom E] string. So if you know the notes on the bottom E string, you can use the first shape to play eny major chord. The G note is at the 3rd fret, so playing this shape at the 3rd frat gives a G major chord. B major is at the 7th fret, Eb major is at the TIth fret, and so on. Maj maj Maj When you know the basic shapes, the next fundamental stage is to put them to use with some rhythms... WWVIJAMTRACKCENTRAL.COMWTC CHORDS MASTERCLASS VL. Rhythmic Exercises Here's a range of exercises to develop your rhythmic stability while practising our six basic chord shapes. [Video & tab: Rhythmic +3] In all examples, 'm using strict alternate strumming (down-up-dewn-up). For the notes marked "K" I'm simply rolaxing my hand to make the strings sound dead. Don t lift your fingors from the strings; you don't want to hear open strings. This movement between squeezing and relaxing is a funda- ‘mental skill in thythm guitar. ‘As you move through the exercises, we'll make the patterns more complex. In Rhythmic Exercise 1, I'm squeezing the chord on beat 1 and beat 3, filing in the remaining 8th notes with muted strums. ‘Then, for Rythmic2 we double the accented strums, and for Rhythmic3 the second accent is on an offoeat (upstroke). When you've mastered the three besic rhythmic exercises, we can then add chord changes... [Video & tab: Rhythmic Complete 1-3] Allthree Rhythmic Complete exercises are based on the same G-D-A chord progression, but using different combinations of shapes and rhythms lnversions Al the chords we've played so far have been in “roct position”, which means that the lowest note is a root note. This might sound like a small detail, but Our ears easily pick out the lowest note, so this has en important effect on the sound, standard mejor or minor chord has throo notes (known as a triad).. 6 major: oot (6), major 3rd (B), Sth (D) G minor: root (G), minor 3rd (Bt), Sth (0) -- and welll get different sounds if we put the 3rd or 5th at the bottom. These chords are called in- versions. in fist inversion, the chord has the 3rd atthe bottom. In second inversion, the Sth is at the bottom. In the first set of exercises we'll play inversions from the G, C, F and A major triads. [ideo & tab: InversionG, Inversion, InversionF, InversionA] The following diagram shows the reot position and two inversions for the basic G, C, F and A major triads. WWW JAMTRACKCENTRAL.COMwore =e G c F A xxx x xx XX xxx G Ist inv C ist inv F ist inv Ast inv xxx xx xx x xxx G 2nd inv C 2nd inv F 2nd inv A 2nd inv xxx x xx xx x xxx WWIWJAMTRACKCENTRAL.COMWTC CHORES MASTERCLAS VOL. 1 Rhythmic Inversions As with the basic chords above, we'll now apply the C, F and A inversion shapes to some rhythm parts. [ideo & tab... InversionA rhythm, InversionA slides, InversionA slides 2 Inversion rhythm, InversionC slides, Inversion slides 2 Inversion F slides, Inversion F slides 2] In each case, start with a basic rhythm pattern, then add some melodic slides to join the shapes to- gether. Finally add more melodic notes to create @ sophisticated sound. There's no Tab for the basic F rhythm... i's up to you to figure it out! Minor Rhythm & Slides Finally, let's co a similar thing with minor chords, working in C minor (the “A shape” fingering, at the 3rd fret) and G minor (the “E shape" fingering et the 31d fret). [Video & tab: Cmin rhythm, Cmin slides, Gmin rhythm, Gmin slides) For the first exercise, we'lljust play a rhythm part with the 3rd fret shape, adding notes from the mi- "ror pentatonic scale. The second exercise starts from the 3rd fret shape, but then | connect it with the other positions using notes and slides from the pentatonic scales, PART 2: INTERMEDIATE ‘2th Chord Inversions Let’s do some more work on inversions, but using 7th chords. This is the same concept as we had with triad inversions but of course we new have four different notes in each chord, so there is also the 3rd inversion (7th in the bass}. ‘Thore are four basic types of 7th chord (all shown here in G).. G major 7 (Gmaj7}: root (G), major 3rd (B), 5th (D), major 7th (F#) G dominant 7 (G7|: roct (6), major 3rd (B), Sth (D}, minor 7th (F) G minor 7 (Gm?) root (G), minor 3rd (Bb), Sth (D), minor 7th (F) G minor 7 flat 5 (Gm7bS): root (G), minor 3rc (Bo), diminished 5th (Db), minor 7th (F) ‘The exercises take you through the inversions of all four types of 7th chord, for the keys of G, C and FE [ideo & tab. Gmaj7 inversions, Cmaj? inversions, Fmaj7 inversions 7 inversions, C7 inversions, F7 inversions Gm7 inversions, Cm7 inversions, Fm7 inversions Gm7b5 inversions, Cm7bS inversions, Fm7b5 inversions] WWW.JAMTRACKCENTRALCOMWIC ORES MASTERCLAS VOL.1 H's now more difficult to play these chords with all the notes in ascending order, so we have to shuf- flo the notes around te fit them into comfortable chord shapes. If you prefer to work with frotboard diagrams, hare’s a full set. GMaj7 GMaj7 1st inv GMaj7 2nd inv GMaj7 3rd inv Maj7 CMaj7 1st inv CMaj7 2nd inv CMaj7 3rd inv | 9 FMaj7 FMaj7 1st inv FMaj7 2nd inv FMaj7 3rd inv WWVI.JAMTRACKCENTRAL.COMWTC CHORDS WASTRCLAS OL. 1 Gmin7 Gmin7 ist inv Gmin 2nd inv Gmin 3rd inv min? Cmin7 Ast inv Cmin7 2nd inv Cmin7 3rd inv Fmin7 Fmin7 1st inv Fmin7 2nd inv Fmin7 3rd inv WWW.JAMTRACKCENTRAL.COMWTC cans sR. G7 G7 Ast inv G7 2nd inv G7 3rd inv c7 C7 1st inv C7 2nd inv C7 3rd inv F7 F7 Astinv F7 2nd inv F7 3rd inv WWWI.JAMTRACKCENTRAL.COMWIC (CHORDS MASTERCLASS VOL. 1 Gmin7b5 ist Gmin7b5 2nd Gmin7b5 3rd Gmin7b5 inv inv inv Cmin7b5 ist Cmin7bS 2nd Cmin7b5 3rd Cmin7b5 inv inv inv Fmin7b5 ist Fmin7b5 2nd Fmin7b5 3rd Fmin7b5 inv inv inv W/W JANTRACKCENTRAL.COMCHORDS MASTERELASS VOL. 1d Ry For each chord type (maj7, dom7, min7, m7bS) | created e different style of backing track. I then wrote a little phrese for these chords, in the keys of G, C and F. That gives you twelve phrases to Gmaj7 melody, G7 melody, Gm7 melody, Gm7b5 rhythm Cmaj7 melody, C7 melody, Cm7 melody, Cm7b5 rhythm Fmaj7 melody, F7 melody, Fm7 melody, Fm7b5 rhythm] For the major 7 chords | created the melody lines by adding notes from the Lydian made. Glydian: 6 AB C# DE FA Clydian: C DEF#GAB Flydion: FCABCDE For the minor 7 chords | used notes from the appropriate Dorien scales to connect the chords... G Dorian: G ABLCDEF C Dorian: € DEbF G ABb F Dorian: FG Ab Bb CD Eb About the dominant 7 chords | connected all the inversions with nates from the Mixolydian scales. GMixolycian: G ABC DEF CMixolydian: CD EFGABb F Mixolydian: FG A 8b CD Eb For the minor 7 flat Sth chards, | did something slightly different, playing through the inversions over a blues shuttle backing. By the way, here's another cool thing you can do with those m7bS inversion shapes. If you play the m7b5 chord on the major 3r¢ of a dominant 7 chord, you get a dominant 9 chord, For example, let's say we're playing G7. The major 3rd is B, so we'll play a Bm7bS (BD FA). Tho bassist is still playing the original G root note, so the cambined effect is a G9 chord (G B DF A) PART 3: ADVANCED Now we're going to apply all our knowledge of inversions to three types of musical application... ‘one-chord vamps, the 12-bar blues and the 2-5-1 {or IV) progression. One-chord Vamps Sometimes you'll play songs where there are no actual chord changes. There might be a groove or ‘a general atmosphere basad around one chard, a scale or a made. This can be quite demanding for a thythm player, as you have to fill alot of musical space without getting boring. You need to have: some ideas for “vamps"... repeating phrases that you cen tweak and modify to keep ther fresh end interesting. Let's take some examples. WW JAMTRACKCENTRAL.COMWTC Has MASTERS. ADorian vamp (Over a modal vamp, you can use all the triads from that mode. The system of diatonic tiads works exactly the same with modes as with the major scale, In A Dorian, we have these triads... A minor, B minor, major, majer, E minor, F# diminished, G major ‘You may have noticed that those triads are aiso the diatonic triads of G major... ndeed, G major and A Dorian share the same notes! All that changes Is the root note and tonal centie (A Instead of 6). ‘There are three exercises here. For the first two, | just played the A Dorian diatonic triads over a static A bess note, using different rhythms. For exercise 3, | built some chords using stacked 4th in- tervals. The first one is basically A6sus2 or AGadd9 (F#-B-E-A), and then | simply moved this shape up through the scale. This 's @ great way to play around one-chord grooves, and it's reminiscent of McCoy Tyner’s piano playing with John Coltrane. [Video & tab: A Dorian 4, A Dorian 2, A Dorian 3] Finally, | played an ascending chord pattern with additional maiody notes filing in the full scale on the high E string, The first chord is Am7, but then | continue with the 4th chords from Ex3 above. Try doing this kind of thing with your own melodies [Video & tab: A Dorian melody} [Video & tab: Amin Funk, Am6 Funk, Amin Swing} Here are three mere examplos in A minor. For A minor Funk, | took a short sequence of stacked 4ths (see Dorian Ex3 above) and made a repeating riff. Notice how | didn’t just play exactly the same thing every time... bars 2, 4, 6 and 8 sre slightly different, In Am6 Funk, | returned to the four-note stacked 4th chords, but used chromatic chords to Join the dietonic chords, For A minor Swing | tack the basic sequence of A Dorian triads over the A bass note, but applied ‘them to a fast swing chythm. The muted bass notes are crucial for getting the groove right, so work slowly at first, until you have the part under your fingers. minor and D minor vamps [Video & tab: C Dorian, C min vamp, D min funk] First, let's move to C Dorian (C D Eb F G A Bb). For C Dorian vamp, the concept is similar to the A Dorian &x3 above. | used a range of diatonic triads from C Dorian, adding otner notes to make more complex sounds... Cm7add4, Dm7add4, Bbsus4, Cm7, Cm8, C7sus4, D7sus4, CmGadd9, then de- scend. Try using that progression with different rhythms, and then try adding a melody line on the high E string. For the € minor vamp, | made a repeating riff by superimposing Eb major, F major, D minor and C minor triads over the C bass, The Eb major triad creates @ Cm7 chord. WWW.JAMTRACKCENTRAL.COMwore =m Finally, wo'lljump up to D Dorian [D E FG AB C). The D minor funk oxercise is like Am6 funk ebovo, using chromatic chords to create a smoath sequence of four note shapes built largely from stacked 4th intervals 12-bar Blues [Video & tab: Bb Blues 1, Bb Blues 2, Bb Blues 3) This time we'll practise a simple 12-bar blues progression with three different sets of chord voicings. in3 different Chords/rhythm.. lets start with the first one.. Bb Blues 4s the classic progression, using Bb7, Eb9 and F9 chords. However, when you know a wide range of chord inversion shapes, you can design oxactly the sound you want. Hare I've cho. sen shapes around the 10th and tith frets on the top four strings. The Bb7 is in tst inversion and the F9 isin 31d inversion. This creates @ consistent piano-like sound (and is easier to play, as you don't have to jump around so much) Bb Blues 2 is the same basic idee, but using a different set of chords. We start with 87 in 3rd inver- sion but adding the 6th for flavour. The second chord is the standard Gm7b5 shape, but remember what I said at the end of the Intermediate section? We're playing aver Eb7, but using a m7b5 chard over the major 3rd (G) so the result is Eb9. | then dic this same trick for the F7 chord, playing the Am705 shape to give FS. Bb blues 3 is more complex, using some of the previous ideas, but edding more notes from Bb Mixolydian (Bb CD Eb F G Ab) as wall as some chromatic movemants. ‘The 2-54 Progression [ideo & tab: 254 Ext, 251 Ex2, 251 Ex3] Here are three examples based around the classic jazz IV progression, We're in the key of C ‘major, so our basic progression is Dm7-G7-C7, To create the turnaround atthe end, | addes the VI chord (47), 30 we actually have 2-54-6, This sounds better when you loop the exerples. I've used the same basic concept for all thrae examples, although they gat more complex as you 90 through them. For Dm? | used notes and triads from D Dorian (D E FG A.B C). For the G7, | used inversions of G7b, This chord contains the notes GB DF Ab, so if you remove the G note (the bess plays the root enyway) you have a Bdim7 chord (B D F Ab) which you can play in symmetrical shapes at the 3rd, 6th, 9th and 12th frets. For Cmaj7 | used some basic Cmaj? veicings (with slight tweaks) and then I played some A7#5b9 shapes for the turnaround. hope you enjoyed this masterclass! This is only a tiny fragment of what you can achieve with 2 comprehensive knowledge of chord shapes and inversions, but | hope it will give you an insight. We'll be doing more in future masterclasses, so now its time to put in the practice on thase fundamentals! Enjoy! Luca Mantovanelli |WWW.JAMTRACKCENTRAL.COM