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Chord Tricks & Funky Grooves – No2

Chord Tricks & Funky Grooves With Dominant Chords

This is the second in the series of tutorials. You may find it helpful to review TUTORIAL 1.

A chord symbol is the starting point not the final destination for your rhythm playing. A few tricks can make your performance much more fun and interesting!  

Let’s focus on dominant chords. They’re frequently found in blues, jazz and funk pieces. They are usually presented with the letter (root-note) of the chord immediately followed by an odd number, such as; A7, E9 or B13.

All of the examples here will focus on the E7 chord and what we can do with it. However, you can apply these ideas to any other dominant chord.

Inversions

The E7 chord can be found in several places over the fretboard simply by moving some of the dominant chords you already know to other positions.

This C7 is a closed chord.

DIAGRAM 1 C7

A closed chord has no open strings. All of the required notes that create this chord are fretted. The root-note C is on the fifth string at the third fret.

 

 

So, when this chord shape is moved up the neck by one fret the root-note will be on C# and the chord becomes C#7.

DIAGRAM 2 C♯7

 

 

 

 

When it is moved up a further fret the chord becomes ‘D7’, and when the root-note is at the seventh fret, the chord is E7.

DIAGRAM 3 E7

 

 

 

 

 

 

This diagram shows C7, A7, G7, E7, and D7 chords in their original positions.

DIAGRAM 4 open 7

 

 

 

 

The following diagram shows C7, A7, G7, E7 and D7 chords moved to other locations in order to create E7.

DIAGRAM 5 inversions

 

 

 

 

The third shape can be quite a handful. Try just playing the first four strings, like this:

DIAGRAM 5a E7

 

 

 

 

This process is called ‘CAGED’. It can be used to find any major or dominant 7 chords in five positions.

When the chord includes one or several open strings, we need to ensure that these are included in the chord shape as it’s moved up the fretboard. For example, A7 includes three open strings.

DIAGRAM 6 A7

When we move the shape up the fretboard, the open strings are included in the shape by using a barré in their place.

DIAGRAM 7 A7barre

 

 

 

 

Extensions

E7 can be extended to E9 (E:G#:B:D:F#) or E13 (E:G#:B:D:F#:A:C#). The root-note and dominant quality of the chord remain the same in the extensions. However, they give us more notes to play with and tricks to explore.

DIAGRAM 8 E9 E13

Substitutions

Once the original chord has been extended, we can find other chords lurking inside.

For example: E13 (E:G#:B:D:F#:A:C#) contains G#mb5 (G#:B:D:F#), Bm (B:D:F#),  Bm7 (B:D:F#:A), Dmaj7 (D:F#:A:C?) and F#m (F#:A:C#).

DIAGRAM 9 substitutes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now we have E7, E9, E13, G#mb5, Bm, Bm7, Dmaj7 and F#m chords to add to our bag of tricks.

Arpeggios & Riffs

The notes of each of the substitute chords can be played individually and in any combination to create riffs and embellishments to our original E7 chord.

DIAGRAM 10 E Riff

 

 

 

 

 

My example riff starts with an open fifth string and leads into notes from an E arpeggio.

The second group of notes, starting at the fourth fret, are a G#mb5 arpeggio.

The second bar breaks down an E9 chord into pairs of notes. Each pair of notes is approached from a fret below.

The second bar ends on E13 and E9 chords.

The first two bars repeat and the riff ends on a unison bend on E.

Backing Track

Now you can explore some chord tricks by playing along with the backing track I used earlier.

The instruments on the track are only using the four notes found in ‘E7’.

Get Help With This Lesson

I hope you enjoy developing your chord tricks and grooves.

The third tutorial in this series is HERE.

You may also be interested in embellishing chords.

Carlos

This article was published in Guitar Coach magazine

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Sean Montgomery
Sean Montgomery
21:56 05 Sep 20
I decided to use the lockdown period to learn to play the electric guitar - something that I have always wanted to do and certainly a skill that I felt would benefit me in my role as leader of the Product Management team at Roland Europe. Having had a traditional music education, I was unsure how effective online lessons would be. I needn't have worried. Carlos has a great set up which enables him to clearly see and hear everything that I am doing 150 miles away! Carlos is a truly great player with the ability to inspire - I always look forward to putting into practice what I have learnt in our lessons together.
Adam Larke
Adam Larke
11:21 13 Jun 20
Carlos is an amazing guitar teacher and player - I’ve learnt more over the past 6 months with Carlos than I have for years & years of learning songs and teaching things to myself. Also switched to skype lessons during corona virus lockdown and they are brilliant!Thanks Carlos ✌️🎸
David Weston
David Weston
17:09 11 Jun 20
Carlos is very good at sharing his vast wealth of knowledge and skills on the guitar. After years of self study I finally decided to get some one to one lessons. I feel I have learnt more in the last 2 months than I did in the previous 10 years trying to teach myself guitar. Always patient and encouraging during the lessons. I would recommend Carlos equally to a beginner as to someone who has been playing for years if you really want to start or greatly improve your guitar playing.
Henri Allen
Henri Allen
08:26 13 Feb 20
I have been with Carlos for many years and he has taken me through many grades, whilst always providing interesting and fun lessons. He is patient and will help you through, no matter how hard you find it! A great tutor for anyone!
Floribus Luxury Flowers
Floribus Luxury Flowers
12:38 04 Feb 20
Our Son has been having electric guitar lessons with Carlos for a couple of years now. He started off playing and learning for fun but has more recently being going through his grades achieving distinctions in his exams with Carlos’s expert tuition. My Son absolutely loves his lessons and his face often lights up in awe of Carlos’s musical talents during their ‘playing for fun’ sessions. Carlos is extraordinarily patient and will go over the same thing as many times as necessary when my son hits a stumbling block. My son finds his lessons both fun and informative and always leaves full of excitement and a bit more confident each time. As a parent I have found Carlos an absolute pleasure to deal with, his musical talent and knowledge is second to none and I would not hesitate in recommending him to anyone. In fact I have recommended to a couple of friends already whose children are now also enjoying their lessons.
Simon Brenchley
Simon Brenchley
22:34 26 Jan 20
excellent tuition with endless patience and charmlook forward to each lesson every weekthe guidance and support is fabulous with noticeable progress from a complete novice
shaun monk
shaun monk
11:27 26 Jan 20
Patient and encouraging. Each lesson is well structured and supports student development week-by-week. Enables Grades to be achieved alongside fun sessions. Lucky to have him in the locality.
Andrew Denison
Andrew Denison
17:48 13 Jan 20
Carlos kept me on my toes but in a kind and helpful way. He also made superb cheese and tomato sandwiches...
Rose Smith
Rose Smith
11:40 31 Dec 19
Carlos has taught me to play electric and acoustic guitar. He is very is very patient and his passion for guitar has inspired me to keep improving. I always really enjoy my lessons.
Kate Frith
Kate Frith
12:08 28 Nov 19
Amazing Electric guitar teacher.My daughter has always loved her lessons with Carlos. His relaxed approach has resulted in fantastic exam grades together with imparting an all round musical education and understanding that has extended beyond the guitar in to her GCSE music and improv Jazz piano playing.
Nicola Meller
Nicola Meller
20:56 20 Nov 19
Structured lessons, great tuition and guidance. A very knowledgable teacher to learn from. Thank you Carlos

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