In this video I show the most common 7th chord shapes, it’s all pretty self explanatory! for the theory you can also checkout these other lessons:

http://www.trueguitarist.com/understanding-how-triads-and-other-chords-are-built

http://www.trueguitarist.com/from-the-major-scale-to-the-harmonized-scale-pt-2-7th-chords

And the shapes I use are here:

http://www.trueguitarist.com/LESSON%20MATERIAL/7th%20chords.jpg

We have seen in previous lessons how to build the harmonized scale from the major scale. In this video I show the application on guitar in three different keys, using 7th chords.

This is what I play in the video:

You can find the most used 7th chords here as well:

Most common 7th chord shapes on guitar

Let’s see how we can now apply this to notes, chords, arpeggios, and so on. These are the combinations we have see in the previous post:

Finger combinations (combinations of all numbers from 1 to 4 as left hand fingers are numbered that way on guitar)

12 13 14
21 23 24
31 32 34
41 42 43

123 124 132 134 142 143
213 214 231 234 241 243
312 314 321 324 341 342
412 413 421 423 431 432

1234 1243 1324 1342 1423 1432
2134 2143 2314 2341 2413 2431
3124 3142 3214 3241 2413 2431
4123 4132 4213 4231 4312 4321

Let’s apply this to a 7th arpeggio: I will replace all the 2 with 3s, the 3 with 5s and the 4 with 7s.

Combinations applied to Chord Tones

13 15 17
31 35 37
51 53 57
71 73 75

135 137 153 157 173 175
315 317 351 357 371 375
513 517 531 537 571 573
713 715 731 735 751 753

1357 1375 1537 1573 1735 1753
3157 3175 3517 3571 3715 3751
5137 5173 5317 5371 3715 3751
7135 7153 7315 7351 7513 7531

Let’s make an example in the key of C: this is Cmaj7 every possible combination of the four notes.

Combinations applied to Chord Tones of Cmaj7

CE CG CB
EC EG EB
GC GE GB
BC BE BG

CEG CEB CGE CGB CBE CBG
ECG ECB EGC EGB EBC EBG
3GCE GCB GEC GEB GBC GBE
BCE BCG BEC BEG BGC BGE

CEGB CEBG CGEB CGBE CBEG CBGE
ECGB ECBG EGCB EGBC EBCG EBGC
GCEB GCBE GECB GEBC EBCG EBGC
BCEG BCGE BECG BEGC BGCE BGEC

Obviously this is not music as such, but I always find that incorporating things like these in your daily practice routine can lead you to discover new material, or just find faults to fix in your playing. As an example go through the combinations and find a combination you like and that sounds more musical to you…play in all 12 keys, apply it to a tune like ‘Autumn leaves’ taking it around the changes and modifying it to match the chord of the moment.

Good luck!

This is where http://www.thestringery.com/featured/random-chords-generator/ comes into play.

On this site you can easily generate random sequences to improve your chord recognition knowledge and improvisational skill. The default number of chords is 16 but you can easily change that number. I advice to play along to a drum beat or a metronome, so that you are more focused, starting with a chord per bar.

Also you could leave the recording backing track for a few days, so you completely forget what you recorded, and use it to practice your aural recognition skills (ear training). Try and see if you can recognise a major chord from a minor, or what extensions are contained in a chord.

I am also sure you will find some ‘snippets’ that will inspire you…maybe the beginning of your next masterpiece.

I really like this style of phrasing, take some great examples like McCoy Tyner, and a lot of the ‘hard bop’ jazz cats. The basic idea is this: take a scale, in this example I will use a C major scale.

Now  play all the diatonic fourths contained in C major:

In the video I am playing on a Dm (Dorian) vamp, but you can use this phrasing technique on any scale, mode…have fun.

In this lesson he talks about some very cool (and incredibly easy) applications of the standard box pentatonic shape:

Here he talks introduces his book Modern Chords:
Advanced Harmony for Guitar (Mel Bay’s Private Lessons)

I cannot recommend enough to check out this incredible musician!

The Chords (from the fake book-as far as I know it is not copyrighted material so I am posting the original):

One good ‘pattern’ to start familiarising with the progression in playing 1235 for every chord (meaning the 1st,2nd,3nd and 5th of every chord). For the original key it would be B,C#,D#,F#(Bmaj7) then D,E,F#,A (D7), G,A,B,D (G)and so on…

It’s all about getting used to keep your brain engaged at any time. A great exercise!

In this video I show how to use the Superlocrian mode (nothing more than the 7th mode of a minor melodic scale) to improvise over altered chords. On C7 the choice would be C Superlocrian C, Db,Eb,E, F#,G#,Bb (also known as Db melodic minor starting from C). Listen to a few examples of resolution from C7(alt) to F major and to F minor in the second part of the video.

Altered chords are a flavour of  dominant chords, where we add certain extensions: #9,b9,#5,b5. In the example on the video I use C7 as basic chord and add the extension D#,Db,G#,Gb also as combinations.

The last lesson I posted was about the Diminished scale…I stumbled onto this great video where guitar player guru Larry Carlton Talk about the diminished scale. He is one of my favourite guitarists of all times …if  had to suggest any records, just check out ‘Sleepwalk’ or ‘Strike twice’ or any of his work with Steely Dan. Notice not only the notes he plays, but HOW he plays them…notice how sometimes he put a much more dramatic accent on notes that might sound ‘out’, like a b9, to make them stand out. Just listen to how he plays in the next video and notice the dynamic (soft/loud) and the way he attacks each note.