AN APPROACH TO CHORD VOICINGS WITH OPEN STRINGS

WRITTEN BY SERGIO SINNING LEON

JAZZGUITAR

TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE

INTRODUCTION 3

CHAPTER 1 THE BASICS 6

CHAPTER 2 SEVENTH CHORDS 9

CHAPTER 3 PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS 15

CHAPTER 4 SCALES AND CHORDS 21

CHAPTER 5 CLUSTERS & EXOTIC EXAMPLES 24

CHAPTER 6 CODA 27

BIBLIOGRAPHY & RECOMMENDED LISTENING 28

INTRODUCTION

One of the most fascinating aspects of the sound of the guitar is the resonant quality of chords played with open strings. The tone and nature of open strings helps to add richness and depth to the instrument, giving it a greater timbral range.

The idea behind this thesis is to provide an overview of chordal structures with open strings on the guitar fingerboard. I am going to deal primarily with chords and their application. As we know, there are so many possibilities that it would take a long time to compile them, but it is far better to know a few nice chords or progressions, and know how to use them, than to know thousands of voicings without knowing where to put them. Although the ideal would be to know thousands of voicings and using them properly.

If we look at contemporary jazz guitarists and their styles, we see a strong tendency to increasingly use the type of voicings we are going to discuss later; not only in their compositions, but also when accompanying a soloist.

Players like Jim Hall (perhaps the key figure in the modern jazz guitar world), Ben Monder, Bill Frisell, Wayne Krantz, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Allan Holdsworth, Tim Miller, Pat Metheny and Philip Degruy a.o. often use this technique to express a chordal sound. Here are some examples:

Ex.1: Philip DeGruy on “Naima”, taken from the album “Innuendo Out the Other”

Notice the last chord; the open strings emphasize a min 6 and major 9 of a Dmin chord.

Ex.2: Allan Holdsworth on “Distance vs. Desire”, taken from the album “Sand”. He plays it on his synthaxe (typical 80ies…)

Take a look at the last two chords; we see the use of the open 5th and 4th strings in bar 4 and 5 (the 5th of the chord)

Ex.3: Allan Holdsworth on Above and below, taken from the album “Sixteen Men of Tain”.

Allan wisely uses three open strings at the beginning of his composition to underline a G Lydian tonality.

Ex.4: Pat Metheny on Sirabhorn, taken from the album “Bright size life”.

Here the 4th open string functions as the root of the Major 7th#11 chord.