How do you practice chords?

[Sandro]

Hi guys,

I was just wondering how you incorporate the study/practice of chords.

Thanks,

Sandro

[gersdal]

Comping tunes...

I'll pick a tune and check different voicings and find a set of voicings that I like and practise comping the tune.

[whatswisdom]

Originally Posted by Sandro

Hi guys, I was just wondering how you incorporate the study/practice of chords.Thanks,Sandro

Progressions. Start with ii-7 > V7 > IM7. The most common chord progression in jazz.

[JakeAcci]

Originally Posted by Sandro

Hi guys,

I was just wondering how you incorporate the study/practice of chords.

Thanks,

Sandro

This is a lifetime of work starting from proper left hand positioning. Right now I'm somewhere between the beginning and the end. Where are you at right now with it? That might lead to more helpful answers.

[aniss1001]

I'll give the same answer as I gave in another thread: www.jazzguitar.be/forum/comping-chords-chord-progressions/19202-learning-playing-rootless-chords.html#post191644

And off course I play with different voicings / subs for the tunes I'm learning..

[whatswisdom]

Originally Posted by JakeAcci

I'm somewhere between the beginning and the end. Where are you at right now with it?

The middle?

[mr. beaumont]

Everything in the context of tunes.

[Sandro]

Hi guys thanks for your replay to me.

I know all the inversion, the most common chord progressions, turn around and I am aware of most of the chord substitution, I am looking in Coltrane system now.

Sandro

[renato13]

I use a traditional 12 bar jazz-blues progression, both major and minor blues. It is a wonderful way of practicing chords.

[JonnyPac]

I just focus on muscle memory and associating the shapes with the intervals they are working with. It takes me about 3 weeks to get new things in my system ready to go.

[va3ux]

Originally Posted by Sandro

Hi guys,

I was just wondering how you incorporate the study/practice of chords.

Thanks,

Sandro

Use them. In something that is interesting to you. Chord progressions that mean something to you; perhaps a tune that you like. Ted Greene's books on chords offer tons of opportunity for this.

To me it's like eating dry sawdust, learning a chord fingering and then just strumming that chord a few times - out of context, with no purpose, all on it's own. In the early days, I forgot chords as fast as I "learned" them doing that.

[bobby d]

Maybe it's obvious, but when moving from one chord to another, I examine what fingers have to move and where. Keeping time while going thru a chord progression has to be part of the goal when learning new chords.

I used to learn one new chord each day without chord diagrams. Just changing one fretted string creates a new chord. Sometimes while working on a song, I'll stumble across a new chord, whether learning by ear or reading.

Ted Greene opens up something different for those stuck in a rut.

[cosmic gumbo]

Playing tunes is the best chord practice.

[jtizzle]

Originally Posted by JakeAcci

This is a lifetime of work starting from proper left hand positioning. Right now I'm somewhere between the beginning and the end. Where are you at right now with it? That might lead to more helpful answers.

Funny, I thought practice never ends hahaha
I guess we're all in the middle if we've already started? haha

Also, what Gersdal said pretty much

[Astronomer]

I just learn a couple of chord shapes and go through circle of fifths (ii-V-Is).
Either that, or I try to play the same chord shapes across all string sets and then make up random chord progressions to see how they all connect. Then, I put it in context with tunes.

[JakeAcci]

Originally Posted by jtizzle

Funny, I thought practice never ends hahaha
I guess we're all in the middle if we've already started? haha

That was the joke.

[Stevebol]

What helped me a great deal was to just find chords that are difficult to play, put some together and comp very slowly with them. Be relaxed. It's very simple to do. If you encounter chords that are too difficult because they're too much of a stretch then don't use them.