{"id":1414,"date":"2014-06-10T17:43:12","date_gmt":"2014-06-10T15:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jazzguitar.be\/blog\/?p=1414"},"modified":"2024-11-26T13:57:04","modified_gmt":"2024-11-26T12:57:04","slug":"drop-2-chords","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jazzguitar.be\/blog\/drop-2-chords\/","title":{"rendered":"Drop 2 Chords"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drop 2 chords are the most popular chord voicings in jazz guitar, and serve a wide variety of purposes, including comping, soloing, and chord melody. They have been used by many of the great jazz guitarists including Joe Pass and Wes Montgomery. By understanding how drop 2 chords are built you can quickly learn to play them over the entire neck, and begin to use them to comp or solo over your favorite tunes.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Chances are you are already using drop 2 chords in your guitar playing.<\/p>\n

Having a good understanding of drop 2 voicings can be a valuable tool for players of any experience level when comping or improvising a chord solo.<\/p>\n<\/span><\/span>\n

What is a Drop 2 Chord?<\/h2>\n

Drop 2 chords are seventh chords that are built by dropping the second highest note of a closed position chord down one octave, making that note the bass note of the chord.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Drop 2 chords are open position chords and are important for guitar players because these chords are easy to play on 4 adjacent strings.<\/p>\n

In the following example, we start from a Cmaj7 chord in closed position.<\/p>\n

The second-highest note is the 5th (G), that is dropped down one octave to create a drop 2 voicing.<\/p>\n

The result is a Cmaj7\/G (C major seventh with G in the bass). The 7th is moved to the B-string, in order to put the voicing on 4 adjacent strings:<\/p>\n

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\"Drop<\/p>\n

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Drop 2 Chord Chart<\/h2>\n

On the following chord chart, you will find major, dominant, minor, half-diminished, and diminished drop 2 chords and their inversions.<\/p>\n

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\"Drop<\/p>\n

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How to Build Drop 2 Chords<\/h2>\n

Drop 2 chords are built by dropping the second highest note of a four-way close chord to the bass.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the following example, we make the second highest note (G) of a Cmaj7 chord<\/strong> in root position, one octave lower so it becomes the bass note.<\/p>\n

The result is what we call a drop 2 chord:<\/p>\n

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\"Drop<\/p>\n

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Drop 2 chords are built across adjacent strings (string sets 6543, 5432, and 4321) and have the following intervals:<\/p>\n