The Skill of Going From Chord to Chord Efficiently

[TH]

The longer I work with chord melody, the more I'm drawn to horn players. I know, that's counter intuitive, or maybe it may even seem facetious, but it's a matter of phrasing and lyric feel.
I don't know of any books, just to say from the start, that really talk about this "top down" focus on chord melody, but this is something that was pointed out to me through Jim Hall, who's use of space would often treat chord harmony in a way that could be seen as rhythmic accent, and Sco, who evolved a style of chord playing that really uses horn like phrasing even in his chord solos.
I can also hear chords in their rhythmic supportive role in Monk's music.

I always try to have an awareness of the chordal flow of the piece, but these days my focus is very much in articulation of the melody line first. That means the chord doesn't even have to appear on the first beat of the measured appearance of that chord in the harmony, and it means sometimes a bass line is sufficient to define chord movement.
Yes, this isn't chord melody in the most widely used guitaristic approach, but for me, this approach, melodic phrasing with a variety of phrase lengths, and then chordal support at accents or weighted points in the phrase, leads to a different feel. For me it's an organic feel.
It also really helps me develop a counterpoint awareness that helps with voice leading chordal structures.

I love what Spalo says

What's frequently ignored in all styles of guitar playing is 'no tempo' practice. In this case it means simply going from one chord to the next in however long it takes you to get there. And doing it again and again. When you're struggling with something new a metronome ticking away, no matter how slowly, is just too much additional pressure. Just get your hands used to the correct physical movement.

There's a mental awareness that comes from "seeing" in two or three dimensions when I'm playing a chord solo. I happen to be focusing on the melodic (top or S -within SATB) as the guiding force. That takes a real conceptual fluency different from strict metronomic chordal movement from the root, grab or chordal shape approach, so there's a lot more time I spend on just working out arrangements on the fly, being aware of chords as simultaneous separate voices, and developing voicing options based on voice demands.
It sure makes me aware of how much easier this would be on a piano!

Just one approach among the many, and likely not a good one if you're enamoured of more traditional sound.
Two cents

David

[rictroll]

It's also helpful to know where the inversions of the next chord are. They often turn out to be a few simple moves away. Sometimes our favorite shapes aren't the easiest to grab at the time nor the ideal musical solution.This from someone who spent last week working on the cycle of fourths using three note voicings on the top three strings. Learned a lot. And I feel like I just scratched the surface.

[Groyniad]

my mistake - wrong thread

duh.

[va3ux]

George Van Eps guitar methods exercises are perfect for improving this skill

[AlsoRan]

George Van Eps guitar methods exercises are perfect for improving this skill

I checked out the little slim guitar method book that he has and found this review of the book from the forum's own Rob Mackillop. I thought I had read about this method before. It really does seem to give some great exercises that take you up the neck with different chord shapes. But, Amazon wants $70.00 for this book. I guess because it is out of print.

I just might have to use Rob's videos and create my own little progressions once I have time to see his full review in depth and figure out what is being taught. A couple of weeks ago I started working in the progressions from "Jazz Chord Connection." I can feel my fingers breaking in again for playing rhythm.

Anyway, here is a link to Rog's review for those that might be interested. (His hands are perfect for chord work. I am jealous.)

George Van Eps Method For Guitar | Rob MacKillop ~ Musician

[Moonray]

Lots of excellent advice above......man, could you imagine what kind of book we could
produce if we harnessed the brains trust on board here

Oops...digressing already.

I have one small but very important idea that I think has been missed.

In 2 words ......look ahead.

Now this presupposes that you can form each shape as one unit, and can lift the shape off and bang it
back down.....essentially a multi fingered hammer on....etc etc

But your question was to do with the moment of change.

I was lucky or whatever to be able to grok chord shapes quickly as a kid.....but...and sometimes it was a
big but....[oops ....don't even think that thought..ha ha]
When I took up classical guitar super seriously
at the late age of 22 I found that I had trouble with some of the transitions from one form to the next.
And to make matters worse, many of the fingerings/forms might resemble parts of chords I'd been playing
in cover bands, blues bands etc....but they got more and more difficult to play as I got into more and more
advanced pieces.

My teacher wasn't much help...he wasn't too hot a player himself ...So...I was watching a video of Segovia playing
a piece that I was studying....and when he got to one of those moments of change....especially when shifts
existed to compound the problem....boom....mini satori....I noticed that he would move his head or at least
his eyes to the next position before he needed to physically be there....so he was looking ahead.

Long story short....look ahead.

Try - See

[Thumpalumpacus]

The other thing I do is see if a finger or two stay on the same note, or the same string at least, and use that as an "axis" in order to better define for my hand the spatial relationships involved.

[Jabberwocky]

$10.

eBook: The George Van Eps Method for Guitar - DjangoBooks.com

[va3ux]

Don't go by Amazon prices. There are some outrageous prices for old books on there. The book isn't worth 70 bucks.

The book is still available as an eBook from Django Books for $10 :

eBook: The George Van Eps Method for Guitar - DjangoBooks.com

In the first few pages of the book he has some very simple but specific instructions about the mechanics of the left hand and changing chords smoothly. I kept all that clearly in mind while starting to tackle the first exercises and I was strict about it because I imagined the Old Man was strict about it. I really had to slow down at first in order to meet his criteria. But things immediately started improving. And I followed his fingerings exactly, some of which are challenging but there is usually a good reason for his choice of fingerings. When there would be a difficult change in both position and fingering I would analyze the finger positions on the first chord and then how they all had to move and land for the next chord and I would practice that move slowly back and forth for few minutes until "the program was uploaded". Dont wait until your hand arrives at the new position before arranging your fingers for the new chord; start moving them into position - mid air - while the hand is moving to the new position.

Years later I saw this 5 minute video by Jody Fisher on this topic and this is essentially what I was doing.

[AlsoRan]

Lots of excellent advice above......man, could you imagine what kind of book we could
produce if we harnessed the brains trust on board here

Oops...digressing already.

I have one small but very important idea that I think has been missed.

In 2 words ......look ahead.

Now this presupposes that you can form each shape as one unit, and can lift the shape off and bang it
back down.....essentially a multi fingered hammer on....etc etc

But your question was to do with the moment of change.

I was lucky or whatever to be able to grok chord shapes quickly as a kid.....but...and sometimes it was a
big but....[oops ....don't even think that thought..ha ha]
When I took up classical guitar super seriously
at the late age of 22 I found that I had trouble with some of the transitions from one form to the next.
And to make matters worse, many of the fingerings/forms might resemble parts of chords I'd been playing
in cover bands, blues bands etc....but they got more and more difficult to play as I got into more and more
advanced pieces.

My teacher wasn't much help...he wasn't too hot a player himself ...So...I was watching a video of Segovia playing
a piece that I was studying....and when he got to one of those moments of change....especially when shifts
existed to compound the problem....boom....mini satori....I noticed that he would move his head or at least
his eyes to the next position before he needed to physically be there....so he was looking ahead.

Long story short....look ahead.

Try - See

I just discovered this idea yesterday! I had a long chord jump that I wanted to make (around 10 frets) and I found that if I looked ahead to plant my first finger, the rest would be pre-shaped and would fall in place.

This is probably a no-brainer to most of you but it was a big moment for me, simple soul that I am.

[AlsoRan]

The other thing I do is see if a finger or two stay on the same note, or the same string at least, and use that as an "axis" in order to better define for my hand the spatial relationships involved.

I am just learning to exploit this idea as well. I figured out that if I have a finger that I want to plant first, especially if I am moving to another position, I should get it on the right string and kind of slide down as though I was on a track. But of course, minimize the sliding noise and use it as more of a guide.

You made another good point. Two fingers would be even better.

Good stuff!

[emanresu]

When I still learned classical guitar, very often my hands got stiff and got tired in the middle of harder pieces. I started late and am rather clumsy and slowish so I just thought it goes away after much work. But it got worse. Until there was a workshop and a few get-togethers with A. Carlevaro and his minions. This advice helped me very much -
Changing hard chords: Firstly, use gravity to hold a chord, not pinching power too much. When changing, there are actually 3 steps: 1.release&rest 2.move to the next pos with relaxed hands while preparing fingers to the new shape 3.land on the new chord.. again use gravity to hold it down, not too much pinch if possible.
These 3 steps can be done like in 3 second intervals each. It needs quite a bit of time for the hands to learn to relax when they can and use only the minimum amount of stress. Helped me a lot. I'm sure there are many more ways make them hard chords and jumps come out clean and neat. Asking from classical guitarists may help - they have it much harder.

[va3ux]

I am just learning to exploit this idea as well. I figured out that if I have a finger that I want to plant first, especially if I am moving to another position, I should get it on the right string and kind of slide down as though I was on a track. But of course, minimize the sliding noise and use it as more of a guide.

You made another good point. Two fingers would be even better.

Good stuff!

Yea but you dont want any slurring sound during the transition. The Old Man would not approve. I think he would say this is a technique to compensate for poor or under developed technique. But I know it works if youre careful

[christianm77]

Yea but you dont want any slurring sound during the transition. The Old Man would not approve. I think he would say this is a technique to compensate for poor or under developed technique. But I know it works if youre careful

Get flatwounds. AmIrite? ;-)

[va3ux]

Get flatwounds. AmIrite? ;-)

Yup ! Flat wounds definitely help the whole situation.