The "Must know chord grips" for jazz guitar players (that are NOT drop 2/3)

[mr. beaumont]

Title says it all...add your favorites.

I'll start with a story...

I was rather lucky to start my "jazz journey" before the internet was a big thing. Or at least, before I knew that guitar playing communities existed on it.

So I learned chords kind of by trial and error. And indeed quite a few "must know" grips I figured out ended up being drop2 and drop 3. I didn't know what that term meant at the time, I just knew they were basically playable.

Of course, drop 2 and 3 aren't always the go to...particularly when it comes to dominant chords...need that extra color!

So anyway, this thread is about, as Christian calls it (it think) Basic B guitar player chords...the skills that pay the bills...

I'll start with the venerable 6/9 chord, As in c6/9 voiced x32233

[AllanAllen]

That's too many notes for me.

x3223x is better but x322xx or 3x22xx would leave more space. I'm not ready to see xx22xx for a C major, too abstract at this point.

Is this off topic?

[mr. beaumont]

Is this off topic?

Not at all.

x32233 is the grip. You never HAVE TO play all the notes.

[AllanAllen]

here’s a cheat sheet I made. All the basic chords in G. Reminder, this is for big band. So I’m purposely trying to cut out extensions and limit myself.

[mr. beaumont]

You could get through a lot of classic tunes with just those and you'd sound great.

[AllanAllen]

That's what I'm hoping for. Slash chords also just melt my brain, I know I can ignore the um, I'm going to say denominator even though that's not the right term. Anyway I know I can ignore the bottom, but when I'm reading along it just trips me up.

[pamosmusic]

That's what I'm hoping for. Slash chords also just melt my brain, I know I can ignore the um, I'm going to say denominator even though that's not the right term. Anyway I know I can ignore the bottom, but when I'm reading along it just trips me up.

Hahahhaaha … I absolutely call it the denominator too.

for the record it’s the bass note … but denominator sounds way better.

[mr. beaumont]

I think I'll forever call it the denominator from this day on.

[mr. beaumont]

That's what I'm hoping for. Slash chords also just melt my brain, I know I can ignore the um, I'm going to say denominator even though that's not the right term. Anyway I know I can ignore the bottom, but when I'm reading along it just trips me up.

I had a student some years back who was in a high school jazz band, ran by a teacher who had somehow managed to never interact with a guitar player in their life. He would just get piano or horn charts, and the first thing we'd do is get a sharpie and cross out all of the unnecessary stuff.

[AllanAllen]

It feels wrong crossing off things on the Nestico charts, but also... slash chords on a big band chart? Come on Sammy.

[pamosmusic]

Even great composers don’t seem to always know how to write for guitar. I treat it like rhythmic notation in a drum part … just the arranger telling you what’s going on, do with it what you will.

[PMB]

Great topics you've been posting recently, Jeff like this one and the internalising changes thread.

It helps to know some closed-position voicings. Using 'G' as a reference, a common and very comfortable one is xx5432 for Gmaj7 (I first came across that in George Harrison's "I'd Have You Anytime").

Drop 2 & 4 are less user friendly but they can be useful for solo playing and final cadences of a tune (Gmaj7 = 35x47x).

An often preferable substitute for middle string set drop 2s is to remove the 5th and double either the root or 3rd (Gmaj7 = x10,9,11,8 or x10,9,11,12x).

G9sus4 = 3x321x (or F/G to those of a denominational persuasion) is pretty essential. Extend this to G13b9 (3x3100) and we're starting to move into the area of open strings. Many of these are non-invertible and key specific and are particularly prevalent in Brazilian guitar-based music. Am9 = x05500 is a "must know chord grip" but how about the x42100 C#m7 that Jobim employs in "Triste"?

[Navdeep_Singh]

has anyone mentioned the Swiss Army knife of guitar grips? It can be any chord quality you want (Major-minor-dominant).

Note + Tritone + P4 +P4.

The best!

[AllanAllen]

has anyone mentioned the Swiss Army knife of guitar grips? It can be any chord quality you want (Major-minor-dominant).

Note + Tritone + P4 +P4.

The best!

Can you give me that as a grip? I’m slow

[pamosmusic]

Can you give me that as a grip? I’m slow

x x 3 4 5 5

x 3 4 4 5 x

its major 7 sharp 11 from root (or b5 I guess)

its a cool minor 6/9 thing from the 3rd

its a dominant 13 chord from the 7th

[Tal_175]

x x 3 4 5 5

x 3 4 4 5 x

its major 7 sharp 11 from root (or b5 I guess)

its a cool minor 6/9 thing from the 3rd

its a dominant 13 chord from the 7th

I thought drop 2's (and 3's) weren't allowed.

[pamosmusic]

I thought drop 2's (and 3's) weren't allowed.

fair point … drop two w a flattened fifth.

Im fairly certain any four note chord could be a drop something.

[Tal_175]

fair point … drop two w a flattened fifth.

Im fairly certain any four note chord could be a drop something.

It was also rootless drop 3 G13 (with a 9) which raises an interesting point. If in the implied context a voicing is rootless, does it still count as a drop chord.
Say:
xx5867
is drop 2 G7#5 but it can also be a rootless CMinMaj7 with an 11. Is it still a drop 2 voicing in that context?

Another interesting point is even a G7 chord can sound like C chord if it's played in the right context.

[pamosmusic]

It was also rootless drop 3 G13 (with a 9) which raises an interesting point. If in the implied context a voicing is rootless, does it still count as a drop chord.
Say:
xx5867
is drop 2 G7#5 but it can also be a rootless CMinMaj7 with an 11. Is it still a drop 2 voicing in that context?

Another interesting point is even a G7 chord can sound like C chord if it's played in the right context.

This strikes me as thinking too hard.

By this metric, the classic Cmaj7 drop 2 in root position wouldn’t be a drop 2 if the bass player were playing an A. Which doesn’t make a lot of sense. A thing can still be a thing, even if it’s serving a different purpose for the moment.

A C major triad is still a C major triad in whatever inversion it’s in, even if in the grand scheme of things the piano player is playing it as the upper structure of an Am7 chord.

[Bop Head]

[...] the classic Cmaj7 drop 2 in root position [...]

What is that for you? Because I am always thinking down from the top (= melody) note.

[pamosmusic]

What is that for you? Because I am always thinking down from the top (= melody) note.

The terminology is specific though. Inversion names always refer to the bass note and drop voicings refer to which note from the top note is dropped.

So it’s C G B E

[Bop Head]

The terminology is specific though. Inversion names always refer to the bass note and drop voicings refer to which note from the top note is dropped.

So it’s C G B E

I know what drop chords are and how they are derived from closed voicings. I just wanted to clarify the "root position" terminology.

BTW this guy uses drop voicings w/o calling them such.

[pamosmusic]

I know what drop chords are and how they are derived from closed voicings. I just wanted to clarify the "root position" terminology.

BTW this guy uses drop voicings w/o calling them such.

Root position would be the chord with root in the bass, followed by first inversion, and so on.

And yeah. I know people play drop voicings without using the terminology, but if someone happens to be using the terminology, it has a particular meaning.

[pauln]

Those who came to Jazz from Blues likely remember the "Pentatonic Prison" encountered early and overcome by forcing the pents into diatonics and determining placement of the missing pitches' sounds with regard to Blues harmony. Jazz has a potential "Grip Prison" that also takes some effort to escape. One way to break out is Grips to Chord Pattern Streams to Chord Melody to Soloing.

Choice of Chord Types
A simple place to start is in tunes where the A part is repeated before going to the B part. The ones to look for are the ones that distinguish the 1st and 2nd endings of the A part... a harmonic difference. There are many where the first ending lands on a fairly neutral sounding chord to make the musical message, "we're not going anywhere yet, repeat from the beginning", but the second ending uses a chord type that messages motion as a herald into the B section.
For example the 1st ending may be a D7sus4 x5755x kind of sound with a diffuse sense of direction or motion, but the 2nd ending might be a D9 x5455x signaling the Gm7 that leads off the B section.
Drummers do this all the time - distinguishing the place in the song form with certain sounds (fills) that say, "not yet, do it again" or "here we go to the next part". Part of using grips vocabulary is learning what they say.

String Set Chords
The nature of the standard tuning means the same chord is fingered differently for the 1-4, 2-5, and 3-6 string sets. For example G13/F [xx3453] [x8998x] [13141412xx]
Whenever you learn a new four string chord from these sets you should find it's counterparts on the other two sets. Don't dismiss the 3-6 string sets; they sound nice for Bossa tunes, especially if accompanying (fitting well between the bass and the soloist).

Harmonic Pattern Streams
Bbm7 -> Eb(13) -> Ab(6/9)
6x666x - x6566x - 4x334x
You can start with typical Jazz moves like the two five one, then look for additional insertion chords
Bbm9 - Bb(7sus4) - Eb(13) - Bb(7sus4) - Abmaj9
xx6668
x8889x
x10111013x
x13151316x
x12141213x
or change the pattern and insertion chords to do additional resolutions
Bbm9 - Bb(7sus4) - Eb(13) - Gb(13) - A13 - Ab(6/9)
xx6668
x8889x
x10111013x
x13141316x
x16171619x
15151516xx
Chord patterns tend to be played faster so it helps mechanically if you can place them so they move progressively in the same direction up or down the neck. The ones above have movement up. Below is one that moves down in a long double resolution, a V I IV ii V I IV bIII ii bVI V bii I
x14141415x
x12131215x
x11111112x
x910912x
x8998x
x7678x
6x655x
5x555x
x6566x
x5456x
4x433x
x2323x

Grips to Pattern Streams to Chord Melody to Soloing
Once proficient with application of chord pattern streams, the same exploratory approach of diatonization of the Blues pents may be used to convert chord pattern streams into Jazz chord melody, one or two notes added at a time until the possibilities offer the suggestion of dropping the chords and just soloing.

[Christian Miller]

I like thirdless voicings for dominants and minors

3 x 3 2 x x
3 x 3 1 5 x

That type of thing


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