The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    Do you type them down in a book? Sorted by main chord types, or do you have a big library in your online notebook? I want to know! Tips are warm welcomed. I would imagine one chord shape you learned 10 years ago, but haven't used since, could be hard to remember?


    Some chords are even hard to remember, when used frequently, for example this chord (taken from Sam Blakelock):

    How do you organise your chords outside your brain-screenshot-2018-11-17-23-48-39-jpg


    Perhaps the thought having a "chord library" is just stupid? I don't know. I just think it could be smart, when you want to use some "exciting" chords, and you cold check your library, to spice things up.

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    I don’t

  4. #3

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    I don't either, but it's not a bad idea.

    (When I googled mb13 I got this :-)

    mb13 - Bing images

  5. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by ragman1
    I don't either, but it's not a bad idea.

    (When I googled mb13 I got this :-)

    mb13 - Bing images
    Bing, lol.

  6. #5

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    I don't either.

  7. #6

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    Among other ways, to begin I’d suggest organizing them by using the top note to play a scale, and have a voicing for each chord, with each of those scale note on top. Do this for each family of chords.

  8. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by ragman1
    I don't either, but it's not a bad idea.

    (When I googled mb13 I got this :-)

    mb13 - Bing images
    Yikes.

  9. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by znerken
    Bing, lol.
    Wrong. Google is the same:

    mb13 - Google Search

  10. #9

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    I memorized all the chords I need, and I use the chords I memorized.

  11. #10

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    No one knows all the chords, fingerings, inversions, different types, etc etc. Don't forget - we don't know what we don't know.

  12. #11

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    When you forget a chord is it an unknown or a known, unknown?

  13. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by BigDaddyLoveHandles
    When you forget a chord is it an unknown or a known, unknown?
    If you forgot a known chord that is unknown to you, then it's a unknown chord- for you. If you forgot a known chord that is known to you, then it might be something going on in the brain- I'd be worried. If you forgot an unknown chord that no one knows anyway, it's cool- no one cares.

    I hope it clarifies things.

  14. #13

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    "...outside your brain?"

    What a peculiar notion.

  15. #14

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    It's all stored inside the mental warehouse. The rent is reasonable.

  16. #15

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    Quote Originally Posted by BigDaddyLoveHandles
    When you forget a chord is it an unknown or a known, unknown?
    Yes definitely

  17. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by BigDaddyLoveHandles
    When you forget a chord is it an unknown or a known, unknown?

  18. #17

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    You just learn how to build them, and where the relative notes are. The best books I've found are Mick Goodrick books for modern comping, and John Thomas Voice leading for guitar book for more of a traditional approach. I still go through them from time to time.

  19. #18

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    I had some sheets decades ago.

    They were common voicings with the root circled.

    I also had Warren Nunes' Chord Bible and got some ii V I's from that.

    I have Ted Greene's Chord Chemistry.

    But I don't recall any of the organizational strategies.

    Over the years what worked best was learning a chord melody and figuring out the chords I needed, finding the root and learning them in 12 keys. As a novice, I had the charts, but not thereafter.

    More recently, I know the notes in the chords/scales I use and I pick out however many notes I need for the situation. I often don't think about grips at all, just two and three notes and moving them around to make a kind of countermelody when I'm comping.

  20. #19

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    Quote Originally Posted by pingu
    Yes definitely
    It's not that simple.

  21. #20

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    Joe Pass said it best in his little book: listen to the chord quality and file it away under Sound aka auditory memory. I am by no means an expert player but in my own struggles I noted that I tried to learn chords visually when I should be learning them aurally.

    The chief complaint about Joe Pass's little book is that he failed to name the chords. That was exactly Joe Pass's point: the quality of the chord lies in its sound, not its name. You build chord vocabulary by listening. Too many folk give up on Joe Pass's little book or dismiss it because it looks so thin without much writing in it. If you ask me, if you truly work through that book in all 12 keys, as Joe recommends, you have the chord vocabulary that you need to be a pretty decent jazz guitarist.

    We learn grips, we learn to parse a chord into its various voices, we learn chord substitutions by their names but we forget many times to listen to the actual chord quality. Ultimately, if we pretend to be musicians, we have to grok that it is the chord quality that matters, not really their names. Close your eyes and listen.

    Joe Pass's little book of chords makes me a better listener. Spend one hour with it everyday in all 12 keys. You will have a better ear for chords. If you write, you choose a word because of its weight, shape, feel, length and sound and rhythmic stresses; knowing its etymology is a bonus but that is not why you choose to use a particular word out of a cornucopia of synonymic possibilities. So, it is with chords; knowing its structure (etymology) is useful but not why you choose to use a particular chord. Knowing its chordal quality is often more useful to us as musicians.

    Organise them by their chordal quality, by sound. Don't just visualise them by grips and names. Hear them.

  22. #21

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    I learned all my chords from that Joe Pass book mentioned by Jabberwocky. For years it was the only jazz guitar book I owned. It must have worked as those chords are still what I use most of the time.

  23. #22

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    Quote Originally Posted by znerken
    Do you type them down in a book? Sorted by main chord types, or do you have a big library in your online notebook? I want to know! Tips are warm welcomed. I would imagine one chord shape you learned 10 years ago, but haven't used since, could be hard to remember?


    Some chords are even hard to remember, when used frequently, for example this chord (taken from Sam Blakelock):

    How do you organise your chords outside your brain-screenshot-2018-11-17-23-48-39-jpg


    Perhaps the thought having a "chord library" is just stupid? I don't know. I just think it could be smart, when you want to use some "exciting" chords, and you cold check your library, to spice things up.
    Holy shit just realise I use that ‘modern chord’ all the time as a ‘modern chord’

    I have to say for me m7b13 isn’t a sound. That chord invariably sounds like a first inversion maj add9 to me. Maybe just me.

    Play that chord on everything and it will sink in.

  24. #23

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    Quote Originally Posted by ragman1
    No one knows all the chords, fingerings, inversions, different types, etc etc. Don't forget - we don't know what we don't know.
    Guitar George knows all the chords.

  25. #24

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    It's also probably a question of volume. If one discovers a new chord or voicing now and again then it'll almost certainly go into the memory and stay there.

    But if you're going to do a blitz on learning lots of chords in, say, a book, there's no way you're going to remember them all. Better to have them referenced somewhere.

  26. #25

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    Quote Originally Posted by ragman1
    It's also probably a question of volume. If one discovers a new chord or voicing now and again then it'll almost certainly go into the memory and stay there.

    But if you're going to do a blitz on learning lots of chords in, say, a book, there's no way you're going to remember them all. Better to have them referenced somewhere.
    Drop 2 I think will never leave my brain. Spent many many months on that. If I want chords I just build them from 7 chords. I also do the same with shell voicings, however I still work on that.