The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #26

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    Also, 3-note chords can be moved very swiftly whereas moving a lot of 5 or 6-string chords around is impractical.

    The 3-note voicings also sound much cleaner because, mostly, all you hear (and all you need to hear) is the root, 3rd and 7th of each chord.

    But ultimately it depends what you're using the chords for. A chord melody probably needs more than minimal chord voicings, but not necessarily. For general comping a combination of 3, 4, or 5-note chords may be best.

    Some band players even reduce their chords to two notes, just the 3rd and 7th.

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #27

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    Quote Originally Posted by j4zz
    I just got to wondering why certain chords are played they way they are. An example is a dominant G7 which can be played as below.

    Attachment 91896

    What is the theory or reason why this is preferred to the typical bar chord played by rock musicians?

    Attachment 91897


    Both of these chords can be used in jazz guitar music.

  4. #28

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    Quote Originally Posted by j4zz
    I just got to wondering why certain chords are played they way they are. An example is a dominant G7 which can be played as below.

    Attachment 91896

    What is the theory or reason why this is preferred to the typical bar chord played by rock musicians?

    Attachment 91897


    jazz guitarists tend to be specific about the notes they include in chords, and are quite concerned with voice leading while a lot of standard shapes have doublings in them….

    not just jazz guitarists, btw… there’s reasons why rock and blues guitar players might prefer stripped down shapes for some situations …

  5. #29
    Thanks to everyone. So many explanations, and likely all are part of the answer.

  6. #30

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    If you watch Freddie Green in videos, he does finger full chords. He just mutes most of the strings. If it sounds bad to you when you mute strings in chords, it's because you're doing it wrong.

  7. #31

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    Using full barre chords can cause bending the wrist back and forth about 30 degrees, shifting the plane of the fingers back and forth about 45 degrees, and rotating the forearm about 90 degrees back and forth. I finger chords so that there is very little movement of those kinds.

    If I am accompanying and want a thumpy tone I use a lot of chords with a little emphasis on the 6 and muted 5 string, letting the 4, 3, and 2 strings play softly. For lighter stuff I really like inside four string chords, and when soloing I use lots of upper four string chords and various three string chords here and there.

    One of the things we learn early on is to finger chords as a whole - all fingers going down at the same time. When playing chords within a "string set", the speed at which one can make chord changes can be very fast because some fingers may stay on the same string.

    However, you will never be wrong favoring the music over the mechanics.

  8. #32

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    The full barre version appears a lot in youtube tutorials. But it’s not at all a preferred fingering for rock music. See Hendrix, Mayer, Frusciante etc. Typically the chord is fragmented. There are many ways to do it. Don’t believe books/tutorials that show one big chord with one fingering.

  9. #33

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    I don’t have an answer for you. All I can say is that I still do the thunb thing for the low E string like Hendrix. I prefer that over the typical pointer finger for the low E as taught in Jazz. I still don’t know why that is preferred as I have more available fingers my way

  10. #34

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    Quote Originally Posted by tss79772
    I don’t have an answer for you. All I can say is that I still do the thunb thing for the low E string like Hendrix. I prefer that over the typical pointer finger for the low E as taught in Jazz. I still don’t know why that is preferred as I have more available fingers my way
    Peter Bernstein does this too - as do the gypsy jazz players.

  11. #35

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    Quote Originally Posted by tss79772
    I don’t have an answer for you. All I can say is that I still do the thunb thing for the low E string like Hendrix. I prefer that over the typical pointer finger for the low E as taught in Jazz. I still don’t know why that is preferred as I have more available fingers my way
    Certain players like Barney Kessel & Tal Farlow (and more recently, Jesse Van Ruller) cover both the 6th and 5th strings with their thumb:
    Chord fingering preferences for Jazz-barred-thumb-chord-jpeg

  12. #36

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    Oh wow, I didn’t know that

  13. #37

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    The purpose of the barre is to stop the guitarist accidentally playing an open string, so creating a drone that can ruin a song.