What Are You Working On Right Now?

[Sascha Franck]

I’m trying to get the chord name into my head so that my fingers just go there and it’s like I have to count every time.

IMO the trick is to get the functions of the notes per string right. Combined with the voicing "rules" I already mentioned in another thread, the amount of options is shrinking quite a bit (in terms of organisation).

For example, the root could either become the 7th or the ninth. Maj7 is a halftone below, so 7 must be a wholetone. 9th is a wholetone above, so b9 must be a halftone, #9 3 halftones above.
Same goes for the 5th, which could either be altered by itself (b5, #5), so that's self explaining, or it could become 11th or 13th. 11th is a wholetone below, so #11 is a halftone below. 13 is a wholetone above, so b13 is a halftone above.

This is pretty much it for the "extensions" already, you would now only have to additionally cover sus2, sus4 and 6. The former replace the 3rd, the latter replaces the 5th in a plain triad context and the 7th in a 7th-chord context.

And that's pretty much it (with the exception of diminished and augmented chords, but even those could be fitted in if you know the rest already).

 

[Piing]

In case you've missed it, the TUMENI NOTES comes from this funny benefic video



Dorian Chiiwahwah Phallic and an incredible guitar cast are featured on this first release for THE EPIC GUITAR SOLO CHALLENGE with their anthem to promote more guitar practice to mums & girlfriends, bf 's etc - Don't You Tell Me Not To Play Guitar.

All profits go to The EJ Whitten foundation for prostate cancer.

This track is available on itunes and you can support by buying T-shirts or making donations at http://www.ejwhittenfoundation.com.au/ or go to http://www.epicguitarsolo.com/ for our contest.

We would like to thank all these amazing artists for their time and generosity. Our global cast in order of appearance includes

Tommy Emmanuel - Australia
Brett Garsed – John Farnham, Nelson, T. J. Helmerich -Australia
Joe Satriani – G3, Chickenfoot - USA
Steve Morse – Deep Purple, Dixie Dregs, The Flying Colors– USA
Hack Wanger – Guitar Gods & Masterpieces TV Show - Australia
Mattias Eklundh – Freak Kitchen – Sweden
Chris Cheney –The Living End - Australia
Dave Leslie – Baby Animals- -Australia
Isao – Spark 7 – Japan
Jack Thammerat Solo artist & 2009 Guitar idol winner - Thailand
Manjit Joseph – Heavens Down – India
Rabea Massaad – Dorje - UK
Benjamin Baret - Ne Obliviscaris - France
Adrian Hannan – The Song Store – song producer -Australia
Albare - Jazz Artist – Morocco ,Israel, France, Australia
Chen Lei – Tang Dynasty - China
Syu – Galneryus - Japan
Rob Chapman – Dorje, Chapman Guitars - UK
Mikio Fujioka – Kami Band - Japan
Shinichi Kobayashi, - Jigoku Quartet - Japan
Frank Gambale- Chick Corea - Australia
Irwin Thomas – Southern Sons, John Farnham - Australia
Geoff Achison –Soul Diggers – Australia
Peter Robinson – Electric Mary- Australia
Hedras Ramos - Solo Fusion/metal artist - Guatemala
Ola Englund The Haunted, Feared – Sweden
Eric Calderone - Erock - USA
Motorman Duo - Simon Hosford – Tommy Emmanuel -Australia
Motorman Duo - James Ryan – Men at work. – Australia
Paul Gilbert – Mr. Big, Racer X - USA
Andy James – Wearing Scars - UK
Alex Hutchings - Alex Hutchings Band - UK
Guthrie Govan – The Aristocrats, Asia, Steve Wilson Band - UK

 

[HomespunEffects]

IMO the trick is to get the functions of the notes per string right. Combined with the voicing "rules" I already mentioned in another thread, the amount of options is shrinking quite a bit (in terms of organisation).

For example, the root could either become the 7th or the ninth. Maj7 is a halftone below, so 7 must be a wholetone. 9th is a wholetone above, so b9 must be a halftone, #9 3 halftones above.
Same goes for the 5th, which could either be altered by itself (b5, #5), so that's self explaining, or it could become 11th or 13th. 11th is a wholetone below, so #11 is a halftone below. 13 is a wholetone above, so b13 is a halftone above.

This is pretty much it for the "extensions" already, you would now only have to additionally cover sus2, sus4 and 6. The former replace the 3rd, the latter replaces the 5th in a plain triad context and the 7th in a 7th-chord context.

And that's pretty much it (with the exception of diminished and augmented chords, but even those could be fitted in if you know the rest already).

tl;dr

No, seriously though. I got all that. It's just that I can't get them under my fingers for some reason. All the stuff that you typed up there is what goes through my head EVERY TIME I go to play a chord extension. It takes like 12 minutes to play four or five chords. I'm working on charting them out and avoiding looking up common chord fingerings.

 

[Sascha Franck]

It takes like 12 minutes to play four or five chords.

Pretty normal for a start.
Whatever, there's a bunch of things that helped me getting more fluent.
- Practice drop 2 inversions on the top 4 strings for all 4 main 7th chord types (maj7, dom7, min7, min7/b5).
- When doing so, move your hand in the air from one position to the next, so you have to pre-form the shape in the air before "landing". This will be pretty tough at first.
- Do the same with each chord adding a 9th. Then adding a 13th. Then adding an 11th. Obviously only whenever applicable. Maj11 chords don't work well, min13 chords only work in some contexts and min7/b5 chords with any extension usually make your brain/ear twist their function.
- Do chord movements between two of these chords. Say, from Cmaj7 to G7 and back. Always move to the closest inversion of the next chord to keep voice movements at a minimum. All inversions.
- Do the same with option notes. Cmaj7/9 to G7/13. All inversions.

These will be pretty tough at first. But they will be very efficient.

In case you don't have a quick overview, here's those 4 chord types as drop 2 voicings on the DGBE strings (root note in solid circles):

 

[Sascha Franck]

In case you've missed it, the TUMENI NOTES comes from this funny benefic video

And if anything, that's defenitely too many notes and rather a reason to put the guitar aside.

 

[la szum]

Good luck!

This is me trying to play Tumeni notes a few years decades ago…
View attachment 26857

 

[TSJMajesty]

So last night for a bit and today for about an hour, I've been playing clean (with some delay. I cannot practice completely dry. I'll set the mix low, m'kay?)

Whew, it really shows your faults/things you still need to work on. Pinky strength. Gotta work that pinky some more.

Not that high gain doesn't also show your weaknesses. I've always said neither one alone is enough. High gain will bring out all your unwanted noises that go mostly unnoticed clean, and clean will highlight poor dynamics, & show your notes that you're missing, or almost missing, that compression masks.

Good stuff.

Now back to the Yellow Shred on the JP IIC+!!

 

[la szum]

That's basically my entire fascination with Di Meola these past few months. Minimal
to no gain---with volume rolled back on the guitar the majourity of the time, and no
delay. Hell, barely a smack of Reverb on Al's recorded tracks.

It's enough to make your dick shrivel up.

 

[likitlikeyoulikeit]

That's basically my entire fascination with Di Meola these past few months. Minimal
to no gain---with volume rolled back on the guitar the majourity of the time, and no
delay. Hell, barely a smack of Reverb on Al's recorded tracks.

It's enough to make your dick shrivel up.

No that's what happens when you drink too much Robitussin....you shouldn't do that ...no bueno.

 

[duzie]

Has anyone here covered this song?

If so how did you approach it.
Any tips or advice would be appreciated.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Any tips or advice would be appreciated.

- Buy Mandolin.
- Buy Ukulele.
- Buy Lapsteel.
- Buy Dobro (on the left?)

 

[Warmart]

OMG.

Metallica's "Eye of the Beholder". Nothing hard, but no room to mess up, either.

 

[TSJMajesty]

OMG.

Metallica's "Eye of the Beholder". Nothing hard, but no room to mess up, either.

Might hafta try that!

 

[Warmart]

Might hafta try that!

Tried it a couple of times but this time the majority is really pretty simple. Especially after a few At The Gates ones!

This is a really good picking exercise.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Tried it a couple of times but this time the majority is really pretty simple. Especially after a few At The Gates ones!

This is a really good picking exercise.

Next up, One! Sextuplets at 114 bpm!! (Which is about as fast as I can pick!)

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

Next up, One! Sextuplets at 114 bpm!! (Which is about as fast as I can pick!)

Have fun with this slurred arp and alternate pick it.

 

[TSJMajesty]

fun

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

Pretty normal for a start.
Whatever, there's a bunch of things that helped me getting more fluent.
- Practice drop 2 inversions on the top 4 strings for all 4 main 7th chord types (maj7, dom7, min7, min7/b5).
- When doing so, move your hand in the air from one position to the next, so you have to pre-form the shape in the air before "landing". This will be pretty tough at first.
- Do the same with each chord adding a 9th. Then adding a 13th. Then adding an 11th. Obviously only whenever applicable. Maj11 chords don't work well, min13 chords only work in some contexts and min7/b5 chords with any extension usually make your brain/ear twist their function.
- Do chord movements between two of these chords. Say, from Cmaj7 to G7 and back. Always move to the closest inversion of the next chord to keep voice movements at a minimum. All inversions.
- Do the same with option notes. Cmaj7/9 to G7/13. All inversions.

These will be pretty tough at first. But they will be very efficient.

In case you don't have a quick overview, here's those 4 chord types as drop 2 voicings on the DGBE strings (root note in solid circles):
View attachment 26860

Is this a German music college thing? To go from closed position, drop and label it root position? Kinda like root position being called Septlage?

Cause in the English speaking world, inversions (irregardless of voicing) will be named for its bass voice.

As in your root position would be 2nd inversion, etc...

Also just as dropping the second highest voice (alto) of a root position closed voicing gives the drop 2 2nd inversion, there's a hack to keep root position intact.

Raise the 2nd note from the bottom (tenor voice) of a closed root position and end up with drop 2 root position.

Side note raise the 2nd lowest voice (tenor) of a drop 2 an octave and you have drop 3

As in say C△7 drop 2 root position to drop 3 root position

E-------3
B---5---5
G---4---4
D---5----
A---3----3
E---

Alternatively drop top note of drop 2 3rd inversion by 2 octaves and you get drop 3 root position...

A-7

E----5-------8---
B----5--5---8---8
G----5--5---9---9
D----5--5---7---7
A-------------------
E--------5-------8

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

I do. That’s why it’s frustrating. I should be able to just go to it but I’m having a traffic jam between my brain and fingers. At least i can hear when i get it wrong.

I’m trying to get the chord name into my head so that my fingers just go there and it’s like I have to count every time.

One of the issue is how guitar is taught usually started with triad on d g b string set.

That shape changes going one string up and change different going one string down.

Yet if we look at the way a guitar is tuned we can grok that one string up and 5 frets down is the same note. (Or 7 frets up on that string for the octave...5 and 7 makes 12)

So if we start with the lowest root position C triad on e a d string we have this c e g

8 7 5 x x x

Do the one string over 5 frets down we get

X 3 2 0 x x

Obviously we can't do the one string up 5 frets down since we're at the bottom of the neck.
So up and octave (12 frets)

X 15 14 12 x x

Now when we move this one a string up we have to accommodate the b strings different tuning than the rest of the guitar.

One string up, 5 frets down and the note that landed on the b string gets raised a fret

So one over 5 down would get thi

X x 10 9 7 x

Accommodate the b string

X x 10 9 8 x

Last string set
Again the note that lands on the b string needs to go up a fret

One over 5 down

X x x 5 4 3

Accommodate (raise the note on the ) b string

X x x 5 5 3


Same applies for 4 nite chords

Drop 2 A-7 in root position

5 7 5 5 x x

One over 5 down

X. 0 2 0 0 x

Raise the b string note one fret

X 0 2 0 1 x

Go up an octave

X 12 14 12 13 x

One over 5 down,
X x 7 9 7 8
Raise the b string

X x 7 9 8 8

 

[Sascha Franck]

Cause in the English speaking world, inversions (irregardless of voicing) will be named for its bass voice.

Yeah, it's actually the same here. But I always keep confusing myself because I find the naming to be very illogical. I mean, when you deal with these voicings, the most important part would be the top note - and calling it a different inversion because of the lowest note always seemed illogical to me. But as said, it's my fault.