The Guitar Study Newsletter for 7/10/2002

By Darrin Koltow Greetings once again from MaximumMusician.com. This is Darrin Koltow, fellow air-breathing, bipedal, guitar-playing organism, bringing you more tips to enhance your guitar playing. First, I want to thank you again for signing up for the Guitar Study newsletter at www.MaximumMusician.com. You can unsubscribe any time using instructions at the end of this email.

Maybe a friend would like to receive the Guitar Study newsletter. I bet he would enjoy this much more than his current hobby of Coat Hanger Sculpture. Get him to sign up at www.MaximumMusician.com .

In this issue:

== The 1-3-5-7 Rut (Chord Colors) ==
== Music Therapy Resource ==
== Special Lesson: Blues Triad Mastery ==

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== The 1-3-5-7 Rut (Chord Colors) ==

Too often in our playing we play the same thing over and over, including how we play chords. We may know lots of chords all over the fretboard, but we get stuck playing them in the same way. Some time ago, I saw that I had gotten myself stuck like this. I call this problem the "1357 Rut." What exactly is this and how do you break out of it?

The 1357 Rut means you play a chord only with its root, third, fifth or seventh as the top voice. For C7, this would mean playing the chord with an E, G, Bb or C as the top note. Do I hear protestations from the Peanut Gallery? Are there groans of discontent amongst you? Are you saying, "So what! Those *are* the notes in the chord!" Yeah, they are. E, G, Bb, and C sound just fine as the top note for C7. They sound just fine and "just fine" will soon rot and ferment, turning into total boredom. Break out of "just fine," man! You have eight other beautiful, cosmic, delicious notes waiting for you to put them on top! (And that's not to mention the many other possibilities for chords, by knocking the 1, 3, 5, 7 up or down a half step.)

It's time for you to regroove and let a little fresh air into your chords, if you're in the 1357 Rut. Get the b9, 9, #9, 11, b5, #5, 13, and even the natural 7 in there. Now, hold it, hold it, hold it. I hear everyone running for their guitars, all ready to rip up their chord routines and install these new colors and tones. Come on back. We need to take baby steps. I want to introduce a *slight* change first, to get a few of the extended chord tones under your calluses.

Let's work with these chord extensions: the 9, the 11, and the 13. Let's see how they work on each of the main four-note chord types: major 7, dom 7, and minor 7.

== The 9 ==

First, the major 7 with a 9 added. Dig this groove:

** REMEMBER TO SET YOUR FONTS TO COURIER TO READ THIS PROPERLY. IF YOU DON'T, I'LL COME TO YOUR HOUSE AND PADLOCK YOUR FRIDGE. **

|-------|-------|
|-8--8--|-6--6--|
|-7--7--|-6--6--|
|-7--7--|-5--5--|
|-8--8--|-------|
|-------|-6--6--|
  F +9    Bbm6

- F add9, String B -

The first chord here is an F major, add 9. The second chord can go by lots of names. I'll just call him, "Bob." Actually, Bb minor 6 is more accurate. Put feeling into this when you play it. Have some respect for the tune I lifted it from.

How do you like the sound of this major add 9? Kind of hip, no? Not what you're used to is it? (That's a *good* thing.)

Let's get another fingering for this F major 7, add 9. This one shows up on the first (high E) string:

|-3--3--|-1--1--|
|-1--1--|-2--2--|
|-2--2--|-0--0--|
|-2--2--|-------|
|-------|-1--1--|
|-1--1--|-------|
  F, +9    Bbm6

- F add9, String E -

Now, you have no excuse to use the same old F major shapes all the time. Work the F major, add 9 into your comping and playing.

-- Dominant b9, 9, #9 --

Let's look at shapes for the dominant 9 chord, to replace the dominant 7 when we get tired of comping or playing with it.

M.M. = 60
|------|-----|----|
|-8-6--|-9-8-|-6--|
|-8----|-8-8-|-7--|
|-8----|-7-7-|-8--|
|------|-8-8-|-8--|
|-8----|-----|-6--|
Cm7   F(#9) 9 Bb

That "9" in the second measure stands for F9, by the way. Squeezing the full chord name in there would have required a quart of grease, and I only had some Canola oil.

This tab throws a little Blues your way, in the form of the F#9 and F9 chords. That #9 can be used in a variety of circumstances. Some people use it as a tonic chord. You can start or end a phrase with it, or start or end a tune with it. Or, you can use it to say, "I can play a #9 and you can't! Neener, neener, nee-ner!"

-- Dom 7, Flat 9 --

The flat 9, or b9, is another must-know alteration you want for your dom 7 chords. Let's check out some music illustrating the b9.

|-----|-------|----|
|-7-7-|-6--6--|----|
|-8-8-|-7--7--|-8--|
|-7-7-|-6--6--|-5--|
|-8-8-|-------|-6--|
|-----|-6--6--|----|
  Fb9   Bb7     Eb

- F b9, the b9 as Blues 3 of Eb major, String E -

Ouch! That's how good that felt. Is the Blues cool or what? Did you see what we did here? We treated the b9 of F as the b3 -- the Blues three -- of Eb. You're painting a classic blues line with this: b3, 2, root, and doing so in a II7-V7-I progression. It sounds so good.

We need to do that again, on string E:

|-2-2-|-1-1-|----|
|-1-1-|-3-3-|-4--|
|-2-2-|-1-1-|-3--|
|-1-1-|-----|-1--|
|-----|-1-1-|----|
|-----|-----|-3--|
  Fb9   Bb7   Eb
- F b9, the b9 as Blues 3 of Eb major, String E -

Of course, the b9 and other alterations sound good outside of a Blues context, too. But we love the Blues, and we want to apply it to making our practicing of these extended chord tones -- b9, 9, #9, and so on -- as engaging as we can.

-- Minor 7, add 9 --

The minor 7 add 9 sounds an awful lot like a major 7 whose root is a minor third up from the minor 7's root. For example, a D minor 7, add 9, having notes D, E, F, A, and C, is pretty darn close to an F major 7, with notes F, A, C, E. I don't hear a lot of major 7 type sounds in the Blues, but we still want to find what Blues potential there is in minor 7, add 9. Let's see what we can do.

|--------------|--------------|
|-6--6--9-8-6--|-6--6------6--|
|-5--5---------|-7--7--6-7----|
|-7--7---------|-6--6---------|
|-6--6---------|--------------|
|--------------|-6--6---------|
  F7            B7

|--------------|-------------|
|-6--6--9-8-6--|-5--5--5--5--|
|-5--5---------|-4--5--3--3--|
|-7--7---------|-3--3--5--5--|
|-6--6---------|-4--5--3--3--|
|--------------|-------------|
  F7            C7 Dm7, add 9...

-- F Blues with Dm7 add 9 subbing for C7 --

This is a quick and dirty Blues in F. For the C7, we snuck in two passing chords: one of 'em is a Db7#9, and the other is the D minor 7, add 9 we wanted to work in. Dm7, add 9 can actually substitute for the C7, because it has two of C7's regular tones, C and E, and the other tones are extensions to C7: the A is a 13 of C7, and the F is the 11 of C7. Both A and F are common alterations to C7.

Dm7, add 9 can also substitute for G13, with which it shares tones D, E, and F. Since Dm7 can sub for G13, and C7, that gives us two different dominant 7 chords that Dm7 add 9 can sub for. Each of *these* chords, G13 and C7, can appear in three different Blues progressions: the C7 shows up in a C Blues as the root, the F Blues as the five, and the G Blues as the four. G13 can shows up in a G Blues, C Blues and D Blues. There are four different Blues keys here: C, D, F, and G. I mention this only to show how Dm7 add 9 can appear in four different Blues, using just one approach to chord substitution.

I want to do something a little more Bluesey before we leave the Dm7 add 9 and move to the next extended chord tone.

|-----------|------------|----|
|-------5---|-5-----4--5-|-1--|
|-----5---5-|-4-3-4------|-2--|
|-3-4-------|-3----------|-2--|
|-5---------|------------|-3--|
|-----------|-3----------|----|
  8 8           8 8

In this bitty ditty, play the parts marked with an 8 as 8th notes -- with a Blues feel, of course. All other notes are quarter notes, except the last chord, which has whole notes.

With this tab, we turned the Dm7 add 9 into a D9 by changing the F to an F#. A truly Bluesey move: minor to major third.

There are many other ways of exploring the Blues potential of the min 7 add 9 chord. The approach we've been using is to ask the question, "What dom 7 chord is the Dm7 add 9 chord like?" We put the answers we came up with into mini progressions.

Let's take a look at another extended chord tone: the 11.

== Eleven ==

[The remainder of this article is available now at TrueFire.com . You'll learn the 11 and 13 Chord Colors for major, minor and dom 7 chords using the same cool, Bluesey approach we used for the 9. Included with the lesson are the original Power Tab files, which you can use play and edit in the awesome and free Power Tab application by Brad Larsen.

To get to the article, search for Chord Colors in the TrueFire search engine.]

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== Music Therapy Resource ==

Before I let you go, I want to offer a cool link I discovered. For those of you who don't yet understand the healing power of music, or who want to read more about it, I urge you to check out this link to Stanley Jordan's home page: http://www.stanleyjordan.com. Jordan plays the guitar like a piano, getting some amazing sounds from his axe. But more relevant is that, on his site, Jordan does much more than showcase his work as a musician. He provides vital info on the powerfully positive effect that making music has on psychological, physical and spiritual health. Check it out.

== Special Lesson: Blues Triad Mastery ==

Hey, gang. There's a new lesson on MaximumMusician.com for those readers who are Chord Crazed or Triad Trekkers: Blues Triad Mastery (BTM). The purpose of BTM is simply to teach you all the important triads all over the fretboard, in a way that's Bluesey and fun. Check out the first part of the lesson, including tab and sound files, at www.MaximumMusician.com/btm.htm.

When you read the full lesson at TrueFire.com for one dollar, you'll get a collection of comprehensive triad progressions: we cover all strings and all frets. Besides getting the tab in a PDF (Adobe Acrobat) file, you'll also get the original tab files in Powertab format. (All you gotta do to get these tab files is email me the Proof of Purchase and put "BTM" in the email Subject line.) You can play these as sound files or modify them, or use them as an insect repellent. Check out BTM. Or, go straight to TrueFire.com and search for "Blues Triad Mastery."

== Guitar Chords ==

If you are just starting to get the itch to understand and explore beyond the open position chords, your personal copy of Guitar Chords is available here while supplies last.

Fellow guitar geeks, experience a productive, fulfilling week. Play, play, play and listen even more. Keep a journal, as we talked about last week. See you next time.

Play Guitar. Feel Good.