Chord of the Day #5: G13

I haven't done a 13th chord yet, so it's time. G13:

X5345X

Like that D11 from earlier, this voicing doesn't contain the root note. The perspicacious will recognize it as a D-6/9, which is certainly what it should be called when playing it as a D minor chord. It's also a G13, with the fifth degree substituted for the root. The third (B), flatted seventh (F), and thirteenth (E) are what really define G13, so they're all you need to play. Note that those are the defining notes on C#7#9 and CΔ11 as well. If you play in this reductionistic way, your bassist can decide for you what chord you're actually playing.

I'm running out of gas on these. I suspect I'll thin them out to a more sustainable pace, maybe 2-3 a week. I'll consider this a success as long as it's not zero per week.

Negative Ruminations

I'm not feeling as inspired today as during the rest of the week. My 9-5 is killing me slowly, as always. That's not to say that my 9-5 is a bad thing, just that it occupies so much of my time that I sometimes confuse it for life itself, i.e. the thing that's really killing me. And all of us.

Chord of the Day #4: F#11

In my freshman year at Cedarcrest High School in Duvall, WA I took the required word processing/IT class. This would have been 1998 or 1999. It was then that I got my first email address, and started wasting time on the Internet in earnest. I discovered a phenomenal Chord of the Week website that doesn't exist anymore. I may try to recreate some of those entries here, like the one for the B-7 chord in that Beck song Tropicalia. Another of the entries introduced me to this lovely thing, F#11:

244300

Theoretically speaking, this chord is missing one note: a 9th. Here are the generic formulae for the different "number" types of chords:

7th: root, third, fifth, seventh
9th: root, third, fifth, seventh, ninth
11th: root, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, eleventh
13th: root, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, eleventh, thirteenth

Note that under this system, theoretical 13th chords are unplayable on the guitar because they require seven notes. But hey, an 11th chord only has six, so we can play those, right? Wrong. Cramming all six notes of a theoretical 11th chord into a single guitar voicing worth playing is no mean feat, and I've only discovered one voicing that does it. Taking that chord above, if you can manage to stretch your little finger to replace that doubled root on the fourth string with a ninth (G#), you'll get this F#11 voicing:

246300

This has everything. In fact, it's a perfect theoretical dominant 11th, with two minor changes: the guide tones, the third and seventh, have both been raised an octave. That's it. Also, if you want an F major 9 #11, what I would call a Lydian 11th, just drop the figure down one fret and let the two high strings ring out:

135200

These theoretical voicings are not tremendously useful on the guitar. In most cases, we strip a chord down to its elements, usually three, four, or five notes that convey all the necessary harmonic material. Even 9th, 11th, and 13th chords can be stripped down to three notes so long as no other changes (e.g. a #5 or ♭9) are being made.

Happy stretching.

Brandon

Chord of the Day #3: CΔ7#13 (?)

I don't have a good name for this chord, at least not off the top of my head. And not in the context where I suggest you use it. Here's CΔ7#13:

X3X300

It's basically just a C note, a major 3rd (E), and both a major and a flatted seventh degree. In order to avoid having to explain this (somehow) in the name of the chord, I renamed the ♭7 a #13 . This is a cluster voicing, in that it sounds three (or more) pitch classes that are next to each other in the chromatic scale: B♭, B, and C. Though the notes are not played consecutively in minor seconds, the bluesy dissonance it still pronounced. In fact, most other cluster voicings are too ugly for my ears, though I hear Nick Drake used them effectively.

I tend to play it in a turnaround for blues in E. Try this (preferably hammering on that major third note on the E):

E           E7/D     C#-9      CΔ7#13 B7#9
0XX100  X5645X  X4244X  X3X300 X2123X

I just made that up here on the ferry, so it may be garbage. Let me know. Note: I generally play fingerstyle, so you'll notice a lot of in-chord string gaps. Here's a close voicing of the same chord:

X3230X

Enjoy?

Chord of the day #2: D11

"Close voicings" are chords where all the notes are confined to a single octave. They are not easy to play on the guitar, for reasons I'll explain later. Here's one of my favorites, D11:

X9555X

You may wonder, where's the D in your D11 chord? I don't need one. This chord has the three necessary ingredients of a dominant 11 chord: the 11th (G) and two guide tones, the 3rd (F#) and ♭7th (C). The fourth note is optional, and you have one of three options: the root (D), the 5th (A), or the 9th (E). I've opted for the 9th, so from low to high, this voicing consists of a a 3rd, 11th, ♭7th, and 9th. It sounds better higher up on the neck, where the dissonance between the 3rd and 11th isn't as muddy.

A lot of guitar chord books will offer this modal voicing as a dominant 11 chord (here instantiated in G):

3X321X

I don't consider this a proper dominant 11th chord because it doesn't have a 3rd degree. It is therefore neither major nor minor, and doesn't quite follow the standard third-stacking framework of Western harmony. I would rather describe it as an F/G, F(add 9)/G, or A-7#5/G. You could also call it a G11(no 3rd).

Aside! The greatest guitar chord book ever written is Mel Bay's Complete Book of Harmony Theory and Voicing by Bret Wilmott. Buy it.

Chord of the Day #1: G#7#5#9

Hello. A friend of mine has suggested I start a Guitar Chord of the Day blog, so here it is, my old blog recycled as a Guitar Chord of the Day blog.

Generally, I'll choose voicings that can be expressed as a combination of six single digits and/or X's, representing strings 6 through 1, in that order. For example, here's C major:

X32010

Hopefully that's clear. The chord of the day is G#7#5#9. If you're playing in E or C#- it may come in handy:

4X4500

Jarring, eh? I arranged the Sarah McLaughlin song Hold On (in D♭), and used a bunch of bluesy voicings like this one. I also play it on a capo 5 version of Rain Dogs in F# minor.

Note that this is one note off from a nice euphonic E(add 9)/G# (the same as G#-7#5: 4X4400). The odd note out is the B# on the third string. Why B# and not C, you ask? Because I spelled this as a G#, and B#, not C, is the third degree of a G# major scale. (In equal temperament...) this chord is identical to A♭7#5#9; the only difference being the spelling. I chose to spell it as a G# because that is how it is spelled in the keys of E and C# minor, which are much more common on guitar than D♭ major and minor, where the chord would be spelled as an A♭. In fact, D♭ minor is a theoretical key (8 flats!) that you would almost never see.