Chord Tone Targeting Shortcut (sorta)

Chord tone targeting means, while playing a lead, you land your musical thoughts on a note in the chord you're improvising over. So, if you're improvising over a Cmaj triad, you'd target C, E, G.

The importance of practicing this, and getting really good at it, is extreme, for the same reason that when you are speaking, you don't just suddenly stop

Looks like a typo doesn't it? Although you can still get what I'm trying to say, the thought is clearly unfinished. If I was to train a few more sentences like that together, you'd eventually become confused as to what I'm trying to say.

Leads are no different. You're chaining together musical thoughts. Many of the same rules as speaking, or writing, apply; tell 'em what you're going to say, say it, tell 'em what you said. Stay on topic. Make every word count. And so on.

"Staying on topic", and "make every word count" are probably the ones I'd relate chord tone targeting to the most. If you consider the harmony (chord) to be the topic, and the topic is C major, then you can present your points as you like, as long as you come back to C major chord tones. Expanding on this basic soloing principal, to me, shows the wit, thoughtfulness, and experience, of the player. But just like somebody speaking, if they do nothing but tell jokes, offer personal insights, or talk about the old days, you'll probably stop listening.

Anyways, I've been working pretty hard on this, and along the way, came up with a practical way to make sure you do this without having to constantly be thinking about the notes in the chord.

It's all about knowing your five octave positions, and where they fit into the mode you're playing in. If you haven't yet, take a look at my CAGED, PMAID, 45123 article. What it discusses is how the five Caged octave patterns relate positionally to the five most commonly used modes, and the five pentatonic positions. I give enough in this article though to get you through it; as long as you more or less know the notes all over the fretboard, and know some basic positions (like a major scale, a minor scale, and your pentatonics), you can use this tip.

Here's a diagram showing the five octave positions. If you don't know this, you really, really should. It's an easy way of finding every place on the fretboard you can play a given note.




Here's the basics for an A blues jam (so an A7 vamp, making A mixolydian, and A pentatonic major, good candidates for improvising). Remember, when you just see a 7 with no other indication, it's a dominant chord (a lot of people call it a "blues" chord).

So...A7. You know right off the bat it's got an A in it. If you know a little about chords, you know a dominant 7 chord, is the same as a major 7 chord, but with a flatted 7th. So, A7 is A, C#, E, G (an Amaj7 would be A, C#, E, G#). You can also just play the chord and see where your fingers are, but it's good to know how basic chords are built.

If 7th chords aren't in your bag of tricks yet, just stick to A major (A, C#, E), and work with the third (C#)...keep reading.

Anyway, I've often read that the most important chord tones are the third (which determines if a chord is major or minor), and the 7th (which determines a lot of things, like if the chord is dominant, diminished, adds a major or minor 7th to create chords like Amin(maj7), etc.). This seems to pan out, because if you take any seventh chord of any kind, and cut out all the notes but the third and seventh, you can still hear the character of the chord (that's a great comping technique btw). If there's no 7th, play the root and third, or third and 5th. Extensions make it more interesting, but let's stick to the basics for now.

Based on that, let's target the third. So, A, C#, E, G....we want to target the C# in our lead phrases. Every time we play this note, it will sound very much "in", because it's "on topic".

Let's use A pentatonic major to get started (the number at the top is the starting fret of the diagram, R = root, so in this case A, and the numbers indicate the number of the note in the scale, NOT the finger or fret number). Remember that in pentatonic major, which is a five note scale, there is no 4 and no 7.

4
- R - 2 - 3 -
- 5 - 6 - - -
2 - 3 - - - -
6 - - R - - -
3 - - 5 - - -
- R - 2 - - -


Now, find an easy C# in that scale. Everybody knows that C is the third fret on the A string, so C# would be the fourth fret. If you look at this diagram, you see it pans out; the fourth fret is where the third note of this scale pattern is located. You probably play it with your index finger when playing this pattern. Note that, no matter where you play this scale pattern, the third (and all the other tones) will ALWAYS be in that same position relative to the root of the scale.

So, now look at the octave chart. Based on that, you should be able to see that if you play a note on the A string, you can find the octave of that note on the G string, two frets over. So, up two strings, over two frets, there's your first octave. You can also see that if you play a note on the G string, you can find the next octave up two strings and over three frets. Look at the diagram again, you see it works.

If you memorize the five octave positions, you can just find the note you want, anywhere, and your fingers will show you the octaves on their own, making it easy to find everywhere you can play any note on the fretboard.

So, play A string, 4th fret; G string, 6th fret; E string, 9th fret. You've played three octaves of C#.

Now, starting anywhere in the scale (the root is a good candidate, so start on A), play up the scale (or down it) until you get to one of those three C#. Try to make the C# land on a beat. Voila, you have just exercised chord tone targeting.

What if you wanted to target the flatted 7th (remember, A7 = A, C#, E, G). Well...there is no 7th in a pentatonic major scale, so in this case, no G. That doesn't mean you can't add it though; in fact, many, many guitar players have built their sound around using pentatonic scales with the correct 7th degree added, creating a 6 note scale.

Here's the pattern again with the flatted 7th added (this is building up to the mixolydian mode btw...). Note that we now start on the third fret so we can get that nice low G in there:

3
- R - 2 - 3 -
- - 5 - 6 7 - -
- 2 - 3 - - - -
- 6 7 - R - - -
- 3 - - 5 - - -
7 - R - 2 - - -

Look at the octave diagram again; you see if you play a note on the low E, you can find the octave two strings up, two frets over. From there, you can find the next octave 2 strings up, three frets over. So, E string 3rd fret, D string 5th fret, B string 8th fret. These are all Gs.

Do it again; start anywhere in the scale, land on any of the newly added G notes. Bam, you are now targeting the b7, which sounds great in leads over dominant chords.

Get creative from there; do a run to G, then from that G, go up to a C#, then from that C#, do a run to an A. You've chained three thoughts, targeting the b7, 3, and root. Once you can do that consistently (and one day, without really thinking about it at all, just because you've done this so much you just know where they all are), you're really well on your way to "staying on topic".

That's the basic mechanics, and you'd be surprised how just sticking to that can drastically improve the quality of your solos; you'd also be surprised how many people don't practice this; imho, it's one of the most important things that separates a player from the wanker. Of course you can experiment with landing in different places, or use really long thoughts that don't resolve exactly when expected, but remember, if you just ramble on and never get back to the topic in any way, people will stop listening (unless you can fool them into thinking your some kind of savant).

Have fun with that. As always, thanks for visiting.

The Marshall JVM410h Head with Vintage Modern 4x12 cabinet.

This is what I've been playing out of nowadays. Holy moly. The reviews I've seen speak favorably of the head; the ones I've seen that slag it with "noisy" or "muddy", must be playing out of a bad cabinet or with bad tubes or something, I just can't find anything not to like about this amp head, and coupling it with a Vintage Modern cab is working out really well for me. I'm not going to compare it to older standard Marshall's, because for the most part, I always found the production ones somewhat limited in areas, preferring the sounds from custom spec'd or reworked ones. I always ended up using distortion and other EQ stuff to get the tones I wanted.

How I usually run the rig is, cabinet in stereo with 2x 8ohm inputs from the head, with a Line 6 M13 Analog Modeler run into the FX loop on the head with a 50% wet setting (the FX loop on the JVM410h has a dedicated FX level knob in the back). I run my wah, whammy pedal and POG2 octave harmonizer in front of the amp. No distortion pedals, just the amp, and believe me, I'm not a "bluebreaker-distortion-is-best" player at all.

The head has 4 channels, each with three gain modes (green, orange, red), and dedicated reverbs, as well as reverbration and presence (one is basically bass response, the other treble). Each of the modes adds another gain phase to the signal chain. You switch them with the fairly heavy duty footswitch that comes with it. You can program recalls from the footswitch for amp settings, and they'll transfer to another JVM410h head since they get stored in the footswitch's memory, but to be honest, that makes me sorta nervous. Footswitches get beat on, drinks spilled on them, etc. We'll have to see how this pans out.

Lot of people say they have no need for 12 total gain and tone modes; I'm finding use for almost everything except OD2 in red mode. What I do is, enable the FX loop for one clean and one dirty channel, leaving the other two with just front-of-amp pedals and reverb. My overdrive and distortion pedals, even my compressor, are all on the shelf, all the gain comes from the amp. I might incorporate a fuzz face or some such in the future, but right now I've got plenty to keep me happy, and I really want to get to know the gain tones of this thing.

- Ch1: Tone-then-gain (unusual for Marshall, which is always gain-then-tone). This gives a very fender, old-school clean signal. I have the FX loop enabled on this channel, the green mode with the post delay and mods is amazing; the green mode has no gain stage and takes the volume out of the circuit. The orange and red modes add one gain stage each, but still with tone first. Really pure and basic clean tube tone, refreshing for Marshall.

- Ch2: Gain-then-tone, which spans Marshall JTM1959 and JCM800, depending on the gain setting. Green is very "real" (JTM1959), orange is classic JCM800, red is like a hotrodded JCM, but NOT exactly, it's a little more modern, having something to do with the amp perhaps, but also the fact that I'm not playing through a default 1960. I use this channel mostly for raw clean and punchy blues rhythm and leads, with the Fx loop disabled. Great blues channel, just a little reverb and front-of-amp effects, and the volume/tone settings of the guitar.

- Ch3: Gain-then-tone, each mode adding gain stages. Orange sings amazingly. Red is a little, but not too, over the top. Again no FX loop on this channel, just front-of-amp effects and reverb. This is my primary solo and crunch rhythm channel.

- Ch4: GAIN-then-tone built for modern metal, with a scoop in the mids, but I turn down the gain levels and turn up the mid to be comparable to Ch3, and enable the FX loop, so I get a virtual copy of my lead channel (3), with all the time based effects, and a little more push to compensate for any signal sap. Really technical sound on this channel. The metal monsters would probably curse the way I use it (nu metal basically saps out all the mids), but meh that's not my bag. Having a stereo echo in the FX loop let's me get some really fantastic overdriven effect sounds here, and since I'm not using the gain full out, I don't get any noise (the M13 also has a noise gate in it that I keep active). High end Satriani-Vai like ballad leads for the taking.

As I mentioned, for the cabinet, I didn't go with the 1960a/b, which is what everybody is putting with the JVM410h by default; I wanted Celestion Greenbacks, which seem to sound better at lower volumes and have subtle tone characteristics that respond more to what I'm trying to get at, and these are available in the Vintage Modern cabinets. I demo'd a Vintage Modern half stack, and remember loving the tone characteristics of the speakers, but finding the head somewhat limited in options, and I'd read about people trying different cabinet and loving it with the JVM410h, so I decided to pair one of the Vintage Modern 450a cabs; for, me it paid off huge.

It's a lot of fun, and extremely satisfying to hear a tone in your head and be able to nail it. I tweak my sound endlessly, but right now am really satisfied. The JCM410 head is an amazing piece of tech that should fascinate anybody looking for a high-end tone and gain palette.

Quick Trick to Remembering Mode Structures

Here's a trick so that you'll never forget the interval formula for building any of the seven standard major modes.

It does require that you know two things:

- The order of the modes
- The interval formula for the major scale (which is the same as the Ionian mode). You can think of this as the "starting formula".

It's really simple, I find it hard to believe that every book on the topic doesn't lay it out this way. I haven't read every book, but the ones I've got, don't.

Anyway, here it is:

The order of modes:

Ionian
Dorian
Phrygian
Lydian
Mixolydian
Aeolian
Locrian

I used to remember this by saying, "I don't play lame music any longer". The first letter of each word is the first letter of each mode.

Nowadays I just have the order memorized without any gimmicks, mostly because I practice my mode fingerings as a warmup every day, and as I move through the different modes up and down the neck (all seven modes connect to each other in this order, so if you know the fingerings well, creating runs in any key up and down the neck is easy), I actually say the mode out loud to reinforce it.

Next, you know the formula for the major (Ionian) scale:

W W H W W W H

If you don't know what that's about, I suggest you go back to the basics of the major scale and don't worry about modes until you really understand how the major scale is built, but in a nutshell, "W" is a whole step interval, or two frets, "H" is a half step interval, or one fret. So, if you were to play C major (C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C) all the way up the A string, starting at the third fret (which is a C), you would find, if you followed the WWHWWWH formula, that you would end on the next C, one octave up (15th fret). The distance from C to D is "W", D to E "W", E to F "H", F to G "W", G to A "W", A to B "W", and B to C "H"). This works for any scale; start at the root, follow the formula, you'll end at the root again.

So, what's the trick? As you move along the order of modes, Just revolve the intervals by taking the first one off and putting it at the end.

Written out:

Ionian - W W H W W W H
Dorian - W H W W W H W
Phrygian - H W W W H W W
Lydian - W W W H W W H
Mixolydian - W W H W W H W
Aeolian - W H W W H W W
Locrian - H W W H W W W
Back to Ionian - W W H W W W H

It's handy to know for a number or reasons, not just passing a theory test; for instance, you know that the final interval before the root, if you are playing a major lead, is a half step (scales start and end on the root). So, anywhere you can find that root note on the neck, you know that you can play the fret immediately below it and be in key; sliding up from that fret to the root gives a real nice major resolving sound (in theory speak, you are resolving a major 7th to the root). In minor terms, you probably mostly play the Aeolian mode (which is the same as the natural minor scale). Same logic; you know that the note immediately before the root is a whole step, so anywhere you can find that root note on the fretboard, you know that you can play the note two frets below it; this is a great opportunity to bend that note up a whole step, resolving the bend at the root.

The more you know these structures, the easier it is to move around the fretboard at will, but, at least for now, this is an easy way to memorize those structures.

As always, thanks for visiting.

Practice Your Upstrokes!

Quick post on an exercise I've created for myself that I'm finding to be helpful in my quest to master alternate picking.

BTW, that's been going well. It was tough at the outset; if you read my last post on alternate picking, you know that I decided to tear my technique apart and start all over, because I'd been watching too many Steve Morse and Paul Gilbert instructional clips on YouTube.

It's been worth it; in just a couple of months, I've found my reapplied techniques starting to emerge naturally in jams and rehearsals, which is gratifying, because I find that, even if you're nailing a reworked technique while you practice at home, it's really hard to stick to it when you get to rehearsal. You're paying attention to the band and your song, so 100% of your attention isn't focused on the technical aspects of your playing, so it's easy to slide back into habits you're trying to break.

One area in particular I discovered needing some strengthening was my upstrokes. Although I was hitting the notes in my runs effectively, I did find that, at higher speeds, my pick wasn't really cleanly executing the upstroke, I was depending a lot on the fretting of the string and a sort of implied half-pick to get the note. You really couldn't tell unless you were listening closely, but I decided to brand it sloppy and lazy; I mean, if I'm trying to get harmonic minor runs Steve Morse clean, it's all gotta be there.

Anyway, so as part of my regimen, I started playing scales and runs that I normally use alternate picking on entirely in upstrokes.

For example, ascending and descending up and down the Aeolian shape (start at any fret, but always try to know the key, for instance, if you start this at the 5th fret, you're playing A natural minor, or A Aeolian):

-R-xx-
-xx-x-
xx-x-
-x-R--
-x-xx
-R-xx-

Play it all the way ascending, then all the way descending, using upstrokes, all of it, first and last notes included. No downstrokes at all. Play it cleanly, to a metronome a few times, and then rubato (flexible, not entirely on the beat, but still resolving on the 1s properly). It's not as easy as it sounds.

I also work it with some simple arpeggios, like this A major one, starting with the 1, 3, 5 Ionian shape, and then just repeating the shape at the octaves (in this case, the roots are all A tones):

4
-----x--x----------
------R------------
--x--x-------------
---R---------------
x--x---------------
-R-----------------

This has a number of benefits:

- You are practicing you upstrokes.
- When switching strings, you are getting used to shifting your pick all the way over the last one, to the upstroke position of the next one. Being conscious of where your pick is at all times can be difficult to focus on, because so many of us take our picking for granted, so any exercise that makes you do something unusual with your pick hand will force you to focus on it.
- Upstrokes can give you a different tone than downstrokes; you can get a really sharp, staccato sound from upstrokes that is difficult to duplicate with downstrokes, which tend to be more legato (for my anyway). More options in tone is a very powerful tool, as it adds interest and variety to your playing.
- You're playing guitar, and thinking about it while you're doing it. That's good.

Have fun with that. As always, thanks for visiting.

Alternate Picking: Play with Intent, Don't Take It for Granted.

If you play, you probably know all about alternate picking. Down, up, down, next string, repeat. You've practiced it, can blow through scales all the way up and down the neck (or you're working on it). Some of you may even use a metronome when you do it (a very good idea; knowing how to move through a scale in time, instead of rushing it and just holding the last note until the 1, is imho one of the men-from-boys hallmarks).

Recently I've been listening to a lot of Paul Gilbert and Steve Morse; I cycle through players like this now and then, because one day I'll be in the gym or something, and once again just be blown away by the accuracy and dexterity of these players. They can play scales, arpeggios, skip strings, all that, perfectly in time, and they don't miss notes. Both of these players are considered very speedy; Gilbert is in the world's top 50 fastest, Morse is a five-time Guitar Player "of the year" guy (which means he had to bow out; he's no longer eligible for the award...and this was years ago), so when they say, "I used to do this but don't anymore, here's what I do now", I figure I should listen.

Interestingly, neither of these guys are huge fans of sweep picking; there's video lessons right on youtube of both of them saying they've done it, they get it, but they prefer alternate picking...EVERY time. That includes vertical arpeggios. If the pick direction is down on the E string, it should be up on the A string. Both Gilbert and Morse make that very clear.

I've always somewhat prided myself on my alternate picking; I've worked pretty hard at it, have taken direction from the Morse, Malmsteens, Gilberts, etc. of the world, and it's helped me differentiate, to a point, from most of the players I see at the jams and so on. I'm known as a "fast, technical" player (though I'm not one of the nu metal shredders, that use hammers/pulls and sweeps constantly to create what I call "blurs", etc., that's just not my style). But, I had to be honest with myself, after I got "good enough" at it, I sort of took it for granted. I find a new scale or run, I practice it cleanly and with a metronome a while, then instinct takes over and I just let my hands go. The results have always been more or less acceptable to me, largely because live, I tend to pull off what I know. But now and then, I know that my picking would sort of "get lost", and I would finish the run with hammers or pulls, then reset.

What was causing this? Were Gilbert and Morse telling me, "good...but get better. Look MORE closely at your picking, REALLY break it down." I figure they'll both tell themselves that until the day they die, so maybe I should to.

Back to the drawing board I went, and I found out a few things, the most important being, I was taking notes for granted. By this I mean, I wasn't consciously picking notes; I was taking for granted that my pick would find them, because I know the pattern I'm playing. Sort of like not consciously looking where I put my feet when I walk...we all do it, but you only have to visit the Fail Blog once in a while to know the hazards of it.

Take for example, this major arpeggio I like to play (the number is the fret so start, "R" indicates a root tone). I sort of consider it one of my signature riffs. This example is in A major:

4
-R---
-x-x-
x--x-
--x--
x--x-
-R---

I've shown that to a lot of people; it's a great way to open up a run in a major scale. You can play it up, down, start it in the middle, as long as you resolve to the root (or a chord tone), it's classy.

I sat down and played it, as usual, without thinking about it; I blew through it, clean. Here was the pattern I used (the arrows indicate the up/down strokes).

4
-v---
-v-^-
v--^-
--v--
v--^-
-v---

Surprise surprise; according to the wisdom of Morse and Gilbert, I'm not alternate picking. I guess I would call this "alternate sweeping". It was quite a revelation, because I realized that I was taking the picking pattern I was using entirely for granted. I was totally unconscious of the direction my pick was moving on any given note, I was just instinctively telling myself "If the next note is on a string below the current one, even if my last pick stroke was down, change the picking to a downward sweep. If the next note is on the string above, even if my last pick direction was up, change the pick direction to an upward sweep". Or taken another way, if you can just keep your picking going in the same direction, do it. Only change direction when you have to, which usually means, if your next note is on the same string.

Acceptable here; I knew that, although I should analyze this more deeply, that there was nothing wrong with this, when taken from the perspective of motion conservation, which instinctively makes sense to me...on paper. So, I said hmm...how am I actually blowing through my straight scales? Although not every time, I did catch myself doing this (no fret number here, this is just an extended Ionian mode shape):

v-^-v
v-^-v
-v^-v
-v^-v
v-^-v
v-^-v

Now, according to Steve and Paul, it should look like this:

^-v-^
v-^-v
-^v-^
-v^-v
^-v-^
v-^-v

In other words, entirely regardless of what direction the string is, if your picking is a downstroke on the current note, it should be an upstroke on the next note, and vice versa. ALWAYS.

Ok, I'm an alternate picker, I can drop the metronome to the bottom and still double the click on a good day. How hard can this be? I discovered that, while not beyond my ability as far as alternating went, it was pushing me to be absolutely aware of what note I was picking. In fact, I found that for turning scales around (so playing up, then down), it somehow flows better, and it certainly makes it easier to be conscious of the beat. This kind of precision is something I constantly strive for; when I move through a run or arpeggio, I want to be able to nail a chord tone, or switch modes, cleanly and with intent, exactly when I want to. What I discovered I was doing though, was just letting my hands get ahead of me, and sort of timing the stop on the target tone, not really being aware of what direction my pick was moving, doing a mental reset, and proceeding with a downstroke to begin my new phrase.

I also found this, and to me, this is the clincher; when sweeping, I hit the next note faster than when I alternate...but you can't play a whole lead without alternating, even if you alternate sweeps. I'm not talking about tremolo picking here, I'm talking about a conscious alternate to hit a particular note. This can make your timing jagged. Not good. When I switched to all alternates, I discovered that my timing was more consistent. Even though this is taking me out of a comfort zone that has served me well for years, just by doing this little exercise, I've found an opportunity to become a better player, and perhaps gotten a glimpse of how Steve and Paul think about what they do.

In the end, I believe that, if you were to tear apart their playing, you'd find even the most adamant alternate picker hybrids their technique to a point. But I think they might do it more for a certain tone or feel than out of habit; alternate picking can't get the fluidity of a legato run or the rake sound of a sweep. But if you default to one or the other simply because that's what your limbic system (sort of your unconscious learning/memory system) is telegraphing to your hands, and you're not REALLY paying attention to what exactly your left and right hand are doing and how you're syncing them up, then you're taking your technique for granted, which as I found, can probably lead to some bad habits.

Give it a try; take an arpeggio or run you love to play in front of people. Sit down and REALLY carefully look at how you're playing it, against a metronome. Then try alternate picking it without any sweeps at all; the pick should never move twice in the same direction. You might find out a couple of things about your playing.

As always, don't show up too drunk for gigs, and thanks for visiting.

Significantly expand your chord vocabulary with 7th chords...easily.

Probably one of the most frustrating things for any guitarist that really hasn't done the whole theory thing is chords; you know your major, minor, and dominant, and can probably play those three kinds in a few positions up and down the neck. But then one day you want to add a jazz tune to your repertoire, or you're at a party and somebody drops a lead sheet on you, and you see "Cmin7b5".

Erm...I dont know that one. You fiddle around with a chord you know that has the root, and in the end wind up saying, "sorry man I don't know it, let's do a blues jam." The other guy sighs and says sure, or starts showing you the fingering, which you try to get right but struggle with...

...so you go home, and once again break out that chord book, saying, "this time I'm going to memorize ALL of them in one key, which will show me the fingerings in all keys, I just have to move them up and down the neck."

The thought is right; you're trying to find a core position that you can use to play all your chords in relation to. "A major is here at the second fret, if I slide it up two frets it's B major..." and so on. You play those great chords, memorizing all those fingerings in one night, and man they sound great; pretty, expansive, "advanced" tones shimmer from the wood; now THIS is what it's all about.

Unfortunately, it won't work, because you don't use all the chords all the time. You may pick up one or two chords from the exercise, but in the end, you're trying to retain too much information. You'll go back to that party next year and once again end up doing a blues jam.

Not to fear, Fretboard Framework to the rescue. As always, the Fretboard Framework is about starting points; memorize the core idea and use it as a reference to build more advanced patterns and voicings. If you've read some of my past articles, you know it works for scales and modes; it works for chords too, and that's what we'll look at now. By the end of this article, you should be able to drastically expand your chord vocabulary.

Let's start with the following; these you'll need to memorize. Note that when I say "flat the..." I mean "drop it a half step (or one fret)", and when I say "sharp the..." I mean "raise it a half step (or one fret)". So flatting something twice would be a whole step (two half steps, or two frets).

For now, let's stick to expanding into all 7th chords. Extended chords (9, 11, 13), 6 and Sus chords, will come in a later article. Believe it or not, they're pretty easy as well if you know a couple of simple rules, but 7th chords are the reference for pretty much all advanced chord voicings, so let's make sure you know all about that first. Also, I'll assume you know how to play your basic plain-old major and minor chords well enough; we won't cover them here.

- Major 7th chords are built on the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th notes of a given major scale. So, Cmaj7 = C E G B.
- To make that major 7th chord dominant (blues), you flat the 7th. So, C7 = C E G Bb.
- To make that major 7th chord minor, you flat the 3rd and 7th. So, Cmin7 = C Eb G Bb.
- To make that major 7th chord half diminished (also called "min7b5"), you flat the 3rd, 5th, and 7th. So, Cmin7b5 = C Eb Gb Bb. This is a very important chord that, surprisingly, many guitar players, even good ones, don't know.
- To make that major 7th chord fully diminished (also called "diminished"), you flat the 3rd, 5th as before, but flat the 7th twice. So, Cdim = C Eb Gb Bbb (notice the "flat flat" on the B). You may be wondering what "half dim" vs. "dim" is all about; that's a good observation, and has to do with the order of intervals in the chord; don't worry about it for now.
- To make that major 7th chord augmented, you sharp the fifth. So, C E G# B.

More simply:

aug7 = 1 3 #5 7
maj7 = 1 3 5 7
dom7 (or just "7") = 1 3 5 b7
min7 = 1 b3 5 b7
min7b5 = 1 b3 b5 b7
dim7 = 1 b3 b5 bb7

If you're thinking, "so all I need to do is memorize "aug, maj7, dom7, min7, min7b5, dim7", and what notes are flatted from one to the next", then you get it; it's that easy. As far as fingering them, the below tips are important:

- Practically in day-to-day use, all chords can be played on the top four strings (so the D, G, B, E strings). This is in fact frequently preferable, as the bass will hold the low end. Sure, ultimately you should know all chords on any combination of strings, but as a starting point, you can't go wrong this way. However, make sure you ONLY play those four strings. A stray tone can totally break your chord.
- Just because a note "number" is a higher than another DOES NOT MEAN THE NOTE MUST BE HIGHER THAN ALL THE REST IN THE CHORD. In other words, the 7th does not need to be a higher register/pitch than the rest of the chords and so on. You'll see this work later. I was confused about this when I started learning theory, because I studied for a while with a piano teacher. If you are in the same boat, jump out of it and get into the guitar one.
- Chords notes don't have to be played in the order you may write down on paper; keep reading, you'll see what I mean.

So, let's use it. For reference, I start with the easiest thing to finger on the top four strings, which is a min7 chord; you may think "start with major 7", but meh, this is easier to me. Let's do Cmin7; you just lay one finger across all four strings at the 8th fret. You probably already know this chord already.

Do it, and look at the notes (the top number is the fret, the numbers to the left of the notes are the note number, and "R" means "root"). Sure enough, as described earlier, you have a Cmin7 chord.

---8
R - C
5 - G
3 - Eb
7 - Bb

Interesting; they don't appear in the order you'd expect on paper (C Eb G Bb). That's ok; this gets into inversions and such, don't worry about it for now (though inversions are important). They don't have to be in the "straight" order, they just have to represent all the notes you need to make the chord "sound" right. Also notice that the Bb note is "lower" than the root, even though it's the 7th; again, the "height" or "register" of a tone isn't the key factor in playing it (in advanced harmony, this isn't always true, but for day-to-day it's true enough).

So...ok. From the formulas earlier, we know:

"- To make that major 7th chord minor, you flat the 3rd and 7th. So, C Eb G Bb."

This means that we started with a maj7 chord, but flatted the 3rd and 7th to get a minor one. So to get a maj7, we reverse the process; raise the 3rd and the 7th of the min7 chord a half step (so they are now on the 9th fret).

---8
R - C
5 - G
3 - x E
7 - x B

That's it...you have converted the min7 to maj7. You're now playing Cmaj7.

Now that we know how to get to our maj7 chord, let's convert it to dominant. Again, we know:

"- To make that major 7th chord dominant (blues), you flat the 7th. So, C E G Bb."

So, starting with the Cmaj7 chord, let's apply the formula...

---8
R - C
5 - G
3 - x E
7 - Bb

That's it; you're now playing C7 (note that, when you see a 7, 9, 11, or 13 on a chord, but no "maj" or "min", that means it's a dominant chord).

Moving along; let's make this a Cmin7b5. Start with the Cmaj7 again, and apply the formula:

"- To make that major 7th chord half diminished (also called "min7b5"), you flat the 3rd, 5th, and 7th."

---7
R - x C
5 - Gb
3 - x Eb
7 - x Bb

There you have it; you are now playing a Cmin7b5 (uncommonly called "half diminished"), a VERY important jazz chord that can even be used to spice up some blues numbers here and there. You can also look at this as "start with a Cmin7 (which already has the 3rd and 7th flatted), and flat the 5th".

Now let's do diminished (uncommonly called "fully diminished"). Start with the maj7 chord and apply the formula:

"- To make that major 7th chord fully diminished (also called "diminished"), you flat the 3rd, 5th as before, but flat the 7th twice."

---7
R - x C
5 - Gb
3 - x Eb
7 - Bbb

There you have it; you're now in the "fully diminished" world. Note that saying "flat flat (bb)" is correct; you're supposed to think of it this way. Again, there's a theory reason for it, we'll get into that another day.

On to augmented, again start with Cmaj7, and apply the formula:

"- To make that major 7th chord augmented, you sharp the fifth."

---8
R - C
5 - x G#
3 - x E
7 - x B

There you have it, Cmaj7 aug chord, commonly written as "Cmaj7+" or "Cmaj7#5" chord. You're a crazy jazz cat.

If you've really been thinking about what's going on here, you may have noticed that, just by knowing where to finger a min7 chord, which is easy, you don't have to know the notes you're playing. Just be knowing that, when played on the top four strings, that the root is on the first string, the 5th on the second, the 3rd on the third string, and the 7th on the fourth, and knowing what notes to flat to get to your desired chord, you can build these chords anywhere.

Bbmin7b5 used to look intimidating; now you know, lay your finger across the top four strings on the sixth fret; this is Bbmin7. Flat the 5th (which is "whatever note I'm playing on second string"), and you are playing that scary looking chord. Get really snooty and say, "ah, the half diminished chord". Juliard, Berkley, eat my dust.

This concludes the article, but I'll give some extra here, because it's so important:

Just in case it didn't sink in yet:

- KNOW THE CHORD TONES WHEN FINGERING A CHORD. IT'S THE PRACTICAL KEY TO KNOWING ALL CHORDS EVERYWHERE, EVEN MORE IMPORTANT THAN KNOWING THE NOTES.

Take the formulas given before, and try it anywhere you know how to finger a maj7 or min7 chord, whether or not it's on the top four strings. Let's look at Cmin7, played at the third fret. Again, we'll stick to four strings (and again, for these exercises, ONLY play those four strings);

---3
3 - x Eb
7 - Bb
5 - x x G
R - C

The order of chord tones has changed; the root is now on the fifth string, the 5th on the fourth string, the 7th on the third string, and the 3rd on the second string (so you're using the "middle" four strings).

Well, you know that to get to a maj7, you will have to sharp the 3rd and 7th.

---3
3 - x x E
7 - x B
5 - x x G
R - C

There you have it; Cmaj7.

Let's get out there and try Cmin7b5 this way; convert the maj7 (so starting with the maj7, flat the 3rd, 5th and 7th, or just start with the min7 chord and flat the 5th) and you get:

---3
3 - x Eb
7 - Bb
5 - x Gb
R - C

Blammo; you're playing a nice, rich sounding Cmin7b5. Compare it to the one on the top strings you learned before; note that they're the same chord, but you can imagine using one sometimes, and the other sometimes. You may play the Cmin7b5 on the top four strings, but the vocalist may say "I'm hitting the upper registers, can you play a different voicing?". Sure...I'll play this one on the middle four strings, I know how to do that easily enough now. Sure, they may get picky...no, play THIS exotic one. But at least you showed up knowing what the chord is, and you can play it a couple of different ways, which will usually do the job nicely.

So, applying the formulas to the chords based on where the tones are in the chord, you can build any 7th chord, anywhere, on the neck. It works for extensions and such too, like 9th and 11th chords, but there are a couple of other rules to know to build those properly; material for another article.

Have fun with that. As always, thanks for visiting.

The POG2 (Electro Harmonix)

If you know the kind of guitar player I am, you'd probably be surprised to hear that one of the acts I'm working with these days is using me as a rhythm and acoustic player. You'd probably be further surprised to hear that it's a Led Zeppelin cover band. Is it going to go anywhere, I don't know, but it's good practice and shows promise, and besides, there's nothing wrong with killing a couple of hours in a studio on a weekday night.

One of the songs we targeted is "Since I Been Lovin' You". The lead guitar player is a total Jimmy Page disciple--in fact, it seems to be more or less all he's really interested in playing--so the song lets him showcase. The singer can pull it off, which is enough of a reason to hang in there and see where it goes, and of course if we actually can nail it in front of a crowd, it'll probably land well.

But...we don't have a keyboard player. So the guys were a little tentative when the lead guy pushed to get the song on the list. I understood the hesitation; if you listen to the song, there's no rhythm guitar, it's all keyboard swells and fills, and without them, the song would probably still work, but it wouldn't be the whole pig.

I'd actually been working on my synth/octave sounds recently, and had achieved some organ-like effects, and was looking at some other devices, in particular, the POG2, or "Polyphonic Octave Generator" from Electro Harmonix; it's brand new, and is an upgrade to their previous POG. I couldn't find it anywhere though, I'd only seen demos online, so figured "sooner or later", but I believed it was now my best chance to fill the keyboard void in this song.

I'm pretty heavily invested in Line 6 stuff; I've got a GuitarPort (if you don't have one and you're a guitar player, for shame, it's 80 bucks and, coupled with a GuitarPort Online seven dollar a month membership fee and a computer, is easily one of the best play-along, sound experimentation, learning tools ever made), a PodX3 (the BIG, BIG pro brother to the GuitarPort) for recording and sometimes stage work, and an M13 Stompbox Modeler for stage.

With all that digital wizardry, you'd figure I could get that organ sound; Line 6 offers a variety of octave, synth, etc. effects that I can mix and match pretty much any way I want. But, no; I tried and tried. I couldn't get the sound I wanted, simple though it may seem. Line 6 makes great distortion and time based effects, but IMHO, their octave stuff isn't really that strong.

I called the guys at Sweetwater (they're great, I mean they actually place follow up calls just to see "how it's going"), and inquired about the POG2; they said it was shipping in a few days, so I could reserve one, they'd send it to me, etc. It wouldn't make it in time for rehearsal though...hmm.

Suddenly the guy says, "well, you saw our online demo right? I could sell you that unit. It's been used only a couple of times and is in mint condition. We'll sell it with the full warranty, yada yada."

I did it; the pedal came the next day via overnight delivery. Man, am I glad I made that call.

In a couple of hours, I knew my way around this amazing device, and with some experimentation, got it up and running to do exactly what I wanted. It's got a dry sound level, -2, -1, +1, +2 octave volume settings, four Q settings, and three filters; Low Pass, Attack, and Detune. The Attack filter was of great interest to me; you can keep your dry signal strong, but set the attack filter to fade in to your sound, giving, at high settings, "ghost on drugs" swells, and at low settings, a very Holdsworth-like "I can't hear his pick" attack sound; it's also perfect for that Andy Summers-ish delayed attack thing. It's true bypass and such, so signal degradation isn't a serious consideration.

Anyway, my settings for the organ sound are a light -2 octave, pronounced -1 and +1 octave, and a semi-pronounced +2 octave, with no Q, a slight attack setting for a quick initial swell without losing the ability to "hit" a chord, no low pass, and no detune. I also run it in front of (on the M13) a lightly set Opto Trem for that organ tremolo effect, and a pretty "hall" reverb sound (though not exaggerated at all, just enough to fill it up a little). You can save eight presets on the POG2, and toggle them with a footswitch, so I saved everything and called it a night.

Note that I'm not mentioning what amp I use, because these days, I'm playing here, there, everywhere; I can't count on the amp for reverb or distortion. My personal amps are Marshalls (I'm looking at the new Vintage line in fact), but when you play in studios or a club, you have to use the backline, so one day it could be a Marshall, one day a Fender, one day a Bogner, one day a Mesa Boogie, or one day some piece of junk somebody kicked a lot. Bottom line, if all you need is a clean channel, and you otherwise walk in with your sound, you can stay consistent pretty much anywhere.

Anyway, I was pleased with the result of my M13/POG2 combo, so I brought it to practice and kicked on the preset I mentioned previously. The band mumbled a little about a keyboard player again, but when I started riffing a little to check my level, they were like...

"WTF IS THAT?!?!?"

I told them what I worked up for the rehearsal, and they immediately wanted to play the formerly maybe/maybe not "Since I Been' Lovin' You". I'd worked out a lot of the important keyboard fills and such, and they were completely blown away; all hesitation was gone. The singer went on and on about how he could finally "hear" the song, and so forth. It also opens up other possibilities; "Your Time is Gonna Come" for instance.

Aside from that though, I've set up some other octave/swell settings that are far more subtle than an organ (or are just really pure octave effects), and am pretty confident when I say that there is nothing else I've found that comes close to the quality of this pedal. It's really pretty much just amazing.

Maybe some day you'll hear me use it. If you play and have any interest at all in octave effects, GET THIS PEDAL.

As always, thanks for visiting.