Topic: Chord patterns on the guitar demystified: there are only 2 types!
This thread is about an insight I wish I would have realized some years earlier. I guess it would have facilitated my first years a lot. I knew the basic facts but I didn't know how to exploit them. Now I am old and wise ... (grinning)
It is about voicings of the triad and how they are placed on the fretboard. You have basically two possibilities: Directly over the root note place the third or place the fifth.
MAJOR TRIAD FIFTH-PATTERN
Example 1: E-Major chord in it's first position (which in this case means zero-posotion or neck position). Lowest note: E
Next: B (the fifth), then of course again E
Ab, which is the third, comes as the fourth tone in this pattern.
|
|
| X Ab
| . X E
| . X B
| E
The following is what I call the according fifth-Pattern. The lowest x here indicates the empty E-string:
. x
. . x
. . x
x
The lower part of this pattern forms a power chord by the way (which is undetermined missing out the third). The upper three are enough to make up the triad in it's full sense. You may move particularly this triad pattern up and down the fretboard, as long as you stay on the four lower strings.
TWO OTHER POSITIONS
The A-major-chord in the neck-Position is nothing else but this pattern shifted a fourth upwards by pushing it one string higher. It only looks different because of the major third between the fourth and fifth string.
|
| . X C#
| . X A
| . X E
| A
|
Triad-pattern:
. . x
. . x
. . x
x
D major in neck position is the same but shifted one further string / fourth upwards.
| . X F#
| . . X D
| . X A
| D
|
|
Triad-pattern:
. . x
. . . x
. . x
x
MAJOR TRIAD THIRD-PATTERN
Example 2: C-Major neck position. C-E-G. The third comes directly above the root.
|
|
| G
| . X E
| . . X C
|
Triad-Pattern:
x
. . x
. . . x
This is what i call the third-pattern. The G-major is another example of it, one fourth /string lower. Here two patterns for the higher strings:
|
x
. x
. . x
|
|
And
x
. . x
. . x
|
|
|
Again the only reason they look different from the first one is the **** major third between the G and B strings.
PATTERN CONNECTIONS
At it's left the C-major-chord at the neck contains the fifth-pattern in the higher three strings, but transposed one tone (2 frets) downwards and using two empty strings.
. . x E |
. . . x C | upper part of the fifth-pattern
. . x G | |
. . . . x E | third-pattern
. . . . . x C |
Here you see that in the usual chord patterns these triard patterns overlap. For example G-major contains the A-major-pattern in the middle strings (without the root note).
You see: Chord patterns use these elementary patterns as modules
If you play the D-Major fingering for a higher chord on the fretboard by just moving it upwards the fretboard, you may expand it to the bass strings in two directions. If you expand it to the left (lower side), there comes the E-major Pattern we have seen, but with it's third absorbed by the D-Pattern. This is what I might have heard of as the Hendrix-Style.
. . . . . . . x
. . . . . . . . x
. . . . (x). . x
. . . . . x
. . . . . x
. . . x
If you go to the right there comes the C-Major-Pattern which is already shown above. And so on for the other Positions. There are not that many.
ARPEGGIOS
You see, they connect to each other horizontically and vertically. And this helps in finding arpeggios that may run up and down the whole fretboard. Playing and practicing arpeggios is considered by many to be better than playing scales. In fact it sounds more vivid and experienced than with scales. Listen for example to gypsy jazz (correctly: sinti ). Wanna play interesting arpeggios that switch the chord or it's gender? Use the basic patterns of different chords as modules. It is always only either three or four notes (depending on the type) in one micro-Pattern. What in some tutorials (the better ones to my opinion) is praised for soloing as "triads" are patterns that result from connecting these patterns I proposed.
MINOR CHORDS
Now, if you always know where the triad's third in the pattern is, then transferring this principle into minor is easy: just move the thirds one fret to the left.
Fifth-Pattern in minor on the 4 lowest strings:
x
. . x
. . x
x
Fifth-Pattern in minor on 2nd lowest to 2nd highest string:
. x
. . x
. . x
x
Fifth-Pattern in minor on the 4 highest strings:
. . x
. . . x
. . x
x
Third patterns in a minor chord:
x
. x
. . . x
and
|
x
x
. . x
|
|
and
x
. x
. . x
|
|
|
C°j11 AND OTHER SPACECRAFTS
If you want chord extensions, i.e. those additional notes prescribed by numbers, you just have to find the best tab position to move. O. k., this advise is really too scarce, but I suppose that you will anyhow first need the basic understanding and some practice before adding extensions. The same for diminished or augmented chords: once you got the main point, the rest follows easily.
REMARKS
Do you have to practice them? Physically maybe yes, if you are not into arpeggios already. Mentally: not really that much. If you know the chords in the neck position you have already the patterns in your mind. To my opinion the real deal is to practice the connecting of the modules. Many funny things may happen here, for example by switching between chords or between minor and major during one arpeggio run.
(If you play some etudes by Heitor Villa-Lobos or the C-Major-Prelude from the well-tempered piano, book I, or some pieces from Bach's cello suites, you will find lots of these interconnected patterns. In fact I found them a century ago while looking for alternative fingerings for these technical studies.)
If anyone finds this helpful please contribute critical comments and maybe some better diagrams. I can't make them that easy.
