Arrangers often voice chords by creating close position voicings from the melody down. They then create 'drop voicings' by systematically lowering one or two voices in the chord by an octave to create an open chord. See example 1. On guitar we will look at a similar system but we will be raising inner voices an octave to create open chords. Close position chords are difficult to impossible to play on the guitar but luckily these open voicings are musical and physically easier to grab. A special thanks to Jack Petersen, my old guitar teacher from UNF, for most of this knowledge.

We will end up with voicings called, for instance, 'Cmaj7 raise 2+3 root inversion'. See example 2. You will never see a chord written like this in a fake book or big band chart, only in this discussion. What this means is that a close position Cmaj7 chord with C in the bass was opened up by raising the 2nd and 3rd (e and g) scale degrees an octave. Also, guitar is notated 8va from the actual pitch.