To
be able to use this system for voicing chords on the guitar a student has to
be able to:
1) Spell the desired chord in question accurately. For this
system any 4 notes (clusters don't work well) will produce a chord but it
would be wise to limit things to: Maj7, Min7, Dom7, Min6. (using the chord
synonyms that follow this gives us a lot of chords) initially.
2) Know the fret board of the guitar adequately enough to follow
the 'Build a chord' steps below. Get 'Sight to Sound' by Leon White and learn
to read music on the guitar if you don't know every note on the fret board!
3) Understand jazz harmony enough to hear if something is wrong.
4) Understand inversion of chord voicings.
Build
a guitar chord:
1) Spell the chord in root position e.g. Cmin6th = C Eb G A
2) Find the notes on 3 adjacent (and lower) strings of
the guitar so we'll start with E and A + D or 6th, 5th and 4th strings with
the following layout on the guitar. The root (or first voice) goes on the
6th string, the 3rd + 5th go on the 5th string and the 6th or seventh goes
on the 4th string. This forms an arpeggio. (See example 3).
3)
From here we create our raised voicings by raising inner voices. For this discussion
we will be creating raise 2 and raise 2 +3 voicings. It is common to use raise
2 + 4 voicings as well. The same system applies. So, to create a Cm6 raise 2
we would move the Eb an octave up (see example 4). The raise 2+3 is arrived
at by raising both the Eb and G (see example 4 also).
4)
The next step is to invert the voicing up the neck of the guitar (we'll use
the Cm6 Raise 2+3 for an example). This is also an example of crossing a voicing
over to an adjacent set of strings (from the 4th, 5th and 6th strings to the
3rd, 4th and 5th strings for the starting arpeggio) is given here so that the
inversions will fit on the same set of strings (and also to demonstrate a 'cross-over'
; see example 5). Note that the second chord of example 4, Cmin6 raise2, has
the same notes as the first chord of example 5, just on a different set of strings.
Note:
The steps in "Build a guitar chord" result in chords with the bass
on the 6th string. Some comping is better with chords voiced on higher strings.
Simply use the same method on either of the next 2 sets of strings (5th, 4th
and 3rd or 4th, 3rd and 2nd). Note also that raised 2+3 voicings cannot be played
when you start from the 4th, 3rd and 2nd string in Raise 2 voicings built from
the 4th, 3rd and 2nd string starting point are good ones to learn.
Do not feel overwhelmed by this. It may seem like a lot of steps but it is all
pretty intuitive if you met the knowledge requirements listed above. The real
power of this system is that you can build any voicing you might need in a systematic
and musical way.
