It seems to me that piano players utilize more interesting chord progressions than guitarists, but guitar players are better than piano players at making simple chord progressions sound cool. Why is that?

I play both piano and guitar, and knowing one instrument helps the other immensely, and vice versa. I find myself a much more versatile player since I picked up piano a couple years ago - anything I can play on one instrument, I try to apply that idea to the other instrument.

It seems also that all guitar players seem to be worried about it speed and scales and soloing. Cmon everyone, take up your axe and work with chords! How many of you could pick up a chart from the RealBook, play through the progression, and make it sound good? There is more to progressions than 1-4-5.

And so that I'm not just ranting, let me post a couple cool chordal ideas.

When playing any major progression, you can borrow a couple chords out of the minor key to spice up your sound. Say you're playing C, Am, F, G, on and on and on. For a quick little bridge, or an ending, you can use the Ab and Bb from C Minor to lead up to the C Major chord. So...
C, Am, F, G, C, Am, F, G, Ab, Ab, Bb, Bb could be a 12 bar form.

Utilize "5 of's" (which I believe are called secondary dominants. For example, when playing I, vi, IV, V progression (C, Am, F, G from the last example), you can use any chords dominant as a leading chord. So, instead of this C, Am, F, G, you can have C, E, Am, F, G (the C and E chords are a half measure, all others a measure). Or use another to lead to the F chord, and C chord. C, E, Am, C7, F, G (every chord a half measure except the F and G). Notice the tension you're getting (G# from the E, Bb from the C7). You can use a 2-5-1 for the ending. C, E, Am, C7, F, Dm, G, C. Now that you have that Dm, you can use it's 5 for even more tension. C, E, Am, C7, F, A, Dm, G, C. Extend those chords! Cmaj7, E7, Am7, C7, Fadd9, A7, Dm7, G7. Now THAT'S a nice sounding progression, that evolved from a simple 1-6-4-5. Then, on the second time through the progression you stick the F and G in the same measure and put Ab and Bb in the last measure.

So (this list without extensions), you went from
I, vi, IV, V, I, vi, IV, V
to
I, III, vi, I, IV, VI, ii, V, I, II, vi, I, IV, V, bVI, bVII

See how much more harmonically interesting that is? That's what a piano player would do. A guitarist would wank over the 1-6-4-5... Let's be musicians instead of guitarists. Feel free to comment, add your ideas, correct me somewhere that I'm wrong (I know I f*cked something up during this long post) or b!tch at me for saying something good about pianists.

P.S. - Note the first paragraph - I think guitarists can make progressions sound better - I can play a simple F#m7, Dmaj7, Bmadd9 on guitar and make some kickass porno music that piano players can't touch!

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Cool. There are some guitarists that use more complex chords. Alot of Jazz and Blues players will utilize 11th, dominant b9, and 13th chords. I think it has alot to do with the sound you have, a piano is purely acoustical so complex chord structures sound good. Play a dominant 13th chord on a heavy distorted guitar and (frankly) it sounds like crap. If you play the same chord on a acoustic or a clean guitar, it doesn't sound as discordant. You can get a nice sound with some chords on a lightly driven guitar (bluesy and maybe alittle heavier). A cool trick though to get some more complex chords to sound decent on a heavy distorted guitar is to ommit a note from the chord. Like the power-chord, you ommit the 3rd. Apply the same rule and ommit the 5th from more complex chords like dominant 7th's, and such. So a A dominant 7th would be 5x56xx. Makes a much better sound, because the 5th is just there to enhance the root basically.

Try taking out the 5th in major and minor chords like 7th, 6th, and 9th's. And take out the 3rd in diminished and augmented chords, if needed. It will make a less acceptable chord more acceptable.

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"My whole life is a dark room...ONE BIG DARK ROOM" - a.f.i.

i always like van halen for his backing riffs or progressions(i think) rather than his solo...he was one of the few who was good a rythm guitar..not saying there arnt other..i just dont know of many

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Yeah eddie was a decent rhythm player. Two others who are good rhythm players are Izzy Stradlin (my fav) and James Hetfield. I don't particularly like where metallica has been going in the last 10 years but I still think he's a good rhythm player.

To add to Dirt's post on adding the bVI and bVII. Another chord that is good to add to your mix is the bIII. It's considered more bluesy but works great in Hard rock progressions. One in particular is "Hey Joe", which I believe is I-bIII-IV-bVI-bVII.

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"My whole life is a dark room...ONE BIG DARK ROOM" - a.f.i.

I like the topic dirt, despite the lack of posts, there is much room for discussion of this topic. Well, from a classical sense, the piano is far superior in chord structures. For a long span of time certain aspects of music were unthinkable, and in ancient Greece, almost unethical. During the time of Bach and other composers, parallel octaves and parallel 5ths (a movement from one chord to another chord in which the octave or the 5th were in the same voice that they were in the previous chord) would sound to them like a series of half steps would sound to us. Many things that are acceptable in modern music were cacophonous to them. And it goes without saying that music is much different now than it was then. And chord knowledge is pivotal to any versatile guitarist. But noticingthemistake makes an excellent point on omitting certain voices from the chord structure. Understanding the way that the chord blends with each tone, then choosing to add or omit notes that give the desired sound is a great tool to have.

To digress from my rant. I aree with you mistake, Metallica's direction has been disappointing. But Hetfield is a great rythm player in terms of strumming 16ths and triplets for a 7 minute metal song. That's more rhythmic endurance than I have. Metallica isn't much for unique chords, but the music is great. Jon Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers is probably my idol of rhythm guitar. He plays amazing parts, and I have never been more impressed with any rock guitarist ever in terms of chord utilization. You could find some jazz players who would probably swallow him whole, but to play rock with his style is simply astounding.

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Suffering never ceases; you'll never find happiness in a set of circumstances. True joy exists, but you have to want to find it.

Oh by the way...Noticingthemistake: I love that quote from Reservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarrantino is the man

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Suffering never ceases; you'll never find happiness in a set of circumstances. True joy exists, but you have to want to find it.

My fave too

I love his solo stuff, have all the albums. Have you heard any of his solo albums?

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