What chord are you drawn to?

Hey that's a cool one. I tried dropping the C down to a B and sounded cool too.

An Em(add9), at least when you drop the C. With the C... hmm... well then you have a sharp fifth, but I'm not sure what to call that. EmAug5(add9)?

Here's another cool one, just a different voicing of Dm(add9) (gotta love those add9s).

-----------0---------
---------6-----------
-------7------------
-----7----------------
---5-----------------
---------------------

Hmmm . . . in that previous chord of mine, those are 6's, not 5's. (I guess it's hard to read with the code thing on)

So from top to bottom the chord is 7-6-6-7-0. Kind of a jazzy thing.


By the way, great topic Joseph. Talking chords is cool.

Rhythm guitarists are more recognized today than they were in the eighties, before they were just regarded for filling in the empty spaces, but now they are respected for being superb songwriters. The eighties metal scene had some great moments, and great memories, but toward the end it was all becoming too egotistical! Since Kurt Cobain came onto the music scene, everyone realized that with a few chords, a musician could really open themselves up into many different forms of creativity.

Lately, I've have to say that I have a natural inclination toward jazz chord structure, whenever I have the tape recorder running at night it's great to rely on your natural instincts. I love recording stuff one night, only to forget where it came from the next day almost as if you didn't write it where you have to re-live the moment all over again.

You're right guys, this is a great topic, and you guys have very interesting tastes. I'de be more than happy to work with you guys on a professional standpoint! :)

-Joseph

Hmmm for some bizarre reason I am always drawn to the A-D-E chord progression.

How about posting some of those jazz chords?

Dsus2, i dont know why, it's a nice enough chord on it's own, but i like to use a lot cos if music was food it's would be bread, it goes with almost everything.
i use these too, i dont know what they're called (my music thoery is dire)

E |-----5--0---0----0|
B |--3--3--0---10---0|
G |--0--2--9---9----6|
D |--4--0--11--0----7
A |--0----------------0|
E |------------------|

whenever i am trying to write a song i always come back to the same chords...its kind of wierd. they are: A2, G/B, Dm, and Em. I also like doing some stuff with G/Bm/A (all barre chords). I know that these are just basic chords, nothing fancy like all the cluster and celtic chords you guys like, but theres just something that grabs me about the absolute pure sound of simple chords...its like they play themselves and you just listen and let it become a part of you. i dont know, maybe im just psycho. but anyways, theres nothing wrong with having a passion for music. i hope.

Blackrose, what you said kind of reminds me of my girlfriend. Sometimes she gets on my case when I'm foolin around with complex chords and wonders if I'm capable of appreciating a simple major or minor chord (she's a big Dylan fan... go figure). What I say is, of course I'm able to appreciate them and enjoy them, but more complex chords seem to be able to say just so much more.

I like to try excercices to boost my creativity, like, picture a cold winter night with a light snow falling gently onto a ground almost blue from the moonlight. Then put a chord to this image. Lately I've been getting min7add9
chords... it just seems to be way more expressive then just an A minor.

btw blackrose, what's an A2 chord? I've never heard of it before

youve probably heard of it before and im just calling it the wrong thing. it is-
E 0
A 0
D 2
G 2
B 0
E 0
and the funny thing is i dont usually listen to the type of music i like to play. i more often than not listen to intense stuff, whereas i like playing more beautiful sounding stuff.

The one chord drilled into my unconscious mind is:
E:0
B:0
G:3
D:4
A:4
E:2

just because I've heard Vai use it so much live. I'm a big fan of creating these 'cluster' chords everyone has been talking about lately. Two others I like are:
E:12
B:10
G:11
D:0
A:x
E:x

E:0
B:0
G:8
D:6
A:4
E:x

Ekstasis, yeah, those are some killer ones. I love that F# cluster chord. I've used that in a few songs myself.

That last one, the Dbadd9(whatever), works well for transitions. Try going between it and an Aadd9 chord. Like this -

E:0 E:0
B:0 B:0
G:8 G:6
D:6 D:7
A:4 A:7
E:x E:5

Originally posted by Christoph

How about posting some of those jazz chords?

You know, it's important to ask yourself, "What is it that everybody likes about a certain type of music?" For example, I never reall appreciated jazz; thinking it was a bunch of sophomoric people wanking off, just to show much they could impress others. For the most part, I was wrong, and an unexperienced kid. there's so much left to be studied and all kinds of other things that are incredibly vibrant and powerful, it all depends on if we have the will to succeed beyond belief.


There are some great lessons here, This is very similiar to what I've been using in my songs as of late.

-Joseph

Diminished chords huh?

I've never played around with diminished chords too much, because I think they sound completely hideous most of the time. A diminished chord is a major chord with a flat 5th and 3rd, right?

It's interesting what that guy said in his lession, that any note of the chord can be the root note and that if you flat any one note of the chord it becomes a 7th.

I'll have to play around with these.

The day I heard Jimi play the E7#9 chord i was hooked

Diminished chords are pretty cool once you figure out how to use them, and the scales that go with them. A common way of using them is to incert them in between 2 chords whose roots are a whole step apart, ex; G7 G#dim7 A- D7, check out Fats Wallers Ain'tMisbehavin for a good ex of this.

You can also take a dim.7 chord & slide it around on the neck of the guitar in -3rds. Check out the Beatles song Michelle for this idea (it's a great chord prog.)

By the way Christoph, an easier way of thinking of the formula for a diminished7 chord is to take the Dom7 chord & sharp the root-you may already know this stuff, I haven't veiwed the lesson yet.

Are you talking about dim7th chords, or just regular dim chords?

I'm not that familiar with dim7 chords, but by inference I can assume that they are a dimished chord with a flat 7th. So take a major chord, flat the 3rd and the 5th, add a 7th, and then flat it. Is that right?

you take a major 7th & b3 b5 & double flat the 7th (or you can think of it as a 6th)