Developing Your Own Chord Voicings

stack 'em up

There are many requests to newsgroups and in sessions for "charts
of chord voicings." In my opinion, learning disconnected chords
from a chart is not necessarily the best way to make those chords
part of your vocabulary. Here's an alternative method.


Consider working out the chord voicings yourself. If you go to a
chart, you're likely to find a ton of disconnected voicings, the
applications and relationships of which are not likely to be
clear. In contrast, if you work out your own voicings, even if
you don't have as many "shapes" memorized, you will have a much
greater command of those voicings, and more importantly, you will
know how to employ and manipulate them. This helps you develop a
personalized approach, and to know why certain things
work or don't work. I would encourage you to experiment
extensively with this practice; it's one of the great advantages
of playing a chordal instrument, and one that supports
alterations in tunings. We can get many unique and individualized
chordal sounds.

Try this:

1) Determine the correct chord tones for the chords you want to
learn. If you don't know how to figure out chord tones, any basic
"introduction to harmony" to textbook will explain it, or you can
refer to the large section "Understanding Celtic Harmony" in my
book Celtic Backup . There is also information
in these same sources on how to understand and build the various
modes in which Irish traditional music melodies tend to be
written.

Once you know the chord tones of the chords you want to build, do
this:

2) In first position, and using open strings, figure out
fingerings that give you those chords. Realize that in any tune
in Dmaj, Gmaj, Am, Bm, or Em, you can allow certain notes to ring
through---any note that functions as the tonic, second, fourth,
fifth, or seventh of the key is potentially available as a drone
(provided that drone note fits within the mode of the tune).

For example, if you are accompanying a tune which is in D
Mixolydian mode, then the notes of the mode (and therefore of the
tune), are

D    E    F#   G    A    B    C    D
1    2    3    4    5    6    b7   1

So the available drone notes are the tonic (D), second (E),
fourth (G), fifth (A), and flat-seventh (C) of the mode.
Potentially, any of these notes, that is D, E, G, A, & C, can be
used momentarily or for an extended period as a drone.

Of course the commonest drones in this music are on the tonic, or
perhaps the fifth (D and A). These are the tones commonly used as
drones by various sorts of pipes. However, the second, fourth,
and seventh can also be used as drones, provided that they agree
with the notes of the tune's mode.

This means that many of your chords can combine elements of the
chord juxtaposed with a drone note or notes. In the same D
Mixolydian mode, then, your "tonic chord" could be spelled:

D    F#   A
1    3    5 (the standard D major triad)
D    G    A
1    4    5 (in technical terms, a "suspended 4th" chord")
D    E    A
1    2    5 (in technical terms, a "suspended 2nd chord")
D    A    C
1    5    b7 (in technical terms, a fragment of a "D7" chord)

Two provisos (n.b., these are very important):

1) You should avoid using a drone note in your chord which
clashes aggressively with a note in the melody. If your chord is
spelled D-G-A, and the melody hangs on an F#, it will not sound
good.

2) Similarly, you should avoid combining drones and chord tones
in a fashion which juxtaposes 2 notes which are « step apart.
E.g., if your chord is spelled D-F#-G, it will not sound good.

In both cases, this is because the dissonance of one-half step
between chord tones, or between a chord tone and a melody note,
clashes too much. You can make use of the
distance of one whole step between chord tones or melody notes
(D-G-A, for example) to good effect.

In all cases, you should strive for a judicious use of drones and
partial chords, especially focusing on maintaining
continuity, using drone notes held in common between
chords which are changing. This retention of a droning element
along with partial chords is very suitable for the droning, modal
character of the tunes.

Realize also that you can get away with using only 2 of the 3
notes in the triad, plus drones. It is not necessary to
have all three notes of every triad represented, and in fact is
likely to work against your having a suitable chordal sound---
excessive diatonicism (use of full triads) tends to detract from
the modal character of the traditional melodies.

In practical terms, this means that you have to learn your way
around your chosen tuning. You need to know where notes are on
your instrument, and you need to know what notes at any given
moment need to be fingered as chord tones or can be left open as
drones.

As an example, here are a couple of demonstrations for how to
work out a few chords on a bouzouki tuned DGDAD (low pitch to
high pitch). If you play a four course instrument (cittern,
octave mandolin, or mandolin), you can mentally "leave off" the
references to the lowest course.

Please note also that exactly the same principles hold
true for working out chord voicings on other stringed instruments
(say for example guitar). Though the specifics of the tuning or
number of strings may be different, the principles for building
chord voicings are identical.

Say for example you're working out an Em chord (spelled EGB in
standard practice). On a four-course instrument tuned GDAD (low
to high) you would leave the lowest string open (yielding G), the
2nd fret of the 3th string (yielding E), the 2nd fret of the 2nd
string (B again), and either finger the top string's 2nd fret (E
again) or leaving it open (yielding a drone D, the seventh of the
mode). This means you are fingering a combination of notes that
yield an EGB chord, with the addition of a drone D on top. This
is, in technical terms, an Em7 chord, but for Irish music
purposes, you can think "Em plus drone strings."

Second example:

For an A chord (which is neither major nor minor, and works in
both sorts of tunes): finger the 2nd fret of the lowest string
(yielding A) or damp that string by wrapping your thumb, finger
the second fret of the 3rd string(E), leave the 2nd string open (A
again), and finger the 2nd fret of the top string (E) or leave it
open (drone D). You get a chord spelled (A)EAD, with drone Don
top. In technical terms, an Asus4 chord; for Irish purposes, "A
modal." Note that this chod does not include the 3rd (C or C#)
which would dictate whether the chord is major or minor. Because
it lacks the C or C#--that is the flat 3 or natural 3--the chord
is neither major nor minor, and can therefore be used in both
major and minor situations: for tunes in A major and also tunes
in A minor. Such ambiguity is very useful and highly desirable:
it lets the tune itself determine the major/minor sound
of the performance

Further exercises:

Do the same thing with other chords: work out voicings in first
position, using open strings wherever possible, for all the
chords you use in accompaniment. Remember to experiment and
familiarize yourself with the effect of adding drone notes on
open strings(which can be high or low) to full or partial triads.

Now do the same thing up the neck. Realize that you really only
need to finger the bottom 2 or 3 strings: the top A and/or D can
be allowed to ring if you're in Dmaj, Gmaj, Am, or Em (and
selectively in other keys as well), because those top notes can
open be made to function as temporary drones on the tonic,
second, fourth, fifth, or flat-seventh degrees of the scale.

Also, you will frequently want to damp a certain string, stopping
it from sounding, and fingering the notes on the other strings,
perhaps letting the top A and/or D ring out. This is how you get
moving basslines and chord inversions going up and down the neck
(see also the article on "Improvising Counterpoint" for much more
on this last).

I think you'll find if you work out this stuff on your own, your
vocabulary may be smaller, but you'll have a MUCH better grasp of
how and why it works (and how you can use it).