Upper Register Common Tones

If you were to leaf through any chord book containing voicings similar to those we've just covered, they'd usually be presented in haphazard fashion - a jumble of chord shapes, out of context, leaving you with no clue how to apply/connect them.

The fact is that your favorite players, when juggling these types of voicings, are almost always grouping them by upper-register common tones. Each chord in the progression contains almost identical notes on the top 2-3 strings, for maximum sparkle and brilliance.

In this video, we'll explore three different alternatives for "upper-register common tones" and introduce some new chord shapes in the process, building each chord's root and/or bass note from every degree of the C major scale:

C (Cadd2), D (Dsus4), E (Em7), F (F6/9), G (G), A (A7sus4), B (G/B), etc.