Guitar Chords

CBL

Joined: Mar 22 2012

Hey everyone, in this topic - we discuss guitar chords; interesting particular chords, music theory, practical advice on chords, anything. =D

1)
The thing that at this very moment that inspired me to share, was this interesting alteration...

e|--2--  F#[M3]/[M7]
B|--2--  C#[M7]/[b5]
G|--2--  A [5] /[M9]
D|--0--  D [1] /[5]
A|--0--  A [5] /[M9]
E|--3--  G [4] /[1]

...of this open Dmaj7 chord that I found...

e|--2--  F#[M3]
B|--2--  C#[M7]
G|--2--  A [5]
D|--0--  D [1]
A|--0--  A [5]
E|--5--  A [5]

... , which is quicker to make than my usual "fuller sound" Dmaj7 ...

e|--2--  F#[M3]
B|--2--  C#[M7]
G|--2--  A [5]
D|--4--  F#[M3]
A|--5--  D [1]
E|-----

2)
I'm sure most people know this, but I didn't until a few weeks ago. Basically, a major sixth chord ( [1],[M3],[5],[M6] ), is just an inversion of another minor seventh chord ( [1],[m3],[5],[m7] )

e.g.
Dmaj6 = D,F#,A,B
Bmin7 = B,D,F#,A

So depending on the particular voicing, and which is the root, the chord straddles either side of major and minor:

e|--2--  F#[5]
B|--3--  D [m3]
G|--2--  A [m7]
D|--4--  F#[5]
A|--2--  B [1]
E|-----

This chord sounds distinctly different to -

e|--2--  F#[M3]
B|--0--  B [M6]
G|--2--  A [5]
D|--0--  D [1]
A|-----
E|-----

- this chord.

This same parallel exists for all maj6 chords - one of their inversions is a min7 chord. Many other chords have interesting relationships when inverted (Thirteenth chords change into another thirteenth of a different root)

3)
This is the core of a tune I'm working on - I thought I'd share it. :)
It's in 3/4, and I just made the tab crudely here, so it's a bit mis-shapen.

It's not very advanced, so something similar (or identical) has probably been done before. I've made this section so that the chords can be strummed instead of arpeggiated, so the melody barely exists. If it's similar to something else - please let me know what, so I can see where they went with it (and then I can do something different)

E|-----------------------|-----------------------|-----------------------|-----------------------|
B|-2---------------2-----|-0---------------0-----|-2---------------2-----|-0---------------------|
G|---------2-------------|---------0-------------|---------2-------------|-----------------------|
D|-----0-------0-------0-|-----0-------0-------0-|-----0-------0-------0-|-----------------------|
A|-2---------------------|-0---------------------|-2---------------------|-0---------------------|
E|-----------------------|-----------------------|-----------------------|-----------------------|

E|-----------------------|-----------------------|-----------------------|-----------------------|
B|-1---------------1-----|-0---------------0-----|-1---------------1-----|-0---------------------|
G|---------2-------------|---------2-------------|---------2-------------|-----------------------|
D|-----3-------3-------3-|-----3-------3-------3-|-----3-------3-------3-|-----------------------|
A|-3---------------------|-3---------------------|-3---------------------|-3---------------------|
E|-----------------------|-----------------------|-----------------------|-----------------------|