harmony

How To Use Triad Chords - Comping Lesson

By Stef Ramin
On 10/08/2018
4 comments

How to use triads lesson Triads are one of the first harmonic tools to study. They are very useful for comping and chordal enrichment. Learning close and open triad voicings increase your harmonic knowledge and at the same time help you discover your fretboard. In this lesson you will see the main triad chord shapes including root positions and inversions. You will also find some ideas on how to use triads over a II V I sequence, in order to create interesting melodic movement in your comping.

What are Dominant Seventh Chords ?

By Stef Ramin
On 09/29/2018
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What s a dominant 7 chord

Dominant seventh chords are the most important features in music, you can find them in many styles of music, especially in blues and, of course, in jazz. In this lesson, you will see how to construct drop 2, drop 3 and drop 2 & 4 dominant seventh chords, what is their harmonic function and how to play them on guitar.

Drop 2 & 4 Chords - Advanced Guitar Voicings

By Stef Ramin
On 09/14/2018
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What Are Drop 2-4 Chords?

Drop 2 and 4 chords are created by dropping down an octave the second and fourth note of a seventh chord in close position. They can be very important tools for composition and arrangement. This lesson with diagrams provides useful explanations on how to build and play drop 2 & 4 chords on guitar.

What's a Tetrad Chord - Music Theory

By Stef Ramin
On 09/11/2018
2 comments

What's a Tetrad ?

A basic chord is built with three notes this is what we call "triad chords" or "triads". Tetrad chords aka "four note-chords" are simply chords containing four notes, “tetra“ is a Greek root meaning four. This means that tetrads have an additional note, a major seventh or a minor seventh. In other words , a tetrad is a triad with a supplementary note. This article will enlighten you on how these tetrad chords are built and how they can be classified.

25 Altered Dominant Guitar Chords

By Stef Ramin
On 03/04/2018
In Chords & Voicings
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Altered dominant chords

What's An Altered Dominant Chord?

Altered dominant chords are used to bring tension and an outside flavor to jazz chord progressions. They generally resolved to an inside chord as the I or a substitute as iii or vi.

Altered chords have one or more notes lowered or raised by a half-step, in other words they contain one or more alterations. These alterations can be b9,#9, b5 (#11) and b13 (#5). Jazz musicians, composers and arrangers used them as substitutions for diatonic chords for adding more dissonance and spice up the harmony.

This guitar lesson provides 25 altered guitar chord shapes to understand how they are constructed and how to play them on guitar.

48 Triad Chords | Guitar Diagrams | Root Positions & Inversions

By Stef Ramin
On 11/26/2016
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How To Play Triads On Guitar?

Mastering Triads on the guitar is necessary for any guitarist who want to expand his fretboard and theory knowledge. These chords are not really considered as jazz chords because of their basic sound, but they can be efficient tools for comping and chord soloing. Indeed, the strong point of these chords is the simplicity of learning and playing. You will find in this guitar lesson 48 chord shapes to play major, minor , diminished and augmented triads.