6 Chords Explained

Q: Hey Chris, thanks for all the great content on both your blog and your site. I’m also going to get both your books as well. I have a question: I’ve been listening to and trying to play some of Brian Setzer’s big band stuff lately. What is the deal with the 6 chords? You don’t hear them so much in other genres but Brian seems to love them. Is there anything I should know about these chords? 

A: Brian is really a great musician. I have the greatest appreciation of him because he has really come a long way. I mean, he was great back with The Stray Cats but he has really stretched a lot with his big band thing and you can tell he has really been studying over the years - Pretty rare with successful musicians. Anyway, getting to your question regarding 6 chords.

Vision

Q: I just went over your minor pentatonic lesson, and never have I seen anyone explain chord/scale theory in such a straight forward no BS manner. I am an advanced intermediate level guitarist, with big expectations. I have a day gig and a family and want to know how to get the most out of the little time I have to practice everyday. Can you give me some pointers?

A: Expectations should be big my friend. Good for you. I talk a bunch about practice routines in this lesson on my site and in THE INFINITE GUITAR. It's hard to give specific advice without listening to you play and getting a handle on who you want to become, in other words, your vision. I can tell you though, this vision is almost everything. 

Finding The Right Chord

Q: One of my biggest songwriting problems is when I have a song in my head, and I'm figuring it out on guitar, and I tend to get a few chords into it and inevitably, it seems, there is an "elusive" chord that I can hear in my head but just can't seem to work out on the fretboard. Do you ever have this problem, and what do you do/how do you find it?

A: Theory will help you immensely in these situations. As I describe in chapter 18 of THE INFINITE GUITAR, composition is a matter of finding a chord for your melody note. There are basically two ways to do this (at least for me). The first is working with diatonic harmony. When we work with diatonic harmony, we basically are working within the chords in one key (sometimes using secondary dominant or borrowed chords). If you aren't getting this, start over here >>. If you understand intervals and chords this is actually pretty easy. Let's say you are writing in the key of C. The chords in the key of C are: C - Dmin - Emin - F - G - Amin - Bdim.

Playing Over Dominant Chords

Q: Like your style.  I need some review of scales to play with regards to how the Dominant Seventh Chord is resolving...functioning as a V chord or just a secondary Dominant (which I would play Mixo or Lydian b7).  If it is resolving to minor I'd play harmonic minor of the letter name of the chord it's going too.

A: here is the basic overview of the dominant scales. Let's take it by how the dominant chord is functioning. When I say functioning, I mean resolving to a I or i chord as in V-I or V-i or G7 - C or G7 - C-7. Non-Functioning means resolving somewhere else or possibly not resolving, as in G7 - F#maj7 or just a static G7 jam. Keep in mind, secondary dominants are for the most part functioning.

Recording Sessions

Q: What is the best way to prepare for session work? How did you put your self in a position that you could go into the studio and put the perfect part to a song that you had never heard before? And do it in a few takes. What should I study and how should I prepare? 'The Empowered Musician' gave some good ideas. But how do you go from playing a rock session to playing a soul session and make them both sound convincing?

A: My take on recording:

1. Half the battle is your sound. Going from Rock to Soul or anything else for that matter has a lot to do with your guitar and amp. Listen to some of the best players and ask yourself how he is getting that sound. Is it a telecaster or a Les Paul? Which pickup is being used? Is it a Marshall, Fender or VOX?

2. Simple is usually better unless they say otherwise. You always play more than you think (at least I do) so simplifying isn't a bad thing. A lot of Soul for example is just a convincing chord on 2 and 4 and nothing more. Conviction and a good tone count for just about everything sometimes.

3. Sessions are mostly done at home these days. If you had emailed me ten years ago, I would have told you to get your reading chops together. But these days I would tell you to get your recording chops together. At the college I run here in Tokyo I've made protools a required course for all students. Reading is obviously important but when you record parts at home you have very little time restrictions. You have to send the client a dry wav file but I'll often mix the guitar wet against the track to show them how I imagine the part should be mixed. So I send the dry wav plus a mixed mp3 of the song. Of course the client will mix it how he likes but sometimes it helps to give them an image. The problem with recording at home is the utter lack of conversation and creative input. You don't get any chance to talk to the other musicians about how to come up with something fun and interesting anymore or how the part could be mixed with the engineer or producer.

4. Good working instruments. Things that you sort of take for granted will screw up your sessions. You really have to make sure that your intonation is right on and there isn't any blatant fret buzz. I used my old Strat on a session recently and realized that the guitar isn't perfectly in tune all over the place. On the song I was doing, I had to play arpeggios up and down the neck on the top strings and I found that a D chord down at the bottom was in tune but when I played the D chord in the middle of the neck, it wasn't really in tune. My Strat is old and I don't think they were very particular about intonation in those days. The guitar is great for a Blues or something like that but won't really cut it for a modern sounding track. This sort of goes back to answer #1 but picking the instrument is important.

5. Be prepared to change your approach. Sometimes you think a Strat is right and the producer wants a Les Paul sound. It's as simple as that. Be prepared to switch instruments. Sometimes you think busy is good and the producer wants something simple.

6. Know a lot of music. If you want to come up with good parts, learn a bunch of music. Buy yourself the best of Wilson Picket and learn the songs and you'll be able to come up with good Soul parts. Buy yourself a Mike Landau CD and listen to all the sounds he gets. It's all about experience.

Sequences

Q: First of all I would like to congratulate you on your web site. I am currently practicing Sequences and Intervals which I found very helpful in order to become technically fluent. I was wondering if you can help me to obtain the tabs for the sequences and intervals of the other positions?

One last question if I may, I am becoming quite fluent on the interval patterns, is it good practice that I play them in all directions ex diagonally, vertically, horizontal and on 1 string on the whole fingerboard? The more I practice I find new patterns that sound right.

A: Thanks for your email and I'm glad you are finding the lessons of good use. Unfortunately I don't have any tabs for the other scale patterns. It is too much to assemble all of them. But if I have any advice, my experience tells me that figuring them out and transcribing them yourself will lead to a much better understanding. That is one reason why I only transcribed the one scale pattern (major scale pattern 4) in my book and on the site. I have also found that if the sequence becomes second nature with the one scale pattern, the other scale patterns become pretty natural as well as long as you are familiar with the individual patterns. 

The more ways you do things the better. The ultimate goal is not really to play sequences but to be able to play anything your imagination dictates. Sequences just force you to do things that wouldn't seem natural to you while improvising freely. I would definitely mix the time you practice sequences with time that you spend actually improvising solos. 

Another way you would want to practice the sequences is over a chord progression, making sure to start on a chord tone of each individual chord as they pass by. This will challenge your brain as well as your fingers.

Links:

Sequences and Patterns  

The Major Scale

Targeting Chord Tones

Dorian in a Blues

Q: Any tips on using the dorian mode over a 12 bar blues?

A: The dorian mode looks a lot like the major pentatonic and minor pentatonic scale superimposed over one another. In this respect, it seems like a logical choice to use over the blues progression but there are problems with this approach. I think it is a little too bulky for this application myself and leaves out the most important note, the major 3rd over the "I" chord. I think better use for the dorian mode would be over the "IV" chord. Let me explain: let's say we are playing an A Blues, I might use:

1) A minor pentatonic scale over the A7 chord (this might just as well be the major pentatonic or combintation of the two as well).

2) The A dorian mode over the D7 chord. The A minor pentatonic scale sits inside the A dorian scale nicely and allows a lot of interplay.

The A dorian mode over the D7 chord is really just a D mixolydian mode, but relating it to the Blues key center of A makes it seem a lot simpler to me. Especially as I am way more familiar with the dorian mode than the mixolydian mode. Matter of fact you can think dorian up a 5th for any dominant chord: A7=E dorian, D7=A dorian and E7=B dorian. It is really a matter of perspective though. I am not really a big fan of using modes too much over blues, it seems to complicate something that was meant to be simple. I do however use the dorian (based on the "I" chord key) over the "IV" chord quite a lot, it creates a few moments of interest and creates a jazzy sound. Now, a jazz blues is a different thing all together, using modes is fine. I would also be using the lydian dominant and altered modes in this situation.

Using Pentatonic Scales

Q: I've obviously learned all the 5 minor pentatonic boxes over time, and am wondering if im using them in the best way. For example over Cmaj7-Am7-Dm7-G7 I use the A minor pentatonic box shapes. Is this a common thing to do? Sometimes it sounds a bit too 'off the mark' and unfocused dues to playing bluesy licks based in these positions over a major chord progression.Do you use this approach ever? It just seems learning all the 5 blues boxes has got to be more useful than JUST playing over blues don't you agree?

A: Regarding your Cmaj7-Amin7-Dmin7-G7 and pentatonic scale question:

There are many things to consider here. Genre and your level as an improviser. If you are starting out, I think the most important thing is to get you playing, so I might tell you; Yes, use the A minor/C major pentatonic scale over the whole thing. But assuming you have more experience, I would give you slightly different advice.

Anytime you use any given scale oven a progression, the most important notes in the scale are the notes that are also in each of the passing chords and therefore need to be focused on. Looking at the A minor/C major pentatonic scale: C-D-E-G-A.

Now look at the chords:
Cmaj7: C-E-G-B
Amin7: A-C-E-G
Dmin7: D-F-A-C
G7: G-B-D-F
The red notes are common notes with the pentatonic scale and the ratio (chord tones/scale tones):
Cmaj7: C-E-G-B (3/5)
Amin7: A-C-E-G (4/5)
Dmin7: D-F-A-C (3/5)
G7: G-B-D-F (2/5)

You can see that regarding the first two chords, the C major pentatonic scale is dead on. Dmin7 is ok, but take notice, the strongest tone, the 3rd of the chord is not included. The scale is very weak against the G7 chord, only the root and 5th and no 3rd. This is probably why you say that sometimes the scale is "off the mark." There aren't enough common tones for the G7 chord for it to sound on. You could make it work by really aiming for the G and D notes on the V chord, like you would with the blues.

If you wanted to take a pentatonic scale approach, it would seem that it would be better to:

A) Use the C major/A minor pentatonic scale but don't approach it like you are playing in A minor or A blues, rather treat it as the progression it is: An Cmaj7-Amin7-Dmin7-G7 progression making an effort to start on a chord tone every time the chord changes. If you think you can play the same licks like you would over an A Blues, it will sound wrong.

B) Use the C major/A minor pantatonic scale over the first three chords, and a G major pentatonic scale over the last.

C) Use the C major/A minor pentatonic scale over the first two chords, a D minor pentatonic scale over the Dmin7 chord and a G major pentatonic scale over the last.

As an example, take a listen to this video of me playing in Tokyo. The song is Jimi Hendrix' "Little Wing." I'm mostly playing an E minor pentatonic scale over the whole thing but play a D major pentatonic scale over the final D chord in the progression. The top of the chorus where I do this is at 6:30 and I use the D major pentatonic scale at: 7:00:



You have to take into consideration the extensions on the chords though. For example your ratio will change if you make the chords into min9 or min11 chords. In this case there would be better scale choices.

A Jazz player would be more inclined to take more of a chord tone approach or modal approach.
Links:

• Pentatonic Scale Applications
• Playing The Blues
  -CJ

Modes of Harmonic Minor

Q: Could you please shed some light on the modes of the harmonic minor scale. I notice that you do not elaborate on this material in your book - The Infinite Guitar, yet several of these, most notably the phrygian dominant and double harmonic, are popular among the more adventurous in order to expand their colour horizons.

A: I'm not an expert on using the modes of the harmonic minor scale. I dabbled in it a bit when I was a kid and when I found the melodic minor scale and its modes, I lost interest in its cousin the harmonic minor scale. Its modes are not very common, so there seems to be no standard name given to all the modes. Regardless, that shouldn't stop us from taking a closer look at each of them.

Let's write out each mode using the A harmonic minor scale as our base:

A-B-C-D-E-F-G# - This is the harmonic minor scale from its root. If we harmonize a chord, we will get a Amin(maj7) chord. The scale played over an Amin triad or min(maj7) chord sounds sort of Spanish or Middle Eastern like a snake charmer or something. I've done session work where the producer specifically asks for a Spanish or Middle Eastern cliche sound and have used this scale in those situations.

B-C-D-E-F-G#-A - The harmonized chord is a min7b5 chord. The scale looks like a locrian scale with a major 6th. Possible name: locrian #6. This mode is often played over the minor iio-V (Bmin7b5-E7b9).

C-D-E-F-G#-A-B - The harmonized chord is a maj7#5 chord. The scale looks like a major scale with a augmented 5th. Maybe a lydian augmented scale would be a better choice as the lydian augmented scale contains a #11 rather than the natural 11th found in this scale. Possible name: augmented major.

D-E-F-G#-A-B-C - The harmonized chord is a Dmin7 chord. The scale looks like a dorian scale with a augmented 4th. Possible name: dorian #4

E-F-G#-A-B-C-D - The harmonized chord is a E7 chord, harmonized to a 9th chord it becomes a E7b9 chord. This mode is probably the most common of the harmonic minor modes. Sometimes called: phrygian dominant. This mode is pretty common for rock over the major or dominant V chord.

F-G#-A-B-C-D-E - The harmonized chord is a Fmaj7 chord. It looks like a lydian scale with a #9th! Wow! I've heard this scale referred to as a split major third scale.

G#-A-B-C-D-E-F - The harmonized chord is a G#dim7 chord. Possible name: diminished b2.

Just because I'm not well versed in these modes doesn't mean that they are not of use. You may find that they work great for you. Tell me how they work out.

• Got a question? I'll answer it if it's a good one!