Four Note Chords

16-04-09

I first learnt to play seventh chords using chord diagrams, giving shapes with the roots on the 6th or 5th string. For the most part, I found these shapes contained more notes than I knew what to do with, and it took a while to become familiar with the order of the notes and their relation to the root. In some ways, this seems like an odd starting point to present students with, as these shapes invariably contain some notes that aren't 'necessary'.

Simply memorising (as opposed to 'learning') chord shapes means I wasn't actively engaging with the notes I was playing at all.

A useful way of breaking out of this, for me, is to instead concentrate on just four notes - once you have a four note chord built R 3 5 R it provides a handy framework within which to start shifting other notes about. Using four note shapes rooted on the 4th string provide some nice clear-sounding voicings that make it easy or 'logical' to see what you're doing as you start moving notes around - especially if you start with just a major or minor chord and then move through different chord types altering one note at a time.

I also like the idea of a four-note shape as being relatively 'compact' - you know it contains all the important bits, so you can kind of forget about it. If you can avoid barreing or muting the two strings not being played, then these are open to be used to add further extensions on higher strings or further up the fretboard, or in reverse you can start to think about selecting an interesting bass note to play underneath. This can lead to some interesting two-handed ideas, or allows more sonic space in which to construct parts for more than one guitarist.

I concede barre chords and 'bigger' shapes have their place, and some sound really great but it seems that there is an awful lot of emphasis, and perhaps a reliance, placed on these types of chords given that they a) are often not the most logical iterations of many chords, b) are not always the best sounding and c) often 'hog' quite a lot of the fretboard by playing a note on each string. These voicings also make no allowance for the part of the bass player. Whether you’re playing with one or not, it seems careless not to consider this when choosing a chord voicing – many 5 or 6 note voicings are simply doubling the same notes the bassist might choose an invading their sonic ‘space’.