System for becoming a good chord player?

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I can play my caged chords and triads etc but for some reason i feel my voicings could be improved.

Anyone any success with a good chord system/practice routine?
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  • John_PJohn_P Frets: 2744
    Not sure if it's successful or not and I'm sure one of the theory experts will pop along shortly with better suggestions,  but I think of a chord then try to play at least 4 different inversions up the neck - bonus points for more than 4 ways.  
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  • vizviz Frets: 10644
    edited February 2017
    Yes, exactly what I was going to say. Forget CAGED (for a bit) - it's a fret-and-finger-position-based technique-system. Embrace inversions - that's a music-based system :)
    Roland said: Scales are primarily a tool for categorising knowledge, not a rule for what can or cannot be played.
    Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
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  • BradBrad Frets: 658
    edited February 2017
    I can play my caged chords and triads etc but for some reason i feel my voicings could be improved.

    Anyone any success with a good chord system/practice routine?
    I agree about avoiding the CAGED system. Personally, I think it's limitations are in the name...
     
    @Niallseroreilly ; how well would you say you know the fretboard and your triads?

    Take a C Major triad in its most simple form for example. There are three inversions - root (C E G), 1st (E G C) and 2nd (G C E). These three inversions are all found on each group of three strings (EBG, BGD, GDA and DAE). There are at least 16 convenient ways of playing of a C Major triad, you may find some more practical that others though... 

    Then there are minor, diminished and augmented triads and 11 further different keys. I'm sure you can do the maths :smile: 

    That's just close voiced triads, there are open voiced triads too...

    That all probably seems a little scary, but once you get this down in a few different keys there is somewhat of a domino effect. 

    I like to practise chords horizontally on the same string sets so I can see the inversions and vertically so I can see how they knit together in position on the different string sets. 

    Another good exercise is to pick a chord progression, say a Blues in C for ease of explanation. Try and find the nearest possible chord throughout, you're after the least amount of movement in the voices. Start with a root position C triad on the top 3 strings, the closest F triad will be a 2nd inversion as that inversion of F shares the C found on the G string.

    3---5
    5---6
    5---5
    x---x
    x---x
    x---x

    If the next chord doesn't share any notes, you want to move as little distance as possible. Try this starting on other inversions of the I chord etc...

    Triads are 3/4s of a 7th chord... 

    Knowing triads really well will open up the door to 7th chords and their inversions, be they close voice (unless you have Allan Holdsworth fingers, steer clear of some of these :smile:), drop 2, drop 3, split voiced...

    Taking the voice leading exercise a step further, try playing through a dominant blues and playing a different inversion every two beats and then on every beat of the bar. 

    Try and play through a blues (or any tune for that matter) in a limited area, say 5 frets and find as many of those chords as you can.

    Knowing how chords are constructed is really important to improving your chord vocab/voicings. A Cmaj9 (C E G B D) comprises of a C major triad, an E minor triad and a G major triad. Or it's Em7/C. Food for thought there... 

    All the above are exercises I've found useful to improve my chord knowledge (which is an ongoing thing!). But that's all it is, a process for learning information (often my brain would actually be hurting doing much of this!). Force yourself to use voicings you don't gravitate towards naturally, mix things up as much as you can. 

    Then it's a case of making music with this stuff which is the important bit :smile: 

    There is also a knock on effect for soloing...
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  • Thank you @Brad fantastic stuff. 
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  • BradBrad Frets: 658
    Thank you @Brad fantastic stuff. 
    You're welcome!
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  • notanonnotanon Frets: 604
    @Brad ;
     Excellent thanks for posting. - I have a maths background so I love the theory stuff. What I find amazing is theory can describe why even the most complex music is appealing with tension and release etc but as you mentioned the most important bit is still the music [which mathematically is infinite courtesy of notes, beat, dynamics, . . . .].
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  • jw_H-535jw_H-535 Frets: 12
    Chord chemistry is still the best for chords but the First Mikkie baker jazz book is good as well. Or there is always the Jimmie herring method, learn the theory of the chord you want (notes you need), plot all the relevant notes everywhere you can on a fret board diagram and build chords from there. Time consuming but also makes you learn you fret board. 
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  • octatonicoctatonic Frets: 33725
    jw_H-535 said:
    Chord chemistry is still the best for chords 
    Totally disagree.
    Chord chemistry is essentially a dictionary of chords with no hints about how to use them.

    OP- take a look at the drop chord system.
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  • BradBrad Frets: 658
    notanon said:
    @Brad ;
     Excellent thanks for posting. - I have a maths background so I love the theory stuff. What I find amazing is theory can describe why even the most complex music is appealing with tension and release etc but as you mentioned the most important bit is still the music [which mathematically is infinite courtesy of notes, beat, dynamics, . . . .].
    Interesting isn't it? For example, I ask any students that pick up notation reading quicker than the majority, the same question - do you like/are you good at maths/science? They always answer yes... 

    Unfortunately I'm not mathematically inclined so this kind of stuff was always a bit more of a slog for me! But I like seeing how those of a maths/science persuasion view music.

    octatonic said:
    jw_H-535 said:
    Chord chemistry is still the best for chords 
    Totally disagree.
    Chord chemistry is essentially a dictionary of chords with no hints about how to use them.

    OP- take a look at the drop chord system.

    I wasn't keen on Chord Chemistry for similar reasons, but a friend of mine was obsessed with it and got a lot out of it...

    @Niallseroreilly how are things going, any joy so far?

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  • @Brad ive set my arpeggio practice around a set progression each week. So each day im playing the chord with a different voicing, im also playing triads over the progression. Thank you for your help.

    Been looking at the drop chord system on Matt Warnocks site @octatonic ;. Any ideas on incorporating it into a practice routine?

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  • BradBrad Frets: 658
    @Brad ive set my arpeggio practice around a set progression each week. So each day im playing the chord with a different voicing, im also playing triads over the progression. Thank you for your help.

    Been looking at the drop chord system on Matt Warnocks site @octatonic ;. Any ideas on incorporating it into a practice routine?

    Cool, what is the progression if I may ask? Have you started on any standards yet?
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  • 2-5-1... Yeah been working my way through 'Dedicated to you' this past week. I really need to up my ear training work, i feel that the arpeggio exercises are really helping this its slow and difficult.
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  • close2uclose2u Frets: 997
    octatonic said:
    Totally disagree.
    Chord chemistry is essentially a dictionary of chords with no hints about how to use them.

    Totally agree.

    My first and only guitar teacher - that put me off for a long, long time ... told me to buy it.

    It was pages and pages and pages of insanely random dots on paper with ridiculous names and no explanation / reason / justification for them being there.

    It might be an ultra- jazz-geek's wet dream but it was a useless load of tosh to me.

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  • BradBrad Frets: 658
    2-5-1... Yeah been working my way through 'Dedicated to you' this past week. I really need to up my ear training work, i feel that the arpeggio exercises are really helping this its slow and difficult.
    Anything worth doing often is :smile:
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