Recommend me some pretty chords

soma1975

My chord knowledge is shocking.

Looking for some fun pretty, spacey, extended or otherwise sexy chords so I'm not just widdling single note stuff all the time. 

Got any faves? 

Brad

Amaj9 - 5-x-6-4-2-x 

Dmaj7/A - 5-x-4-6-3-x

Dmaj7 - x-5-7-x-7-9

Just flatten the relevant voices to get dom, minor, half diminished etc

These are nice as they’re not the usual shapes but are pretty achievable. 

This isn’t even scratching the surface though. I’d check out some Ted Green stuff (maybe avoid Chord Chemistry for now...). Investigate drop 2, drop 3, open triads.  The magic really happens when we connect chords in context though and using inversions. Enjoy  

soma1975

Cheers matey will report back. Yes, I'm absolutely trying to find some voicings to make progressions more interesting and deeper than the basics. 

Thanks. 

thecolourbox

Open A string, then 12th on the high E and B strings, 11th on G and D strings. 

Wazmeister

Anything with a 9th in it, suspended, sus4 - all even better with open strings.

Matt_McG

4-7-4-4-4-4. Which is an Emaj9 (inversion) or. G#b13, I guess.

Goes nicely into 

4-6-4-4-4-4 (G#m7)

then

5-x-4-6-5-x. A6

Clarky

Matt_McG said:

4-7-4-4-4-4. Which is an Emaj9 (inversion) or. G#b13, I guess.

placing this in root inversion is really pretty
O-7-4-4-4-4

Clarky

finger-style rather than with a pick
E7 b9 in 1st inversion
4-x-x-4-3-1
then follow is with an Am
x-O-x-2-1-O

Jalapeno

DMaj6/9    x 5 4 4 5 5

Use liberally as a very cool replacement for Maj, Maj7, especially as a final resolving chord (a obviously transposes very easily)

tone1

i like the chord in under the bridge that rings for a while.....I can play it but forget what it is..

soma1975

yup that's a lovely one. 

Cheers all will play today with all your suggestions. 

viz

If you’re in E, and you want to play B7 before resolving to the E, instead of the usual 797877 or whatever, try 76788x, or 7x788x. It’s a B(alt) and it works as a substitute for B7 and changes the flavour of the song dramatically. 

soma1975

nice. This is a all great stuff. 

octatonic

Eb 13 -> Abmaj9

Clarky

a pretty little thing from my Shredz album [finger picked]
9-x-9-8-7-o C#m11
8-x-8-7-6-o C11
5-x-5-4-3-o A11 [no 3rd] <- as this has no 3rd it can be maj or min. In the context of this progression it feels like Am11 to me
4-x-4-3-2-2 G#11 [no 3rd] <- no 3rd again. In the context of this progression it feels like G#11 to me

it's a pile of fun to solo over

Vibetronic

I've got a pdf of a really good article from either GT/TG called '50 chords you need to know' (or similar). Running through it with a couple of students at the moment and learning a thing or two myself, always more stuff to take on board! Happy to send it over if you like? 

pintspiller

A5 x02255

Lestratcaster

tone1 said:

i like the chord in under the bridge that rings for a while.....I can play it but forget what it is..

E major 7 I believe.

AlexWilmot

I've been playing around this(whatever it is):
X02120
X02010
020100

HAL9000

Pretty?

0 14 14 0 0 14 is a very pretty Em9.

AlexWilmot said:

I've been playing around this(whatever it is):
X02120

Amaj7. An interesting variation is XX212X which is actually C#m but sounds slightly ambiguous due to its maj7 voicing/fingering. Robert Cray uses this (movable) minor shape quite a bit.

Roland

I’m fond of small moveable chord shapes on the middle and upper strings. They can be ambiguous because they don’t strut it with the full six notes. They also fit well in a band situation where the bass and/or key are filling in the sound. 

So xx535x. Is that Cmaj7 or Em?
and xx5557. Is that Cmaj7 or Am9?
Also x x 10 9 8 x