Voicings
Thirty-odd shapes. Amber dot is the root, teal dots are the colour tones (7th, 9th, #11, 6th), cream is the plain triad. Arpeggiate first, strum second.
Shimmer
Major chords with 7ths, 9ths and #11s, mostly with open strings ringing against fretted notes. The core of the pack.
Minor colour
Minor 9ths and 11ths. Same trick, sadder.
Quartal
Stacked fourths. Slide them anywhere, they never sound wrong.
Suspended
No third, no argument. Resolves anywhere or nowhere.
Hendrix and inversions
Bass note movement and the famous 7#9.
Progressions
All built from the shapes above. Chord names match the voicing library exactly.
Film score
Arpeggiate slowly. Solo with E Lydian on the E, C Lydian on the C, D major on the D.
Descending
Top-string melody falls a step at a time. Try G6/9 for the first chord instead.
Landau minor
E Dorian throughout except the C, which wants C Lydian. The two share every note but one.
Little Wing walk
Thumb bass notes on the E string. Sixths in G over the top.
Suspended
Never resolves. Every chord is the same shape moved. Delay in dotted eighths.
Quartal drift
Slide the So What shape down two frets, then break into open voicings.
Hendrix ballad
Bass line walks E–C#–F#–B–C–A–E. Hendrix thirds and sixths over the top.
Two-chord meditation
Two chords, one scale (A Lydian). Solo for twenty minutes and see where you end up.
Intervals that sound expensive
Two or three notes at a time. Each of these is the seed of everything in the voicings section.
Major seventh
G# under open E. The interval that makes maj7 chords sound like sunlight.
e|-0---| B|-----| G|-1---| D|-----| A|-----| E|-----|
Major ninth
E, open B and F#: the 9th an octave and a tone above the root. The B in the middle glues it.
e|-2---| B|-0---| G|-----| D|-2---| A|-----| E|-----|
Sharp eleventh
C under open B and F#. The Lydian rub.
e|-2---| B|-0---| G|-----| D|-----| A|-3---| E|-----|
Major sixth
G# and E on adjacent strings. Warm, slightly 60s.
e|-----| B|-5---| G|-1---| D|-----| A|-----| E|-----|
Major tenth
E and G# two strings apart with nothing between. Sounds like a cathedral.
e|-----| B|-----| G|-1---| D|-----| A|-----| E|-0---|
Perfect fourth stack
A, D, G. Quartal. Neither happy nor sad, just open.
e|-----| B|-8---| G|-7---| D|-7---| A|-----| E|-----|
Sus2 rub
Open A and open B. A tone apart across three strings; the classic shimmer.
e|-----| B|-0---| G|-----| D|-----| A|-0---| E|-----|
Scales
Twelve frets, all six strings. Amber is the root, rust is the character note that gives the scale its name, cream is the rest. Change the root and every diagram moves.
Lydian
The prettiest major mode. #4 is the character note; everything else is plain major. Play it over maj7 and maj9 chords.
Major (Ionian)
The baseline. Beautiful when you add the 7th and 9th to your chord shapes.
Major pentatonic + 7
Five familiar notes plus the major 7th. Blues hands, jazz ears.
Dorian
Minor with a major 6th. The Landau/Santana minor sound. Over m7, m9, m11.
Mixolydian
Major with a b7. Over dominant chords, E7#9, anything Hendrix.
Lydian dominant
#4 and b7 together. Over 7#11 chords. Henderson's favourite.
Aeolian
Natural minor. b6 gives the sadness. Over m(add9) and m11.
Harmonic major
Major with a b6. Odd and lovely; try it over maj7 to darken it.
Hirajoshi
Japanese pentatonic. Semitones at 2–3 and 5–b6. Sparse and glassy.
Lydian augmented
#4 and #5. Over maj7#5. Dreamy bordering on unsettling.
Melodies
Short lines to steal from. Timing is yours; the tab just gives the order.
Lydian drift
Over Emaj9 → Cmaj7#11. The A# on the top string (fret 6) is the Lydian note. Sit on it, then fall back to E. Let the open B ring under everything.
e|----------0--2--4--2--0--|---6--4--2--0--------|| B|-0--2--4-----------------|4--------------2--0--|| G|-------------------------|---------------------|| D|-------------------------|---------------------|| A|-------------------------|---------------------|| E|-------------------------|---------------------||
Dorian Landau line
E Dorian at the 12th fret. The C# (B string 14) over a minor chord is the Dorian colour. Bend into the D at 15 and add vibrato like you mean it.
e|-12-15----------|------------------------|| B|-------15-14-12-|------------------12-14-|| G|----------------|14-12-11----12-14-------|| D|----------------|---------14-------------|| A|----------------|------------------------|| E|----------------|------------------------||
Pentatonic plus one
A major pentatonic with the G# added (B string 9). Over Amaj9 that one extra note turns a blues shape into something that sounds like it cost money.
e|-------5--7--9--7--5--|------------------|| B|-5--7-----------------|9--7--5-----------|| G|----------------------|---------6--4-----|| D|----------------------|---------------7--|| A|----------------------|------------------|| E|----------------------|------------------||
Hirajoshi
Japanese pentatonic in E: E F# G B C. Five notes, two of them a semitone apart. Play it slowly with the delay on and it sounds like water.
e|----------------------|------------------|| B|----------12-13-12----|------------------|| G|-9--11-12----------12-|11-9-----9--11-9--|| D|----------------------|------14----------|| A|----------------------|------------------|| E|----------------------|------------------||
Lydian dominant
E Lydian dominant over an E7 or E9: F# G# A# B C# D. The A# (G string 15) plus the D is the Henderson flavour, cheeky rather than pretty.
e|-12-14-16----------|------------|| B|----------15-14-12-|------------|| G|-------------------|15-13-11----|| D|-------------------|---------14-|| A|-------------------|------------|| E|-------------------|------------||
Harp cascade
Emaj9 broken across the strings, up and back. Hold every note as long as your fingers allow so it blurs into the chord. Reverb at 11.
e|-------------2--0-----------------|| B|----------0--------0--------------|| G|-------1--------------1-----------|| D|----1--------------------1--------|| A|-2--------------------------2-----|| E|-------------------------------0--||
Double stops
Two-note vocabulary. Slide between shapes, add hammer-ons, let the delay fill in the rest.
Sixths in G (D and B strings)
The Castles Made of Sand vocabulary. Slide between shapes, hammer on the D string, thumb the bass note if you're feeling Jimi.
e|-----------------------------| B|-5---7---8---10--12--13--15--| G|-----------------------------| D|-5---7---9---10--12--14--16--| A|-----------------------------| E|-----------------------------|
Thirds in E (G and B strings)
Every position of E major as a pair. Play them over Emaj9 or Esus2 as a moving line; add a hammer-on from a fret below on the G string.
e|---------------------------------| B|-0---2---4---5---7---9---10--12--| G|-1---2---4---6---8---9---11--13--| D|---------------------------------| A|---------------------------------| E|---------------------------------|
Tenths in E (low E and G strings)
Wide intervals sound bigger than the notes in them. Root and tenth with the middle empty is a very clean-rig, very Landau thing.
e|---------------------------------| B|---------------------------------| G|-1---2---4---6---8---9---11--13--| D|---------------------------------| A|---------------------------------| E|-0---2---4---5---7---9---11--12--|
Play-around
Things to do with all of the above when you don't want to practise anything.
Pedal tone
Pick the open B or E. Play any scale above on the G string only, letting the open string ring after every note. Whatever you play sounds intentional.
One chord, three scales
Loop Amaj7#11. Solo in A major, then A Lydian, then A Lydian augmented. Notice which single note changed the mood each time.
Shape walk
Take the So What shape. Move it up and down the neck in whole tones, then in fourths. Find the two positions that sound best over a droning open E and stay there.
Top-note melody
Pick any four voicings. Play only the highest note of each in sequence, then add the chord under it. Now the chords are accompanying a tune instead of just being chords.
Mute-chomp
Emaj9 and Dadd9, 16th-note funk strum, all muted except beats 2 and 4 where the top two strings ring. Position 2 on the Suhr, Jan Ray barely on.
Slow is beautiful
Choose a melody. Play it at half the speed you think it should go, with the wet amp doing the work. Then half again.
Swap the bass
Hold any open-string voicing on the top four strings and walk different bass notes under it on the E string. Every bass note renames the chord; some of the names are lovely.
Sixths to thirds
Play the sixths in G ascending, then the thirds in E descending. They share the neck. Find where one turns into the other.
Tonight
Can't decide? Let the page pick a chord, a progression, a scale and a line.