Alternating chords in a 12 bar / E7 to E / A7 to A / B7 to B etc

JohnHurley

Rock and Roll
So a while back in here I posted a question that basically said for some blues songs ( ok lets say sweet home chicago by EC or Heart beats like a hammer by early Peter Green and Fleetwood Mac ) when playing along it sounds fine to me to go E / A7 / B7. Not many responses here.

Lets say that you are doing full bar chords based on E string and jumping in and out of different strums for a loud blues ( like both of those songs ). Mixing it up. Maybe hitting all six strings sometimes maybe hitting top ones or middles or a root and then top ones. Changing it up as the song flows.

Anyhow to me it seems like I hear some of the real players changing between 7 chords and majors between downstrokes and upstrokes. Getting that pinky going up and down on the 4th string.

I think it sounds just peachy for many songs. Mixing it up again ... do it on some of the 1 chords and/or some of the 4s and 5s.

I have not ( so far ) heard Griff talk about this kind of chord changing during a blues chord progression. Griff? Anyone else have ideas/opinions.

If it sounds right just do it eh?
 

MikeS

Student Of The Blues
Staff member
I'm not sure if this is what you are talking about but I know that sometimes Griff will switch between the I & IV chord within the time space of the I chord. In G,for instance, play G on the 1 then C on the 2 then back to G on the 3...
1 2 3 4
G C G C
 

PapaBear

Guit Fiddlier
So a while back in here I posted a question that basically said for some blues songs ( ok lets say sweet home chicago by EC or Heart beats like a hammer by early Peter Green and Fleetwood Mac ) when playing along it sounds fine to me to go E / A7 / B7. Not many responses here.

Lets say that you are doing full bar chords based on E string and jumping in and out of different strums for a loud blues ( like both of those songs ). Mixing it up. Maybe hitting all six strings sometimes maybe hitting top ones or middles or a root and then top ones. Changing it up as the song flows.

Anyhow to me it seems like I hear some of the real players changing between 7 chords and majors between downstrokes and upstrokes. Getting that pinky going up and down on the 4th string.

I think it sounds just peachy for many songs. Mixing it up again ... do it on some of the 1 chords and/or some of the 4s and 5s.

I have not ( so far ) heard Griff talk about this kind of chord changing during a blues chord progression. Griff? Anyone else have ideas/opinions.

If it sounds right just do it eh?
I do that all the time, I usually have played full chords and just tried to pick a small sweet spot or two in them, and I like hammering on and pulling off accents as well, now days I'm playing smaller chords but still using accents
 

david moon

Attempting the Blues
Sounds like you are asking if you always need a flat 7 sounding in the chord. Of course not. In an E shape barre chord you can pick up a finger on the 4th string... or not. Or put down a finger on the 2nd string... or not. Or play smaller versions of the chords on just a few strings.
 

Griff

Vice Assistant General Manager
Staff member
What I think you're referring to me, at least to me, are some of the variations and things you can do to a chord while you play it.

Piano players usually have a leg up with this sort of thing, because when they play a chord many of their fingers are easily poised to play other notes from the scale easily...

Guitar players tend to get locked into a single chord shape and we don't move around much... and that's too bad :)

Going between different voicings can create cool melodies inside your rhythm playing and adds variety, I highly recommend it. But really, I look at it as using different voicings (one with the 7th in it, and one without, for example) as opposed to looking at a melody.
 
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