"Little Chords" revelation

MarkDyson

Blues Hound Wannabe
So, today I was going over the 2022 version of the free "How To Jam" book, and the (brief) discussion of "little chords" contained a revelation I'd not seen or considered before. For the IV and V chords, BGU Lesson 4 talks about the 9 chords, but in the Jam book it shows the C7 shape chords—and the center two string notes are the same.

For me, at least, that was a light bulb moment and is easier for me to visualize than the 9 chord shape.

Just wanted to share the fun. :Beer:
 

B W Bowman

Lone Star Native
Hi Mark,

I started noticing 9 chords from jazz chords and I replace my normal 7 chords for my IV and V chords with 9 chords more often then not, it just feels and sounds better with my style of play.
It's a good lightbulb moment!! :cool:
 

tommytubetone

Great Lakes
Here's something I picked up along the way. This is an A7. Add pinkie to 7th fret 1st string for an A9. Move pinkie to 7th fret 2nd string for an A13. I think the A13 sounds good most of the time, but especially with the last chord hit in a song. 7E5A6967-330D-49EA-980D-540CBF0CB5B6.jpeg
In a minor blues, I've found that the 7#9 chord sounds great over the V chord. YMMV
 

david moon

Attempting the Blues
Here's something I picked up along the way. This is an A7. Add pinkie to 7th fret 1st string for an A9. Move pinkie to 7th fret 2nd string for an A13. I think the A13 sounds good most of the time, but especially with the last chord hit in a song. View attachment 18930
In a minor blues, I've found that the 7#9 chord sounds great over the V chord. YMMV

that is just a subset of the A7 barre chord at the 5th fret. If you avoid the open 5th string, it's movable all over the neck. Root is on the 1st string or on the same fret on 6th string that you don't play because it's a little chord.
 

ChrisGSP

Blues Journeyman
I remember seeing Larry Coryell giving a little symposium on YouTube about the importance of knowing the Scale Degree of each note in the chord that you are playing, in allowing you to build other chords without moving your hand.

Using Tommy's example in the diagram above, on the 4th, 3rd, 2nd and 1st strings you are playing the 7, 3, 5, 1 of the scale.

Move the 4th string note up one fret for Major 7th.
Move the 3rd string note down one fret for Minor 7th.
Move the 2nd string note up 2 frets for 6th/13th
Move the 1st string note up 2 frets for the 9th.
Move both 1st and second strings up 2 frets for 6/9
1st string up 1 fret for 7b9
1st string up 3 frets (if you can reach) for 7#9

That's seven additional chords for no movement. Very economical :giggle:
 

Elwood

Blues
Page 48 of ABGU charts those little 7th chords out nicely. I run those chords @ 65bpm to close my metronome practice. That and the pent patterns are what I use to keep the digits moving.
Sometimes splitting a bar of a 7th chord into two beats of the 7th and 2 beats of a friendly 7th inversion gives the feel of movement without actually going anywhere.
 
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