'Nother "Little Chords" Question

MarkDyson

MarkDyson

Blues Hound Wannabe
So, I get that you find the anchor for the I chord based on where the root would be if you were fretting an E-shape barre. Then you slide down/up a half tone for the IV/V chords.

I'm a little lost trying to figure how you'd do this for a blues in E, though. The above convention would have me doing a single fretted note plus an open for the I chord, and nowhere to go for the IV. Clearly anchoring this progression involves some theory cleverness I do not yet possess.

Little help from my friends? :Beer:
 
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Crossroads

Crossroads

Thump the Bottom
Griff may teach it different but to me an E shape chord can always be substituted by an open F shape chord at the same fret. Think F @ the 1st Fret, barre and then open F.

A 5 string root (A shape) I play the B and G string of the A shape and will sometimes add he 1st string two frets lower, and sometimes hammer on the D string. So for an E barre at te 7th fret that would be he B and G string at the 9the fret (I chord), the open F shape at the 5th fret (IV chord), and then the open F shape at the 7th fret (V).

In it's simplest form it's really just a piece of the fuller bare chord, but I guess f you know theory there are a lot of other places you could play them
 
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JestMe

JestMe

Student Of The Blues
Mark

I wonder if you are talking about tritones... This would be an interval 6 semi-tones. And can be used as a sub for Dom 7 chords... I believe that notes would be the 3rd and b7 of the chord... so for a I IV V in C that would be...
I - E Bb
IV - A Eb
V - F B

So play the "I" tritone from there slide it back 1 fret to play the "IV" tritone go back to the I tritone and slide it up 1 fret to play the "V" tritone

Not sure if this is what you are referring to but if so... I hope this is helpful
 
MarkDyson

MarkDyson

Blues Hound Wannabe
JestMe said:
Mark

I wonder if you are talking about tritones... This would be an interval 6 semi-tones. And can be used as a sub for Dom 7 chords... I believe that notes would be the 3rd and b7 of the chord... so for a I IV V in C that would be...
I - E Bb
IV - A Eb
V - F B

So play the "I" tritone from there slide it back 1 fret to play the "IV" tritone go back to the I tritone and slide it up 1 fret to play the "V" tritone

Not sure if this is what you are referring to but if so... I hope this is helpful
Click to expand...

I'm referring to the 2-note chord shapes @Griff teaches in lesson 4 of the BGU. :cool:
 
MarkDyson

MarkDyson

Blues Hound Wannabe
Okay, I'm thinking that for playing in E you could use the 2-note E9 as the anchor and then go up/down from there. Gotta dig out the actual notes and check my math. :Beer:
 
MarkDyson

MarkDyson

Blues Hound Wannabe
Okay, I think I got it. You're playing just the 3rd and the flat 7th. When you anchor the I as in the video the root is a fragment of the dom7th and the IV/V are fragments of the 9th (same fingering but the 3rd and b7 swap places). Just invert that for playing in E, so the 9th is the I. Ergo, anchor the E on fret 6 and go to 5/7 for IV/V.

This stuff is fun! :Beer:
 
Paleo

Paleo

Lifelong Learner
TwoNotesSolo said:
I like playing the little chords at the 12th fret or higher.
Click to expand...
And you can do the "tritone" move starting with the E-shape barre chord in E up there.:)

The C# of the IV (A7) that wasn't available on the 4th string down in open position , is now available at the 11th fret.:sneaky:
 
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Griff

Griff

Chief Cook And Bottle Washer
Staff member
I think where you might be getting confused is simply the string translation...

If I'm in G, the I chord sits nicely at the 3rd fret, but if I'm in E, the I chord has an open string in it, which can't go down for the IV chord.

Remember, however, that in the key of G, the IV chord goes down 1/2 step. Therefore if I had a I chord with a 5th string root, I would still just go down 1/2 step for a IV chord with those 2 notes.

So if you think of a 5th string root E7, you have the 6th and 7th frets for the 2 notes on the 4th and 3rd strings... for A7 you move them down 1/2 step, and for B7 you move them up 1/2 step - nothing changes.

The theory behind it is as described above with the fact that the 3rd and 7th are a tritone apart and can be inverted.
 
MarkDyson

MarkDyson

Blues Hound Wannabe
Griff said:
I think where you might be getting confused is simply the string translation...

If I'm in G, the I chord sits nicely at the 3rd fret, but if I'm in E, the I chord has an open string in it, which can't go down for the IV chord.

Remember, however, that in the key of G, the IV chord goes down 1/2 step. Therefore if I had a I chord with a 5th string root, I would still just go down 1/2 step for a IV chord with those 2 notes.

So if you think of a 5th string root E7, you have the 6th and 7th frets for the 2 notes on the 4th and 3rd strings... for A7 you move them down 1/2 step, and for B7 you move them up 1/2 step - nothing changes.

The theory behind it is as described above with the fact that the 3rd and 7th are a tritone apart and can be inverted.
Click to expand...

Yeah, thanks for the clarifications. I was guilty (as usual) of over-thinking this.

Yesterday I went back over the video and realized (belatedly) that the answer was right there: the V in the key of A example. Well, duh. There's my anchor. :confused:

Thanks again! :Beer:
 
Paleo

Paleo

Lifelong Learner
@MarkDyson

By Coincidence (?) I started Griff's "How To Build Blues Songs" today.

You might be interested in "Rhythm Figure 4", starting on page 18.

He uses 3 note little chords on the 2,3,&4 strings.

These are the same 2 note "chords" we were discussing yesterday with another note added on top.

Or the 4 note "little chords" without the 1st string top note.

So BGU shows the 4 string & 2 string versions and this course has the 3 string versions.

It's all still the E7 & C7 (or C9 if you prefer) chord shapes, just different string sets.

Pretty cool.:)

(Imagine that. All these varied courses are related and tie together.:sneaky:)

And rhythm Figures 1 & 2, "Chicks" & "Holds" use the 4 string little chords.
 
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