embellishing chords
Various things can be done to any chord to add variety.
INVERSIONS – The notes of a chord may be played in any combination. The root note does not have to be the lowest in pitch. You can also repeat any or all of the notes in a chord at any pitch. For example the notes of a Dm7 chord can be combined in several ways. The first diagram show the notes of the chord all over the fretboard. The subsequent diagrams combine the notes to form inversions.
EXTENSIONS – To extend a chord you are adding extra notes to it. So a simple three note major chord could be extended to a four note major seven chord. You can extend any chord as long as the root note and quality ( Maj, m ) of the chord remain the same.
SUBSTITUTIONS – Often amongst the notes of a chord there are other smaller chords. For example, ‘Am7’ (A:C:E:G) contains the notes C, E and G. These are the notes of the ‘C’ major chord. So, ‘C’ could be substituted for ‘Am7’.
Example
How successful these methods are will depend on what else is being played and the style of music.
Examples of these ideas can be found HERE.
© Carlos Thrale 2014
