The voicing/finger shape of those minor 6 chords are awesome, especially if you use the B and E strings for more chord tones. A minor 6 in this example is voiced A C F# , omitting the fifth, E. Like in the video, F# A C (F# Diminished triad) can also imply D7 (D F# A C), it is also F# half diminished 7. Its worth noting that this voicing is using a Major 6 in the key of a (harmonic) minor which is just a chromatic change that affects typical non-chromatic function of the iv7 (notice it is dominant 7 rather than minor 7) and the VI7 (now vi half dim 7 rather than Major 7). If it were the minor 6 of the key, it would be the same notes as F major 7, which functions as the VI7 in the key. Going through the comments, I see that the changed scale degree may be confusing people. In practice, a lot of players will voice the minor 6 chord with the fifth played on the B string and another chord tone on the high E, for example doubling A. The voicing being played in the video once again, is omitting the fifth of A minor. A common finger position that a lot of people take from Django Reinhardt is how it is played in the video, but with the ring finger barring the same fret on the G, B, and E strings so you get the 5th and double the bass. A really cool IV7 ii i intro used in Minor Swing uses this shape starting with the root as B, same fingering but adding the 7th of D7 at the C on the high E string and then pulling that off to the original shape and then sliding down to the A minor 6. Also note that you can very easily voice A fully diminished by lowering the E on the B string to E flat (barring it with your pointer finger. This is a very easy way to voice B# fully diminished 7, which functions as the #ii embellishing fully diminished 7th in A minor. You can also raise the 3rd of the A minor 6 chord on the G string to C sharp, which gives you A major 6 (A C# E F#), which contains the exact notes of F# minor 7 (F# A C# E), which now would be in 1st inversion as well. Just some things to think about if you really think into the Minor 6 chord. Cool stuff, cool video (:
I was attracted to the title because I'm working in my Freddie Green style. This video is underrated because it actually is a very nice chord study!!! 👍
Eamonn, Just a quick thank you, This has changed the way I approach rhythm guitar forever. I have learnt more about sound in these 17 minutes than in the past twenty years. All the best.
Thank you for this, and putting in the time and effort. The diminished 'move one finger back trick to get any of four dom7 chords' was useful to me as was working the 6th chords up the neck and placing the dim in between... lots to work on.
many thanks for this very useful lesson, it is much clearer and comprehensive than you give yourself credit for. I especially liked how you walked through the chords & explanations and then threw in a "challenge" at the end! from an expat dubliner residing in Canada.
Thank you for the lesson! This sounds a lot like the Barry Harris approach to chord generation. I understand that you can use a min6 shell voicing in place of a Diminished chord (by omitting the b5). Would you typically use this on the b9 of a dominant chord in a Minor 2 5 progression, or does that work in a major context as well?
At around 8:57 when you are playing the G6, explaining it is also an Em7 (which I understand), and then explaining the ii V move to the A7 with a b9 in it (which you say is a diminished chord), I'm not understanding how that is an Adim chord. Can you elaborate on that a bit more? Great video by the way.
Thanks, this was a great help with chord names and functions. Just out of interest, what kind of guitar do you play in the video and what sort of strings?
+treguiers Thanks for the info, I wondered what the guitar was as I've never seen one like that in my extensive pursuit of my first archtop. It has a great acoustic sound!
Great video, I'm new to playing Jazz style guitar and I was wondering if you have any tips on how to mute the strings that you don't want to sound. For example if your only fretting on 3 strings how do you mute out the sound of the other 3 unfretted strings?
+OfficialSpritez I find if you can finger the chords so that in a way that mutes the other strings, that works. In other words, mute with your fretting hand. Hope that helps. there's a certain style of strumming that goes with this style that doesn't lend itself to RH muting..... imho
Hello treguiers - just wondering, in your minor blues here, The g sharp diminished chord, that you pass through, do you attribute that any formula, i.e. Would you say it is substituting anything, or would you just say it's a "passing chord." Maybe it's related to a D7 here? Thanks
Hi Phil, If you are talking about "Minor Swing" near the beginning of the video, then the G# dim is substituting for an E7, resolving to Am. Hope that helps.
Like the video no issues following as I am very familiar with these chord forms,but what is these numbers folks are mentioning mean? 3x343, 7x576, 10x9,10,8 and 13,x 12,12,12
What is the voicing of the A7 as the V of the Em7 (ii7), using the G6 voicing.... are you doing 3x222 (7,5,1,3) or something altered? Otherwise, nice content. I've always struggled with "static" chords in charts and wondered how to get some movement to "jazz them up"!
+blekros hi, I am always using a diminished chord as the A7 voicings(in this style I use a diminished chord as a 7th a lot) A diminished chord is a 7b9 without the root...... In the example you gave I am using 3x232.
+treguiers thanks, that's what I finally figured out with your video. You give examples for "walking" over G6 or Gm6 - what's your concept/idea with "walking" over Dom7? (Besides using dim/m7b9)
Hi Jonas, I felt there was enough info in this video without adding stuff about 7ths, but yes i use the same approach 7ths G7; 3x343, 7x576, 10x9,10,8 and 13,x 12,12,12. These work great when you insert a diminished chord inbetween the voicings, Like I did on the video. another thing to bear in mind is that you use the Am6 voicings as D9 voicingd.... which give you a Dom7 thing too.
PhototropicLemon I view all diminished chords as 7b9 chords. Take the G diminished chord as an example: the notes are G Bb Db and E. That particular chord can be viewed as a Gb7b9 an A7b9 a C7b9 and a Eb7b9. a similar this can be done with the other two diminished chords.Hope that helps
Thanks for the lesson. I enjoyed it and it fits with a lot of what I’d taught myself but your lesson is very comprehensive. I tried to do it all on the fifth string and it creates some great voicings too. Do you have a summary video on 5 th string voicings?
your guitar is out of tune, or your intonation is off (bridge is not positioned correctly). You can play some Western swing comping, but it sounds nothing like Freddie Green.