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I know they're not math rock, but if you wanna hear jazz chords in a rock context, Stone Temple Pilots were the masters of this. The DeLeo brothers are super underappreciated musicians IMO
an interesting aspect of WHY shell voicings work is the Overtone Series a maj7 shell voicing (like E-B-D#) works because there's no minor chord with a major seventh in the major scale, so our ears automatically imply a major third where there is none; also, a chord voiced E-G#-D# would not sound as stable, because we'd lose the most stable interval (besides the octave or the unison) containing the root; it still works, but it sounds less consonant to Western ears now minor shell voicings require the minor third with the root, because a third-less dominant sevent chord (for instance, E-B-D) could imply either a major dominant chord or a minor seventh chord; but since the major third appears way earlier in the overtone series than the minor third, the chord would sound more major-ly to most people, so we drop the fifth (which is already really close to the root in the overtone series) for the minor third
You likely already know this, but for those who don’t, this is a big reason why so much traditional rock music with distorted rhythm guitars playing full triads used the I-IV-V progression so much. Since distortion brings out the harmonics/overtones of the incoming signal, minor chords don’t exactly play nice with it compared to major chords.
TIL the actual names for the chord shapes I've been just calling the "FCPRemix " or the "Message in a Bottle " and the "Cute without the E " I feel seen, and as though a part of me has been made whole transcendent experience, that
STP's Dean DeLeo. Incubus' Mike Einziger. My guitar skills were born with Nirvana and Misfits, but then I discovered this wonderful math-like thing called "music theory." Yeah, I like math.
I find that these kinds of chords are all over Japanese music from the most commercial pop to rock and even some more jazzy math rock stuff. A band I would highly recommend is The Band Apart. Their songs Eric W and saqava are both a really nice starting point but honestly listening to their full albums is a great musical experience.
The first chord that led me down this path was just a first inversion chord, though I didn’t know it at the time. Just taking the root-fifth power chord and dropping the root down a half-step. But what really got me was trying to learning this song called Cheek to Cheek by the Starting Line that taught me the chord from the thumbnail. I then used that all over the place in songs I wrote.
I started transcibing a lot of math and midwest emo and this clicked for me. We're so used to hearing the root,3,5, and 7 in western music. The 2 (9), 4(11), and 6 are the interesting diatonic notes that make the chords feel moody and nostalgic.
I started playing in the 90's, and I took lessons from a jazz teacher for about 3-4 years. I've always had 7ths and 9ths and stuff in my brain as a result, but never really used them much. But I've been getting into this stuff a lot recently. It feels like the accumulation of all the different avenues of playing I've done over the years, as well as giving me some technical challenges that aren't "play this lick as fast as you possibly can without getting a muscle cramp." The sus2/sus9 chords originally came to me from the outtro to Floods by Pantera, ZZ's Song by Joe Satriani, and the intro to Castles Made of Sand by Hendrix. I never really used extended chords in my playing before. Playing them in different scenarios never really worked - rock (power chords and open chords, jazz is dumb and soulless or whatever), blues (which has some of it but in a pretty formulaic manner), indie (just highlight the 1-3-5 an octave or two higher with some delay, k?), metal (5's and b5's and min3's all the time), or the occasional worship gig (see indie). But I would always try to throw in 7's or 9's in my lead lines to add tension and interest, which was generally well received. Aside from the occasional jazz tune I'd pick up, I almost never saw them. But math is letting my hands stretch in the most wonderful ways, and I love it.
It seems a lot of people don't know about these kinds of chords for rock and heavy rock, but they've been there, and you're in luck because there's an untapped goldmine. I've heard all sorts of 7th and upper extension chords from the 60's on. Check out The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, King Crimson, Yes, Pink Floyd, Rush, The Police, My Bloody Valentine (very closely related to math rock), Jeff Buckley (brilliant rhythm player and singer), Stone Temple Pilots (listen closer), Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, Deftones, and Radiohead for more tasty chord ideas in this vein. Beyond triads and power chords, you've got 7th chords, 9th chords, Maj/min add9, sus2, sus4, 7sus4, 11th, 13th and a billion variations of those. Once you learn to spell chords (which notes go where), you can roll your own chord grips; you don't have to do the ones in the chord dictionary (though there are some cool ones in there). Also try dyads in thirds, fourths (inverted power chords), obviously you know fifths (Sabbath et al), b5th (heard in Korn often), 6ths, 7ths, and octaves (if you don't already know em, you should for any genre). Dyads in the lower register work well for distorted heavy rock and they're easy to finger. Hope this gives someone some cool ideas :)
I'll take a look. Could be the single coils, or does it sound more on the voice audio? I try to delete all volume for the guitar track when I am not playing it.
Not using any plugins on the guitar. It's just a universal audio dream 65 pedal with some drive in front of it for the guitar. For my voice, it's just a dynamic mic slightly out of shot above my head in front of me and I add a little bit of compression and limiting. 👍👍
Hey Steve. Patreon supporter here. Are you familiar with a band called “Saturdays At Your Place”? They’re from Kalamazoo, MI (Midwestern US) and have a “Midwest Emo” sound to them. I’d like to request a video regarding their song “Tarot Cards”. In particular, the middle instrumental part. It definitely has a “twinkly, jangly” sound to it. Thanks for your consideration!
Hello! Thanks for the question. It means the 3rd degree has been taken out of the chord. To clarify, an E major (referred to as a triad; three notes) chord has three note: E, G# and a B. The 1st (E), and major 3rd (G#) are the important notes because that interval is what makes it sound major. The next chord type up from a triad is a quadad, a chord with 4 notes. In this case our E major will now become an E major 7: E, G#, B, and a D#. In these 7 chords, like the 3rd degree it also denotes whether a chord is major, minor, dominant, diminished and so on (look up the chord spellings for clarification). As the chord in the video used the 1st, 5th, and major 7th degree , it's still considered major even though the 3rd is missing. You could look at this chord as a B/E but in the context of most of the example I shown in this video, I personally see and hear them as functioning as a maj7(omit the 3rd) style chord. Hope that clarifies it better!
