Going Beyond Just Chords
What is Chord Phrasing?
Chord phrasing is art of taking a chord progression and turning it into a means of personal expression. In basic terms one could describe it as simply adding fills in between chords, but there's more to it than just that. Ultimately it can set you free from playing just standard chord voicings to playing something more intricate.
Chord phrasing allows you total freedom during the performance of a song to do anything you can imagine with the song's chord structure. In other words, when playing rhythm guitar you don't have to just play the chords that go along with the progression. Playing just the chords can, and will get boring rather quickly.
One of the absolute "real world" example would be Little Wing by Jimi Hendrix. Click on the link below to hear an example of song with just chords, and another version of it with chord phrasing.
Little Wing Chord Phrasing Example
Intro To Little Wing Tab As Performed By Jimi Hendrix
Intro To Little Wing Tab As Performed By SRV
Scale Patterns Associated With C-A-G-E-D Chord Patterns
In order to make phrases from the chord progression we need a roadmap that will show us what notes will work. This is where being proficient at the C-A-G-E-D chord sequences really pay off. You can associate a pentatonic scale pattern (same thing as the basic scale patterns) with each C-A-G-E-D chord patterns. There are 5 pentatonic positions and 5 C-A-G-E-D patterns. It fits together perfectly like a puzzle.
If you have spent some time in the Scales section, you're already familiar with this idea. What we're doing here is not much different, but instead of playing lead guitar our concentration here is rhythm guitar- therefore how we use the scale patterns will be different.
Playing Melody With Chords
Chord Phrasing with..
Major chord/scale shapes
minor chord/scale shapes
Chord Phrasing "Real World" Examples
Castles Made Of Sand by Jimi Hendrix
Chord Composites
A chord composite is a diagram showing us all the instances of the notes of a particular chord on the fretboard. This can come in handy when we wish to experiment with different phrases or create chord phrases instead of just strumming chords. On the right are chord composites for every major and minor chord.
Major Chord Composites
| G#/Ab | A | A#/Bb |
| B | C | C#/Db |
| D | D#/Eb | E |
| F | F#/Gb | G |
Minor Chord Composites
| G#/Ab | A | A#/Bb |
| B | C | C#/Db |
| D | D#/Eb | E |
| F | F#/Gb | G |
Chord Alterations And Extensions
Slash Chords/Altered Root Notes
