What are "short" chords?
Substitution, Melody and Harmony chords. [Intermediate Beginner Lesson]
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This lesson is going to cover some of the basics of understanding the use of "short" chords as substitutions for a full or extended chord. These types of chords are also useful in melody and harmony voicings.
[Intermediate Beginner Lesson]
What is a short chord?
Think of short chords as exactly what they are - short. These types of chords usually use two or three of the top notes in the most common types of regular chords that you probably already know. Think of them as the higher notes in a chord structure. They can be used as substitution chords or melody or harmony chords.
For example - Let's say that you are playing a song with another guitar player, and you both know all of the regular chords (i.e. cowboy chords and barre chords), one of you might consider using short chords as a substitutions so you're both not playing the same exact chord shapes together.
The Major Triad
In the diagram below, you can see that there are three different shapes for a major triad "short" chord. The first chord looks just like the "D" shape. However, the fourth strong does not get played. The root note is on the second string. The second shape has the root note on the third string. It looks like the "Bb" shape. Again, you do not play the fourth string on any of these chords. The third shape looks like the "F" shape. Now, the root note is on the first string. This means you have three different choices, depending on where you are on the fretboard. You do need to know the notes on your fretboard for these shapes to be used properly.
The Minor Triad
In the diagram below, you can see that just like the major triads, there are also three different shapes for a minor triad chord. The first chord looks just like the "Dm" shape. The root note is on the second string. The second shape has the root note on the third string. It looks like the "Bm" shape. The third shape is just the first finger across the first three strings, all on the same fret. The root note is on the first string.
The Dominant 7th
Okay, so now these shapes are a little more altered than the first two shapes. As you can see there are now four different notes available. However, because this is a dominant 7 chord, you will want to make sure that whichever shape you choose, uses the dominant 7th note in the shape. This means that you might not use the root note at all. Regardless, you have many options for this shape.
The Major 7th
The Major 7th chord is very similar to the dominant 7th chord, except that the dominant 7th interval has been moved up one half step to the VII position. Just like the shapes available of the dominant 7th chord, you might not use the root note for some of these shapes. The idea for these shapes is to make sure you use the Major 7th note somewhere in the shape.
The Minor (dom.) 7th
Here we combine both the dominant 7th chord and the minor triad to form the minor 7th chord. As with all of the other chord explanations, the idea is to use the notes that are specific to the name of the chord shapes. So, in this chord, you will want to make sure that you use the minor 3rd and the dominant 7th notes in the chord shape to get the proper voicings for that chord.
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