"7" chord help......

[Larry Venberg]

Hi all,
So I am really trying to buckle down and learn chords along the neck. I'll try to ask this hopefully in a very basic way hoping not to sound stupid. I am referencing a great chord dictionary by Patrick Brenner. I'll use th C chord for an example. According to this diagram if I am on the 8 fret and I move down to strings 6,8,9,10 and play this I now a C7 chord. I also find this consistent with every chord I have looked up so far. So, I guess I am looking for tips, techniques on playing this monster. The introduction section briefly speaks on the difficulty and to play a broken chord or just part of the chord.

Having fun, but confused.... I have no musical background to boot.

Thanks all,

Larry

[Storm Rosson]

I think that most players use a thumb and first 2 fingers essentially a three note clutch,so if you have 4 notes at your position(s) it's up to you to find the most applicable voicing out of the 4 notes and often diads are used in passing chords again it is your job to find which 2 or three notes are the most relevant to the melody you're working with. The intervals and the particular stacking sequence (voicing)will be pretty much up to you and the voice in your mind to determine what clutch and number of notes will best compliment the melody. Of course I'm not gonna mentioned the few but many who are known to use 4 and even 5 digit clutches and the voicing becomes trickier although those big fat chords made with 4 and 5 finger clutches are killer ( like Doug Jernigans solo version of streets of laredo) I heard him play it when on tour with Vasser Clements , I think I had a mild stroke.

[Brint Hannay]

FYI, for future Forum/steel guitar reference, the common term used for what Storm is talking about is "grip", not "clutch".

Many multi-note chord "grips" involve "raking" across two or more adjacent lower strings with the thumb while using two fingers to play individual higher strings. To play your 6, 8, 9, 10 chord, for example, rake 10 and 9 with the thumb while picking 8 and 6 with the fingers.

If the lower two notes of a chord with more than three notes are not on adjacent strings, you either have to not play all notes simultaneously or leave one or more notes out so you can hit the remaining ones simultaneously.

[Lane Gray]

Here's one of my favorites, remembering that the cats around you can play the rest of the chords:
If you're in C, go to the 6th fret, strike strings 4 and 5, and immediately squeeze the A pedal. 5A is a G note, and the 4th string is a Bb (that's 5 and b7). Then when it goes to the F chord, let go of the A pedal, and drop the Es, giving you a pretty resolution.

[Ian Rae]

Larry, in the example you give, strings 6, 8, 9, 10 give a musically complete chord but that is rarely necessary.

The essential notes are 6 (tells us it's C major) and 9 (the 7th) - you can omit either of the others.

[Jeff Mead]

According to this diagram if I am on the 8 fret and I move down to strings 6,8,9,10 and play this I now a C7 chord.

Hi Larry,

Welcome to the forum. You've come to the right place for help.

I am still pretty new to this instrument but I did play lap steel for a good few years before tackling the pedals.

It can sound cool to go from C to C7 and one way I'd do that would be to play the C chord on 5 6 and 8 and then just move my thumb over to play 5 6 and 9. As someone else said, someone else in the band will be playing the missing chord. A lot of the time you only need to play 2 notes and it'll sound fine.

Also, don't forget that when you find a chord, you can use that same combination of pedals and strings to play any other chord of that type. For example, any combination of strings 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 10 with your A pedal pressed at the 3rd fret will be E minor. Move up a fret and it's F minor, up another two and it's G minor.

That combination of strings (3 4 5 6 8 and 10) is incredibly useful and many chords can be played using that combination of strings and a great exercise is to play some of these chords using 345, 456, 568, and 6810 in turn and then back up again and then on to the next chord "shape". You'll soon start hearing your way around the chords. Also find the chords A, D and E and practice moving between the smoothly with all the grips, then move everything up a fret and play the same thing and you will be playing Bb Eb and F and so on up the neck.

[Storm Rosson]

FYI, for future Forum/steel guitar reference, the common term used for what Storm is talking about is "grip", not "clutch".

Brint ,thanks for refreshing what little memory I have. I scratched and picked my nose for 20 minutes trying to remember the correct terminology but no luck. Beware when you get old it'll get you lol...Stormy

[Storm Rosson]

Here's one of my favorites, remembering that the cats around you can play the rest of the chords:
If you're in C, go to the 6th fret, strike strings 4 and 5, and immediately squeeze the A pedal. 5A is a G note, and the 4th string is a Bb (that's 5 and b7). Then when it goes to the F chord, let go of the A pedal, and drop the Es, giving you a pretty resolution.

Lane ,I just gave that move try (shaky hands and all) that is a cool resolve thanks for that. I do a whiney sorta Hughey thing where I start ,usually around 12th fret zone, so I'm peds A+B down with a 4 chord with strings 3,4,5 then slide up 4 frets while releasing B pedal and losing string 4 so when u reach 4th fret(A flat) you are playing that minor position with only the A pedal down and strings 3 and 5 (I may have the pedal mixed up ,I'm using Emmons setup)so your up 4 frets with A ped down strings 3 and 5, using the "amount of bar vibrato Hughey would use", then start back sliding still on strings 3 and 5 and as you drop back 1fret while bring the B ped back in, slide on down two more frets with A and B down strings 3 and 5 release both pedals and play same strings open as resolution back to E and filling the chord back with string 4 or sometimes 6 + 3 and 5. If I got the pedal letters right it's a major cry lick. I still can't figure what the "chord" is when I'm at the 4 frets up (start in E at 12th fret so pedals down 4 chord and go up to A-flat open position fret 15 with A pedal down start quivering as you slide back 1 fret still on strings 3 and 5 while bringing the B pedal back in with A ped ,still on strings 3 and 5 as you keep descending 2 more frets to A major pedals down 12th fret and pedals off to E maj at 12th fret your choice of what strings you want to voice in the grip.

[Lane Gray]

Storm, things like that are all over the blues videos on my YouTube channel.
I'll try to think about what you're describing, but I'm 800 miles from my guitar.

[Storm Rosson]

Lane you're doin great , my Fessy is in the next room ,yet I usually feel like its 1000-1200 miles and still traveling....away from me.. Take care out there homey...Stormy

[Jim Kennedy]

A link to Tom Bradshaw's revised Chord Book is available in the new products announcements section. I have just gone through it and it is well worth looking at, and it is free. He explains quite well how to build chords from scale tones and gives the positions and grips for major, minor, Maj7, min7, dom7, diminished, augmented, and altered chords in the key of E. Audio examples are included. Not hard to understand. He even explains why you don't have to play a full chord in a band situation, which should help with your question. It is well worth the read, especially for those of us new to Steelin'.