While I hardly consider myself proficient at either E9th or C6th , I find that each can lead to increased awareness for the other. No different than the 6 string or the Dobro. None of them have the same tuning or voicing's but yet we play them, don't we ?
Over the past several months I have spent a good deal of time on the lower ten, the bulb is growing brighter, sure the voicing's are different but some things just lay much better with minimal energy. After studying the phrasings and positions of a few songs, the tuning opens up wide, really wide. " wow , thats the same as xxx, I know this ".
Last week, this is true, I sat in at a local jam with some pretty darn good players, I looked at the set list and almost packed up and left, standards and classics . Yipes thats not me. BUT then my sense of fear diminished, I looked at a few of the charts and said , I can do this. First song up, "THATS ALL". I laid back during the first half then said what the heck, they pointed to me to play the head, and I did. C6th. It was all right there in front of me. If I recall it was all 5 and 6 Ped and maybe 1 lever and a couple of different stock open grips on the fret board . I thought I just barely got thru it but the guys in the band thought it was great ! What do they know.
I read somewhere that Doug J stated, learn maybe a dozen chords in a few positions and you can probably get by and play it all. He wasn't wrong !
I equate studying the lower ten the same as studying fat chords and standards on the 6 string. Some chords/phrasings on the 6 string come easier in different fret board positions.
It's not wrong to play whatever we play on either neck, but it may be MORE right to do it on the other neck !
