The Steel Guitar Forum

I know real chords have three notes but understand you can get away with two note chords because other band members will be playing the missing note. In the following example of a "c" chord with the notes "ceg" what would you play "eg" or would "ce" or "cg" also be used?

I would probably choose "ce" or "eg" to catch the third (which indicates if it's a major or minor chord, in this case a major), depending on the situation.
In some cases I feel leaving the third out works best though, one example being if you play with distortion,- then the third can create some ugly noises and the root/fifth will work best.

There is NO set rule. But the following may help.

The 3rd of the chord (E in your example) "makes" the chord. So it is probably the preferred note under the melody line. This assumes the melody line is NOT an E note.

So in this case, you would use the E as one of the notes with the G or C notes. In either case the E note would either form a major 3rd (with the C). Or the minor 3rd (with the G note). The major 3rd is considered more dominate than the minor 3rd chord. That is, it is richer usually.

We don't generally play the 1st and 5th notes to make a two note chord. But it is done. Jerry Bryd has done it for years on his C6 tuning using strings 1 and 3. Buddy Emmons does it offen using his favorite two note chords, using strings 5 and 8 using various pedals and/or knee levers.

Playing the 1st and 5th notes of a chord makes a perfect 5th when played alone and usually does not have the "flavor" like a major or minor third (two note chord) does.

Finally, a lot depends on what the bass player is doing. Where it tends to get a bit tricky is when it is NOT a major or minor chord C E G or C Eb G. Such as a 7th chord. Then in almost all cases you want the 3rd and 7th notes of the chord. In fact, unless somebody is playing those two notes, it is NOT a 7th.

It gets even trickier as the chords become more complex. Such as 9ths, 11ths, 13ths, 7b5, augmented and dimished, etc. What helps best here if you want to just play two notes, is to have a well grounded musical theory under your built. OR.....a great "ear".

But the best way is if one is well grounded in BOTH areas,

God bless you in your quests,

carl <FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by C Dixon on 20 March 2003 at 08:16 PM.]</p></FONT>

What Carl said. Knowing how to spell chords fast is a big help when it comes to using polytonal substitutions, which is a handy thing to know. Each chordal tone of the original chord has a bunch of harmonic extensions you can play off of it's individual notes for a very hip sound. Jazz guys have been using this approach for dacades. Frank Gambale has a two book series with tapes that is pretty well written.

Playing 6th intervals based off of a Mixolydian scale (dom7th chord)seems to sound very Hawaiian to me.<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Jesse Pearson on 21 March 2003 at 05:37 AM.]</p></FONT>

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21. March 2003,
Hello,
This post answers also the questions I posted here last week.
Kind regards
Henning
The post was:
What are the most inexpensive 6-str lap steel
made today, made in quantities and sold commercially?
Also is there any books or tapes on playing fake jazz chords with no slanted bar only straight bar (chords with only 2 tones in them which substitutes for 3 tones) in the lap steel C6 tuning?
Also blues and jazz scales on lap steel C6-tuning.
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Henning Kock
(pedal steel guitar, piano, keyboards, vibraphone)
Henning K. Music
111 Aarhusvej
DK-8300 Odder
Denmark,
Europe
phone +45 8654 2959
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e-mail address: henningkmusic@hotmail.com
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webpages:
pedal steel guitar: www.geocities.com/Nashville/1520 www.steelguitardanmark.subnet.dk (information)
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piano & keyboard: www.sitecenter.dk/henning-kock www.danskmusik.com/dmfbook/selskab/html/henning_kock.html
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and for musical instrument products wholesale (to dealers): www.henningkmusic.subnet.dk
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Thanks for all the very useful info.

Wayne, Dobro players do a lot of playing on every other string, in other words 5th intervals. So for a C chord that might be EC (bottom to top), CG or GE. This "5th" harmony tends to sound better than two adjacent notes of the chord (3rds) or even the full chord, which can get muddy, especially in a group. Notice that you can get the minor by a simple one fret slant down from the E. You can also get the 5th intervals for other chords in the same key on nearby frets, possibly with simple slants, without having to go all the way to the full chord fret for these other chords. If you want to supply the 6th, 7th, or 9th flavor, etc., of course you will want to put those notes in, but still that can usually easily be done sticking to the every other string rule. This evey-other-string rule also sounds good on lap steel and pedal steel giving a very powerful simple harmony that is easy for the ear of the listener to follow and appreciate. Of course big full chords have their place, but simple is sometimes better.

I've heard dobro players resort to "doglegs"- is that hitting the 2 notes, quickly blocking, then moving to the 3rd note? or something else entirely?