Hey Friend,

Before we jumped into the key of A major, we looked at some odd chords that left out the 5 note from the pattern. Since the A major chord is a review for many of you, how's about we look at some of the chord variations you can use in lieu of a major chord? 

As you probably know, there are a lot more choices available than just major or minor chord voicings. There's the various 7 chords, suspended chords, augmented chords, 6 chords, add 9, 11 and 13 chords, even crazy combinations of all the above. While it seems like a cop out to say there are thousands of chords, there really are!

It's true, you'll probably use less than 100 chords for 99.9% of everything you learn and play over your lifetime. But if guitar truly gets under your skin and you find yourself a little nuts in the head (like me), you'll start looking at a lot of these other chord forms for unique sounds. And that doesn't even count in the chordal possibilities with alternate tunings.

Why are there so many variations?

Because each one has the power to change the direction of a song and massage the emotions of your listener. For example, a major chord is strong and confident. It gives off a vibe of happiness. It's solid and grounded.

That's because of the way the three notes ( the 1 3 5 scale degrees) interact together physically - how their individual sound waves combine to create the audible chord. There's a lot of physics and math involved with that, but we don't need to understand all the technical stuff to understand the feeling it elicits.

What happens when you modify one of those three notes and combine it with the other two? It alters the sound waves obviously, but is also changes the feel of the chord. Simply move one finger of the chord by one fret and you have altered the emotional strength of that chord. 

Take the 3 note of a major chord and slide the note down one fret, making it a 3m (minor third scale degree). You have made the major chord minor and effectively changed its sound from happy to sad. That small shift moved the emotional center from uplifting to drawing down.

You know little to nothing about the frequencies and harmonics melding together to create the specific chordal sound, and yet you're mind knows intuitively how to interpret what your ears hear.

If you had any doubt, that just proves you know more about music than you thought. Our brains are extremely effective at interpreting what the senses pick up, and all of this is done at a subconscious level. It's when our conscious brains and silly rationals get in the way that confusion happens.

Tomorrow I'm going to serve up some different flavors of the major chord and let you taste the little emotional shifts. Hopefully you enjoy the dish Chef Davey whips up for you!

Peace~

Dave