Close voiced Chords

An idea to play chords which would be otherwise impossible (at least for me) to play.

Use one finger of you picking hand to fret additional notes, while using the other fingers to pluck the string like you would normally! This enables you to play, for instance, two major second intervalls in one chord.
Watch for an example:

This way you can also play scale, while having the notes ring into each other (see end of the video).
Cheers

7th arpeggio shapes

Still on my quest for fretboard visualization, I thought that knowing the most common 7th arpeggio shapes would be usefull. So I made up shapes for major 7th, dominant 7th, minor 7th and minor 7th b5 (half diminished) chords.

First the D major 7th arpeggio shapes:

D major 7th arpeggio shapes (click to enlarge).

Now remember the difference between the major 7th and the dominant 7th is that the latter has a minor 7th. So it is the same shape as the major 7th arpeggios only that you shift the 7th down a half step.
This is what you get:

D dominant 7th arpeggio shapes (click to enlarge).

I won't show anymore shapes here, but they are easy enough to build by yourself.
Remember:

• Minor 7th arpeggios are like dominant 7th arpeggios only with a minor 3rd. So, find your 3rds and shift them down a half step!
• Minor 7th b5 arpeggios are like minor 7th arpeggios only with a flatted 5th. So, find your 5ths and shift them down a half step!

What to do with these shapes?
Use them in your playing (obvious, uh?).
See where they are located within your scale. For example, where are these arpeggios relativ to your good old pentatonic scale?

Good luck and have fun!

Playing with 7th chord inversions

Today's video lesson takes a look at the voice leading in chord progressions and how you can spice up your chord changes by adding passing tones (chords).

Notice how the voice leading gets much clearer by using chord inversions in order to minimize movement.

Try this with any chord sequence you like, play around, be creative!