The Dr. Williams' Chord Chemistry: Volume 1

By William Mohele

Imagine a book that teaches you in a few pages and the simplest way how to construct, memorize and play correctly, all sorts of guitar chords.

To make that dream come true, we have reinvented chord teaching methods to bring forth this revolutionary book in 2 volumes.

For the first time, a new jargon and memory techniques have been set up, making this book a <> for the beginner as well as the virtuoso (master).

YOU CAN, AT LAST, KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT GUITAR CHORDS. THEIR CONSTRUCTION AND USE WILL NO LONGER BE A SECRET

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Jul 9, 2012
• ISBN: 9781466933156

William Mohele

Dr Williams, medical doctor by profession but also talented and skilled guitarist with more than 30 years of experience. Very young he started playing the guitar and singing in various bands while being exposed to many musical styles and genres ranging from jazz, rock rumba, bolero to reggae and pop music. After exchanging his guitar for the stethoscope, he still found the opportunity, through this book in 2 volumes, to share his long experience and passion for the guitar.

Book preview

THE DOCTOR WILLIAM’S CHORD CHEMISTRY

THE MASTER’S GUITAR BOOK

VOLUME I

William Mohele

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© Copyright 2012 William Mohele.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4669-3316-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4669-3315-6 (e)

Trafford rev. 06/26/2012

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Contents

INTRODUCTION

FOREWORD

CHAP. I. THE CONSTRUCTION OF CHORDS

CHAP. II. SIMPLE(OR BASIC) CHORDS

A. THE HARMONIC CHORDS

B.THE BARRÉ CHORD SHAPES

CHAP. III. INVERSIONS, OPENED CHORDS AND TRIADS

A. INVERSIONS OF HARMONIC CHORDS

B.INVERSIONS OF BARRE CHORDS

C. TRIADS AND OPENED CHORDS

2nd PART:EXTENDED CHORDS

CHAP.IV. EXTENDED CHORDS

I. THE MAJOR CHORDS

II.THE MINOR CHORDS

III.DOMINANT 7th CHORDS

Author Biography.

ENDNOTES

INTRODUCTION

Four years ago I bought a guitar book in which the author was trying to create a chord nomenclature by giving some pseudonym to chords in order to place them above the score. We could read, for example:Amaj7 root 5(root 5 meaning root note played on the fifth string).

That attempt was praiseworthy but the approach remained nevertheless vague because there are, at least, two different Amaj7 chords that one can play from a root note on the fifth string.

That is how I found myself revising some old draft notes and sketches that I started several years before on that topic.

I then quickly came across some fundamental questions such as how to name the common chords in a precise way and avoid any risk of confusion? . What type of guitar book one can write to bring about a revolution?

To achieve that we have had to create a brand new chord nomenclature, some sort of chord pseudonyms, re-use old terms in new concepts hence creating some sort of chord jargon.

In short, we had to revolutionize the way a guitar chord book is written. We believe that we somehow reached our target through this work.

The author.

FOREWORD

We wish to warn the reader on the fact that this book is very different from the other books published on the topic.

Many traditional concepts on chords have been completely changed (example: open chords).

The new and unusual way many technical words are used in this work is only binding on the author and done with the sole intention of making the book as didactic as possible.

Unlike most chord dictionaries:

1. The majority of chords are described in C.

2. The other chords that are not in C are mentioned to show some particular (unusual) fingerings among chords of the same group.

3. Most chords are described in a regrouped way and displayed together on a single fingerboard hence making easier a global understanding and memorization of chords.

This concept of chord regrouping into two different main groups, of similar construction and sound, each made up of three sub-groups, allows a better , faster and more practical understanding of chords after working out similarities in their construction, fingering and sonority.

4. The chord diagrams(on the fingerboards) often appear in double and roman numerals are used as explained in page 17 and 18.

5. The volume I will be best suitable for beginners and intermediate learners while the volume II will be more useful to advanced guitarists.

CHAP. I. THE CONSTRUCTION OF CHORDS

A chord is a group of notes put together in a harmonic way and in such a way that they can be played either simultaneously (strummed) or one after another (Arpeggio).

The simplest form of a chord is a triad = a chord composed of three notes, but it is not habitually used under this form in music. They will usually add to it the octave or octaves of one or another one of the notes that compose it, to form a group of 4 notes at least.

Triads are more commonly used by soloists(lead guitarists) or, as passing chords, by accompanists or rhythm guitarists.

There are two groups (families) of chords:

-fundamental or Basic chords: made up of diatonic triads + one octave or more, of one of the notes composing the chord.

- extended chords : made up of notes from basic chords + other notes of the scale in which they are played.

Very important remark:

Chords will be constructed in such a way that there is never, between two adjacent notes(of adjacent strings) an interval (or distance) of a semitone, meaning there is no PRIMARY DISSONANCE or <> between neighboring notes. This remark is worth its weight in gold especially for extended chords, as we will see further.

I. INTERVALS, TRIADS, EXTENSIONS, NUMBERING AND DIATONIC SCALE

Let us review some simple music theories to better understand the above concepts. Simple chords are constructed from the structure of the major scale with 7 notes called diatonic scale. It is called diatonic by the fact that it is composed of two kinds of tones: whole tones (1) and semi tones The notes of this scale are in order in a succession of intervals of tones (1) and semi tones from a first note called root note (1) as follows, by taking as example the scale of C:

Image475.JPG

That structure will therefore give the constant sequence of tones and semi-tones from the root note, that will be found in all major scales:

1 1 ½ 1 1 1 ½

For a better assimilation of this scale, its structure and chord construction, let us give each of the composing notes a number:

Image484.JPG

On the keyboard, we will have:

Image492.JPG

Or else, in a horizontal way,on the fifth string:

III V VII X XII

Image499.JPG

From there we draw this permanent numbering of all MAJOR scales:

Image507.JPG

In addition to those 7 notes, it will be necessary to add some others which will intervene in the general composition of chords(and in particular some extended chords), giving therefore the following succession of notes:

Image516.JPG

On the keyboard, we will have:

Image523.JPG

We get, as a result, the table of intervals (position of notes in comparison with the root note) where every note of the scale has a definite number and a name, depending on a particular position in comparison with the root note:

TABLE OF INTERVALS

Image531.PNG

Comments:

1) On the keyboard of the guitar:

Image539.PNG

and in a similar way for the tones below.

2) The seventh note is in fact, in comparison with the major scale, a seventh Flat (7b) or seventh minor. However it is conventionally called seventh (for short) .

These rich notions on the major scale are now going to be applied to chords, by considering the root note of any chord as the starting point of a full scale. It allows us, as a result, to