But I digress: When you play the 13
chords in this example, you’ll see—and
hear—how one note is the lynchpin of
the entire sequence. Notice how this
example is marked “Freely,” which simply
means there’s no tempo. Take your time
with each chord and observe how the bass
descends in a more-or-less stepwise manner. Essentially, the middle notes get filled
in between the fixed high note and the
descending bass line.
Of course, in this game the anchor
tone doesn’t have to be the top note.
In Fig. 2, the chord sequence revolves
around A on the 6th string. Once again,
the key is irrelevant—all that matters is
keeping that low A as the bottom note in
each voicing. To make a chord sequence
more demanding, simply add rhythm to
it, as I’ve done here. This makes the exercise a bit more musical and forces you to
practice the chord-to-chord movement to
nail the changes in time.
There you have it—Guitar George. It’s
fun, especially if you play the game with
a friend or two, and you challenge each
other to see how many chords you can
play and name based on a common tone
in a fixed fretboard position. Start off with
a common tone in the lowest or highest
voice to get a feel for the game, and then
see if you can play a sequence using a
middle voice as a common tone instead.
Or make it really challenging by declaring
two common tones. However you play
it, Guitar George will push your chord-voicing chops to new heights.
Chord-Tone Chart for Fig. 1
Fmaj7 F A C
root 3 5
D FC
root
3
7
C#m7 C# G# B
root 5
7
B F#A
root 5
7
Bm11 B A D
root
7
3
B% G# D
%
5
3
7
B%dim7 B% G D%
root
7
3
A GC
root
7
3
A%7#5 A% G% C
root
7
3
F# C# A
root 5
3
Fmaj7 F C A
root 5 3
Emaj7 E G# D#
root 3 7
Dm9
B11
E
7
E
9
E
3
E
11
E
11
E
root
F% (E)
5
E
5
E
#5
E
13
E
%
7
E
7
E
root
Play for Keeps
Want to make the Guitar George game
even more challenging? In addition to
naming each chord—as required by the
rules—identify each component tone,
both by note name and function. This
will put you in the Guitar George Hall of
Fame! To get you started and give you a
feel for the process, I’ve charted out the
chords in this lesson’s two examples.
To reach the game’s ultimate level,
write your own chord book as you
go, mapping out all the voicings you
discover. Use tab and notation, and
then add each tone’s function above or
below the tab.
E7%
5
Chord-Tone Chart for Fig. 2
Aadd2 A E B C#
root 5 2 3
A GB D
slash bass root 3 5
Am7%
5 A G C E%
root
7
3
5
A F#B E
root
7
3 #5
A GC#F#
root
7
3
13
A GC G
root
7
3
7
A C#E G#
root 3 5 7
G/A
Am7
A6/9
G13
Am7#5
F#m7
A13
Am7
Amaj7
44 &
Aadd2
oeoe
G/A
Am7b5
A6/9
Fig. 2
oeoe# ˙
oeoeoe˙
oeoeoeb ˙
oe
oe
oeoe# oeoe˙
2
3
4
5
4
4
5
4
˙
2
5
5
4
5
5
5
5
Am7#5
A13
Am7
Amaj7
&
oeoeoe˙
oeoe# oe# ˙
oeoeoe˙
oeoe# ˙
oe
oe
oe
oe
oe#
4
6
7
8
5
5
6
5
6
5
5
5
5
5
5
