Student’s question:
I have a question about how to practice chord shapes on the guitar. For example, the 3- chord would be notes 3, 5, 7, 2. But later we learn that this is also a minor seventh chord shape. In learning to see this as a minor chord shape, should I be able to think of the notes as both 3, 5, 7, 2 and 1, b3, 5, b7 at the same time? Do you have any suggestions for practicing this ability on the guitar?
How we approach this in IFR:
Yes, that’s exactly it. The notes themselves are 3, 5, 7 and 2 from your tonal map. And together they form a minor seventh chord which is defined as the notes 1, b3, 5, b7 relative to the root note. You don’t need to be in any rush to assimilate this observation, but you are right that over time you will learn to see the chord both ways.
Think of these two different points of view in the following way:
The tonal numbers are what the notes ARE. The tonal numbers 3, 5, 7 and 2 are the actual notes that we’re talking about. These are specific notes on your tonal map, and these are the four notes that make up the 3- chord.
The chord shape is something you know ABOUT the notes. The chord shape of a minor seventh chord (1, b3, 5, b7) is merely an observation about the separations between the notes 3, 5, 7 and 2. It’s not a parallel naming system. We’re still talking about notes 3, 5, 7 and 2. But now we’re just observing the distances between the notes, and these are the distances that work out to be 1, b3, 5 and b7.
On the guitar, we can use these observations to our advantage. So rather than thinking of this duality as something additional to practice, it’s actually a tremendous shortcut that can massively improve your ability to see chords clearly.
Practice tip
when you’re ready to begin practicing this consciousness of chord types, it’s worth taking some time to practice JUST these abstract shapes. Practice arpeggiating the four basic chord shapes (major, dominant, minor, minor b5) all across the fretboard. Learn what each chord shape looks like in each region of the fretboard. By spending time improvising with these chord shapes, you’ll start to remember which is which and you’ll be able to spot them instantly when you see them.
Then what’s going to happen is that when you go back to playing our tonal chord concepts like the 3- chord (now going back to thinking of the notes as 3, 5, 7 and 2), you won’t be able to help noticing that this is also a minor seventh chord. It won’t even take any effort. You’ll just see that the shape that your left hand is tracing on the fretboard is the minor seventh chord shape that you spent so much time practicing.
That’s when all of this starts to fit together like magic, because now each point of view helps to reinforce the other. If you’re picturing the key of the music very clearly, you should be able to see notes 3, 5, 7 and 2 with no trouble. But because you know the minor seventh chord shape so well, that graphical outline of a minor seventh chord helps to reinforce your clarity of vision, making it even easier to see those notes 3, 5, 7 and 2.
If you’re ready for this kind of practicing, then I would just encourage you to try to balance your time between improvising with tonal concepts (like the 3- chord as notes 3, 5, 7 and 2) and improvising with chord shape concepts (like a minor seventh chord being note 1, b3, 5, b7). The simple practice of alternating between these two concepts will lead you very naturally to being able to see both at once.
