As a follow up to the Americana open chord study.
Very nice ideas in the video, working on it has been enjoyable will have check out more on this type of playing.
As mentioned in the intro, many people seem to too quickly move to ‘fancy’ ‘jazz’ extended chords and ‘flashy’ voice leadings.
True that.
I personally have next to zero playing exposure with open chords or using triad voicings or even basic country/rock/pop rhythms. I can’t even play Wilco’s California Stars, can’t make clean sounding changes and can’t figure out the strumming pattern.
But I can play swing, Bossa Nova, and styles that are centered in ‘jazz’ harmony. In my 20’s I started to play piano because I had been listing to Brubeck and Bill Evans records so the instruction I got was focused on harmony from day one. My playing technique has always lagged behind but theory I have a strong grasp on.
That said, I think this is the opposite of what many others have experienced. It seems lots of people get shown open chords first or maybe some blues/r&r riffs perhaps as an effort to get them quickly playing something ‘fun’ but then they feel like they must start working on jazz styles as it is perceived as more sophisticated and ‘advanced’
But the reality, to me at least, is it is all about the sound you are after. I stopped playing piano long ago but retained my jazz harmony knowledge and started dabbling in guitar a few years ago but because of my early background with jazz piano harmony I just started working on the same e.g. jazz standards and how to apply jazz standards to guitar. My lack of technique is the blocker not theory!!
So it seems I am going in the opposite direction here, started with jazz harmony but trying to play some of the country/rockabilly/surf/pop stuff now and it is a completely different approach and way of thinking and trying to get the proper sound for this styles is a challenge - it is not cerebral and as such really exposes major gaps in my playing but I’m having a blast with in thus far.
Also I have never played any kind of solid body guitar until now just flattops and archtops, I picked up a Strat recently, very cool but I am still not sure what to make of it!!
