Hey, how’s it going this is Jon McLennan with Guitar Control, I want to talk a little bit about Freddie Green style chord voicing. Freddie Green played rhythm guitar and played guitar with The Count Basie Big Band and he was really known for his quarter note strums and the type of chordal voicing that he played. He really just held it down, was a machine.
Here´s a cool jazz guitar lesson from Jon McLennan! Hope you like it and please don´t forget to check out the latest DVD from Jon!
So what we’re going to do is to play some of these chord
voicing that I’ll show you and really try and lock it in with a metronome, getting a real steady, quarter-note pulse.
So let’s jump into the chords here. We have an F major 7, beginning on the 1st fret, 2nd fret, 2nd fret. And one of the tricks with all of these chords that I’m going to show you is the concept of muting all the strings that you’re not playing, that you’re not fretting.
My general thought is, if you’re not playing it; mute it. You’ve got to find some part. Use this part of your hand, whatever you’ve got to do,
to mute it. F major 7 is the first chord. Next chord, G minor 7: 3rd fret, 3rd fret, 3rd fret. Then I move that up a whole step for A minor 7; B flat major 7 on the 6th fret, same as the first chord just relocated to the 6th fret. Then C7; D minor 7; E minor 7 flat 5; F major 7. And then of course you want to
descend back down all of those same chords.
One of the exercises you can do is first, be sure to click the link below to get the tab for this. But take a jazz standard tune and just voice all the chords in the tune as this sort of Freddie Green style. Just go through it with the quarter note pulse, giving yourself a metronome, you know, just keeping the time and just really try and lock it in. It can be great just to hold that down in a band and listen to that drums and just try and play right with the rhythm section.
Again, let’s go through those chords. Back down. You can just get that real percussive sound going.
Make sure to subscribe on our You Tube Channel and we’ll see you in our next video lessons, thanks for watching.
