Chords for Supercharge Your Chops - #3 Howard Roberts - Guitar Lesson - Brad Carlton

Here's a great lesson by Howard Roberts entitled Sonic Shapes.
He's using geometric shapes and mirror images to get a lot of neat ideas on the fingerboard.
Since it's a jazz style lesson, I'm going to use a strat,
but use the neck pickup with the tone rolled off to get that warm jazz box sound.
The first shape is simply a diagonal line.
_ [F] So shape number [Em] one, F, B, E.
Now I'm going to play them in third position,
because if I want to play them there, and obviously I have 12 possible bass notes,
but we're going to assume that G is our bass note. _
That gives us a G7-6 or a G13 without the 9th.
And then you [G] simply go back to a G chord.
_ So, _ _ _ you see if I'm playing over a G, _
_ _ _ I have these [C] lines, and it's just a mirror image.
One's crossing over the other, okay, a nice X.
Shape number two elongates that X.
So let's play it assuming C is our bass note.
[E] _
_ _ _ _ [G] So you have a Csus2, root, fifth, ninth.
[Gm] Then you're coming back, flat, 7, 5, 3. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [C] And make sure you juggle the order of the notes around a lot.
You don't even have to stay in the same order.
_ [D] _
[G] Just use it as a framework.
[F#m] You have a scale or a mode that you're going to play.
[D] _ And you see this [Em] as a framework.
Shape number three.
Let's assume that our bass note is a C,
so that would give us _ _ Cmaj7,
if I play it up here in the fourth position.
So I have 5, 7, 3.
_ _ _ [D] _ _
Then when the [F#] shape goes up,
[E] _ _ [D] _ _ that would be an Fm6 over a Cb, or [Fm] Fm6, _ _
with any bass note you want.
See how you can get a lot of harmonies
by playing around with different bass notes.
That could just be a Bb9, Ab6,
[G] a lot of different sounds.
So make sure you take the shape and you move it around.
_ [E] _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ [Fm] _ _ See how [Em] the line_ _ _
[D] _ _ _ [Em] So you've got the [D] same _ thing, sonic shape.
Let's look at our fourth diagram.
If I choose to play these in the fifth position,
I have the following structure.
[G] _
[D] D, G-sharp, D, G.
So if I do that over an E,
it's an E7-sharp9.
_ [F] Then, the flip of [A] that
would be an [F] Fmaj7-sharp5.
Here's a regular [A] Fmaj7, so you have a sharp5.
Now you could think of it as Fmaj7-sharp5,
an A over an F,
or _ _ Dm9 with a major7.
_ [D] So those are just some [F] harmonic [D] ideas. _
_ [C#] _ [E] Just mix them up.
Our final diagram, I'll play them down here.
You have a C6-9, root 3rd, 6th, 9th.
And then it [Cm] goes up.
_ _ You could view that as an Eb7-6 without the root, _
_ or you could look at it [G#] as a Dbmaj9 [Cm] with a flat 5.
The point [D] being,
_ [Cm] _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ do you see how we're using these mirror images
or these crisscross shapes?
Geometry plays a big part
in how we visualize things on the guitar.
Go back to a standard D chord that you know and love.
What do you see?
I see a triangle.
[C] You see a C chord?
You see a diagonal [A] line.
You see an A chord?
You see a straight line.
So applying this principle of geometric shapes on the neck
will definitely open up some avenues
that you may not even be aware of.
Have fun with it.