Embellished Chords

Richard Barrett helps you explore more chordal opportunities in standard tuning

- Richard Barrett

The term 'embellished' isn't really a theoretical one, but it seems an appropriate way to describe these examples. Sometimes an idea for a chord progression can come to us virtually complete; at other times, we have to work a bit harder to refine an idea. In a recording session, it's not unusual to be asked if you can add something to a 'standard' set of chords and bring something else to the harmony - all within reason, of course.

The theme linking these examples is that (with experimentation) they could all make nice alternative voicings or 'overlays' to more conventional chords. Some of them have a complexity you can normally only achieve in alternative tunings, which is also a wonderful world to explore, but it makes sense to get the most out of regular tuning, too. There's also the convenience of not having to retune. All of the examples can be strummed (with some judicious muting of unwanted strings) or fingerpicked. Don't let the complex-sounding names spoil your enjoyment!

Example 1