Guitar 101: The Missing Links

Spring has sprung in Nashville and the sun is shining as I write this column. I love spring’s colors and smells! Summer is not too far behind. For my taste, it’s way too hot then, but there is a special reason I look forward to summer: during the summer in the Nashville area, there are two wonderful programs for kids that I usually take part in: “Kids on Stage” in Leipers Fork (near Franklin), and “The Jam” at Battle Ground Academy in Franklin. They both have websites: www.kidsonstagetn.com and www.bgajam.com.

If you have a child interested in the arts, especially music, and you live in middle Tennessee, then check these out. What’s great about these programs is they are taught by professionals; Michael McDonald, John Hiatt and Vince Gill have participated, as well as many top pro songwriters, musicians, sound and lighting engineers, and video and movie producers. It’s a rare chance to learn from these pros—some, the absolute best in the business.

At each of these programs, one of my jobs is to get five or six kids and put together a band. They learn how to play as a group with a pro guiding them. They decide what songs they want to play at a concert at the end of the week. Sometimes, one of these is an original song they write together. When they choose to do a “cover” song, an assistant usually gets the chords online at one of the many websites dedicated to that purpose. At one of these sessions, we were learning a song I was vaguely familiar with. When we actually played the mp3, I noticed that some of the chords didn’t sound like what the website provided. I had also noticed this in teaching private lessons. Students will bring in a song they want to learn with lyrics and chords from a website.

In the last issue, I mentioned trying to find the correct chords to “Strawberry Wine” online. These are some of the sites I visited: cowboylyrics.com, ultimateguitar.com, azchords.com, chordie.com, yourchords.com., mybloodyvalentine.com, guitartutee.com, tabcountry.com, e-chords.com and, finally, roughstock.com. Not one of the sites had all the correct chords. Only one recognized the Dm6 and Dm7 chords in the bridge, but then it missed the following chords.

Then, I decided to check a song I’d co-written myself. Kim Morrison and I wrote “Flying Colors,” which Keith Whitley recorded in 1987. I checked one of these sites. Sure enough, in the chorus, there should be A, A#dim, E and C#7. Instead, they’ve written A, E and C#m. Totally left the diminished chord out. And a C#7 is definitely not a C#m. There’s also a G chord at the end of every chorus right on the hook—important—but it was not there online. Then, I decided to look for an old Box Tops song, since I am an old Box Top. I found “Neon Rainbow,” by Wayne Carson. It was our second single and I’ve been playing it since 1967. The transcription wasn’t bad (there was only one person willing to tackle it), but all those “connector” chords and “color” chords, as I call them, were missed. The G/B was called a G, the Gm6/Bb was called a Gm. The Dma7 and Gma7 in the bridge were called D and G.

I discerned a definite pattern in these inaccuracies. The people attempting to transcribe these songs could not “hear” the difference. They couldn’t recognize these chords and probably didn’t use them. In all fairness, these sites usually have a disclaimer saying that the chords might not be accurate, because they’re done by amateurs and they’re free. Well, you usually get what you pay for.

The interesting thing is that the chords that they couldn’t hear are the same chords that most beginner/intermediate songwriters and guitar players cannot hear. It’s a little like being slightly colorblind. The chords/colors are obvious to some people, but others haven’t developed their perception to that level yet. The best way to recognize these chords is to use them. These chords generally fall into three categories: (1) connector chords, (2) color chords and (3) relative minor chords. I’ve written previous articles on all of these, so I won’t go into great detail here. However, I will offer a brief summary for newcomers to this column.

CONNECTOR CHORDS: There are two common ones in every key, the 1/3 and the 5/7. In G, that’s G/B and D/F#. G/B leads up to or down from a C chord. D/F# leads up to or down from a G chord. They add motion to a chord progression. And diminished chords are usually used as connectors, too. They usually connect two chords that are a whole step apart. G to G#dim to Am, for example.

COLOR CHORDS: Your add9, sus2 ,sus4, 6th, ma7, ma9, etc. They add color or texture to a chord progression by substituting a different “shade.” For example, play Gadd9 instead of G, Asus2 instead of A. These chords are everywhere in recorded music, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at most sites. For some reason, they don’t get mentioned in most guitar method books either. Go figure.

RELATIVE MINORS: These don’t get missed as much as the first two categories, but online, they’re still missed fairly often. There are three major chords in every key. Each one has a relative minor, which is also native to that key: 1 and 6m, 4 and 2m, 5 and 3m are relative. Substituting a 2m for a 4 is very common. In the key of G, that would be using an Am in place of a C.

I explain all this stuff in detail in my DVD Guitar Playing for Songwriters and in previous American Songwriter articles. Enjoy the colors and color chords of spring!