Description
Now we'll use the same concept as the last example, but instead of moving one little melody line around with a ringing open string, we're going to move entire chord shapes around with TWO ringing open strings.
The fascinating thing about this trick is that you end up with some very cool, lush, tense chords that can sound very magical... even downright exotic and mystical if you want. By letting the high E and B strings ring, we'll end up creating some complex chord extensions and suspensions, such as flat 7ths, Major 7ths, Major 6ths, and even sharp 11ths.
Sound familiar? Foo Fighters use this type of harmony all the time!
So... the first of two examples we'll check out will use those open strings, B and E. This is the one that we'll add into our final mix at the end of this tutorial.
Now, just for fun, we'll move on to our second example, which is a trick influenced by Sonic Youth. Alternate tunings! We'll tune the B and E down a whole step to A and D. And we'll move over to the key of B Minor for this. Now we've got even more unique chord tensions, such as Minor 7ths, 9ths, and Suspended 4ths.
Now the fun part of all of this is that you can experiment with moving these chords all around the neck and find all sorts of unique possibilities. Some chords will sound terrible like this, but sometimes you can even use those very dissonant sounds to resolve to something beautiful. It all depends on where you use a chord, rather than what the chord is. Always focus on what you are trying to achieve and where the music is going. Any note or chord can sound good if you use it in the right place to make a statement!
Try it out!
Lesson Info
