How to | Learning

Hybrid Picking Toolkit: Intervallic 7th Chord Voicing Ideas

Hello everybody, I hope you’re all doing well!

Today, I’m here to share some intervallic ideas with you. They’re all based on 7th-chord voicings! Instead of playing them as chords, we will play lines!

These kinds of guitar concepts are available on a weekly basis exclusively to my Patreon subscribers, so do check that out if you are interested in learning more. To play all the examples, I’m using the hybrid picking technique. This is the technique that comes really naturally to me. I wrote five books on the subject. Please visit my website if you want to learn more about it at www.gustavoassisbrasil.com.

Watch the lesson video and then check out the specific examples below. You can also use fingerstyle to play these examples.

Example 1

 

The first bar from example 1 is an idea based on E∆7 and D#m7. I’m using a couple of five-note groupings. Move the pair down a major second and you’ll get a nice harmonic sequence! Try looping the first bar a few times to get used to the fingerings then try the entire sequence.

Example 2

 

Like in Example 1, this line is also based on a pair. For this one, I’m using C∆7 and F∆7 a perfect forth up. Try looping the first bar a few times before moving it down by major seconds. 12/8 or triplets work well for this one

Example 3

 

Example 3 is very similar to Example 1. The only difference is that now we are moving from C∆7 to C#m7. Like the previous examples, try looping the first measure before moving the pair up a major second.

Example 4

 

This example moves dominant 7th chords by half steps! Feel free to choose your own directions. Every time I move dominant chords around, I think of Thelonious Monk.

A few extra tips:

All the examples can also be played in 4/4 if you want to get a really nice displacement or polyrhythmic effects!

Make sure you make your own variations on these examples by moving them using different intervals. You can also change the 7th chord quality to get different moods. Try m7(b5), 7(b5), 7(#5), diminished, ∆7(b5), ∆7(#5), 7sus4, etc.

I’ve been sharing many guitar concepts on a weekly basis exclusively with my Patreon subscribers, so please visit www.patreon.com/gustavoassisbrasil if you are interested in learning more! I’m also offering very limited one-on-one lessons in one of the tiers!

Have fun practicing this concept!

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Gustavo Assis-Brasil is a Brazilian-American guitarist, composer, educator, and author based in Boston, USA. He has written five books on hybrid picking and has taught clinics at USC, Berklee College of Music, and Musicians Institute. Gustavo has used .strandberg* guitars since 2015.

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