Press Release
Source: T. Principato
Tom Principato’s new “Contemporary Chord Voicings for the Guitar” is an encyclopedia of over 250 chords in 55 categories, many extended and unusual voicings, like Minor 7#5, Minor 6Major 7, Major 9b3, six types of suspended chords, including Major 7sus, minor 11b5, 11b9, 13b9 and 55 open-string voicings, condensed to three, four and five note voicings for easier playing.
A lot of extended and more complex voicings, especially ones played on keyboards, often contain five, six, or more notes as they are altered and extended. It’s a challenge to play many of these kinds of voicings on the guitar, given the limitation of five fretting fingers, and the limitation of six strings.
So, the challenge is to find simpler, smaller voicings that still contain the tonality of the larger chords.
Principato explains that this sometimes means using chords without a root note in them. He concentrates on ways to collect many of these more extended and unusual chords in simpler three, four, and five, note finger patterns for the guitar.
These are all moveable form chords which can be played anywhere on the neck. This is a contrast to the open-string voicings which are one-of-a-kind voicings for a particular place on the guitar neck. For the moveable forms, he’s highlighted in diagrams where the root is located, and that’s a guitarist’s frame of reference for playing in different keys.
His book is available at Power House Records, on eBay and at Amazon.
