Blues Chord Extensions

Learn how to play and use 9th & 13th chords in a blues context, adds some spice to your rhythm playing!


View the full lesson at Blues Chord Extensions | JustinGuitar

my 3rd finger will not bend back enough so i can play the first A rooted 9 chord you showed without the D string getting muted. its so frustrating because i know thats an important chord

I’m having trouble figuring out the shapes Justin is playing at the end of the video. I’m a bit lost after he uses a 13th chord. Does anyone know the order?

@Mutant, can you give time stamps or screenshots?

@gristam The notes across those five strings are:

C, E, Bb, D, G

That is 1, 3, b7, 9, 5. You need to visualise a C major scale spanning beyond a one-octave repeat to recognise these.

image

The first ‘casualty’ of reducing the size of extended chords such as we have here is often the 5th. That happens to be the note G on the 1st string. Thus, you can play a 4-string version of this particular 9 chord shape and omit the 1st string altogether.

Indeed, the third chord shape for the 9 chords, whose root note is on the 4th string, omits the 5th.

image

I hope that helps.
Cheers
Richard
:slight_smile:

@Richard_close2u
What he starts playing at 15:35
I get the first part but once he uses a 13th(?) Chord I can’t see it clearly

I have done my best to work out the chords played in the outro to this video but got lost from about bar 21. Grateful if anyone could help. It just seemed like someone showing off to me - sorry!

Hey Mark,

In the last few bars of the progression. @16:00 - the standards V-IV-I part of the Blues. Is this where you mean?

Here, just plays the ‘standard’ G9 he’s been playing, but embellishes it quickly by adding the 6th, the E note, on the 1st string. This turns it into a G13.

He then drops in an E7 ( see the connection),
before proceeding with the ‘normal’ F9, then to C9.

So it goes G9 (G13) E7 F9 C9.

Its sounds good. Jazzy good.
There’s a few ways you could analyse it; chromatic type movement etc. But in effect, its just good voice leading that adds a bit of extra jazzy flavour to that last V -IV- I movement.
Its no coincidence that the 6th of G is E; then we play the E7 next ( of which E is obviously the root).
And, subsequently, the 3rd of this E is G#, which moves nicely to the A note, which is the 3rd of the next chord, F9.

No doubt there are other observstions that can made here.

If only explaining it was as elegant as playing it :zany_face:

Cheers, Shane

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