Why skip the fifth string?? Back in the 1930s and 40s, during the height of the Big Band Era, guitarists had a major problem: they weren't loud enough. Before high-powered amplification, a guitarist had to compete with a 15-piece brass section. The most famous practitioner of this style was Freddie Green, the legendary guitarist for the Count Basie Orchestra. He realized two things: Big chords are "muddy": If you play a standard 6-string barre chord, it contains too many low frequencies that clash with the upright bass and too many notes that clutter the piano's range. Rhythm is king: By "shelling" the chord down to just 3 or 4 notes and muting the rest, the guitar becomes a percussion instrument. It creates a "chunk-chunk-chunk-chunk" pulse (often called "four-to-the-bar") that drives the band forward. By muting the 5th and 1st strings with the "meat" of your fingers, you can strum all six strings aggressively with your right hand, but only the clean, un-muted notes will ring out. It’s a very "percussive" way to play. This chord shape is in the 5th level of today's GuitarThinker.com Daily Quiz. Finish the quiz to compare your score with Guitar Thinkers around the world. #guitar #jazzguitar #guitarthinker

To me, these voicings are some of the most useful, and quickly take you from being a beginner guitar player to an intermediate player. I also used some of these for this: Reverse Sweep Picking and this Sweep Picking 101. Hope it helps!

I teach this all the time... For more information, DM me and I can show you how to apply this to your playing.

Kurt Rosenwinkel and Peter Bernstein....

sus4 chords, often just called "sus" for short, are built with root, 4th, and 5th chord tones. The 3rd is suspended up to the 4th, that's what "sus4" means. Find these interactive diagrams at here: https://www.guitarthinker.com/lessons/open-sus-chords Very often in charts, especially modern worship, it will just show up as sus, and not necessarily sus4, which can cause confusion - ask me about this if not sure... The difference between these and add4 or add1 chords, is that the "sus" replaces the third of the chord with the 4th, whereas the add4 keeps the third and adds the 4th. Usually add11 works better especially in minor chords, because it may have enough separation from the third, normally a 1/2 step away, that it doesn't sound as dissonant. Questions?! If you do, let's get on a call and I'll demonstrate it for you... Don't forget to take this lesson's quiz and earn the badge for your GuitarThinker.com profile! #guitarlesson #guitarchords #guitarthinker #Intermediate Guitar Module #Music Theory Resources