Topic: John Miller's Chord Voicing & Chord Theory lessons

[Rockdale]

I've been working through this two DVD lesson over the past week; I've got the Expanding Chordal Horizons set as well but haven't worked through it yet. The thing I really enjoy most about these lessons is the clarity that John achieves with his teaching style. There is a lot of ground covered over the course of these DVDs but the pace coupled with the hands-on exercises keep it from feeling even a bit overwhelming, at least to me, and doing the exercises on the accompanying .pdf file is actually a lot of fun. I should say that I know a fair amount of music theory already; I picked up most of what I know (chord spelling, scales/modes, reading, etc.) from playing bass with some jazz musicians over the last few years but I've never applied much of it to my guitar playing and, let me tell you, walking through changes on a bass is very different from voicing full chords on a guitar. I honestly feel like John's lessons are probably one of the best resources available to guitarists with any interest in becoming a more proficient player and developing a deeper understanding of why we do things we do on this incredible instrument.

[Johnm]

Thanks very much for the good words, Kenny.  I'm glad you found the DVD set clear and helpful and hope other folks find it to be so, too.
All best,
Johnm

[Rockdale]

You're welcome John. I'm having a lot of fun with this stuff so far. Here's a quick update on my progress. I've finished diagramming all of the seventh/sixth chords and am now working through the tunes on the second DVD. I don't know if this is too useful or not but I've been practicing switching through the various seventh chord shapes using my metronome; first in 4/4 then again in 3/4, increasing the tempo slightly everyday. Once I've gone through all of them, I switch to another position and do the same thing starting on a different root note. It's getting easier....but some of those F position shapes are tough for me.

[frankie]

The best music lessons I've had in my life all came from John.

[LB]

+1 on that. I own a couple of John's DVDs and they are very commonly owned among many of my friends, fellow players. I like the calm kind hearted kind of vibe they have. It connects much better with me than some teachers. Even back in school my grades depended much more on the teacher than the subject. This sounds like a great one for me to buy and study. Is there a better or best place on the web to buy this? Does anyone have a link or a trailer clip for it?

I bought the audio lessons years back on ear training, tunings and such. That has been a lesson that pays off on almost a daily basis listening and learning songs by ear. Song breakdowns, yes, are great lessons. But these other kind get much more down to the root of how the music is put together.

Rockdale: Hey those F chords and other things not only get easier but before many years pass some of the least favorite chords become your best ones. Thumbovers, and lots of goofy chords eventually become easy, or easier.

[Nicolas Dussart]

Is there a better or best place on the web to buy this? Does anyone have a link or a trailer clip for it?

Grossman's website would be one of the best place imho :
http://guitarvideos.com/video/dvd/99495dvd.htm
click on the "view clip" button on the right and you'll access more than 20mn of samples

Nicolas

[LB]

Just ordered it, thanks! I'm sure I'll learn a lot.

[Rockdale]

Little Brother,

   Those F shape based chords are already getting a lot more use in some of the tunes I've been working on lately. I especially like the m7b5 shape with the b5 voiced in the bass on the fifth string, resolving to the root of the V7 a half step lower on the same string. Very cool sound.

[LB]

Little Brother,

   Those F shape based chords are already getting a lot more use in some of the tunes I've been working on lately. I especially like the m7b5 shape with the b5 voiced in the bass on the fifth string, resolving to the root of the V7 a half step lower on the same string. Very cool sound.

Thanks, I'll try that. At this point most of what I play is by ear and some chord knowledge, but I'll need a lot of refreshing and learning to be able to label a lot of chords. My current vocabulary would be "this is a B something or other"

[Rockdale]

Little Brother,

    These are the chord shapes I was talking about:

     Gm7b5         C7
e:----x----------x----
b:----6----------5----
g:----3----------3----
d:----5----------5----
a:----4----------3----
e:----x----------x----


     The way I've been using this move is to resolve back to a I chord in a minor key, Fm in this case. There are tons of other cool things to learn from John's Chord Theory lessons, too. It's challenging for me to utilize all of this kind of stuff but that's also a big reason I enjoy it so much.

[LB]

Little Brother,

    These are the chord shapes I was talking about:

     Gm7b5         C7
e:----x----------x----
b:----6----------5----
g:----3----------3----
d:----5----------5----
a:----4----------3----
e:----x----------x----


     The way I've been using this move is to resolve back to a I chord in a minor key, Fm in this case. There are tons of other cool things to learn from John's Chord Theory lessons, too. It's challenging for me to utilize all of this kind of stuff but that's also a big reason I enjoy it so much.

Ah okay I see, and the second one is like an A7 shape but barred in the C position. Can't say I've played the other one before but when I get my videos I'll try to pay attention to what your talking about. I have a friend, genius on piano, that shows me how to do some of these things but I have to peck the chords he plays out by ear. I'm looking forward to this for sure.