Drop-2 on the top four and bottom four strings
Move the drop-2 system to strings 4-3-2-1 and 6-5-4-3, learn when each register is the right choice, play the ii–V–I on every set, and add the 6, m6 and mMaj7 shapes that finish the four-note vocabulary.
Why three string sets
One string set gives you every inversion of every chord, but it locks you into one register. Comping behind a singer in the low part of the tune, harmonising a melody note on the high E string, playing a solo-guitar intro with a bass note underneath: each of these wants the chord somewhere else on the neck. Drop-2 voicings exist on three sets of four adjacent strings, and the shapes you learned in lesson 1 on strings 5-4-3-2 are the model for the other two.
This lesson adds strings 4-3-2-1 (the top set) and 6-5-4-3 (the bottom set). It also adds three chord qualities that were missing from lesson 1 and that appear constantly in standards: the major 6, the minor 6 and the minor-major 7.
Choosing a string set for register
Each set has a character and a job:
- 4-3-2-1 is bright and cuts through a band. It is the set for chord melody, because the top voice sits on the high E string where a melody lives, and for comping when a piano is covering the middle. Its weakness is thinness: with a bass player away and a drummer playing loudly, four high strings can disappear.
- 5-4-3-2 is the all-purpose set: warm, clear, and in the register of a pianist's right hand. When in doubt, comp here.
- 6-5-4-3 is dark and heavy. It is the set for solo guitar, duo with a horn, and Freddie-Green-style rhythm when you want a bass note under every chord. Below the 5th fret the 3rds in these shapes start to blur, so keep this set above the 3rd fret in root position and listen for mud.
Strings 6-5-4-3 are tuned in perfect 4ths all the way, so shapes on that set have no twist in them. Strings 5-4-3-2 and 4-3-2-1 each cross the G-to-B major 3rd, which shifts every note on the B string (and on the E string above it) up one fret. The three sets therefore have three different fingerings for the same voicing. Do not try to "move" a 5-4-3-2 shape across to another set; learn each set's shapes from the diagrams.
The degree layout is the same on all three sets, because the drop-2 transformation does not care which strings it lands on:
| Inversion | Bass note | Degrees, lowest string → highest string |
|---|---|---|
| Root position | root | R – 5 – 7 – 3 |
| First inversion | 3rd | 3 – 7 – R – 5 |
| Second inversion | 5th | 5 – R – 3 – 7 |
| Third inversion | 7th | 7 – 3 – 5 – R |
The top set: strings 4-3-2-1
Compare the Cmaj7 shapes with the ones from lesson 1. The first inversion on this set (E in the bass at fret 2 on string 4) has the familiar "shell plus one" look of a root-5 Cmaj7, but with the 5th on top instead of the root. Where the shape crosses to the B string, the finger is one fret higher than it would be on the middle set.
alphaTex source
\tempo 72
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\ts 4 4
:2 (2.4 4.3 1.2 3.1){ch "Cmaj7"} (5.4 5.3 5.2 7.1) | (9.4 9.3 8.2 8.1) (10.4 12.3 12.2 12.1) | :1 (14.4 16.3 13.2 15.1) |alphaTex source
\tempo 72
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\ts 4 4
:2 (0.4 0.3 0.2 1.1){ch "G7"} (3.4 4.3 3.2 3.1) | (5.4 7.3 6.2 7.1) (9.4 10.3 8.2 10.1) | (0.4 2.3 1.2 1.1){ch "Dm7"} (3.4 5.3 3.2 5.1) | (7.4 7.3 6.2 8.1) (10.4 10.3 10.2 10.1) |The nearest-inversion pairings from lesson 1 hold here unchanged: ii in root position goes to V in second inversion and to I in root position, and so on. Here is the ii–V–I in G in all four positions on the top set.
alphaTex source
\tempo 100
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\ts 4 4
:2 (2.4 2.3 1.2 3.1){ch "Am7"} (0.4 2.3 1.2 2.1){ch "D7"} | :1 (0.4 0.3 0.2 2.1){ch "Gmaj7"} | :2 (5.4 5.3 5.2 5.1){ch "Am7"} (4.4 5.3 3.2 5.1){ch "D7"} | :1 (4.4 4.3 3.2 3.1){ch "Gmaj7"} | :2 (7.4 9.3 8.2 8.1){ch "Am7"} (7.4 7.3 7.2 8.1){ch "D7"} | :1 (5.4 7.3 7.2 7.1){ch "Gmaj7"} | :2 (10.4 12.3 10.2 12.1){ch "Am7"} (10.4 11.3 10.2 10.1){ch "D7"} | :1 (9.4 11.3 8.2 10.1){ch "Gmaj7"} |The bottom set: strings 6-5-4-3
These are the shapes with no twist. Once you can see the "R 5 7 3" layout as a picture (root, then the 5th one string up and two frets higher, then the 7th and 3rd), the bottom set is the easiest of the three to memorise, and the same picture moved up one string set gives you the 5-4-3-2 shapes with the B-string correction.
alphaTex source
\tempo 72
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\ts 4 4
:2 (3.6 3.5 2.4 4.3){ch "Cmaj7"} (7.6 7.5 5.4 5.3) | (8.6 10.5 9.4 9.3) (12.6 14.5 10.4 12.3) |alphaTex source
\tempo 72
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\ts 4 4
:2 (1.6 2.5 0.4 0.3){ch "G7"} (3.6 5.5 3.4 4.3) | (7.6 8.5 5.4 7.3) (10.6 10.5 9.4 10.3) | (1.6 3.5 0.4 2.3){ch "Dm7"} (5.6 5.5 3.4 5.3) | (8.6 8.5 7.4 7.3) (10.6 12.5 10.4 10.3) |The ii–V–I in Eb below is in the three positions that stay below the 12th fret, followed by a ii–V–I in F in the lowest usable position. Play that last phrase and decide for yourself whether it is too muddy for the room you are in; it is the low limit of this set.
alphaTex source
\tempo 100
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\ts 4 4
:2 (4.6 6.5 3.4 5.3){ch "Fm7"} (4.6 5.5 3.4 3.3){ch "Bb7"} | :1 (3.6 5.5 1.4 3.3){ch "Ebmaj7"} | :2 (8.6 8.5 6.4 8.3){ch "Fm7"} (6.6 8.5 6.4 7.3){ch "Bb7"} | :1 (6.6 6.5 5.4 7.3){ch "Ebmaj7"} | :2 (11.6 11.5 10.4 10.3){ch "Fm7"} (10.6 11.5 8.4 10.3){ch "Bb7"} | :1 (10.6 10.5 8.4 8.3){ch "Ebmaj7"} | :2 (3.6 5.5 3.4 3.3){ch "Gm7"} (3.6 3.5 2.4 3.3){ch "C7"} | :1 (1.6 3.5 2.4 2.3){ch "Fmaj7"} |The 6, m6 and mMaj7 shapes
Three qualities complete the drop-2 vocabulary. All three are one-note changes from shapes you already have:
- Major 6 (R–3–5–6) is maj7 with the 7th lowered a whole step. Players use it as the tonic chord instead of maj7 whenever the melody sits on the root (a maj7 clashes with a root in the melody) and in swing-era tunes generally.
- Minor 6 (R–b3–5–6) is m7 with the 7th lowered a whole step. It is the tonic of a minor key in most pre-bebop and bossa nova playing, and it is also a rootless dominant 9 in disguise: Dm6 contains the same notes as a G9 without its root.
- Minor-major 7 (R–b3–5–7) is m7 with the 7th raised a half step. It is the chord that opens the minor line cliché and the sound of the melodic minor scale's tonic.
| Symbol | Name | Formula | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| C6 | major sixth | 1 3 5 6 | C E G A |
| Cm6 | minor sixth | 1 b3 5 6 | C Eb G A |
| CmMaj7 | minor-major seventh | 1 b3 5 7 | C Eb G B |
| Cm7 | minor seventh | 1 b3 5 b7 | C Eb G Bb |
The classic use of these chords is the minor line cliché: a minor chord held while one voice walks down from the root through the major 7th and minor 7th to the 6th. On the top set the moving voice sits on the B string, which makes the line easy to hear. The example then shows the minor ii–V–i resolving to a m6 and to a mMaj7 tonic instead of a m7.
alphaTex source
\tempo 84
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\ts 4 4
:2 (0.4 2.3 3.2 1.1){ch "Dm"} (0.4 2.3 2.2 1.1){ch "DmMaj7"} | (0.4 2.3 1.2 1.1){ch "Dm7"} (0.4 2.3 0.2 1.1){ch "Dm6"} | (2.4 3.3 3.2 3.1){ch "Em7b5"} (2.4 2.3 2.2 3.1){ch "A7"} | :1 (0.4 2.3 0.2 1.1){ch "Dm6"} | :2 (2.4 3.3 3.2 3.1){ch "Em7b5"} (2.4 2.3 2.2 3.1){ch "A7"} | :1 (0.4 2.3 2.2 1.1){ch "DmMaj7"} |Notice in the ii–V–i that the C# of A7 is already the major 7th of D minor: the A7 shape and the DmMaj7 shape share the A and the C#, so the resolution is two fingers falling by step while two stay. Resolving to Dm6 instead moves that C# down to the 6th, B.
For a major tonic, play the 6 chord as the last chord of a ii–V–I and compare it with the maj7:
alphaTex source
\tempo 100
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\ts 4 4
:2 (3.6 5.5 3.4 3.3){ch "Gm7"} (3.6 3.5 2.4 3.3){ch "C7"} | :1 (1.6 3.5 0.4 2.3){ch "F6"} | :2 (10.4 10.3 10.2 10.1){ch "Dm7"} (9.4 10.3 8.2 10.1){ch "G7"} | (9.4 9.3 8.2 8.1){ch "Cmaj7"} (7.4 9.3 8.2 8.1){ch "C6"} |How to practise this lesson
The danger with three string sets is spreading your practice so thin that nothing becomes automatic. Work one set per week and keep the lesson 1 set warm with a daily ii–V–I.
- Inversion drills on the new set, one quality per day, exactly as in lesson 1: up and down, bass notes aloud, 60 bpm.
- Position drill for the ii–V–I: four positions in the key given, then move the whole drill to the other keys from the table in lesson 1.
- Register switching: comp a ii–V–I twice through, the first time on 6-5-4-3, the second on 4-3-2-1, without stopping. Then alternate every bar. This is the skill you will use on a gig when the pianist takes a solo (go high and thin) and when the bass player lays out (go low and full).
- Line cliché in all keys: the four-chord cliché on the top set, then the same on the middle and bottom sets, from the chord dictionary shapes.
- Week 1, strings 4-3-2-1, 15–20 minutes a day. Inversion drills for maj7, 7, m7, m7b5, 6, m6 and mMaj7 at 60 bpm. From day 4, the ii–V–I in G, C, F and Bb in all four positions at 80–100 bpm with the metronome on 2 and 4. Keep the 5-4-3-2 ii–V–I in two keys as a daily warm-up.
- Week 2, strings 6-5-4-3, 15–20 minutes a day. Same drills. From day 4, the ii–V–I in Eb, F, Bb and C, avoiding positions below the 3rd fret. Add the minor ii–V–i to m6 and to mMaj7 in D minor, G minor and C minor on both new sets.
- Both weeks: finish each session with the register-switching exercise for three minutes: one chorus of a ii–V–I cycle low, one chorus high, no stopping.
- Progress check: play any of the eight qualities in any inversion on any of the three string sets within three seconds of hearing its name, and play a ii–V–I in any key on the set a teacher calls out.