Scale Chord Voicings

Greetings Guitar slingers! In this tutorial we will look at the concept of Scale Chords. The main focus of this tutorial is not chord theory, scale theory, or any theory in general. Of course it always helps if you do have some theoretical knowledge when working with chord voicings. However, the object of this tutorial is to open your ears and mind to a different approach to creating voicings within a given key (or scale). Instead of playing the standard chords buildt on the 7 scale degrees, we will find a voicing that we like and then just treat all voicings as belonging to a scalar sound rather than as individual chords. The idea of viewing chords not as individual blocks, but rather as members of a scale, where any chord are just any given number of notes of the scale brought forward is not new. In fact, the first time I was presented to this train of thought was through the chord voicings of Holdsworth. You can of course, and (depending on your theoretical provess) should analyze the voicings contained herein, and your own as well. But, the main focus is as I said ear-related, not theoretical. So, grab your axe and head on to the first part!