Chord Embellishment

Lesson 2/43 | Study Time: 5 Min

Course: Funk and R&B Guitar Technique

Chord Embellishment

Chord embellishment is the art of playing around the chords by adding notes to them and using runs to connect chords together. Quite often hammer ons and pull offs are used. Curtis Mayfield it the player probably best known for this technique. Jimi Hendrix also used it in songs such as Little Wing. In this lick, the embellishment starts on beat 4, leading to the natural accent which occurs on the chord of beat 1 of the second bar. Play it very slowly until you have the timing under control.

This next one is based around the minor 7th bar chord shown here.

Am⁷

This groove alternates between G and C chords.

This one starts on C and changes to G.

Here’s one in a minor key.

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Class Sessions

1- Major Chords 2- INTRODUCTION 3- LESSON FIFTEEN 4- LESSON SIXTEEN 5- New Sounds 6- LESSON EIGHTEEN 7- LESSON NINETEEN 8- 6ths 9- 3rds 10- Major Scales 11- Minor Chords 12- LESSON TWENTY FOUR 13- LESSON TWENTY FIVE 14- 4ths 15- Triplets 16- Chord Embellishment 17- More on 9th Chords 18- Swamp Sounds 19- A Final Solo 20- GLOSSARY OF MUSICAL TERMS 21- D Form 22- Percussive Strumming 23- LESSON TWO 24- LESSON THREE 25- The Rake 26- The Mixolydian Scale 27- D Form 28- LESSON SEVEN 29- Tritones 30- LESSON NINE 31- A New Solo 32- The Dorian Scale 33- LESSON THIRTEEN 34- Section 2 Summary 35- Octaves 36- 7sus Chords 37- The Trill 38- Tuning Your Guitar 39- Common Picking and Strumming Directions 40- Chord Diagrams 41- Fretboard Diagrams 42- Tablature 43- Tablature Symbols

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Chord Embellishment