Originally, I thought I could keep up with my Exercise of the Week lesson, but I just don't have the time to be doing that on a weekly basis. So here is a toned down version - the Exercise of the Month. You can expect to see quite a wide variety of exercises here that will help you in many areas of your playing.

I have spent a majority of my guitar playing years focusing on the technical side of the instrument - scales, picking, arpeggios, etc, etc. In fact, you can probably figure that out just by taking a look at what I offer here - an endless array of technical exercises! But even though the site doesn't show it, for the past few years I have made it my personal mission to get my chord chops on par with my technical chops. It is no easy task and I have quite a ways to go. But I think we can take a similar approach as we do with technique-building. We just apply the same rigor and discipline to chords. So in this exercise, we examine 7th chords (I really should start off with triad chords, but bear with me...), and arrange them in a scale-like fashion so that we are on familiar ground.

I won't get too theoretic here. First, consider the G major scale. It has the notes G, A, B, C, D, E, F#. To form 7th chords, we stack thirds. Let's start with G. Adding a third to that we get B. Adding a third to B, we get D. Lastly, adding a third to D, we get F#. Now let's look at the spacing between these notes. Between G and B, we have 2 steps, otherwise known as a major third (maj3). Between B and D, there are 1.5 steps, which is known as a minor third (min3). Finally, between D and F#, there are 2 steps - yet again a major third. This pattern of thirds - maj3, min3, min3 - makes up a major 7th chord. If we now start at the A, and stack thirds again, we find that from A to C is a minor third, C to E is a major third, and E to G is a minor third. This pattern of min3, maj3, min3 defines a minor 7th chord. If we proceed similarly for each note, we find that there are 4 unique 7th chords, based on these patterns of thirds. These 4 7th chord types are shown below:

Now let's see where these different 7th chord types appear in relation to a major scale.

This table tells us that for any major key, the 1st and 4th tones correspond with major 7th chords; the 2nd, 3rd, and 6th, go with minor 7th chords; the 5th goes with a dominant 7th, and the 7th goes with minor 7th b5. So in the key of G Major, we have G Maj7, A Min7, B Min7, C Maj7, D Dom7, E Min7, F# Min7b5.

In the above diagram, you see some common voicings for diatonic 7th chords. We will be using these shapes in the exercise. There are quite a few others, and I highly recommend getting a good book on chords to help guide you through your quest for chord mastery.

Essentially what you are doing with this exercise, is playing a "chord scale". You are going through each note of the G Major scale and playing the corresponding 7th chord. The most challenging aspect of this exercise is the position shifting, and the rearranging of your fingers needed to play the different chord shapes. So start your metronome on a slow speed, and sequence through the chords as shown in the tab. And as you are going through this exercise, relate it to what was discussed earlier. Make sure that the pattern outlined in the table above is imprinted in your mind. Adapt the exercise to other keys to reinforce that pattern. The goal is to mentally unite scales, modes, and chords. I hope this exercise helps towards that end.