Drop 2 chords are an important part of any jazz guitar players chord vocabulary, and introduce new sounds into your guitar playing. These chords give you a tighter finger pattern than drop 3 chords do, and have sometimes been called block chords, and other names over time - but Drop 2 is the name we use today. Drop 2 chords are particularly helpful on guitar because they let you put the top note of your chord on the 1st string, or the second string. This opens up more range for your chord playing, helps you accompany soloists better, and makes it easier to harmonize melodies for solo guitar playing. Learning your drop 2 chords will also introduce new stretchy chord shapes, and expand your chord vocabulary. Some of these chord shapes are going to be familiar, and others will be new. The root position drop 2 chords are frequently included in "beginners jazz guitar" chords lessons, because these particular shapes are pretty easy to play. This is fine, but it sometimes tricks students into thinking they already know drop 2 chords (which most of the time is not the case). The rest of the drop 2 family is often ignored until later, which is kind of a shame. The full family of drop 2 chords gives you some nice variety in how your chords are structures, and helps you access close intervals in your chord voicings. The more I teach, the more I find that it is important for students to learn the full family or group of chord shapes, rather than learning bits and pieces of different chord structures. This means learning the full family of drop 3 chords, the full family of drop 2 chords, etc. Here's the reason: When you play with the full group of chords, your voice leading is almost automatically good. Voice leading is how the notes move from chord to chord. The important part here is how the notes move, not necessarily your fingers. Ideally, the notes will move as little as possible when moving from chord to chord throughout a song. With some chords you will have to completely re-arrange your fingers, but the notes themselves will actually move very little. What Do You Need To Know First?While you can feel free to jump right in to this lesson if you really want to, there are some things that would be helpful for you to know first: If you know your drop 3 chord shapes (click here for lesson), these drop 2 shapes will be much easier to learn. These are movable chords, so the name of the chord will be changing as you move up and down the neck. Knowing your notes on the guitar neck (click here for lesson) will be essential if you want to get the most out of your drop 2 chords. That being said, there is a fretboard map later on in this lesson if you're in a hurry and want to dive right in. This map will help you find the note names along each string. What Are Drop 2 Chords?The theory term "Drop 2 Chords" comes from jazz arranging. What arrangers would do in a big band was write out a chord, and then take the 2nd note rom the top of the chord, and drop it down 1 octave. You end up having to re-arrange your fingers a little to make it playable, but the actual pitches work in this theory. For our guitar Chord shapes, we can break drop 2 chords down into a few physical cues:
3 Different String Sets:If you know your drop 3 chords already, it's going to be easy to adapt them into drop 2 chords on the high string set (4321). Here's the trick: Take any drop 3 chord shape, and move the note that is played on the 6th string to the 1st string instead. It will be on the same fret, just moved from the 6th string to the 1st string. You will usually have to readjust your fingers to do this, but the graphics above show you how little the notes of the chord actually change. Now you have a drop 2 chord on the high string set. You can quickly add drop 2 chords to your vocabulary by switching back and forth between drop 3 to drop 2 as you work through a song or exercise. Drop 2 Chord Shapes Below you'll find chord diagrams for major 7th, dominant 7th, minor 7th, and minor 7 flat 5th drop 2 chords. These are the primary chord types you will need to know and be able to play. The chord shapes below are organized by chord type and string set. Major 7ths are grouped together, dominant 7ths are grouped together, and so on. Each chord type will show you all 4 variations of each chord: Root position (root on the bottom) and the three inversions (note other than the root on the bottom). These inversions are what let us play any chord type we need, in any key, all over the guitar neck. You'll find versions of each chord on the high, middle, and low string set. I'd recommend working through all of the high string set (4321) chords first, before moving on to the other string sets. If you get comfortable with drop 2 chords on a single set of strings, your chord changes will almost automatically be smooth, with good voice leading. Scroll down past the diagrams for tips on practicing your drop 2 chord shapes. Major 7th ChordsMajor 7th chords are built using a root (1), major third (3), perfect fifth (5), and a major seventh (7). The common shorthand for talking about these intervals is root (1), third (3), fifth (5), seventh (7). High String Set (4321)Middle String Set (5432)Low String Set (6543)Dominant 7th ChordsDominant 7th chords are built using a root (1), major third (3), perfect fifth (5), and a minor (or flat) seventh (b7). The common shorthand for talking about these intervals is root (1), third (3), fifth (5), flat seventh (b7). High String Set (4321)Middle String Set (5432)Low String Set (6543)Minor 7th ChordsMinor 7th chords are built using a root (1), minor (or flat) third (b3), perfect fifth (5), and a minor (or flat) seventh (b7). The common shorthand for talking about these intervals is root (1), flat third (b3), fifth (5), flat seventh (b7). High String Set (4321)Middle String Set (5432)Low String Set (6543)Minor 7b5/Half-Diminished 7th ChordsMinor 7b5 chords are built using a root (1), minor (or flat) third (b3), diminished (or flat) fifth (b5), and a minor (or flat) seventh (b7). The common shorthand for talking about these intervals is root (1), flat third (b3), flat fifth (b5), flat seventh (b7). High String Set (4321)Middle String Set (5432)Low String Set (6543)Practicing Drop 2 Chords For Jazz GuitarIf you really dive in to your drop 2 chords, you end up working with some pretty good hand stretches in order to make the chords sound at first. That's a normal part of learning these chords, so don't worry. Your hand will adapt to the stretch pretty quickly if you keep working at it. Most people who have been working on jazz guitar for a while are already familiar with the root position chord shapes for each string set. That's because these are generally easy to play, and often get taught to beginners - but it can lead to a false sense of "I already know this" if you aren't careful. The root position shapes are really only really the tip of the iceberg when it comes to playing drop 2 chords. If you're already familiar with the root position, don't spend too much time on them - get to work on the other inversions of the drop 2 chords. That's where your skills will start to improve. Learning The Grips And Muscle MemoryFor some of these chords, you may need to put in some time just learning the "grips" or finger patterns for each chord shape. That's normal, and it's an important step to take. You can't use these in your playing until your fingers can create the correct chord shape automatically. I would also argue that you can't really understand the theory behind these chords and chord construction in general if you can't already play these chord shapes automatically. Here's the process for learning any chord shape:
How much you need to repeat this exercise depends on how much time you have to practice that day, the quality of your attention span, and what you need to work on. If a chord is easy under your fingers, you don't need to work on it with this exercise. Just don't confuse what is actually easy with what you think "should" be easy for you. In general, I would err on more rather than less of this kind of practice. So far I haven't met a student who has sent too much time on simple exercises like this. I have, however met several students who need to spend a lot more time on simple exercises like this. If your fingers can't automatically go into a chord shape on when you tell them to, you still need time with this kind of practice. That doesn't mean you can't do other exercises too - just use this one as a warm up until it isn't doing you any more good. Single Chord Types Through CyclesChoose a single chord type/single string set to work with, like major 7th chords on your high (4321) string set. Play these major 7th chords around the cycle of 4ths or cycle of 5ths as a chord progression. Cycle of 4ths: C F Bb Eb Ab Db Gb B E A D G Cycle of 5ths: G D A E B F# C# G# D# A# F C As you practice, try to always find the closest possible chord shape , so your hand moves as little as possible. If you're moving more than 1 or 2 frets at a time, you're missing some closer chord possibilities. This type of practice will require some fretboard knowledge, and you can use the fretboard map below to help you get started. If you're always finding the closest chord, you will naturally work your way through all of the different inversions or chord shapes as you go. It can be helpful to limit yourself to a small area of the guitar fretboard as you get started. This helps cut down on the possibilities of different chords you'll have to deal with. Finding the root of the chord at the 5th fret and below, or 5th fret and above can be helpful areas of the neck to limit yourself to at first. You can get all of the chords you need finding the root at the 5th fret and below - I always have my own students start there first. There are fewer choices, and you can play entire songs in that fretboard range. Play Drop 2 Chords Through SongsUsing your drop 2 chords in jazz standard songs is kind of the point of learning to play drop 2 chords. No one cares if you know the correct inversion name for all of your drop 2 chords, but people tend to like it when your chords sound good during a gig or rehearsal. (Unless you're in school - then sometimes people care if you know the correct inversion names) Find a song you're working on - whether it is something from jazz band, a jazz fakebook, or a chord chart from learn jazz standards. Choose a string set for your drop 2 chords and stick to it. I'd recommend starting with the high string set (4321). It is closely linked to your drop 3 chord shapes (see above), and it's a little easier on the finger stretches than the other string sets. It's important to practice only one string set at a time (at least for a while). Otherwise it's easy to get the shapes confused with each other, and it won't sound good (or be a correct chord). Use that group of chord shapes to work your way through the song. Just like with the cycle exercises above, try to always find the closest option for your next chord. Your hand never needs to move more than a couple of frets if you find the right spot for your next chord shape. If you have to move more than a fret or two, you're probably moving too much. Things To Think AboutThis lesson has more than enough information to help you get started learning drop 2 chord shapes for jazz guitar. In fact, if you try to do this all at once, it will probably be too much (speaking from experience). The answer is simple: Focus on one string set at a time as you practice. Don't worry about learning all of the drop 2 chord shapes, work on learning one string set of the drop 2 chord shapes. Here are some observations to help you figure out what is right for you to start with:
It doesn't really matter which string set you learn first, it just matters that you pick one and stick with it until you know it in your sleep. The overall process is simple: Practice getting the chord shapes into your muscle memory, and then start putting these drop 2 chords to work in your jazz guitar playing. Keep practicing, and let me know how it goes. Related Lessons
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