"Hawaiian" Sounding Guitar Chords?

• New Topic

zak Joined: Sep 24, 2007 Posts: 2728	Posted on Feb 24 2009 04:16 PM This post has been removed by the author. Last edited: Sep 27, 2009 20:06:04 Top
64sunburst Joined: Sep 11, 2008 Posts: 23	Posted on Feb 24 2009 09:20 PM I went to a slide guitar concert several years back featuring Martin Simpson, Bob Brozman and an Indian guiatrist whose name I don't quite remember. I really dug Martin Simpson and the Indian guitarist, but I remember my feelings about Bob Brozman were exactly as you guys have described him - incredible virtuoso but a little too academic in his presentation. Ledward made a little cameo appearance at this show too - played a Telecaster of all things. Byron Top
SuRfAcE Joined: Feb 22, 2009 Posts: 20 Phillip Island, Australia	Posted on Feb 28 2009 03:52 PM surferXmatt Looking for a good starting point on how to finger some nice, tropical sounding "Hawaiian" guitar chords. Got anything good for me folks? Thanks! "Hawaiian?" "no thanks, I just had one..." Beats the hell out of me.. haha. Exactly what happened to me when I played my repertoire of tropical sounding chords in Hawaii! Hence the parenthesis around the word Hawaiian. I am thinking like... island, tropical sounding chords. Maybe something like Laika and the Cosmonauts' "Fadeaway". ok...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oIMv8skKAU I smell the sickly smell of frangipani...or is that just the overuse of Maj7 chords...hahaha...nothing really to do with slack key and real hawaiian music (hence the beating!) but the 50's jazz infused MOR version... ... Nothing says 'tropical' like these easy jazzy extensions. In the above linked song "fadeaway" the opening chords are a textbook ii-V-I turnaround. Any Mel Bay or Micky Baker 'play guitar" manual from the era will have you sounding like this in no time...the opening chords here are... ---0--------x--------x-------0----- ---0--------5--------4-------0----- ---3--------5--------5-------3----- CM7 -> Dm7 -> G7 -> CM7 I___iiVI___ Part of the "relaxing" nature of it to my ears is the resolution of the 7th (C note) in the Dmin7 chord, resolving to the 3rd (B note) of the G7 chord, then hanging on through the wistful Maj7 (b note) within the chord. The Maj7 chord is a fabulous one to illustrate the use of extensions, but too much will make you sound as sickly sweet as one of those weird tropical flowers that look good, but smell like death...so beware Here you have the major C chord (CEG) and adding the note B...playing the notes C on the 5th fret and the open B string will give you a sense of the sourness that is being introduced...but inside a chord it has this strange beauty that is quite the opposite and implies no harmonic movement...like lying about in the sun on a beach... Here are a few different versions of C Major 7 for your fingering pleasure...where open strings are used, they are obviously not transferable like a bar chord... ---0----0----x----0-----7-------<0>---- ---0----5----9----9-----9-----<0>------ ---3----3----x----10--------------------- these are just a few that I could think of... The last is a "trick" (or is it a cliche) of playing the natural harmonics...a bit of tremolo arm is in order here...this appears as the final chord in the above clip of fade away. ... So...to "tropicalize" a chord progression, you want to add a few of these flavours to simple chord progressions. Typically these kinds of extensions are not "functional" harmonies so much as colour tones and in this kind of context don't suggest a lot of harmonic movement, just a little sugar and spice...almost faux jazz I guess...hehhe Other chords that work like that are things like a Cmaj7-C6 vamp on a static chord...you will all have heard things like this... -------------__------------ ---9---9----__---8----8-- -------------__----------- play a bar of one then a bar of the other for a static C vamp the second pair of chords is a minor version This kind of thing is clear in Janis Ian's 17 for instance...schmaltz ahoy! So...having got that sound...you will need similar kind of sounds for the other chords...so in C...the VI chord (F) can also be a major 7th or a 6th chord, the V (G) could be a plain dominant7th or spice it up with an augmented fifth perhaps or even a 13th (lots of things you can do with a dominant chord) for chords like the vi (Dm) and vi (Am) you would typically use min7 chord...if static a min7->min6 vamp would fit nicely. Learning a "chord family" in a key with flavours like this is a good and easy way to get a feel for these kinds of things...so for a tropical feel, the basic family may be something like this... ---3-----5-----7-----8-----10--------------------- ---4-----5-----7-----9------10-----8-----9------- ---3-----5-----7-----8------10----10------------- --CM7-Dm7-Em7-FM7----G7---Gaug-CM7 OK...so in addition to the Maj seventh...6th chords on majors are always welcome...so add the note D to an F major chord in the key of C or substitute a Dmin7 for the F as the notes are the same... SO... a long post with a bit to digest I guess...so, sitting here thinking of a sunny shore and romancing someone in a style a decade before I was born (hang on, perhaps I'm spoiling the mood) I have come up with this little sequence.... ---------(0)-------------------<0>----- ----4----2----5------4--------<0>------ ----3----x----5------6------------------- ---CM7-F6--Dm7--Gaug---CM7 (cliche harmonics!) (played softly like the waves lapping on the shore...) ~ means to slide the bass note and hold while playing harmonics. play say a bar of each chord...for the IV chord why not go the whole hog (roasted in a fire pit of course) and add the open e for more M7th spice! All this is a staple of lounge room faux jazz and some of the 50's era stuff including the "hawaiian" sounds...don't play it to a really Hawaiian, they can be some big people (men and women!)...don't want to end up as the main course at the lau-ow However...lest one think that this sound and theory is too dry and not worth getting your head around (I did supply some fingering though which will get you in the mood)...consider these aspects... In the sequence above I composed, you might notice that the "shape of the first chord is repeated 2 frets down with an F in the bass. This is F6 but could also be seen as BbM7 perhaps. Now we are moving out of the key a little...this could be used as a kind of "pivot chord" to get to another key for an interesting 'twist' for a tune. Or, you could make a melody that kind of uses this Bb chord instead of F...or perhaps you might consider the pair as a kind of "vamp" on the I chord (C)...then follow it with the same thing for the IV chord (F)....something like this... ---------(0)---------------- ----4----2-------9---7---- ----3----x-------8----x--- -CM7--F6------FM7--Bb6 perhaps a bit tricky to see till you play it and give it some thought...but now you are adding chords out of a key that sound as if it is in an key but adding flavours (not really harmonic drive). This opens up whole areas for melody writing as well. If you consider that the last chord may also be an inversion of EbM7 we are getting chords and notes that are part of Cminor effectively. Another "flavour" is simply the minor chord itself...in "sleepwalk" for instance the IV chord is replaced by iv, so F minor in C. This is not a key change but an interesting "static flavour" like a 6th or a maj7th...a kind of colour that sets it apart. (also sets up a b5 substitution of the ii chord with the Ab7 to G7 move) But all this is not just fifties kitsch..it's 80's kitsch too... ---3 ~~~ ---5 ~~~ ---5 ~~~ Dmin7add4 The Police's famous "walking on the moon" chord or a simple chord like this... ---3----5-----10---- ---3----5-----10---- ---3----5-----10---- think..."world is running down"... also appears in "whiter shade of pale" or one of my all time favs, pretty much a minor equivalent ----7----5--- ----7----5--- ----7----5--- Miles davis "so what" chords of stacked fourths can replace many minor 7th chords Ok...moving out of the tropical sound maybe...but these are all what I call "flavour chords"...they have an ambiguous nature, they are like a cloud of sound, not particularly wanting to go anywhere..sound great with the reverb up and the tremolo gently swaying in the breeze! Now...you may wonder...can the same principle be applied to other "moods"...yes they can! Spooky and spy and faux spanish and various "ethinc" sequences can be created in this way...which may also give you a new slant on melodies as well...or you may come up with a "strange" melody and find a "flavorsome chord family" in that style. One of the great things about surf music is that it can be as simple as can be, or you can add elements of this kind of stuff not possible in distorted power chord pop and rock. These kinds of things are not going to work with gobs of distortion all over them, but in the surf the sky is the limit! recognize this one.... ------------------- ----------8-- -----10--- --0------ "they call me Ace...SuRfAcE!!!! mwhahahahhahaaaa ...d'oh " — 1 Mahogany HSS squier strat with trick wiring and noiseless SD JB pups... other 1 Baby blue telecaster with tremolo, Fender WR-HB and DIY sustainer... amp...fender hotrod deluxe + 15" cab! Last edited: Mar 05, 2009 20:56:06 Top
mad_dog Joined: Sep 23, 2008 Posts: 349 Montclair, NJ	Posted on Mar 05 2009 08:52 AM Surface: That is some cool stuff right there. Thanks! MD Top
surferXmatt Joined: Aug 27, 2008 Posts: 1570 New York	Posted on Mar 05 2009 09:09 AM Wow... thanks so much - that is really thorough and exactly what I was searching for! Many thanks, kind sir. Top
surferXmatt Joined: Aug 27, 2008 Posts: 1570 New York	Posted on Mar 05 2009 09:11 AM This will give me some much needed inspiration next time I play. Top
Ben Joined: Feb 11, 2007 Posts: 591 Encinitas, Ca	Posted on Mar 05 2009 10:29 AM Great post SuRfAce!!! Thanks for that info...I love the faux jazz and spy stuff. I'll go back and study some of your examples later. I'd love more posts on SG101 along these lines. Your last chord example sounds like James Bond theme??? Top
SuRfAcE Joined: Feb 22, 2009 Posts: 20 Phillip Island, Australia	Posted on Mar 05 2009 03:18 PM Cool!!!!!! Thanks for the responses...I thought it had put everyone to sleep! (Major7 chords can do that!) I enjoyed doing it, perhaps I will start a dedicated thread to some of these meanderings...let me know if there's an audience. It helped me think as well...since doing that, I've played about with this thing from above... ---------(0)-------------------<0>----- ----4----2----5------4--------<0>------ ----3----x----5------6------------------- ---CM7-F6--Dm7--Gaug---CM7 (cliche harmonics!) (played softly like the waves lapping on the shore...) ~ means to slide the bass note and hold while playing harmonics. play say a bar of each chord...for the IV chord why not go the whole hog (roasted in a fire pit of course) and add the open e for more M7th spice! however changing the D minor chord for this version... ---x---x---x--- ---5---4---4--- ---5---6---3--- This illustrates the underlying "voice leading" in the "cadance" (end of the sequence ii-V-I) with the chromatic lead up on the b string..D-D#-E...often heard in hawaiian kind of themes. The same Dmin form that Laika used! Made me get out my plastic lighter and do a bit of sliding around working out melodies! Yes...that last one is the famous "bond" chord...the final chord on the theme. It is also the fingering on different strings of a common Maj7 shape... ---7---------x----- ---9---------8----- ----x--------10---- Cmaj7__Em9Maj7 (bond chord) Do a mirror inversion of the "shape" and you get a nice B extended chord and you get spy approved mystery sounds like this sequence... ---7---------x---------10------7------<0>~~~~~~~ ---9---------8---------8-------8------<0>~~~~~ ----x--------10--------x-------x-------------- CM7"bond"B7,13,#9_B7_E7min harmonics~~~~ Anyway...there's a part of me that seems to like these kinds of "puzzles"...but it isn't as dry as it seems, or all that tricky really. It's important to play the things to "hear" them but most of these things are not that finger twisting or stretchy. In fact in a lot of the more "jazzy" middle sections of that tune by Laika, there is a lot of of simple chromatic movement of basic major forms and majors turning into minors. These are jazz substitution things that function to give direction...if "named" with all these weird extensions it becomes confusing...but in reality much of is simply maj and min chords that we all know and love and fall easily under the hand. That's the attraction to surf music to me...that it allows this kind of thing...few rock styles accept so easily such invention. But these things are not just chords...if you look a bit deeper or take melodies from the chords...or even overlay melodies arrived from such chords on the more typical major/minor forms it can add some spice to melody writing. Of course you don't think like that while you are playing (unless you want to be some kind of master jazz improviser), and after a while these things make some intuitive sense. But to add a bit of flavour and interest in composing, a little bit can make all the difference and keep your interest. ... Anyway...enjoy doing it, wearing out my "hyphen" key on the transcriptions...but that's ok! If people are really interested...I'd be prepared to do a thread with regular little bit's and pieces for you guys and guls...keeping my mind active in the meantime. There's plenty to explore, without getting too "heavy"! Pete (SuRfAcE) — 1 Mahogany HSS squier strat with trick wiring and noiseless SD JB pups... other 1 Baby blue telecaster with tremolo, Fender WR-HB and DIY sustainer... amp...fender hotrod deluxe + 15" cab! Top