# 7 strings in a jazz context?



## telecaster90 (Feb 5, 2009)

Hey dudes. I'm going to try my hand at gigging in a jazz context and I'd like to put my sevenstring to good use. I have basic understanding of playing changes and playing over changes, but does anyone here use 7 strings with a jazz group or doing solo jazz stuff? What should I try as far as tunings or voicings of chords?

Thanks in advance for the replies, I appreciate whatever help I can get with this. I'm going to mess around later tonight and I'll let you guys know if I come across something


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## distressed_romeo (Feb 5, 2009)

Rule 1: Jazzers tend to tune AEADGBE rather than BEADGBE (or EADGBEA if you're Lenny Breau).

I'm not an expert, but Jimmy Bruno's 'No-nonsense Jazz Guitar' DVD has some seven-string specific stuff, and rocks for pretty much every other aspect of jazz playing as well.

Also, I think Steve Masakowski plays a seven, so he'd be a good one to investigate.


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## telecaster90 (Feb 5, 2009)

So with that tuning, would you voice a chord on the A string normally and use the lower A for the root? Or would you build chords off of the A string?


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## BigPhi84 (Feb 6, 2009)

Check these vids out. They helped me out a lot. Also, check that guy's other videos.

http://www.youtube.com/user/jazzguitarmaker


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## robotsatemygma (Feb 18, 2009)

telecaster90 said:


> So with that tuning, would you voice a chord on the A string normally and use the lower A for the root? Or would you build chords off of the A string?


 

Both. 

It's a lot of fun, I've been having so much fun reconfiguring my playing to a 7 string, and using AEADGBE tuning. I was trying it tuned to B at first, but i was just making things more difficult then they really needed to be.


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## hufschmid (Feb 18, 2009)

Jimmy Bruno and his 7...


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## budda (Feb 23, 2009)

I need to hear more of this jimmy bruno guy apparently


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## xtrustisyoursx (Mar 13, 2009)

check out both john and bucky pizzarelli.


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## SnowfaLL (Mar 13, 2009)

I plan on starting to use my 7s (once I get my new ones) more in a jazz context, but mainly just as a normal 6 string with some thrown in notes I guess.. I am gonna stick with the B I think though, its not too difficult to use in my opinion as long as you are comfortable with note placements. I dunno, I'll experiment =] 

But like I said, anything you can play on a 6 string, you can do on a 7, so why not try it, it'll just increase your range for improv. and sightreading might be easier to do in one position (say 12th position) due to extra notes.


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## nickwatto (Apr 18, 2009)

I play almost entirely jazz on my seven string, but i treat the extra low end as a bass, combining bass lines, chords and melody etc. my main influence for this was charlie hunter, who plays an 8 string(if you dont know charlie do look him up) George Van Eps was the first real 7 string jazzer to me, i guess he really took a pianistic approach to it. Its easy to get into some really dense, full fisted chords, but i beg of you...dont forget space!!! think of the extra string as more depth rather than more notes.


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## MTech (Apr 18, 2009)

xtrustisyoursx said:


> check out both john and bucky pizzarelli.



FWIW those are both LaBella guys


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## FredGrass (Apr 19, 2009)

MTech said:


> FWIW those are both LaBella guys



Yeah, along with being amazing altogether. The guy I built my archtop with (Dale Unger of American Archtop in Nazareth, PA) has done work on their guitars and actually the old man was at his shop just weeks before I was, playing for the class I was supposed to be in. THAT was brutal. I would have loved to have seen that. Curt Sheller did come by, though, and show us some pretty cool 6- and 7-string stuff. He's got some info on 7-string jazz on his site; click here to check it out if you'd like. He kills a uke, too.

I plan on building an 8-string archtop tuned EADADGbe for jazz/chord-melody stuff as soon as I can afford the materials. I'm not really a capable guitarist in that regard, but I know that will inspire me to grow musically... Hopefully! lol


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 19, 2009)

just another string, man. you can use a 7 to play anything your heart desires.


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## FanghornFlorist (May 23, 2009)

i've posted this before somewhere, mel bay has a 7 string jazz method book...i have it but haven't got into it much. it also emphasizes the A tuning, building different types of inverted chords off of it mainly. haven't really plucked through it much though, has a cd too. mel bay is a good publisher i trust what they put out.


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## phaeded0ut (Jun 18, 2009)

If you wanted to go to an 8, there's always Charlie Hunter, too.  I use some fairly similiar 7-string guitars (getting back on topic). Tuning-wise, I waffle between B, E, A, D, G, B, E and A, E, A, D, G, B, E. 

The low A makes some Wes Montgomery lines really stand out nicely, though you're fretting them as if you were playing 6th's instead of octaves. Just takes a little getting used to. 

The main thing is to make sure it is something that will fit with your music (you may even want to switch out the low B for a high A or G depending upon the scale length of your instrument). For me, the switch from 6 to 7 was really a pair of issues of not being happy with a Chapman Stick (wanting something with sustained drone notes), and also finding that lots of Jazz Theory becomes a little more visible (at least to me) after making the switch to adding a low B string to the instrument.

Been enjoying the addition of the low F#, too. Again, same thing about being able to do a little bit more rather than inverting to a higher pitch.


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