Chording like Thile & Marshall

**Baron Collins-Hill** · Jan-29-2006, 3:36pm

one of the most amazing parts about Mike and Chris is how they chord along as the other one does his stuff. does anyonw know how they do it? i know it has a lot to do with theory and how they are doing walkdown sort of things with chords, but do they just make up those chords as they go or do those chords have names?

thanks
Baron

**SternART** · Jan-29-2006, 3:47pm

They all have names. Some might have two names.

**jmcgann** · Jan-29-2006, 4:17pm

When you really see that chords are derived from scales, (which are just rows of notes) and that those notes can be combined in a myriad of ways that are not just "chord positions", then you are free to play that kind of "melodic backup" that combines kind of "bass lines" with drone and/or other notes.

A chord symbol is an "area of harmony". Most players stop at learning a few chord shapes to deal with chords, but if you want to be fluent like Mike and Chris, you should know what the notes are, why they sound the way they do, and how many different ways can you combine them in 2, 3 and 4 string groupings.

If you listen to great Irish players like Alec Finn and Andy Irvine, you hear lots of possibilities as well.

I strongly suggest Mike Marshall's books for helping see how all things connect and relate on the fingerboard. We are using them over at Berklee BTW.

**SternART** · Jan-29-2006, 4:24pm

Another source that I found interesting was the chord charts in the Jethro Burns Mandolin Player book.

**ira** · Jan-29-2006, 6:14pm

thanks jm-so glad to have you back after your brief sojourn off of the board.

**groveland** · Jan-29-2006, 8:50pm

It would be good to get a sense of where you're at right now with chording. (This is not a test.

) Like, whether you play by shapes only, and how familiar you are with how chords are built, and how well you are acquainted with the component chords of the major scale, etc.

**Dfyngravity** · Jan-30-2006, 3:12pm

Chords are just as important as the individual note, and you have hit that with talking about Thile and Marshall. Chord voicing can get just as or even more complicated than playing the melody, especially when you venture into jazz, choro, and other similar genres of music. A great way to learn about chord progressions is one listening to jazz and the second would be physically looking at sheet music that includes the chords for jazz pieces. Look how the chords follow the melody. Building chords is a very easy concept to understand(and book can teach that), it's the voicing and chord substitution that gets really complicated(that's something you have to learn yourself).

Bluegrass chords usually hit a very board area of the melodic piece,usually over a whole measure. Thile and Marshall condense the chords to be more focused on a smaller section of the piece, they are able to use more chords in the placve of where one would be fine and this helps to make the chords follow more of a melodic structure(which is what you are after). So to be able to voice chords in that manner you really have to understand where the piece is going as far as melodic structure. That's the really beauty of chord voicing. If you have ever been to a jazz concert and noticed when a couple of the musicians smile, it's probably because the guy who was playing rhythm knew exactly where the guy playing lead was going and was able to voice the chords to his solo. That is something very few can do and many strive to do.

So I would suggest learning all sorts of ways to make chords. And I also suggest getting Marshall's improv book. You can apply some of the techniques to chord voicing and you will better understand the concept.

**swampstomper** · Jan-31-2006, 1:35am

Mike Marshall has published a chord theory book as part of his instructional series. I got mine from Elderly. It's a bit hit-or-miss in terms of explanation but really has some cool ideas.