I think a real easy way of getting the Impressionistic chords that Holdsworth uses is to tune your strings to a scale and leave out the third; C D F G A Bb. I've chosen the Bb as default because the flat 7th is the most common 7th since minor, dominant and half dim all use the flatted 7th.

Then, you can play non third chords all on one fret, or play alterations to it only by altering some notes up or down to a neighboring fret. You just could play something like C D F# G, since four note chords are favored, and you'd be in business. However, half steps in the inner voices are what he uses predominantly so it would be better to leave out the D and go for some kind of A or B for a chord like that. Whatever your ear tells you is the deciding factor of whether you want to use halfsteps in the inner voices at that point in the music.

You could also go for non-third chords with the 4th or 5th in the bass instead. You might retune to F G C D A Bb or G C D F A Bb but you don't need to. Chords with 4ths or 5ths in the bass can be fitted into the existing C D F G A Bb tuning. If we give these numbers instead 12456b7 and note the leap over the three between 2 and 4 then rename 1 to be F etc... we get F G Bb C D Eb. You'd have to alter that Eb or leave it out because you don't want the third of the chord.

Remember, you don't have to play all the notes, just the important ones. You could leave out the D for example.

You could rename the first note to be the 5th as well creating a GACDEF default chord.

There are other options too. There's the possibility of not playing the first or last note, so instead of 1 2 4 5 6 b7 now we've got X 2 4 5 6 b7. Renumber that to be X 1 3 4 5 b6 then give it note names X C E F G Ab. You don't want the 3rd E so you'd have to leave it out.

Continuing with the logic I used previously, you can reassign the 1/C to be the 4/F so now you've got a situation where you skip the first string and start on the fourth; X F A Bb C Db. These tunings really open you up to many more interesting voicings.

Good stuff here, Tatsu. I love Holdsworth's sound and so I might be inclined to try emulating his chord structures. I might experiment with my new MIDI box, the Boss GP-10, and try out these tunings with the GP10's alternate tuning feature, as it can provide custom tunings - electronically in the audio to MIDI conversion, of course.

Sorry Tatsu, but I just new that was going to be your thread...

Love you Bruv.

VT, I tuned my classical to that and the chords are sooooo pretty and make me feel something that other music just doesn't make me feel.

It's the reason why I want to play. That feeling can't be had any other way. If I can't get that sound, there's no reason to pick up an instrument.

Stickrad,

of course you did. I'm so predictable.

Predictably unpredictable...?

Mate, I'd like to see/ hear it.... I'm sitting with first coffee of the morning, playing air Stick, trying to visualise it....

Greg, are you talking about guitar, or Stick? How do you envision this setup between bass and melody sides? I'm intrigued, but I'm having a hard time visualizing it.

If you've got strings for your bass side for a tuning down from the highest allowable D, going D C# B A F# E, and if we use C as a reference, that would allow you to tap CDFGABb with one finger at the first C or if you choose to leave notes out then perhaps CFGBb with four fingers. With that you only need to move pitches up or down to alter them F#, Gb, G#. Also, F can become an E for augmented chords (leaving out the fifth G#) and D can become Eb for diminished chords (also leaving out the fifth Gb).

You could do this tuning however you want. Only the crossed hands bass side ascending, on the crossed hands bass side descending or on the melody side. Of course it's up to you.

But don't take my word for it.

Here's non third chords for major minor and dominant. As you might imagine, they're often intended to be ambiguous so a chord voicings like CFGA or CF#GA or CF#GAb can be used for major, minor or dominant. I've circled the most important pitches on most of the documents and leave it up to you to only use those pitches or add others from the stack.

Voicings for diminished and augmented avoid the note targeted by the soloist, which in those cases is the bV and the #V so "non-third" chords for diminished and augmented actually have b3 and natural 3 respectively but no fifth which the thirds are replacing.

I'll put the dim. and aug. voicings in a later post.

Here's them dim's.

This video shares what the chords in a similar tuning sound like. It also shows that you don't have to focus so much on which chord is called for since they're ambiguous. You can just grab at the permutations of alterations and you're good to go.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=957a5DLZNE0[/youtube]

Fascinating topic, but pardon my illiteracy, I can't make heads or tails out of the diagrams, and the video, even after I logged in to my Youtube account, is marked "private"!