Know your Superchords

 Here we go again! Autumn Leaves for what? The third time? Fourth time?

This time I'm using this well-loved progression to demonstrate the power of seeing the fretboard at all times as the 'Superchord', which, if you've been keeping up with my lessons, you'll know is a term I use for the way I see the fretboard.

The video says it all so I won't go on and on here in this written commentary, except to reiterate that it is, without doubt, the most practical, foolproof and powerful way of approaching the art of improvisation.

I have loaded up the drones I play along to so you can download them and practice this mindset yourself. The aim is to see the whole fretboard as the chord, not just the little note clusters we usually associate with the word 'chord'. With practice, all the positions for any given chord will merge into one long pattern. Once you can see that, you're well on your way to being able to create any guitar part you desire, whether it's single note lines, riffs, double-stop harmony lines, or chord voicings for a rhythm part.

To speed things along, my PlaneTalk Online course will help you do that. It teaches a very neat and succinct way of seeing the superchord in all of its flavors: major, major7, minor, minor7, sus4, half-diminished ... whatever. It's the last piece of the puzzle.

Some links:

• Download the drones and Backing Track
• PlaneTalk Online - my course on how to see the guitar fingerboard as one long chord, the 'trick' to improvising without juggling all those scales and modes.
• How To Play Slide Guitar In Standard Tuning - if you'd like to learn more about this wonderful way of playing guitar, I have a course on the subject.
• Heavy Brass Slides - I have my heavy brass slides made for me to my specs. I also sell them. They come in two lengths and both have an extra thick wall at the fingertip end. This gives them more mass, which is the secret to tone and sustain. 
• Another look at this Autumn Leaves Progression with a cool twist at the end.
• Autumn Leaves Free Fingerstyle lesson.