Favorite Chord Voicings of Freddie Green

Like all guitarists, Freddie Green had favorite chord forms. Shown below are the most common chord fingerings found in his rhythm playing. Note that some forms may be fingered in two different ways.

An "x" indicates that a finger is placed on the string, but the string is not fully pushed down to make contact with the fret.
A "black dot" indicates that a finger is placed on the string, and the string is pushed down to make contact with the fret.
If there is no "x" or "black dot", the string is fully damped by a finger of the left hand.

Try using these chord forms to play "Shoutin" Blues", one of the posted Freddie Green transcriptions. First, look at the notated chord in the measure. Second, determine what note of the chord is being clearly sounded on each beat, i.e., root, 3rd, 5th, 7th. Third, find the chord form that has that note on the 4th string.

There is one chord substitution regularly employed by Freddie to create moving lines:
For any dominant 7th chord, substitute a minor 7th chord whose root is up a perfect fifth, e.g, for D7 substitute Am7. Look for this substitution in "Shoutin' Blues" at measures 21, 22, 33, and 34.

Michael Pettersen
March 2004