Drop 2 and 4 Chords – Creative Guitar Voicings

mattwarnockguitar.com/drop-2-and-4/

May 8, 2011

Drop 2 and 4 chords aren’t the most common shapes, but they offer a variety of new
sounds to explore in your comping, chord soloing, and chord melody.

These 4-note chords offer “full-sounding” voicings are used in place ofdrop 2 and drop 3
chords when you’re looking for a sense of variety in your chord playing.

With bass notes on the 5th and 6th strings, drop 2 and 4 chords are often used in solo
and duo situations where there’s no bass player.

Because these shapes have low bass notes, you’ll need to be careful when using them
in an ensemble, as you don’t want to step on your bassist’s toes.

Now, grab your guitar as you learn how to build, play, and apply drop 2 and 4 chords to
your jazz guitar comping and soloing phrases.

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What Are Drop 2 and 4 Chords

Let’s begin by looking at the intervallic structure of eachdrop 2 and 4 inversion before
taking them to the fretboard.

Drop 2 and 4 chords get their name because you take a closed position chord, 1-3-5-7,
and “drop” the 2nd and 4th notes from the top down by an octave.

This forms the interval pattern 1-5-3-7, and you derive inversions from that starting point.

Here’s how that looks like on the guitar.

Notice that each chord has a string skip between the middle two notes, as this is a
characteristic of drop 2 and 4 shapes.

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When you drop the 2nd and 4th note of any closed-position chord, you produce the
following four interval patterns for each inversion.

Root Position – R-5-3-7

1st Inversion – 3-7-5-R
2nd Inversion – 5-R-7-3
3rd Inversion – 7-3-R-5

These formulae works for any chord type you can think of, you just have to alter the
interval qualities to fit that chord type.

For example, a root position drop 2 and 4 7th chord is built R-5-3-b7, a m7 chord would
be R-5-b3-b7, etc.

The intervals change to match the chord you’re playing, but the order of the intervals
remains the same.

To help you take these shapes onto the fretboard, here are 8 different, 4 per string set,
drop 2 and 4 chords for all common chord qualities.

Each drop 2 and 4 chord is written in C, so make sure to move them to other keys as you
explore these shapes further in your guitar practice routine.

Drop 2 and 4 Maj7 Chords

To begin, here are 8 different Cmaj7 Drop 2 and 4 chords, which have the interval
structure:

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 Root Position – R-5-3-7
1st Inversion – 3-7-5-R
2nd Inversion – 5-R-7-3
3rd Inversion – 7-3-R-5

Here are four inversions of Cmaj7 with the lowest note on the 6th string.

th string.
You can also play these Drop 2 and 4 chords with the lowest note on the 5

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Drop 2 and 4 7th Chords
Here are 8 different C7 Drop 2 and 4 chords, which have the interval structure:

Root Position – R-5-3-b7

1st Inversion – 3-b7-5-R
2nd Inversion – 5-R-b7-3
3rd Inversion – b7-3-R-5

Here are four inversions of C7 with the lowest note on the 6th string.

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 th
You can also play these Drop 2 and 4 chords with the lowest note on the 5 string.

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Drop 2 and 4 m7 Chords
Here are 8 different Cm7 Drop 2 and 4 chords, which have the interval structure:

Root Position – R-5-b3-b7

1st Inversion – b3-b7-5-R
2nd Inversion – 5-R-b7-b3
3rd Inversion – b7-b3-R-5

Here are four inversions of Cm7 with the lowest note on the 6th string.

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 th
You can also play these Drop 2 and 4 chords with the lowest note on the 5 string.

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Drop 2 and 4 m7b5 Chords
Here are 8 different Cm7b5 Drop 2 and 4 chords, which have the interval structure:

Root Position – R-b5-b3-b7

1st Inversion – b3-b7-b5-R
2nd Inversion – b5-R-b7-b3
3rd Inversion – b7-b3-R-b5

Here are four inversions of Cm7b5 with the lowest note on the 6th string.

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 th
You can also play these Drop 2 and 4 chords with the lowest note on the 5 string.

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Drop 2 and 4 dim7 Chords
Here are 8 different Cdim7 Drop 2 and 4 chords, which have the interval structure:

Root Position – R-b5-b3-bb7

1st Inversion – b3-bb7-b5-R
2nd Inversion – b5-R-bb7-b3
3rd Inversion – bb7-b3-R-b5

Here are four inversions of Cdim7 with the lowest note on the 6th string.

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 th
You can also play these Drop 2 and 4 chords with the lowest note on the 5 string.

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Drop 2 and 4 mMaj7 Chords
Here are 8 different CmMaj7 Drop 2 and 4 chords, which have the interval structure:

Root Position – R-5-b3-7

1st Inversion – b3-7-5-R
2nd Inversion – 5-R-7-b3
3rd Inversion – 7-b3-R-5

Here are four inversions of CmMaj7 with the lowest note on the 6th string.

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 th string.
You can also play these Drop 2 and 4 chords with the lowest note on the 5

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Drop 2 and 4 7#11 Chords
Here are 8 different C7#11 Drop 2 and 4 chords, which have the interval structure:

Root Position – R-#11-3-b7

1st Inversion – 3-b7-#11-R
2nd Inversion – #11-R-b7-3
3rd Inversion – b7-3-R-#11

Here are four inversions of C7#11 with the lowest note on the 6th string.

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 th
You can also play these Drop 2 and 4 chords with the lowest note on the 5 string.

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Drop 2 and 4 Maj7#11 Chords
Here are 8 different Cmaj7#11 Drop 2 and 4 chords, which have the interval structure:

Root Position – R-#11-3-7

1st Inversion – 3-7-#11-R
2nd Inversion – #11-R-7-3
3rd Inversion – 7-3-R-#11

Here are four inversions of Cmaj7#11 with the lowest note on the 6th string.

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 th string.
You can also play these Drop 2 and 4 chords with the lowest note on the 5

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Drop 2 and 4 Chords Exercise 1 – Qualities
The first drop 2 and 4 exercise is based on finding chords that are only one note different
from other shapes.

Here’s a favorite example of this exercise that covers 5 different chord types inone
chord progression.

Play these chords using drop 2 and 4 shapes in C, then move them to other keys on the
fretboard.

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You can also use any string set and any inversion, just stick to the same one for each
time through the exercise.

So, if you start with a 1st inversion on a 6th-string root, keep that same outline as you
move through the changes.

Here’s another progression that I use where the second chord is built by altering one
note from the first chord shape.

Lastly, here’s another progression you can use to learn drop 2 and 4 chords in the
practice room.

Once you’ve worked through these progressions in various keys and inversions on
different string sets, come up with your own progressions to work drop 2 and 4 chords.

Drop 2 and 4 Chords Exercise 2 – Major ii V I VI

This exercise outlines major key ii V I VI changes usingdrop 2 and 4 voice leading.

When doing so, you begin on any iim7 drop 2 and 4 chord, and then move to the closest
V7 chord, Imaj7, and VI7b9 chord in that area of the guitar.

Here’s how that looks on the fretboard.

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When doing so, you use the following guitar chords inversions.

R-2nd-R-1st
1st-3rd-1st-2nd
2nd-R-2nd-3rd
3rd-1st-3rd-R

This order of inversions is the same for major and minor ii V I vi progressions, so it’s
worth memorizing as you take this exercise further.

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Once you’ve worked out this example, move to other inversions of Dm7 on the top-4
strings and voice lead from there through the progression.

Then, move on to different keys and other string sets before applying these shapes to a
full tune in your studies.

Drop 2 and 4 Chords Exercise 3 – Minor ii V I VI

You can now repeat the previous exercise with minor key ii V I vi chords.

Once you have these shapes down in various keys and string sets, take them to atune
such as Summertime, which has major and minor ii V Is, to hear these chords in a
musical situation.

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Drop 2 and 4 Satin Doll Chords
Now that you’ve learned drop 2 and 4 chords in various keys and string sets, and run
them through exercises, you can learn a Satin Doll chord study with these shapes.

Work each section one at a time, 8 bars each, and then bring them together over the
backing track and audio example when ready.

From there, put on the backing track and comp using chord shapes from this lesson in
your playing.

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Satin Doll Backing Track satin-doll-backing-track

Vm
satin-doll-backing-track
00:00
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Click to Hear satin-doll-chords-guitar

Vm
satin-doll-chords-guitar
00:00
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