This lesson shows you how to take some basic dominant voicings and extend them for a more colourful sound that you can use when comping over a basic 12 bar blues, such as is played by the likes of Josh Smith, Kirk Fletcher, Robben Ford and John Mayer (mainly during his instagram live videos).

At the end of the lesson there’s a an example ‘Extended Blues Voicing Etude’ to illustrate how these voicings can be used and how you can connect them when playing over a 12 bar blues.

So, onto the voicings. The diagram below is split into two columns. On the left are drop 2 voicings across the D, G, B & E strings and on the right are drop 2 voicings across the A, D, G & B strings. The translucent triangles in each chord diagram represent notes from the original 7 voicing that we’ve altered to create a given extension e.g R-9 or 5-13. You don’t play the triangular notes, they’re just for reference. I’ve written out voicings all along the neck so that you can connect different dominant chords together - see the Etude at the end of this lesson.

It’s also worth noting that any time you see a 7 chord (that isn’t resolving to a minor chord) you can substitute it with a 9 or a 13. There are 2 voicings here that aren’t 9 or 13 and those are 13#9 and 7b5. Both of these would be used as 7Alt chords.

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Now let’s take a look at the example etude. This has been written to show you how you can connect the voicings together. You needn’t worry too much about the rhythms written below, you can just reference the TAB. As a quick note, the Eb13 and F9 chords are just chromatic side-steps to the following chords.

As a quick note, this is an over-the-top example of how to use these voicings for learning purposes only. You’d want to employ these voicings much more sparingly/tastefully in real-world situations (in my opinion).

 Try practicing these voicings in different keys and using them to extend 7 chords in any blueses that you might play.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this lesson. Do contact me if you have any questions.

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Thanks so much, James.