Shred Academy – Free Guitar Lesson by Zack Uidl

The
Benefits of the 7-String Guitar

By
Zack Uidl

There
are many guitarists who have either never heard of or do not understand
the 7-string guitar. If they have heard of it, many times they
do not know how useful and beneficial they can be. Individuals
become apprehensive by the idea of using one as they think that
they cannot get used to it or that it will be a completely new
instrument. This could not be any more inaccurate. The 7-string
guitar is not hard to become comfortable with and you do not need
to learn a completely new instrument to play one.

The 7-string guitar does have a larger neck to accommodate the
seventh string. However, it takes very little time to actually
get used to this “extra” string. You may find yourself
accidentally transitioning to an incorrect string at first, but
with a little time and practice, this extra string will become
one of your best friends in the realm of your guitar world. Also,
the transition from a standard 6-string guitar is simple as a
7-string guitar is has the original six strings with an added
lower pitched string. In most cases, this string is a lower “B”
string, but in many jazz cases and in some metal cases, this string
is lowered another whole step to “A.”

The short amount of time that it takes to become familiar with
this new string is well worth the hordes of benefits you will
receive from making this simple transition. To begin with, chords
that were previously unavailable on the 6-string guitar now are.
13th, Minor 13th, and Major 13th chords, which are chords made
of seven tones, can now be played. These chords cannot be fully
played on a 6-string guitar because it is necessary, if you are
executing the full chord, to utilize each of these seven tones.
Also, transitioning from chord to chord, especially when they
are in different pitch ranges, can be done with ease. For example,
you are hypothetically playing a C Major Triad on the eighth fret
on the sixth string and wish to transition to a G Major Triad
in the same pitch range. On a standard 6-string guitar, you would
have to change position and travel to the third fret on the sixth
string. On a standard tuned 7-string guitar, (B, E, A, D, G, B,
E = tuning: lowest to highest pitched string), you simply base
your triad on the eighth fret on the seventh string. You save
yourself access muscle movement while simplifying your transitions.

Secondly, those standard shaped six string arpeggios can now be
played in one position, again saving extra movement and muscle
usage. For example, let us take an A minor arpeggio, which has
the notes A, C, and E. Below is an example of a three octave A
Minor arpeggio played as it is on a standard 6-string guitar and
an example of the same arpeggio played on a 7-string guitar.

Six
String A Arpeggio:

7-string A arpeggio:

Note
the differences between the two examples. In the 6-string example,
you must change position to complete the arpeggio while the 7-string
example basically stays in one position. There is less stretching
in the 7-string version than in the 6-string version as well.
This allows the arpeggio to be played a lot more efficiently.

Finally, scales and modes can be executed with greater pitch range
throughout the guitar’s neck. Here is a minor scale shape
beginning on the 7th string.

In order to play a minor scale with this many notes on a 6-string
guitar, more position changes would be needed in order to complete
it. This just goes to show how more can be done with fewer transitions
and less effort.

Now that we have finished exploring some of the basic benefits,
I hope there is a new understanding amongst the previously uninformed.
7-string guitars can help nearly every aspect of you guitar playing,
songwriting, and theory knowledge by giving you further possibilities.
One “extra” string can go a long way.

Zack Uidl
zack@zackuidl.com
www.zackuidl.com