This isn't "cheating" its just the guitar equivalent of looking at
voicings. There are a whole series of cool piano voicings that are
called 'upper structures' which are just a variety of triads built
on top of a dominant tritone. So keep pluggin away at this.
> In general, when playing 2 note voicings, does it matter which is on
> top? I notice, for example, in a jazz-blues progression using just 3 and
> 7, I can move around a lot chromatically on the guitar. In F, for
> example, the 3/7 falls on strings 3 and 4, with the 3rd of F7 on the
> fourth string. When we shift to Bb7, I just move the same two-note
> voicing down one fret, and I have 3/7 for Bb7, but now the 7th is the
> bottom note (4th string). Likewise, when it's C7 time, I go up one fret
> from the F7, and the 2 note voicing has the 7th on the bottom.
>
> I've actually found I can play a whole series of 2-note voices on blues
> with passing chords, cycle patterns, etc, and keep the identical
> fingerin on the identical strings and just move it around. Not very big
> jumps either.
>
> I conclude from this that there must be no major problem with whether
> the 3rd or the 7th is on top as long as the voices move logically.
>
> If anybody wants to see the voice movement on blues I worked out (I
> assume most know this and I'm one of the last, btw, to get on board)
> I'll be glad to send it to you privately.
Lawson, I assume you just hever played rock/blues before??
Basically you have found that wonderful open position power
chord 'heaven'! After all, F7's upper tritone is just an A5.
And if you play it open 5-string, 2nd fret 4, then when you
lift your finger you get an inverted D5, which SUPRISE is
the tritone for Bb7. BTW the same trick works for the E5
on 5 and 6, or the D5 on 3 and 4 (here it is an inverted
G5). Why do you think so many rock/blues guitarists like
open position!
All you need to do is plug your guitar into a Marshall and you'll
make AC/DC proud :-) :-). Actually I'm only half kidding, I myself
DO own a Marshall JCM900 amp and am known to crank it from time
to time. I love a wailing blues guitar as much as a crying tenor
sax :-).
As for the issue of 'whether it matters' if the chord is inverted,
well, listen closely and you should have an answer. There is a
definite difference in flavor. In fact, in the rock/metal world
the inverted (in our case 7 on bottom) power fifth is called 'heavy'.
Whether it would work out in a larger context will depend on who
and what you are playing with I suppose.
Have fun!
Jack