Jesse van Ruller on Open String Chords

“There are endless possibilities and I still discover new voicings almost daily. The wonderfull thing about these open string chords is the rich overtones that an open string has compared to the same pitch fretted. The blend of these rich in overtones notes with less rich fretted notes gives unique timbres. Also I love the intervals jumping up and down of a strummed chord that has low and higher notes in unexpected order. That effect can only happen with open string voicings.


As a teacher I often get the question of how to find these chords. Students want some kind of system to explore and categorize all of these chords. The way I see it is that I have an expending personal collection of options that I discover by learning repertoire. I always try to come up with solo versions of tunes and often a new tune gives me a new open string chord.”

— Jesse van Ruller, Oct. 2019

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