Miles Okazaki on Open String Chords

“I don’t really “know” many chords, unless you count triads, which I work on quite a bit. Sometimes, though, open strings are the only way to get something, like six note sounds. I wrote a song recently using a chord that goes (low to high) Ab, Eb, F#, G, B, A# (open G and B) It’s then answered by another chord that goes E, Db, F, C, D, A (open E). They’re actually the same chord in transposition, and together make 12 tones. This was a little puzzle I was trying to figure out, and I found a few other solutions that aren’t very difficult to grab (which is important for me). The guitar is like that for me, very mysterious. And the open strings can sound like all kinds of different things, depending on the context of what you put around them.”

— Miles Okazaki, November 2019

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