Check out Tom's Comprehensive Guitar Chord Book

This essential resource for guitarists has now been reissued in
A NEW EXPANDED EDITION!

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  Andy Ellis reviews
"Open String Guitar Chords"
for
GUITAR PLAYER MAGAZINE

Tom Principato's Open String Guitar Chords should provide even the most dedicated pickers with months of inspiration. Arranged as a chord dictionary, the book moves through all 12 keys. But here the similarity ends: typical chord dictionaries repeat the same voicings up the neck---with these books, it doesn't take long to figure out that the same voicing appears 12 times--once in each key. By contrast, the grips in Open String Guitar Chords vary from key to key. Open String Guitar Chords offers a creative and free-form path to harmonic enlightenment. If you write music, you'll find lots of inspiration for fresh sounding progressions.

 Here Tom tells the story behind this unique book.

I first became aware of open-string chords through the music of Chet Atkins and Merle Travis in the mid 1960's. Later in the 1970's, I heard Lenny Breau using much "jazzier" and extended open-string voicings in his music. This intrigued me enough in 1978 to begin this book. I was well into it when I performed a show at the Cellar Door nightclub in Washington, D.C. with Danny Gatton, Buddy Emmons, and Lenny Breau in April of 1979. In fact, that night in April, Lenny Breau and I had a discussion about open-string guitar chords--I even gave him a sampler sheet of some of the more interesting open-string chords I had compiled up to that point. Even though Lenny and I did not have any further discussion about open-string chords, I noticed he did a series of columns in Guitar Player magazine on this subject from November 1981 to January 1982.

An increasingly busy schedule throughout the 1980's, and the realization that this book would be a considerably larger undertaking than first imagined, slowed down progress for quite a while. But I always kept a near-finished rough draft for use and reference, and every time I discovered another good open-string voicing, I'd add it. Finally, nearly 20 years after it was started, this book was finished in 1997.

Encompassing over 4,000 chord voicings, I know my guitarist friends will find it a valuable reference whenever something special or different is needed for a particular musical situation. I truly hope it opens some creatiive new doors for you.

Announcing a new Chord Book "Contemporary Chord Voicings For The Guitar" by
TOM PRINCIPATO

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An Encyclopedia of over 250 chords in 55 categories, many extended and unusual voicings like Minor7#5, Minor6Major 7, Major9b3, 6 types of Suspended chords including Major7sus, minor11b5, 11b9, 13b9 and 55 open string voicings--condensed to 3, 4 and 5 note voicings for easier playing.

Includes a lot of extended and more complex voicings, especially ones played on keyboards, often contain 5, 6 or more notes as they are altered and extended. It’s a challenge to play many of these kinds of voicings on the guitar given the limitation of 5 fretting fingers, and the limitation of six strings. So, the challenge is to find simpler, smaller voicings that still contain the tonality of the larger chords. This sometimes even means using chords without a root note in them. What I concentrated on for this book was to collect many of these more extended and unusual chords in simpler 3, 4, and 5 note finger patterns for the guitar. These are all move-able form chords which can be played anywhere on the neck. This is a contrast to the open-string voicings which are one-of-a-kind voicings for a particular place on the guitar neck. For the move-able forms, I’ve noted in the diagram where the root is located, and that’s your frame of reference for playing in different keys.

Stories From The Road
by
TOM PRINCIPATO

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They Tell Me I had A Good Time! follows guitarist and Indie Record Co. owner Tom Principato on his travels and encounters throughout touring and the "Music Business"; and seeing and being inspired by Blues guitar legends B.B.King & Albert King at the legendary Cellar Door night club in Washington, D.C. in the late 1960's, his early days in Boston with the band Powerhouse. and includes some great road stories from touring in the USA; encounters with Freddie King, Dr. John, NRBQ, Frank Zappa, Joe Pass and Big Mama Thornton, as well as stories of European concerts where he shares the bill with guitar icon Jeff Beck, Blues Piano legend Champion Jack Dupree, a flight with soul singer legend Wilson Picket, and a career high appearance at the Montreux Jazz festival. Included are photos and anecdotes about his days playing with Washington, DC guitar legend Danny Gatton and "Blazing Telecasters", Roy Buchanan, and jamming with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Paul Butterfield, Wayne Jackson, the Memphis Horns, Chuck Leavell, and Lonnie Mack. It's a "who's who" and a "what's what" of guitar anecdotes, jokes, stories and schtick, from the eyes of the player as well as a music fan, all told in a conversational style that feels like you might be sitting at a bar having a beer with Tom while he's telling his stories. Tom's mixture of humor, honesty and humility make for a great read told by an Independant niche artist who managed to "survive" over 50 years in the "Music Business" and live his dream.

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The Long Way Home
A Brand New CD Release From
Tom Principato & Steve Wolf

Read about this title and
listen to soundbytes at the Powerhouse Records Website.

Check out Tom's Chord Book with 4,000 chord voicings. Guitarists will find it a valuable reference whenever something special or different is needed...

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