Note – The Whole SHELL-Stension System we are covering can be boiled down to this – Play the 3rd and 7th on the D and G strings, and extensions (Extensions are higher chord tones eg 9ths, 11ths, 13ths) on the B and E string.

Technically, you can already play any chord as you have the tools to simplify it to a shell voicing, but what if we don’t want to simplify? What if we want to keep those extensions? Or maybe we want to play a chord melody and we want to learn how to put different notes on top?

All we have to do is learn where our extensions lie in relation to the shell positions we’ve learnt, to do this I’ve created some diagrams.

We have two free strings to put extensions and melodies on. On one of those strings we are going to put the notes between the b7 and the #9, on the other string we will put the notes between the 11 and the 13.

Note: To play these voicings we are no longer going play the roots on the 6th or 5th string, I have included them in the diagrams for reference purposes only.

The best way to learn these is to be creative, play through progressions, trial and error , etc.

There’s no secret to it, look for music that contains it, or add them to the songs you know. You will learn best through application. Look at the common voicings in the next lesson and start applying them whenever and wherever you can.