guitar chords – Modern Music Theory Improvisation and Application

“In a Silent Way” Zawinul/McLaughlin Guitar Analysis

Posted on February 6, 2026February 13, 2026 by Modern Music Theory and Application

John McLaughlin/joe Zawinal “In a silent way” Guitar Analysis Lesson

Please watch video above for detailed info:

Hi Guys,

Today, a look at the amazing performance/improvisation of “In a Silent Way” by John McLaughlin and Joe Zawinul.

PART 1:

The key to this is to look at the 16 bar structure and view the two main chords and acknowledge how the melody is/can be contained within them.

FORM and CHORDS Chart:

A notated piece of sheet music for Joe Zawinal and John McLaughlin "In a silent way" chords and melody. — Musical notation illustrating the chords E6/11 and Bm7/E for ‘In a Silent Way’ Zawinal/McLaughlin

So, from this simple chart we can observe that we have two main prominent chords. These are E6/11

Musical sheet showing an E6/11 John McLaughlin chord diagram with specific finger placements on a guitar neck. — Chord diagram for E6/11, highlighting its structure used in the performance of ‘In a Silent Way.’

and Bm7/E

Chord diagram for Bm7/E John McLaughlin chord featuring finger placements on the guitar fretboard. — Chord diagram for McLaughlin’s Bm7/E, illustrating finger placements and string usage.

6/11 as Substitutions;

Here, is how the 6/11 is exploited by John for the intro: So, instead of the plain minor 7th chords we have:

A music sheet showing chord progressions by John McLaughlin and Joe Zawinal labeled G#m Sub, F#m Sub, and Dm Sub with corresponding note positions indicated by numbers on the staff. This is for the song "In a silent way". — Chord chart showing G#m, F#m, and Dm substitutions with a pedal bass note for guitar improvisation.

PART 2: Chord Melody Barre Shapes:

Now, let’s loosely add some chords [Shapes] to the melody, and see what we can come up with,

EXAMPLE: Notice that the 1st note of each melody section [circled] fits perfectly within the chord shape.

A sheet of music by John McLaughlin and Joe Zawinal notation featuring various notes, chords labeled E6/11 and D6/11, with annotations indicating E/F# from "In a silent way" — Chord progression and melody outline for ‘In a Silent Way,’ highlighting E6/11 and D6/11 McLaughlin chords.

In terms of harmonising the melody and creating a nice ethereal or dissonant resonance on the guitar it is a really good idea to employ a pedal note.

In this case it is the low E string.

Example:

Sheet music displaying Joe Zawinal and John McLaughlin's "In a silent way" notes with a marked 'Pedal E Bass' section and tablature notation. — Notation example highlighting the use of a pedal E bass “In a silent way” in the chord sequence.

To conclude, we will cadence nicely with the 7sus4 chord and a little descending run back to the tonic chord of E Major.

A sheet of music featuring guitarist John McLaughlin's little bass run highlighted in red with annotations for A/B and E chords for "In a silent way" song.

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McLaughlin: Rhythm Guitar Revisited: Part 2

Posted on December 13, 2024December 13, 2024 by Modern Music Theory and Application

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Hi Guys,

Today, the second part of the John McLaughlin style rhythmic guitar essentials.

ALTERNATE TIME SIGNATURES:

If we look at a composition like “Face to Face” by Shakti, we will find interesting rhythmic strumming patterns:

It’s unique how John creates interesting rhythmic riffs with just a couple of chords by employing a bar of 7 to a bar of 8:

shakti-face-to-face-rhythm-guitar-lesson

You may wish to count this in different ways. For Example, you could count this as: 15/16 to 16/16 [in groups of 3 to groups of 4 in the next bar]:

And, also, Groups of 4 with the last being a grouping of 3 [or one note removed in a bar of 4/4 time]

Here, are the two chords that I have used.

These being similar to McLaughlin’s “Face to Face” composition with Shakti.

To complete this vamp I employ a little “Turn around” in the bass with a 4 note descending scale motif.

Here, is the full 2 Bar Sequence with the turn around motif:

CHORD SEQ VARIATION:

In this variation we have the previous bass scale notes played in the treble on the first string of the guitar.

We also have changed the first chord with a “Quartal” E minor voicing.

John McLaughlin Concept # 2

John McLaughlin sometimes strums quickly between two chords and the open strings. Here are a couple of examples.

Firstly, we can see how John exploits 2 simple chords of A Major and D Major between the open strings:

[This is strummed at a very quick pace by alternate strumming “Down Up“] etc

STRUMMING RIFF 3:

To finish, we will look at one last alternate strumming McLaughlin favourite.

This again follows the same principle with the quick “Down Up” fast wrist movement in the strumming hand.

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Master John McLaughlin’s Guitar Chord Techniques:

Posted on September 17, 2024September 17, 2024 by Modern Music Theory and Application

Please watch video above for detailed info:

Hi Guys,

Today, a look at the late 60’s early 70’s John McLaughlin guitar chord/riff style of “My goals beyond” and “Extrapolation”.

This is a great compositional vamp style that really brings out the resonance of the guitar. It has a sort of loose swing feel to it, that sort of gritty London soho jazz sound of the time.

The vamp is based around the D6add9 guitar chord shape, with the open E note as a pedal.

To begin with, we will play the D6add9 chord and then move it up a tone to E6add9 and then back again to D6add9. [see video above]

As in the video above you will hear/see that I am syncopating/weaving in and out of the bass notes displayed below plucked on the low E string.

To create colour and contrast we then change the chord in the third bar by moving the shape up to create Dm11/E to G6add9 and back to Dm11/E.

We then move back to D6add9 and E6add9:

From here, we move the shape up to A6/9/E to G6/9/D and finally resolving to F#13/E.

The Bass moves down in half steps, E Eb D C#

We repeat the first part and then end with the chord shape on G A C D E D: strummed over the E pedal bass.

IN CONCLUSION:

To conclude, this was just a quick look into strumming extended chords in and out of a melodic bass line. Simple as this is it works really well for creating compositions, wether in a blues form or a verse/chorus structure.

This style excels on the guitar because the bass can be doubled in unison with another instrument, [for example, piano or sax or double bass].

Lastly, the chord shape of the added 6th and 9th [as well as the 11th] resonate sympathetically on the guitar both as a strummed attack or mellowly plucked with the fingers.

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john-mclauglin-chords Download

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