EXAMPLE DAVE MATTHEWS STYLE

[Bar 11] no stretches to worry about here but really listen to the effect the moving bass notes have against the simple open chord, it’s a great way of writing and really gives this sort of riff some momentum. Matthews uses subtle chord variations to add colour; eg this Gmaj7B instead of a straight Gmaj7 and the a7sus4 in place of an a or a7.

Bb6 [Bar 25] and another moving bassline idea over the following bars, the is an unexpected twist harmonically but a common move in his writing.

[Bar 29] Big-sounding, open-string chords are another feature of his style, the strumming pattern here being simple but again moving the underlying bass notes against the chord on top to keep things moving really well.