many different voicings and fingerings, but five- or six-note chords work only in specific situations and defeat the purpose of a generic approach. Wayne was trying to give the guitarist the harmonic vocabulary and flexibility available to pianists. Since there are four different notes in each of Wayne's chords, there are four possible starting notes or inversions. (When such a chord contains the root, it is an inversion in the traditional sense; otherwise, it is a revoicing. For convenience, Wayne calls all such transformations "inversions".) The remaining notes are then arranged above it. Open voicing and derivatives Wayne realized that the close voicing normally used on pianos – i.e. where an entire chord is played within the same octave – is not usually practical on the guitar. He found that the most useful generic fingerings could be obtained by raising or lowering one or more of the four notes by an octave. [The following descriptions cover the main elements of Wayne's chord system; but these may be hard to visualize. Wayne's method books, listed below, are the best source for diagrams and details.] Open voicing. The building block of Wayne's chord system is a form he calls "open voicing," where the four notes of each chord are placed on adjacent strings, and the second note of the chord is raised by an octave. For example: Major sixth, open voicing, root position. A major sixth chord can be comfortably played on the bottom four strings by playing the root on the lowest string, and the fifth, sixth, and third on the adjacent three strings. The second note of the chord (the third) has been raised by an octave, and placed on the top of the chord. Major sixth, open voicing, other inversions. The same major sixth chord can be comfortably played on the bottom four strings in three other inversions, by playing the third, fifth, or sixth on the lowest string. In each case, the second note of the chord (the fifth, sixth, or root, respectively) is raised by an octave and played on the fourth string. Deriving seventh chords. These four major sixth inversions can easily be changed into other chords. For example, dominant sevenths are obtained by raising the sixth by one fret; major sevenths are obtained by raising it two frets. The chord family remains the same, with its basic four-note structure, the use of the four inversions,