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That's a fun approach, Warren. It certainly lends to great economy of motion. I agree that it really forces you to expact your chord vocabulary, and in many cases, create your own voicings, which was what I used to like to do before I when to the approach I have now. Theoretically, you should be able to play any chord (at least with the primary intervals represented with some implied intervals) in a 4 fret span. Good singer/song writers, with a jazz background and who uses capolls know this. They can stay down in that root position without using bar chords for a long time!
A while back I got obsessed with using only voicings where I didn't play the root or fifth. The first time I used that approach was at a club at a jazz jam night, and the keyboard player (friend of mine), looked up from his piano, and had a big smile on his face, like "Hey, you're playing my voicings dude!" He could just top playing and kick back. Ever since then, I became of the believe that in a combo setting where you have a bass player, the only reason to use traditional chord voiciings with the root and fifth (or just the root), was my own ignorance of knowing the really hip substitutions. That mindset led me to this: http://www.krispenhartung.com/chords/index.html
These were some of the chords I used that would nearly 100% of the time make a jazz keyboard plyaer look up and me and smile. :) Great moments in time as a axe slinger competing with 10 fingers on keys.
Kris
----- Original Message -----
Interesting discussion. In the realm of jazz guitar, I've been
breaking away from cliches by - well, I don't know whether you'd call
it "adopting" or "abandoning" position playing. I have a to move all
over the neck when playing jazz tunes - if the root is D, I'll want to
play at the 5th fret (where the D bass is on string 5) or the 10th (D
bass on string 6), more or less.
Now I'm trying to play through tunes without changing position - start
at the 8th fret and play scales and arpeggios that suit the underlying
chords, but without moving from that fret as the tune cycles through
all its changes and keys. Then, on the next chorus, do the same thing
at the 2nd fret, or in open position. That has certainly been
effective for expanding my vocabulary (and, I feel it's made it more
authentic-sounding). As I go through these changes, preferring
accuracy and coherent phrasing to speed, I find the connection
between what I hear in my head and what comes out to be improving as
well.