In progression 3 we had very full sounding chords where we were playing the root note as the lowest note or bass note in each shape. This is fine for solo or duo performances but is a bit of a problem when playing with a bass player. If we have the root note low down in the chord it tends to conflict with the bass whose playing that root anyway in a more effective way than we are and is probably playing around with other chord tones too. Our root note is just getting in his way and making things sound muddy.
Let's get rid of the root note from our chords and enhance them with more sophisticated voicings.
Each of the minor7 chords in this progression have been made into a minor9 chord with the exception of the Em7 - we'll alter that later. We play the minor 9 chord by barring across the top 4 strings with our first finger and laying the 9th on the top of the chord with the 3rd or little finger. The Em7 chord we'll keep the same but remove the root note for more clarity giving us a D shaped chord at the 7th fret.
The final thing to note is a change in bar 4 again. A7 leads very nicely to Dm7 as we found in the last progression but the chord A7#5#9 leads even better! It sounds very complex and the theory is quite involved but at this stage it's not so important. Simply learn the shape and stick it into the progression - you'll hear how good it sounds! (in the video I say A7#9 but I should've said A7#5#9 - sorry!)
Our blues is sounding pretty sophisticated by now but we've still got a bit of work to do!