JBG, I confess I never really thought about it. That's why I'm curious to know what others think. I don't normally use maj7 cords for bluegrass and traditional stuff, usually just for jazz tunes or the odd commercial &folk tune that needs one. When I use one, I tend to grab a fingering nearest my current hand position so the bass line doesn't sound disjointed.

I've never really thought of certain chords as being “cheesy.” They're just different sound colors to be used wherever they are appropriate and seem to enhance the total piece.

I guess if I were to apply the term “cheesy” to a chord change it would be the overused relative minor change the became so popular during the great folk scare. I came to regard that as musical hucksterism, especially when performers would throw one into a song that didn't originally have it just to seem contemporary.

I'll go back and listen to those Emaj7 chords and see what I can come up with for a sequence.

      - Mark