So I was just at a website which gave me all of the chords and alternate ways to play them. My question is, If there are 3 ways to play the C chord (and then some more complicated things I don't understand like C7 and Cmaj7) do all the alternative ways sound the same? So lets say I had trouble playing D and F (which I do) and I found an easier alternative, would it sound the same?
Do they sound the same? Yes and no.
What you are talking about are different voicings of the same chord. Every different voicing of a chord will sound slightly different, but because each different voicing of the same chord will have the same notes in it, it will not sound "off" when you play a different voicing. So, usually it is OK to use another voicing than the original song.
However, sometimes a particular voicing of a chord is what is characteristic for a certain song. For example, the intro of "Just A Little Bit" by Supertramp uses chords D, G and A, but if you use the regular open chord shapes for the intro it won't sound the same as the record, in which case you would want to use the exact voicing as the recording.
audioboy,
are you talking about the fingering of those chords?
even god loves rock-n-roll
I guess I am. Like multiple finger for the same chords. Will the chords sound the same?
Just play an open C and an A-shaped barre at the 3rd fret - they're both C, but you'll hear a different "voice" sounding it.
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Theyll sound the same on first glance, but there's different sounds due to the subtle differences to the arranging of the notes of the chord. They're the same notes, so it's the same chord, just different sounding (different voicings).
I dunno if that came out to be legible to normal people but I know what I'm sayin hehe.
Well, I've had some requests, but I'm going to play anyway.
The biggest thing IMHO is the highest note of your chord, often you'll want to grab a chord voicing which topnote matches the main melody. For example, suppose you're playing a c-chord and the melody is based around the E-note. You might want to play something like [x 3 2 0 1 0] or [x 3 5 5 5 0], notice how the second option doubles the top E for more emphasis. If, on the other hand, the melody would be mostly based around G you could come up with something like either [x 3 2 0 1 3] or [x 3 5 5 5 3]. Finally, if the melody would be based mostly around C you could try something like [x 3 2 0 1 x] or [8 10 10 9 8 8], with the difference being that the open chord has the topnote a full octave below the topnote of the barre-chord.
The bassnote is important as well, if you play on your own. If you play in a band it often doesn't really matter since the bass-player will make sure the lower-end stuff is in order. So you can play your C-chord as [x 3 2 0 1 0] but also as [3 3 2 0 1 0], the latter being more full and fat then the first. The second chord will sound like a C (despite being C/G) as long as the bassplayer knows what he is doing.
