When you first learn chords, and some are muted, do you just keep practicing that chord over and over again until you finally get it right? Then with the more practice you get the better you get at not muting the strings? -maybe a stupid question- hehe.
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Yup
If a chord or string is muted pick the strings one at a time and find the one(s) that are muted and adjust your fingers and try again. And yes, that is the only way to do it until you get it right.
I have a question about chords. If the C chord is made up of notes: C, E and G, why is the low E string not played for the chord?
The low E would be redundant plus it gives it a darker tone when you include the low E. Actually most people would not even notice if you hit the low E especially if only once in awhile. I would also add that using the low E as an alternate base line sounds pretty good to me. Try it, form the C then hit just the A string then the full chord then just the low E string then the full chord.
You can play the low E if you want, and it's still a C chord. Same thing is true of the open A chord (E is the fifth in A).
Most open guitar chords put the root on the bottom. It helps you learn the names of the notes in first position, and they're pretty easy to finger with the root there... although there are some exceptions (Bm springs to mind, with the third as the root as a basic open chord)
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NoteBoat is right. You can strum the bass E string with the C.
I almost always fret the G at the 3rd fret of the 6th string when I play a C chord. I don't know when I started doing this, but that is the way I like to play it. I feel it sounds warmer and fuller.
e--0-------
b--1i-------
g--0-------
d--2m-----
a--3p------
e--3m-----
This puts the 5th on top. But you still hear a C Major chord.
I also like to add the D note at the 3rd fret of the B string to a G chord. I almost always play it this way for the same reasons.
e----3p------
b----3r------
g----0-------
d----0-------
a----2i-------
e----3m-----
D is the 5th of G, so you still hear a G Major chord. I like this form better than a regular G chord.
What has always mystified me is why when you play a C chord ( C, E, & G) you hear a C. Why don't you hear the E and the G??
But when you play the E with an E chord (E, B, & G#) then you hear only a E.
Why, why, why???
Maybe NoteBoat can answer that one.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
e--0-------
b--1i-------
g--0-------
d--2m-----
a--3p------
e--3m-----
This puts the 5th on top. But you still hear a C Major chord.
I thought that was a C/G chord...
Evolution
Yes and no. It is still a C Major chord (C, E, and G). If you strum all 6 strings at once, you will hear a C chord. But it will sound fuller and warmer because of the 6th string, and that's why I prefer this form.
If I was using an alternating bass/strum method to play rhythm, I would strike the C bass note first and avoid the G note even though I'm fretting it. But that is just me. There are many things like this you can do with guitar.
For instance, here's two alternating bass/strum methods for a C Major chord.
e-------0--0----------0--0----------0--0-----------0--0------
b-------1--1----------1--1----------1--1-----------1--1------
g-------0--0----------0--0----------0--0-----------0--0------
d----------------2------------------------------2---------------
a--3----------------------------3-------------------------------
e----------------------------------------------------------------
This is a classic alternating bass/strum method for rhythm guitar. You will hear this
particular strum in many Country songs. But Rock and Blues as well.
This plays the root (C) and then the 3rd (E) alternating as the bass note.
But you can play the 5th (G) as well with the form I showed.
e-------0--0----------0--0----------0--0-----------0--0------
b-------1--1----------1--1----------1--1-----------1--1------
g-------0--0----------0--0----------0--0-----------0--0------
d---------------------------------------------------------------
a--3----------------------------3------------------------------
e----------------3----------------------------3----------------
So, this just gives you more options. That is all.
But you are correct. When you see a "slash" chord like C/G or D/F# the note after the slash is telling you which note to use as the bass note. But in most cases you will find the note already belongs to the chord. F# is the 3rd of D and is always played in a D Major chord. So, you are still merely playing a D chord.
But there are times when you see a slash chord with a note that does not belong to the chord.
For instance Am/G
e-----0---------
b-----1i---------
g-----0---------
d-----2m--------
a-----X----------
e-----3r---------
This is actually a Am7 chord. G is the flat 7th of A. A flat 7th makes a chord a 7th chord. But many times it's still written as Am/G.
You will see this often. Look up As My Guitar Gently Weeps in the Easy Song Database.
Many times when you see slash chords they are part of a run on the bass, such as the famous Am, Am/G, D/F#, F, E chord progression used in songs like 25 or 6 to 4 by Chicago, or Ready for Love by Bad Company. Also As My Guitar Gently Weeps. This progression is very common. Note the decending bass notes on the chords A, G, F#, F, E.
Hope I haven't confused you.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
You can write it that way (C/G), but if the bass note is already part of the chord, you're really not saying anything. Here's why:
-0-3-12-
-1-5-13-
-0-5-12-
-2-5-x-
-3-x-x-
-3-x-x-
Every single one of those is C/G.
Wes, you're getting into an area of music that I'm pretty weak in - psychoacoustics. So I can't really give you a definitive answer, but I can guess :)
You hear it as E or C because of the context. I mean, you hear the whole chord, but you're focused on one note. A year or so ago we had a thread here where I kind of exploited that - about halfway down the page I posted a couple of MIDI samples, and the second one creates an E minor chord sound using only the notes G and B. That was kind of fun, because you hear it as E without an E note, and you hear it as minor - even though it's a major third interval.
So sometimes you hear less stuff than the notes make, and sometimes you hear more :)[/url]
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I almost always fret the G at the 3rd fret of the 6th string when I play a C chord. I don't know when I started doing this, but that is the way I like to play it. I feel it sounds warmer and fuller.
Older chord books seem to give that as a "proper" C, so that's the way I learned it too.
The chord book I have which is over 30 years old shows the C like that.
332010 (excuse my crummy representation)
The later books I've got seem to use the simpler version of x32010
Some of them now also show F as xx3211 whereas the older one shows only 133211.
Maybe it's just a general trend towards simplifying things, particularly for players starting out? No "power chords" in the old book either.
Cheers, Chris
Maybe it's just a general trend towards simplifying things, particularly for players starting out? No "power chords" in the old book either.
Actually power chords weren't introduced to simplify things, well, that's not entirely true. The third in major and minor chords have certain overtones which normally are barely audible. But when combined with distortion these overtones can become unpredicable and lead to an unstable sound. By eliminating it, guitarists, particularly rock guitarists, are able to sustain higher levels of distortion without losing stability.
Power chords may not be in older books because in classical music, people deemed consecutive fifths to be not authentic and unpleasant.
Holy cow................did I just talk about theory? Maybe I can learn it after all........
