Just started playing about a month ago and I have a few questions...
1) Any suggestions for easy songs for a girl (lowish voice) to play and sing to? Many of the songs I've been looking at have either been too high or too complicated. I can handle chords, strumming and singing together, but chords, fingerpicking and singing at the same time are still a bit much! Girls, what were the first songs you learned when you started?
2) I'm also a little puzzled about chords/tabs as recorded on sites like Ultimate Guitar. I can read tabs, but what does it mean when they put 2 chords for the same section? ex. C/B, or C/A, or D/F sharp? Is it meant for a second guitar player, or bass or some such? I know I have a lot to learn, but I'm pretty sure I'll never be able to play 2 chords at once! :D
Thanks a bunch,
-- Emily
Not being a girl and having a voice that could scare the dead, I'll leave the first question to someone else.
The chords, you mention are generally called slash chords, for obvious reasons. They are really inversions of the normal triad. An inversion means that one of the other chord notes is in the bass position, instead of the root. A first inversion has the 3rd degree in the bass - a C chord would be a C/E. A second inversion would have the 5th degree in the bass - in C, it would be the G, so C/G.
There is also a third inversion, for example, but that requires a 4th note in the chord - so a C7 (C, E, G, Bb), you could have C/Bb.
You would not, normally see a C/B, because there is no B in a C chord (would have to be a Cmaj7 - C, E, G, B). Same with C/A, it would have to be C6/A.
I started with nothing - and I've still got most of it left.
Did you know that the word "gullible" is not in any dictionary?
Greybeard's Pages
My Articles & Reviews on GN
The letter after the slash is the bass note that you should play as the lowest note of the chord. As Greybeard says, if that note happens to be a note that is already part of the chord, then we can say that the chord is inverted. But it doesn't have to be a note of the chord. For example, Am/G is quite common. The chord A minor contains notes A, C & E. There's no G in an A minor chord normally, so in this case, you can play A minor as normal and add the note G on string 6 fret 3.
As a beginner, you can just ignore the note after the slash for now until you're more familiar with all the basic shapes. It will still sound good and close to the right sound.
You don't necessarily have to change the songs you want to play. Putting a capo on the third or fourth fret will probably move it into your range if you have a low female (alto?) voice. It may seem like you're raising the song, but if you put it up a little higher, you can then sing it an octave lower and it should work.
Check out the lesson on Eleanor Rigby ( https://www.guitarnoise.com/lesson/eleanor-rigby/ ) for a (hopefully painless) rundown on "slash chords."
Hope this helps.
Peace
http://www.last.fm/music/Liz+Phair/_/Girls!+Girls!+Girls!?autostart
check out the guitar playing and singing of Liz Phair.
she was big in the 90's. my spouse, back then, would take my guitar
and play along and sing with the CD blasting.
Brilliant, thanks a bunch everyone, particularly for all the slash chord explanations :)
