sad chords

Don't know about the chords, but i'm sorry about the baby

Also different voicings...Am open and Am barre ...sound differently.

I think death metal guys must be using a lot of sad and goth and eeire and whatsoever you may name em :lol: chords..

Just check them out.

Rahul

Another thing is to work chord progressions against each other. Playing a regular Em may sound sad, but it sounds a lot sadder if it comes after an Fmaj7, for instance.

Peace

This does have a noticeable effect. Is there a simple reason for this?

Ghost

Yes.

The human brain can hold up to about 4 seconds of sound in their head before it either must be processed and stored or slips away and gets lost. Think about when someone talks to you and you don't pay much attention: you'll always be able to remember his/her last few words whether you actually took notice at the time or not. So why is this important? It creates a 'mix' in your head between what you play right now and what you played just before, you could call this the musical context.

Now when you play an F7M followed by an Em the movement is different from an Am to an Em. The Em remains the same but your brain notices that the sounds came from a different point which results in a different Em sound. This kinda shows that notes and chords serve different puproses in different songs. Playing the G chord in a song that's written in C gives a much different feel from playing the same G chord while playing in G.

As to why certain combinations sound sad: nobody knows. Really very interesting and if we can find this out we should be able to use computers to generate the ultimate song for each individual. Neat huh?

Thanks Arjen for taking the time to respond to my query. So it is the musical context; and the relationship between notes and chords within specific tonalities/keys, which ultimately determine our subjective response.

Oh, also, your post in the Internet Tab Sites thread:
I'd dare to bet a few bucks that anyone who is unable to figure out the basics of most pop/rock songs is equally unable to make a proper bend or even tune his guitar properly without tuner. Every musician needs properly trained ears, and once you've got that you don't need no tab.

Has encouraged me to become a more serious student: to develop my ear. I have made simple attempts to tab a number of songs with varying success; but need the patience to develop. Also, I rely too heavily on my tuner to my detriment. Thanks once again, for taking the time...

later
Ghost 8)

Yes.

The human brain can hold up to about 4 seconds of sound in their head before it either must be processed and stored or slips away and gets lost. Think about when someone talks to you and you don't pay much attention: you'll always be able to remember his/her last few words whether you actually took notice at the time or not. So why is this important? It creates a 'mix' in your head between what you play right now and what you played just before, you could call this the musical context.

=?

Cool man.I guess you have been playing guitar only for some months (i might be wrong here) ...anyways so how do you get out of the ordinary knowlegde occasionally.Awesome 8)

Between , ghost , i dont think using tuner is a bad idea.If you check out the comments of various Experienced players they don't really find any harm in tuners.Human ear has its limitations and i don't feel any guilt in using a tuner for playing in a better sense out of my guitar.Also ear training ain't that easy...it WILL take time.Reading books about it or even a teacher might not be able to make you ear so good that tabs flow like ABCDEFGH... or 123456.. in your (or my ) head.

Just my 2 cents :)

Rahul

You got it ghost. As for ear training, check this: http://www.musictheory.net/trainers/html/id90_en.html

Start for example by just checking the unison, octave and fifth. This should be quite easy to tell apart. Select the interval you think it is and play it on your guitar after chosing. Once you've got this perfect start to add more intervals from the right column (these are the intervals found in the major scale). Once you've got them all add the left column in. A good way to remember the intervals is by remembering songs in which they occur. For example, the first two notes from 'I wish you a merry christmas' is a 4th etc. Once you've got this you can start by picking a slow solo and try to name each interval. As soon as you've got that all you need to find out is what the starting note is and you've got the entire solo figured out on your own.

As for tuning, you need a properly tuned instrument to practice, and you need to practice tuning to get it tuned properly. So every time you pick it up try to tune it by ear, and once you can't get it any closer use the tuner. This way you are practicing tuning by ear and you never play on an detuned guitar (which is the WORST thing that could happen!).

Good luck!

Rahul: I've been playing guitar for 2.5 years or so now, and I play a bit of bass and piano as well. That is indeed not much, but since I want to be a conservatory-trained composer I need to get my stuff together. Fast.

you can tune the strings relative to each other, but unless you have perfect pitch, you'll have to tune it to something... although if you tune your strings to a tuner very frequently, you start to develop something close to perfect pitch, which i discovered after working in a music shop and tuning a whole bunch of guitars.

last night I quested for the saddest chords.
I found G major and Em are the sickest.

as some of the above posts stated timing is important.

I played open G a few beats, let it ring a moment then hit the Em.
very sad sounding.

on another note. I am finishing up a hjead cold. it is at that perfect moment where ones thorat is gravelly.
I sound like the perfect bluesman singing now.

I hate colds, but that voice...makes me want to get sick again.

Playing the G chord in a song that's written in C gives a much different feel from playing the same G chord while playing in G.

This is an interesting statement.

I would like an example of this. I'm not sure how you play in C or in G. (I know it's theory but would like to understand this better.) I know how to play a G chord be it open or fretted. I just can't (in my ear) imagine how they sound different. Must be more in the context of the song. Is it when other instruments are playing along which maintains the key?

Thanks for your response in advance. :wink:

There's an article(s) on this already. But a quick example and one I thinks useful is the simple I-IV-V (one, four, five)progression.

Making the chords isn't simple but fortunately both C and G just use the 'standard' chords for a I-IV-V.

The 'key' chord is C or G and just count up the musical alphabet to get 4 and 5.

So play the G-C-D chords (In any order) and G will always 'feel like home' Play the C-F-G chords and C will feel the same.

This lesson covers some of the actual theory. I've given you one of the results of the theory:

https://www.guitarnoise.com/lessons/theory-without-tears/ and here https://www.guitarnoise.com/lessons/five-to-one/

There's an article(s) on this already. But a quick example and one I thinks useful is the simple I-IV-V (one, four, five)progression.

Making the chords isn't simple but fortunately both C and G just use the 'standard' chords for a I-IV-V.

The 'key' chord is C or G and just count up the musical alphabet to get 4 and 5.

So play the G-C-D chords (In any order) and G will always 'feel like home'
Play the C-F-G chords and C will feel the same.

This lesson covers some of the actual theory. I've given you one of the results of the theory:

https://www.guitarnoise.com/lessons/theory-without-tears/
and here https://www.guitarnoise.com/lessons/five-to-one/

Your explanation right here is very good. I get it! Thank you!!!

I'll look at the links as well. :D