The G and C chord formations
 

Hello all,

So lately I have been practicing my open G chord with the fuller sounding four finger formation after having watched a bunch of songs on YouTube that used this formation a lot. I have also been practicing my open C chord with a four fingered formation by placing my ring finger on the low E string third fret and my pinky on the A string third fret. I have watched a few justinguitar videos where he does this on a few Neil Young songs. They sound nice so I am curious as to how many people play these chords rather than or more often than the traditional three finger formations of these chords?

Thanks,
George

Hi !

I use three and four finger voicings depending on what sounds best at a point in the song.

A C with a G bass note adds a flavor that sometimes is exactly what's needed, and other times it will just sound wrong.

I use my index finger to alternate between the five and six strings when playing the C chord.

In either case, I have a 3-fingered basic chord and a fourth finger ready to hop on or off another string to suit the music.

Flexibility is what will add the most variety and flavor to your music.

Hope that helps!

It depends on the song for me. There's really no right or wrong way. It's just whatever sound you're trying to achieve.

For example, when I'm playing Lola by The Kinks, I'll use the four finger C chord.
If you listen to the song, the very first chord in the intro (which is C) has a heavy sound to it. Which sounds like a low G note (on low E string).
Whether or not that's how they played it on the record.... I have no clue... But to me, when I hear it, and try to imitate that original sound. That's the chord I use.

Same thing with Space Oddity by David Bowie. The intro has that heavy C chord. That's because more than likely there's a lower bass note in the chord. (G)

As far as the G chord. Same thing really. Though I tend to pay less attention to the G chord unless there's certain notes being picked.
Aside from that if I'm just strumming away.. three fingers or four, I can hardly tell a difference.

But overall, it's useful to learn and get comfortable with all the different shapes.

Not that you mentioned this or anything, but another useful exercise you can do is, play the G chord with ring finger on low E string, middle finger on A string, and pinky on the high E.
Same notes as the regular three finger G chord, but gives your index finger the ability to play other notes. Like G7, Gsus4... And so on..

Sent from my B3-A20 using Tapatalk

That's a Cadd9 chord and it's my friend...

G to Cadd9 to D, the ring finger stays planted...

There are so many different ways to form the same chord... as you play more songs and learn new songs, you'll discover new chord forms...

Enjoy the ride, and keep cataloging all the ones you learn... rather than thinking of a chord form as "the right way", it may help you to think of learning new shapes for chords as learning new words for your vocabulary... just as there are many wonderful ways to describe a particular event or occurrence, there are many wonderful chord forms to "describe" a particular song or feeling...

Keep developing your chord vocabulary, and have a blast doing it!!!

I use the 4-finger C all the time - the 4-finger G less so.

I play G with fingers 3-2-4 (on strings 6-5-1), so the 4-finger C offers a very economic finger switch between both chords.

-0-
-1- index
-0-
-2- middle
-3- pinky
-3- ring

-3- pinky
-0-
-0-
-0-
-2- middle
-3- ring

... so middle stays in place, index goes off and on, middle moves across one. The only big move is the pinky. And if - on the G - the ring mutes the 5th (the least useful note), middle only has to lift off.

I think the OP was talking about the C played as 3-3-2-0-1-0 (ring on 6th).

Right you are...I shouldn't be reading and commenting without my reading glasses...

BTW, I very often use this shape to play F (with C in the bass) by fretting both the B & E strings with my index finger and moving the the other three fingers over one string: X-3-3-2-1-1

Yes, switching between these two formations is very smooth and easy.