[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Fatfinger McGee

…I'm discovering, is that I can't sing in chords.

Hi Ff
I hear you. You could sing arpeggios, but that's not quite the same.

I 'think' chords in my head, and chord voicings, and inversions etc. I can think in different keys in my head…key of G versus Key of E or D etc.

In fact when I'm thinking about capoing to stager my chord voicings from the open key being played, I often think about which 'chord-voices' I want to use. Keys of C/Am, A/F#m, G/Em, E/C#m, D/Bm (Major and associated minor key) each have very unique sounding open-chord-voicings.

One of the exercises I used with students (when I taught) was having them listen to me with their eyes closed and tell me what chords I was playing. I'd play a progression in a key and it was surprising how readily they could identify chords in the first 5 frets right away. This ability really opens up the 'conversation' you were talking about.

They soon learned to recognize chords by the voicings, and they could then recognize the keys guitarists were playing on audio recordings.

Now with YouTube we can watch people and read their hands.

Hope this helps…