Chords memorized..

[davidd]

3 chords and you are set to r&r...

[1neeto]

Originally Posted by SongwriterFan

Just one . . . Am



That covers the I (G), IV (C), V (D), IIm (Am), and VIm (Em). That covers just about anything.

Learn F and F#m and Bm barre chords and now you’re armed to play just about any pop or country 4 chord song in G, C, D, or A which are the most popular keys.

Enough to play the songs I play...

[Arthur Slowhand]

Apparently Dylan only knew three chords*... that's more than enough for me.

*Yeah, I know, apocryphal.

[lowrider]

You know what John Prine said;

''Thank God for capos, otherwise all my songs would have the same 3 chords!''

[Rockysdad]

Wait, what ? Memorize, nobody told me there was gonna be a test, I hate tests.

[menhir]

I have no idea of how many chords I know...But I know enough to play all the songs I know how to play, though.

That's how I learn more chords these days...If I come across a chord I don't know, I'll look it up or figure it out and hopefully commit it to memory for future use.
I have a music theory background, so I'm not at a loss knowing what notes belong in a chord, but that knowledge still doesn't always easily transfer to finding the best way to finger that chord so it flows properly.

Another thing: I experiment. That's one of the great things about playing solo guitar. I'll sometimes come up with a chord by serendipity that I think has a really cool sound and just continue to use it. I'm often too lazy to reverse engineer what that chord is really named, so if I end up playing with another musician, I'll have to resort to the "put your fingers on these frets" method if they want to play along.

[Kerbie]

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

Well, there's only so many open chords...

I know how to build chords, what notes are in them, so actually...I'm guitar George. I know all the chords.

That's my philosophy too. I don't "memorize" them. I try to understand how to build them and I guess after playing for most of my life, many of them are no-brainers now.

[Misifus]

This reminds me of a writer I read who touched on learning guitar. He explained that he had learned all 21 chords. “All?”, he explained, there are seven different notes in a scale (he was omitting the octaves) and every note has a sharp and a flat, seven notes, seven sharps, and seven flats, that’s twenty one, isn’t it? I truly didn’t have the heart to disabuse him.

[Glennwillow]

I have most chords that I use regularly memorized but as Jeff Matz commented, it's not all that hard to construct chords on the fretboard just as one would do on a piano keyboard.

I have no idea how many chords I have memorized. A couple hundred or so?

- Glenn

[TBman]

Originally Posted by Arch Stanton

I have only 21 chords fully memorized by heart. A-G major/minor and their 7th chords. How many do you know by heart and do you use them regularly?

Open chords, not barre.

Hmm.

C, Cm, C7 Cmaj7
D, Dm, D7, Dm7
E, Em, E7, Em7
F, Fm, F7, Fmaj7
G, Gm, G7, Gmaj7
A, Am, A7, Am7
B. Bm, B7, Bm7, Bdim7

I'm at 22 right off the top of my head. That diminished chord goes by a few names though. I skipped some of the sharps/flats that are possible as an semi-open chord. (Fminor, C7 for instance)

[foxo]

Sometimes I don’t know the name of the chord I am playing, if it sounds good I will use it. E add9 I only found the name of through looking up a chord analyser after using it in a song. Should really improve my theory knowledge.

[Joe Beamish]

Originally Posted by Arthur Slowhand

Apparently Dylan only knew three chords*... that's more than enough for me.

*Yeah, I know, apocryphal.

Very apocryphal indeed, as indicated, for example, by many of his arrangements on the albums World Gone Wrong and Good As I Been to You.

Clearly he was thinking in terms of chord tones, not shapes, and playing up the neck while also using open strings.

[bufflehead]

Originally Posted by TBman

Hmm.

C, Cm, C7 Cmaj7
D, Dm, D7, Dm7
E, Em, E7, Em7
F, Fm, F7, Fmaj7
G, Gm, G7, Gmaj7
A, Am, A7, Am7
B. Bm, B7, Bm7, Bdim7

I'm at 22 right off the top of my head. That diminished chord goes by a few names though. I skipped some of the sharps/flats that are possible as an semi-open chord. (Fminor, C7 for instance)

I'm looking at Clapton's "Change the World," which I learned last summer, and the chorus contains: F#m7; G#7; C#m; C#m7; E/G#; and G#m. (And only one of those is a power chord.)

That'll change your world.

[DesertTwang]

Three is all I need for bluegrass, LOL.