What Open Chords To Learn?

[Deliberate1]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

H



This is a chart to help organize your thoughts about keys, chords, and their relative minor of each key.

Larry, thank you kindly for providing that very helpful chart. I have printed several copies - one for each guitar case, and one to go under my pillow (what could it hurt?).
David

[phydaux]

"I'm of the opinion that open B doesn't exist, as a chord"

That's what I was thinking, too. I just didn't feel good saying it. I'm glad you did.

I, also, play B7 when the chart calls for B major.


On a side note, I remember Paul McCartney gave an interview once about how one time he, John, and George were still kids at school. They were talking to their friends about playing guitar, and one of the friends mentioned that they knew a kid who lived on the other side of town, and that kid knew how to play a B7 chord. Neither he, John, nor George knew how to play a B7 chord at that time.

So the next day they brought their guitars to school, and after school they hopped on a city bus. They had to change busses twice to get to this kid's neighborhood. Then they had to ask around until they found someone who knew where he lived. They knocked on his door, and asked him to show them how to play a B7 chord.

The next day they all proudly showed off the B7 chord to their mates.

[Silly Moustache]

Originally Posted by OliveCorduroy

Hello All,

So in years past I have posted a few things and admittedly they were often misguided or just plain crazy talk, but I find this interesting in that I am still trying to figure out how to play the guitar; and the journey has made me more indecisive than ever.

I’m trying everything from books to DVDs to Online Corses to YouTube videos and what I am finding is that everyone of them focuses on different things to learn, not so much in the way that they teach or how they approach the learning process, but specifically in the things that they leave out or ignore.

I have some experience so I am not entirely a beginner; I know my open chords and I can make the changes adequately. But in my efforts to get better by trying to find a learning process to follow and stick to, I am finding it difficult to pick one path of learning.

As I have mentioned, they all leave out things. Some courses focus entirely on open major chords while others mix in some open minor chords while excluding all sevenths chords. Some courses mix in the open sevenths chords but exclude the open minor chords. Some courses only focus on I-IV-V chord progressions while others simply stay in one key - specifically the Key of G. Some focus entirely on strumming patterns while others focus entirely on bass note strumming and alternate bass note strumming. They are all different.

So needless to say, all of these variances have left me confused; I have no idea which direction to go in. My hope here is that somebody can comment and help me sort through all of this confusion.

Thanks,
George

Hi George, If you can effect 1st position chords easily, then te "learn some songs" advice is good.

I teach people at various levels and I find that this simple Johnny Cash song is useful to familiarise folks with rhythm, right hand technique, and cord changes with a G,D,D (I-IV-V) progression with one Em (VI) in the chorus.

[YOUTUBE]
Hi George, If you can effect 1st position chords easily, then the "learn some songs" advice is good.

I teach people at various levels and i find that this simple Johnny Cash song is useful to familiarise folks with the G,C,D (I-IV-V) progression with on Em (VI) in the chorus.
It also helps with right hand technique and rhythm consistency.

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by phydaux

"I'm of the opinion that open B doesn't exist, as a chord"

That's what I was thinking, too. I just didn't feel good saying it. I'm glad you did.

I, also, play B7 when the chart calls for B major.


On a side note, I remember Paul McCartney gave an interview once about how one time he, John, and George were still kids at school. They were talking to their friends about playing guitar, and one of the friends mentioned that they knew a kid who lived on the other side of town, and that kid knew how to play a B7 chord. Neither he, John, nor George knew how to play a B7 chord at that time.

So the next day they brought their guitars to school, and after school they hopped on a city bus. They had to change busses twice to get to this kid's neighborhood. Then they had to ask around until they found someone who knew where he lived. They knocked on his door, and asked him to show them how to play a B7 chord.

The next day they all proudly showed off the B7 chord to their mates.

If you play a B power chord, plus the octave, and leave the bottom two strings open you get a nice open chord sound. Its not a B major, but its about as close as a B7th and works better in alot of situations... or you could play an F shaped bare chord up on the 7th fret and leave the bottom two strings open and then you'd have your 3rd and a nice full sounding chord, or just parts of those forms with whatever open strings sound interesting. Start adding 7ths and other dissonant intervals to make things interesting, going to drop D opens up a bunch more positions that you can use...

This is sort of what I'm talking about hybridizing open chords and abbreviated chord forms further up the neck. I'm mostly a solo player, I like sounding as big as possible and I like carrying common notes through my chord progressions, so this kind of thing is a pretty big part of the way I play.

[MC5C]

B major is a totally simple and easy chord to play, for all that we make fun of it sometimes. First finger, play the B note second fret, fifth string. Lay your third finger down across the next three strings (partial barre) at the fourth fret. Like sliding an A chord up two frets. Mute the sixth string and the first string. Play the middle four strings. B major chord, boom. Second or third most common rock and roll chord shape, after power chords and the good old F barre chords shape.

[Robin, Wales]

Originally Posted by MC5C

B major is a totally simple and easy chord to play, for all that we make fun of it sometimes. First finger, play the B note second fret, fifth string. Lay your third finger down across the next three strings (partial barre) at the fourth fret. Like sliding an A chord up two frets. Mute the sixth string and the first string. Play the middle four strings. B major chord, boom. Second or third most common rock and roll chord shape, after power chords and the good old F barre chords shape.

Ahhh....

But then you have to find an F# maj, G maj, C# min and G# min to follow someone singing a song in B maj.

Soooo much easier to put a capo on fret 4 and bang away in your G shape cowboy chords, taking advantage of all those lovely bluegrass licks, fills and bass runs.

[OliveCorduroy]

Hello All,

So a handful of you suggested that I take a look at the Bluegrass Fakebook; so I ordered it the other day and I received it yesterday. Ironically, it is by Bert Casey who is also the author of an acoustic guitar book that I already own, and with another one by him that has been back ordered for me. I look forward to receiving that book.

I think this book will be very helpful to me as a way to improve my skills by learning songs and where my focus should be as it pertains to chords by learning songs. Many of the songs are in the Key of G; I am very comfortable with these chords, so learning some of these songs won’t be discouraging when when I stumble.

Additionally, the book also contains the melodies for the songs. I can read basic music notation and I can play one or two simple exercises on the first two strings so expanding to a couple of more strings by learning some actual songs is very exciting and can only improve my skills even further.

So, thank you all for your recommendation.

George

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by rstaight

I do understand how to use a capo. I just don't really care for them even though I own a couple.

I think the next time I hear "Key of B" I will try to go back to my electric days and use mainly bar chords and see how that works. Not really sure of the voicing.

But I really do need to work on open B.

There is no "open B".

That is, the key of B major can be played without a capo - and the IV chord (E) has a standard open position shape - but otherwise you'll be using barre chords. IOW, there is no "open B chord shape".

The reason for choosing a capo would be to play various typical country/bluegrass patterns and licks, because that's going to be a whole lot easier with capo on 4 and G shapes. Capo on 2 and A shapes might be an alternative.

Of course, if you are just strumming, then barre chords are fine, especially if you want fret-muted affects.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by MC5C

B major is a totally simple and easy chord to play, for all that we make fun of it sometimes. First finger, play the B note second fret, fifth string. Lay your third finger down across the next three strings (partial barre) at the fourth fret. Like sliding an A chord up two frets. Mute the sixth string and the first string. Play the middle four strings. B major chord, boom.

Yes - provided you can manage that double barre. And mute the other two. For me "sliding an A chord up two frets" means using fingers 2-3-4 together on that fret. (Yes I do find that easier than the double barre.) I might then barre the whole of fret 2, but I can also manage to fret just the 5th with my index, while its tip mutes the 6th and its underside mutes the 1st string.

IOW, there are many ways to fret that B shape in 2nd position, but I wouldn't call any of them "totally simple and easy".

The easiest B major shape is probably the 7th fret "E shape" barre, but I also fine a 4th position G shape not too hard: 7-6-4-4-4-7, or 7-x-4-4-4-7. Or 7-x-4-4-4-x, with pinky on 6th string, index barre muting the 1st (leaving middle and ring for embellishments on the middle strings). I actually find all those easier than the double barre on 2.

YMMV, obviously. Just throwing in these alternatives!