instructional book / dvd for chord variations

[Starter]

Hi,

I've been watching this very helpful video clip on how to play "If This is Goodbye" by Mark Knopfler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plokcGFH-5c

And it's fascinating how what I guess are alternative voicings to standard chords (like D7) make such a huge difference. But this lesson is over my head at this point: I'll keep watching, and it's slowly starting to sink in, but I would love some more basic help, both in understanding what teacher Pavel is doing here, and what Mark Knopfler was doing in the first place. I have the useful book "Incredible chord finder", but wonder if there's a good place where someone talks you through a process like this.

Many thanks (and thank you Pavel and Mark)

will

[zmf]

Will -- Think I see what you mean. It's a good lesson, but advanced in that he's not explaining WHY those fingering work, or maybe more accurately, what root chords they're based on.

Nothing comes to mind on who provides lessons that are that explicit -- I'm sure others on the forum have good suggestions.

I'm tempted to suggest that you look at the CAGED method for getting a feel on how chords are transposed up the neck. Very good for understanding scales/chords over the entire fretboard, but it takes some dedication.

[TheJackal]

That's a good find on playing a lovely song. My first suggestion is to minimize the notes that you play. Rather than play the full chord, give hints of the chord and let the words and melody carry the song. When you think you have sufficiently few notes, play a few less than that.

I just pulled my chart on this and the basic chord structure is D G D A D G D A G D on the verses and A D A D A D A on the chorus.

This song is great for drop D tuning with lots of space in the chords for open strings.

Guitar tuned to DADGBE (drop D).

You can play most of the song fretting only two strings, 2 and 4. (You'll have to fret three for the G, (four on the G if you play the bass note on the dropped D string using your little finger.)

I fret the D chord (very light strumming or finger style) as 0 X 4 0 3 0. The open G and E strings "flavor" the D nicely (There's some name for the resulting chord. I don't worry about the name so much.)

The D chord is a C form moved up two frets using only the first two fingers.

I fret the A as X 0 2 0 2 0 (Yeah, I know that's A7, it fits. Again very light strumming or finger style)

The D and A chords are fretted with two fingers only.

I fret the G as 5 X X 4 3 3 or 5 X 0 4 3 3 You can leave off the bass string and play X X 0 4 3 3 if using your little finger is not yet in your bag of tricks.

Keep things minimal and let the song do the work. And play music and have fun.

Hope this helps.

[frankmcr]

You might check out the "Guitar Grimoire" book on chord voicings:

https://www.carlfischer.com/shop/gui...-chords-v.html

[Fred]

Maybe this answer is too simple...I suggest learning various chord positions up the neck, then testing them out to see which ones fit best for a particular song and mood.

[JerrysGuitarBar]

Fred Sokolow's Fretboard Roadmaps is good for understanding different ways to fret the same chord up and down the neck.