A,D,G,E,Am,Em, chords of the first three frets, played out, no use

[jox51]

Originally Posted by RL82

To the thread-starter:

I just started playing the guitar about a year ago and even I find your statement horribly disconcerting. I'm am an English/Journalism major at college right now, and I rearranged your post to what it would sound like to a writer:

"I dont know about yall but I need to learn more words starting from the fourth grade level and up. These words of the third grade level below are making me sick. They should be retired, it was nice knowing all of yall but yall need to go. I cant find my self to use them, it doesnt matter what order you put those words in because someone already wrote story in that sequence."

If we're transposing your statement from guitar playing to writing, then A, D, G, E, Am, Em become A (indefinite article), some, the, this, these, and those--more or less representing the basic essentials one needs to know and understand in order to be proficient at both.

See how ridiculous that sounds? There are 10 numbers in the decimal system and from them, we can derive an infinite amount of numbers. Granted it's a little different from guitar chords, but the general point I'm trying to make is that from a finite amount of one thing, the derivatives (in this case songs, melodies, arrangements) are endless. I learned two songs this past week with the same EXACT chord progressions, only different timing and strumming patterns and they sounds nothing alike to me. Besides, there are far more chords in the first 5 frets than basic majors and minors (THINK: augmenteds, diminisheds, 7ths, add9's etcetera).

whatever

[thisisbrianly]

Theres MUCH more to playing guitar than simply what fret you fret your chords at. Personally I play most of my songs within the first position, but like someone posted earlier, throwing in hammer ons, pull offs, strums/double-strums, muting, tapping, bends, vibrato you can do some pretty trippy sounding stuff. In my mind, a lot cooler then just simply playing a chord up the neck.

Ever heard of Shane Barnard? He plays almost solely in the first position, but throws in some very neat sturmming patterns that'll make your head turn.

Like RL82 said, when someone sits down and picks up a guitar for the first time, do you teach them a bar-chord up the neck? I think G/C/D/C is more suitable.

You gotta start somewhere right?

[jam]

Originally Posted by jox51

Starting to get into blues....

Pick up the May 2005 issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine and turn to page 84. There's an article called "Blues Chords Up the Neck" that has discussion, chord charts, tabs, examples, and a couple songs. There's even a URL to the website where you can hear all the pieces.

--jam

[dthumb]

Somewhere in here I told a story about a guy a met who plated ONLY five or six chords "cause the other ones were hard on his fingers and ...besides, these do just fine for me"..he could play those chords in so many ways , with so many nuances that they never sounded the same and, for that reason, never "got old".
Now, thats what I call musicianship!

[Bill Cory]

Try working way up the neck ( frets 5, 7, 9, 12, 13, etc.) and using only two fingers on two strings -- and sometimes three fingers on three strings -- but strumming the whole set of six. You can find some excellent chord voicings and have a lot of fun.

[Bob Womack]

Over the last few years I've been working heavily on using various neck positions to allow inversions and open chord voicings which are out of the ordinary. When you mix standard forms with these inversions, you can sometimes both play more completely to the harmonic needs of the song and create some interesting textures. Of course, you can work your buns off doing this, and I regularly do.

As an example, when playing in E, you'll find that A can be done in the usual first position form (one of my least favorite voicings) or can be accomplished by zipping up to the fifth fret for the barred-E form A. For an interesting switch, you can also play the fifth fret barre A with the high-E and B open. When you go to the B at the seventh fret, the same open form of the barre with the high-E and B open, allow you to easily selectively strum or pick to get the B or BSus chords.

Here is an interesting passing tone possibility to use when going from E to A to B. When leaving A to go to B, you can begin with an A2 in first position and slide the G-string, second fret A to first fret G# for a simulated drop to the E chord with the A still in the bass. When you go from E to A2 and flat the G-string A, as described above, in passing to a seventh-fret open Bsus, the whole chord structure suddenly is much richer.

You'd be amazed how lush your chording can become if you learn to integrate voicings like these.

Bob

[GearJunky]

Originally Posted by jox51

It just feel as if these chords have been used and abused. Im not saying you cant write music with them is just that if you do, it will feel as if your writing another song that was written in the past sometime.

Right on! Now, I'm not agreeing with you, but I've felt the same way, trying to write songs. For me (and I'm not discussing anyone here, but myself) I attribute this to lack of talent in this area. I know a song-writer (young guy), whose songs I love and his chords are nothing special usually, although he does sometimes throw in jazzy stuff in his arrangements.

But most of my all-time favorite songs are in simple chords. That's the very essence of true original tunes vs. uninspired "singing over chords". To me the best songs are those that can be played w/o the band with just an acoustic guitar and make the same impact (not a rule, but a trend and I mostly mean rock/pop type, no classical, spanish etc.).

I think the tune should be so catchy that nobody pays attention to the guitar, it's just accompaniment.

IMHO learning new chord voicings of the same major/minor chords with CAGED will greatly improve music/fretboard knowledge, but will not make your tunes (vocal part) sound any better. (but granted, it might inspire you to write a better tune, which will then sound good even on simple chords).

But learning more complex chords IMHO certainly will. Doesn't have to be jazz, I'd say, but some good old "suspended" chords as well as diminished, 7ths, 6ths etc.

My friend, the song-writer, who doesn't know the names of most chords he uses and doesn't "know" theory (I'd say he doesn't know he knows it, but he feels it), well, he once said: "sometimes learning 1 new chord can inspire a whole bunch of new songs".

I too found that a song with all the simple chords and 1 more complex chord has a very nice feel.

Ok, long posts like this should be forbidden

[Bern]

I kind of jump in late here (it started before my time), but this is a very important subject not only for the guitar. As we all know, chords give us the harmonic foundation for a composition. Chords by themselves give us also the 'canvas' which we draw our melodic ideas on. That said, the overall sound picture relies on thoughtful chordal transition. Abrupt changes will interupt the listerner attention and, therfore, eliminate the flow of music. It'll take a little work to learn and accomplish this, but it's well worth to be studied.

[mapletrees]

Originally Posted by Thumper

No, no... he's right. Those chords are over. I would quit now, but I paid too much for my guitars. Guess I'll just have to torture everyone with those lame old chords.

Actually, all twelve traditional notes are over, and I hereby demand everyone have their guitar refretted for quartersteps.



Wade

http://www.organicdesign.org/peterso...ars/index.html

[astrummer]

Wow! Just in time for Christmas.....