chord question

[J J]

FIRST OF ALL: i dont know if this is a dumb question or not so...

 

i know there are different ways to play chords further on the fretboard, i have been using bar chords.

 

i just want to know a different way to do it.

Show me some finger positions or something.

 

thanks

[Guitarzan]

this should help

http://www.chordbook.com/cb100/vguitar/guitar_chords.htm

[michael saulnier]

That's a cool website. Was it coincidence that right after I went there I got a major "popup" attack on my system.

 

I'm really not trying to scare anyone away, just wondering if it really was a coincidence... cause what was there on the site was very useful.

 

guitplayer

[Ziggy]

Yeah, that's a nice quick reference site. It has been added to my "fav" folder.

 

I have the book Chord Chemistry which is really awesome. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for more information/ideas on chord shapes.

 

On a funny note, has anyone who owns this book noticed some of the stretches that Ted Greene has diagrammed out? I mean, some chords stretch from the 5th fret all the way up to the 12th! Is that humanly possible?

[AlChuck]

On a funny note, has anyone who owns this book noticed some of the stretches that Ted Greene has diagrammed out? I mean, some chords stretch from the 5th fret all the way up to the 12th! Is that humanly possible?

Yeah, if you have giant hands, use your right and left hand, and bend over sometines and fret a note or two with your nose...

 

Seriously, though, I bought that book thirty years ago and found it virtually useless. It's a giant pile of chord diagrams, but there is no guidance at all about how they would be used. You soon discover that you can't just arbitrarily use these chords -- there really needs to be a guiding principle behind how one follows another when you're playing actual music. Just knowing fifteen ways to play an E7 chord doesn't help unless you learn which ones make the most sense to play after that Bbmin7 that precedes it and that sets up that Amaj7 that follows it.

 

You really need to learn a systematic set of chords, like the good old drop-2 and drop-3 voicings. Once you have this in place, it becomes easy to see how to extend the forms, and find other interesting voices that work in context. They also help you see where all the money notes and scale tones are that form the backbone of being able to improvise.

 

There's a ton of books that explain and show this.

[Caevan O’Shite]

Man, this sort of stuff is so much easier to show someone than to type at them!

 

I'll try to slogg through this here, and throw out some raw fingering info that's decidedly weak on theory but potentially strong on practical application...

 

Try sliding some open, non-barre three- and four-note chords up the neck, without playing any open strings.

 

Then, if you think they sound like they need any additional or different notes, find them there in that part of the fretboard where you're playing that chord! All positions will be assimilated, resistance is futile.

 

You can get some great sounding results by playing chords all over the fretboard along with open strings, as well. A lot of possibilities, more than a mere six strings might suggest!

 

Take your favorite barre-chords, and find notes that you can leave out by not picking them. Then, figure out how to leave 'em out by not fingering them! This will often lead to partial-barres and little tricks like slant-barres and fingering two strings with one finger tip.

 

Try finding two notes that sound cool together, whether on strings that are next to each other, or separated by other strings. Slide them around, they can sound cool by themselves. Or, add or substitute other notes like before.

 

Mix'n'match these with those regular ol' barre-chords, and your grab-bag of grips will grow by leaps and bounds!

 

In the mean time, get a good book on these things, and a good teacher. Don't buy that crap about losing style and individuality by taking lessons and understanding theory! That's really just a cop-out.