Post by ashcatlt on Mar 26, 2010 17:32:59 GMT -5
With all the talk about triads and inversions of chords over in ozboomer's thread, I got to thinking. I do this kind of thing a lot. In fact, a large part of what I do involves taking things that other people might play on one guitar and splitting it out to several different tracks - each playing just 2 or 3 strings at a time. Part of this is because I just can't play the more intricate types of things that others do. Part also is that it allows me to apply different effects to different sets of strings, among other mix tricks.
I have no idea how to teach what I do, especially over the internet, but I guess it really just takes repetition and practice anyway. So I thought maybe I'd throw out some examples. The idea here is that I'll diagram the chord shapes I use for a few songs, and challenge you to name the chords. I'm not going to tell you what songs they are, so you can't cheat. You can get extra credit for guessing the song.
So let's start with a relatively simple one. It's a popular song by the Cure. When I'm playing this in a band with another guitarist, I usually play the verse chords on just the lowest two strings. Here, though, I've expanded it to cover the lowest 3 (EAD). They are not all technically triads, but...It goes like this:
5-7-7, 7-7-5, 7-5-4, 5-5-7
You may notice that the 2 string version requires very little finger movement. That's how come I like it.
Now here's one that's a little more complex. A Circadian Nations original where I play 3 note chords on the highest strings (GBE). While it goes back and forth a bit, here's the chords in the approximate order in which they appear:
2-3-1, 2-1-1, 4-3-3, 5-6-5, 0-0-0, 6-5-5, 8-7-7
Another CN original (GBE):
5-5-3, 4-3-3, 5-6-5, 9-8-8, 7-8-7, 5-5-5
Here's a U2 song. For the basic verse part, I play something similar to this:
0-3-3, 0-1-0, 4-3-3, 5-5-3, 7-8-7, 9-8-8, 12-12-10
Now for something a little more complex here's some songs by the Band which include 7th chords. It should be obvious that I have to drop at least one note from these in order to play them on 3 strings.
This one is in the 5th position on the low-middle strings (ADG). Again, the chords in the approximate order in which they occur:
7-5-5, 7-6-7, 7-5-6, 5-7-5, 8-7-5, 5-5-7, 8-5-7
There's another in basically the same position, with mostly the same chords, but it also includes (in no particular order):
7-7-5, 5-7-7, 3-3-5, 7-7-6, and a curveball: 8-7-7 (good luck with that)
I hope this helps or at least amuses somebody. If you squint just a little bit at these, you'll notice that at least most of them are just pieces of barre chords, and that - I think - is the big trick. Most of the various inversions of the basic triads exist in at least one of the open chords. If you can locate the barred versions of these, you can find a 3 note chord for just about any chord in any position and any set of strings.
I encourage others to throw some similar things out here as well, especially since I haven't got anything here limited on the DGB set.
I have no idea how to teach what I do, especially over the internet, but I guess it really just takes repetition and practice anyway. So I thought maybe I'd throw out some examples. The idea here is that I'll diagram the chord shapes I use for a few songs, and challenge you to name the chords. I'm not going to tell you what songs they are, so you can't cheat. You can get extra credit for guessing the song.
So let's start with a relatively simple one. It's a popular song by the Cure. When I'm playing this in a band with another guitarist, I usually play the verse chords on just the lowest two strings. Here, though, I've expanded it to cover the lowest 3 (EAD). They are not all technically triads, but...It goes like this:
5-7-7, 7-7-5, 7-5-4, 5-5-7
You may notice that the 2 string version requires very little finger movement. That's how come I like it.
Now here's one that's a little more complex. A Circadian Nations original where I play 3 note chords on the highest strings (GBE). While it goes back and forth a bit, here's the chords in the approximate order in which they appear:
2-3-1, 2-1-1, 4-3-3, 5-6-5, 0-0-0, 6-5-5, 8-7-7
Another CN original (GBE):
5-5-3, 4-3-3, 5-6-5, 9-8-8, 7-8-7, 5-5-5
Here's a U2 song. For the basic verse part, I play something similar to this:
0-3-3, 0-1-0, 4-3-3, 5-5-3, 7-8-7, 9-8-8, 12-12-10
Now for something a little more complex here's some songs by the Band which include 7th chords. It should be obvious that I have to drop at least one note from these in order to play them on 3 strings.
This one is in the 5th position on the low-middle strings (ADG). Again, the chords in the approximate order in which they occur:
7-5-5, 7-6-7, 7-5-6, 5-7-5, 8-7-5, 5-5-7, 8-5-7
There's another in basically the same position, with mostly the same chords, but it also includes (in no particular order):
7-7-5, 5-7-7, 3-3-5, 7-7-6, and a curveball: 8-7-7 (good luck with that)
I hope this helps or at least amuses somebody. If you squint just a little bit at these, you'll notice that at least most of them are just pieces of barre chords, and that - I think - is the big trick. Most of the various inversions of the basic triads exist in at least one of the open chords. If you can locate the barred versions of these, you can find a 3 note chord for just about any chord in any position and any set of strings.
I encourage others to throw some similar things out here as well, especially since I haven't got anything here limited on the DGB set.
