chord question

[jefleppard]

love chords even if i didn't know their names. i've always loved this one 075070. i think i came across it learning the cars' song 'all mixed up' long ago. i often move chord patterns around to see how they sound (read: missed fret completely)when i moved this one up to the 10th so it looked like this:

0-10-8-0-8-0. what would you call it? i mean...er..what would its proper name be? it kinda seems like Edim add4 but as a g-root what is it?

[BigKahune]

Yeah, that second one is like a E dim - E G A#.

 

The first one is a different form and E F# G, not sure on that one.

[L5Larry]

The notes you are fingering in your first example is a m9 pattern. The 5th string being the root, the 4th string being the minor (b3rd), and the 2nd string is the 9th. Move it anywhere you like and the 5th string note is your root (Rm9).

 

So the first one is an Em9.

 

As stated above, the second pattern could be called a E dim (or a g dim, or a Bb dim). As a "G" root chord it could also be called a Gm6, for the fingering contains no 5th or b5, which is the only difference between a G dim and a Gm6. To me the b5/b7 together kind of define the diminished chord, so without the b5 I would tend to call it a m6.

 

Edit: The above has been edited for accuracy, I misread the original post and previously posted some WRONG info, sorry.

[E-minor7]

I hear two serious, somewhat gloomy chords - could never tell you the names. . .

[jefleppard]

I hear two serious, somewhat gloomy chords - could never tell you the names. . .

 

that's me!

[jefleppard]

thanks larry and bk. i like the chord game. it gets me thinking.

[bkharmony]

I was a "properly trained" music major (not in guitar), so it bothered me to play chords that didn't have a proper name. I've gotten over it, mostly out of necessity and the realization I'm never going to figure this thing out, so I may as well just play what I like.

[L5Larry]

I was a "properly trained" music major (not in guitar), so it bothered me to play chords that didn't have a proper name.

 

You can put a "proper" name to ANY grouping notes played as a chord, although it may be a VERY long symbol, and only understandable to someone with a PhD.

 

But....... The only reason to have to do this is written music. As guitar players, most or our communication is with other musicians in the same room. Many of us have also developed our own form of shorthand and notation for our own memory aids, but it is usually not decipherable to other musicians, especially those who do have formal training, so we go through the process of saying "well you put this finger here, and that finger there", or "this chord had these notes".

 

I played chords for thirty years that I didn't know the names of, and until I decided I wanted to be a jazz guitarist when I grew up, I had no need. I then had to cram 30 years of neglect of chart reading and chord names into about a year of independent study (wood shedding in the basement). Because I had been a Rock & Roll guitar player, and way TOO COOL to have formally studied music.

 

The other side to the double edged sword is that communication of proper chord names and formal musical terminology, whether written or verbal, only works if the person your communicating with understands what your saying. Otherwise you just look like a pompous *** trying to "impress" people with your vast and superior musical knowledge.

 

All this is to say that whatever works for you in your specific situation is just fine. As long as you continue to improve and increase (or maintain) your interest in guitar playing, in most cases that's all that's important. For me, the learning of chord names, voicings, substitutions, chart reading and the like, was enlightening and allowed me to take myself to the "next level" and do something I had wanted to do for years, play big band jazz. For my wife, as a teenager, all the technical study and formal training (on piano) made her QUIT.

[albertjohn]

love chords even if i didn't know their names. i've always loved this one 075070. i think i came across it learning the cars' song 'all mixed up' long ago. i often move chord patterns around to see how they sound (read: missed fret completely)when i moved this one up to the 10th so it looked like this:

0-10-8-0-8-0. what would you call it? i mean...er..what would its proper name be? it kinda seems like Edim add4 but as a g-root what is it?

 

Too lazy to learn the proper names, but find it easier to remember them by associating certain chords/shapes with people. e.g.

 

079900 Dave Grohl E

200230 Pete Townshend D9, therefore

075070 Cunkhead E

[jefleppard]

Too lazy to learn the proper names, but find it easier to remember them by associating certain chords/shapes with people. e.g.

 

079900 Dave Grohl E

200230 Pete Townshend D9, therefore

075070 Cunkhead E

 

Em9 - cant say im famous, at least i can say imfamous.

[jefleppard]

AJ - try this chord, let it ring and slide it down to this one - 032030 - and let it ring. nice effect.

[bkharmony]

For my wife, as a teenager, all the technical study and formal training (on piano) made her QUIT.

 

Yeah, all the formal stuff, plus the hours of practice and stress, with zero playing for fun made me lay down the trumpet.

[Hall]

I hear two serious, somewhat gloomy chords - could never tell you the names. . .

 

Gloomy, yes. Then one can't get any sadder than a plain old, Dm.

 

 

 

Steve

[Hall]

I played chords for thirty years that I didn't know the names of, and until I decided I wanted to be a jazz guitarist when I grew up, I had no need. I then had to cram 30 years of neglect of chart reading and chord names into about a year of independent study (wood shedding in the basement). Because I had been a Rock & Roll guitar player, and way TOO COOL to have formally studied music.

 

 

 

L5Larry,

 

I am right now, where you were. I have a piano, guitars out my ears and, 'music senior citizenship', if not maturity. My formal training was brief and long ago. I've stopped doing a lot of public guitar playing and now would like to sit down at home with my guitar or at the piano, actual sheet music before me and understand what I am looking at and playing with true comprehension. I am having a heck of a time doing so without a teacher's hand on my shoulder. I have to start all over really, and that is tough to secure the self discipline to do without the familiar formal toned instructor's voice close at hand. I hear music completely different than I once did. I've been watching too many of those darn 50ies musicals and trying to learn to truly sing. Thus, comes notes and from that the need to read. Gonna have to pay.

 

 

Steve

[L5Larry]

tough to secure the self discipline to do without the familiar formal toned instructor's voice close at hand. Gonna have to pay.

 

I don't know where you live, but you should check your local colleges and universities. Many of them offer beginning and intermediate level music classes as "adult education" classes at very reasonable cost.

 

You not only get instruction from career "educators" in a formal classroom type setting, you get the added benefit of the social and study network of the fellow "students".

[jefleppard]

funny (to me, anyway, which means nothing..) but i came across a song that opened with these two very chords. the carpenter's superstar:

"long ago....and so very far away"

Em9 Cadd2

[L5Larry]

the carpenter's superstar:

 

Not to hijack, just a note from the musical fun facts department.

 

"Superstar" was written by Leon Russell and Bonnie Bramlett.

[sjl200]

Heres a web site that caters to the "chord Doctor" in all of us

 

Jguitar

Try the chord namer or any of the 'tools' on the list to the left on the home page.

 

[jefleppard]

Not to hijack, just a note from the musical fun facts department.

 

"Superstar" was written by Leon Russell and Bonnie Bramlett.

 

interesting and kind of surprising based on leon's usual style.

[L5Larry]

interesting and kind of surprising based on leon's usual style.

 

Leon also wrote the song that George Benson made so famous off the "Breezin" album, "This Masquerade".

 

Back to "Superstar", the co-writer, Bonnie Bramlett, is the Bonnie from "Delaney and Bonnie" and "Roseanne" (TV) fame.

 

OK, now back to our regularly scheduled program, CHORDS.