God forbid...it's a question about guitar chords....

[TheGreek]

I've been learning to play guitar - so much easier than learning to play bass - and I found a chord by mistake - basically an A bar chord played on the 4 highest string (DGBE) - sounds jazzy and cool. 

 

Does anybody know what chord this is??

[Mykesbass]

A6

[EliasMooseblaster]

So, just to clarify - are you playing the standard "open position" A chord shape? If so, @Mykesbass is spot on (and it is a nice chord!) Or have you shifted everything up one string, so you have the open D string, and are on the 2nd fret for the G, B and E? If so, you have DMaj7, which is also very pleasant.

[TheGreek]

Found it.

 

It's a maj7 played as a bar chord - sounds really cool - why isn't it used more?

 

 

Edited February 23 by TheGreek

[Paolo85]

Well, it is used quite a bit in jazz

 

Plenty of maj7 here!

 

Enjoy the guitar! 

 

Edited February 23 by Paolo85

[Paolo85]

...btw, I thought guitar was easier, at least easier on the hand, for the first few weeks. Then I started seeing stuff like this ...and then all that bending... 😱

[knirirr]

17 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

 

 

That middle one could also be a rootless Em9 with the b3 at the bottom, IIRC. A favourite of mine.
There's lots of fun to be had with jazz chords!

[Cato]

You see that shape in funk music quite a lot.

 

Try barring just the G B and E strings at the 7th fret then move to 6 on the G and bar the 5th on the B and E.

 

Repeat.

 

That's a fairly common sequence.

Edited February 23 by Cato

[toneknob]

hope this helps

[toneknob]

Or just do what Bob Fripp does and pop one finger on the F on the low E string, pinky at the 7th fret without breaking a sweat. I'm sure the two middle fingers could be persuaded to do something useful if needed

[MartinB]

 

A handy tool: https://www.oolimo.com/en/guitar-chords/analyze

[oldslapper]

1 hour ago, TheGreek said:

I've been learning to play guitar - 

[lozkerr]

2 hours ago, oldslapper said:

So have I 

[SH73]

Ok , you need a tuner, wah pedal, volume pedal, tube screamer, distortion, equaliser, then flanger, phaser,chorus, digital delay, reverb and noise supressor. Plug this end into a Marshall at least 100 w and you're good to go. This is what i do, power chords.

Edited February 23 by SH73
.

[HMX]

I’m currently learning to play too - and enjoying it for the most part! Got most of the basic open chords down but it takes me about a minute to switch between them 😅

 

It is nice to try barring in lots of positions and finding magical 7 chords. I’m a big fan of arpeggios with the 9th added. The Police guitarist uses this quite a bit, and it doesn’t feel like much of a finger stretch when coming from playing bass for years. Good luck with your journey!

Edited February 23 by HMX

[itu]

Dear @TheGreek, here's a sheet to different chord voices. Few things need to be corrected, I printed this with a matrix printer around 25 years, no, sorry, 35 years ago:

v = diminished

d = major

y = augmented

 

[Crusoe]

15 hours ago, lozkerr said:

So have I 

I'm Guitarticus and so's my wife

[Nicko]

21 hours ago, TheGreek said:

Found it.

 

It's a maj7 played as a bar chord - sounds really cool - why isn't it used more?

 

 

I play a lot of inversions.  Bmin is B, F#, D and the notes you are playing notes are D, D, F#, B so it would be a great substitution for a standard Bmin creating a bit more interest and tension.

 

I don't do jazz.

[SteveK]

It is pretty easy to get a basic understanding of chord theory: How chords are constructed; How chord sequences work; terminology etc. With (free) websites dedicated to this stuff, It's so easy to get the info these days... not like in my day😉, and it can be great fun, especially when you get the, "Aaah, now I get it!" moments, when the penny drops.

[Nicko]

Some would argue that bass players should already have an intimate knowledge of chord theory.  Unless you are playing root notes how else do you know what fits?

[BigRedX]

59 minutes ago, Nicko said:

Some would argue that bass players should already have an intimate knowledge of chord theory.  Unless you are playing root notes how else do you know what fits?

 

By using your ears?

 

Technically any note from the key you are playing in will fit, and technically any of the notes being played in the chord should be a better fit, but none of them will necessarily be the best fitting one. The best note to be playing at any one moment in a piece of music will depend on a number of things, and at least one of those things is entirely subjective (i.e. taste). It will also depend on what all the other instruments are playing at a given moment. What all the instruments were playing previously and what they will be playing next, how long the note you are playing lasts for, and even the genre of the music you are playing.

[paul_c2]

21 hours ago, TheGreek said:

Found it.

 

It's a maj7 played as a bar chord - sounds really cool - why isn't it used more?

 

 

 

The top one, ISN'T how you originally described it (a bar chord of the top 4 strings). Obvs the position on the D string is different. Thus its a different chord.

 

A "bar" on the top 4 strings would be the notes (let's say the bar is at fret 2): E A C# F#, which is A6 (but the root isn't at the bottom of the chord, so you could describe it as A6/E if you wanted to....but with guitars, I bet someone else is playing the root.....)

 

Chords aren't massively complicated on a guitar: There's 2 shapes, the "E" shape and the "G" shape. A and D open chords are the same as E but shifted down a string or two; C open chord is the same as G shifted down a string. Then there's variations on stuff, ie minor/major, adding 7th, 9th, #9, etc. Then there's playing just the top 3 or 4 strings, or the bottom 3 or 4, etc 

 

[paul_c2]

3 hours ago, Nicko said:

Some would argue that bass players should already have an intimate knowledge of chord theory.  Unless you are playing root notes how else do you know what fits?

 

By reading what's written? By playing the riff/line you learnt by ear?

 

There seems to be a (reasonable) assumption that bass players are also those who invent the bass line to play; which only fits certain genres of music and will clash horribly in others.

[steantval]

On 23/02/2024 at 14:48, Mykesbass said:

A6

That’s the road between Leicester and Loughborough.

[Mykesbass]

3 minutes ago, steantval said:

That’s the road between Leicester and Loughborough.

Well at least it's a major road.