Is there a term for the tendency for some players to, usually when strumming cowboy chords, to insert a strum of open strings when changing chords?
But how many open strings/pitches do you even have in common between, say, E major and A major?
I do this a lot when I’m noodling but I never considered that there might be a name for it. Googling a bit, my favorite is the “Phantom E”.
If you strum the open strings in standard tuning, you’ll get a G6 chord. Or maybe a G6/9. So that will sound ok in some instances, but not all.
Wait, you said “some players” do this? Like more than one. Any examples? YouTube links?
I am now officially intrigued. As a guitarist (amateur “our band played one gig” level), every finger on the fretboard is to avoid open strings.
Unless you’ve re-tuned the guitar to “open tuning” where it makes a chord, strumming open strings sounds like a kid walking by and just running their hand over the guitar.
It does not sound good. I just searched some sheet music/tablature, and couldn’t find a single instance of “Here, just take your fingers off and strum every string”.
If you saw someone doing that, I’m betting it’s just a personal quirk (or the ‘guitar guy’ just isn’t quick enough to change chords normally). Like some, y’know, dude who inserts words that are like y’know meaningless and they like put those y’know words between the other words. Like, y’know?..
I thought the OP was referring to something like this, which isn’t necessarily ringing out all the open strings loudly….
I think Maserschmidt has it above.
Previously this had me thinking about “percussive palm muting”:
Ani DiFranco is a big fan of this technique.
That’s exactly what I was talking about. Thanks!