# Can someone explain musical chords to me? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 18, 2015, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-musical-chords-to-me/717988 "2015-04-18T14:04:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2015, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-musical-chords-to-me/717988/41 "2015-04-20T18:58:15Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > \*\*“but you rarely play an open string” \*\*— what? That’s not true. Open strings are much louder than fingered strings, so mostly, to get a consistent sound, you would play the E on the A string to keep it from sounding too much different from the other stopped notes. Sometimes you might want the unstopped sound for expressiveness, but I was told that open strings are mostly frowned upon. > [@](#): > > “so the “last stop” is where you play note for the next string.” \*\*— I don’t quite understand what you mean … Well, I did not get very far, just a few years, but in the early part, they teach you the four finger placements. Obviously, you can go further down the string, I think you can play into the E string on the D string, but initially, they kind of teach the fourth finger as the last stop. > [@](#): > > \*\*“the violin forces you to stop strings in different places to get a decent chord playing two strings at once.” \*\*— there are plenty of guitar chords that require you to stop strings in different places. In fact only two common open chord shapes—A major and E minor—are stopping strings all on the same fret. Once you get beyond open chords, everything is barred, so you’re never just stopping strings at the same fret. I just meant that a guitar can play a nice chord just by strumming the open strings, a violin does not have very pleasing harmonics like that. I got to some music where it called for playing two strings at the same time (bowed), never really got the hang of that. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2015, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-musical-chords-to-me/717988/42 "2015-04-20T19:03:40Z")
Ok, and I’m back to suggest that although anyone is free to call any note or group of notes a chord, if you want to have anything like a more in-depth conversation about music, theory, etc., you might want to limit your use of the word, chord, to things that have at least three notes and that are employed in a tonal system in some functional way. Strumming two strings on a violin can certainly imply functional harmony, but most people would have a hard time calling any two notes a chord, particularly since any two notes can be part of many, many chords - in the same way that two points don’t necessarily make a circle, but three do. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2015, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-musical-chords-to-me/717988/43 "2015-04-20T19:15:20Z")
> [@CC](#): > > Ok, and I’m back to suggest that although anyone is free to call any note or group of notes a chord, if you want to have anything like a more in-depth conversation about music, theory, etc., you might want to limit your use of the word, chord, to things that have at least three notes and that are employed in a tonal system in some functional way. Strumming two strings on a violin can certainly imply functional harmony, but most people would have a hard time calling any two notes a chord, particularly since any two notes can be part of many, many chords - in the same way that two points don’t necessarily make a circle, but three do. Sure, it’s all contextual. But even three (or more) notes can be parts of many different chords, depending on how they’re used. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2015, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-musical-chords-to-me/717988/44 "2015-04-20T19:26:09Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > but I was told that open strings are mostly frowned upon. This is not true as a general statement for playing violin or fiddle. It might just be one of those things you tell beginners to encourage proper skill development. Well, I did not get very far, just a few years, but in the early part, they teach you the four finger placements. Obviously, you can go further down the string, I think you can play into the E string on the D string, but initially, they kind of teach the fourth finger as the last stop. [/quote] This is just for teaching absolute beginners. Once you are playing, you don’t think of the fifth interval as the “last stop” at all. > [@](#): > > I just meant that a guitar can play a nice chord just by strumming the open strings All six strings? Strumming all six open strings on a guitar doesn’t give you a chords that’s commonly used, and that’s because it’s widely perceived as not sounding very good. And I still don’t get the point. The violin is played very differently than the guitar. Indeed, you can really only play two strings at a time (double stop). You can’t play real chords on a violin. And even if you could, I don’t see the significance of whether you could or could not play all open strings. ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2015, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-musical-chords-to-me/717988/45 "2015-04-20T19:46:26Z")
A mandolin is tuned to the same pitches as a violin - guitar-like open position chords can be played on it which sound fine. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2015, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-musical-chords-to-me/717988/46 "2015-04-20T19:49:40Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > I just meant that a guitar can play a nice chord just by strumming the open strings That’s true only if it’s tuned to some form of “open tuning.” Standard tuning on a guitar is E-A-D-G-B-E, which doesn’t form what would usually be described as a “nice chord,” but can be called an Em7add11 (among other things) if you want to put a name to it and assume E as the root. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2015, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-musical-chords-to-me/717988/47 "2015-04-21T01:37:36Z")
It’s my understanding that one almost never plays an open string on a violin, but that it’s quite common to do so on a fiddle. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2015, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-musical-chords-to-me/717988/48 "2015-04-21T01:53:22Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > It’s my understanding that one almost never plays an open string on a violin, but that it’s quite common to do so on a fiddle. Joking aside, “almost never” is wayyyyy off. There are some stylistic differences between classical music and folk music that result in more open stringing in the latter, but it’s still quite common to play open strings in classical music. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2015, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-musical-chords-to-me/717988/49 "2015-04-21T03:26:58Z")
OK, I’ll take your word for that. The one time I ever handled a violin, I managed to produce the approximate sound of a half-neutered cat dying in agony while wet, which isn’t really a major component of the classical or folk tradition. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2015, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-musical-chords-to-me/717988/50 "2015-04-21T12:45:28Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Originally Posted by **Acsenray** > > “but you rarely play an open string” — what? That’s not true. > > Open strings are much louder than fingered strings, so mostly, to get a consistent sound, you would play the E on the A string to keep it from sounding too much different from the other stopped notes. Sometimes you might want the unstopped sound for expressiveness, but I was told that open strings are mostly frowned upon. Former cellist chiming in: I was also taught to avoid open strings unless there was no way to play the music otherwise or if you wanted a particular effect. IIRC, the reasoning included a noticable difference in tone “quality” or “colour”, issues with sound levels and the impossibility of using vibrato on an open string (actually possible but awkward). > [@Chronos](#): > > OK, I’ll take your word for that. The one time I ever handled a violin, I managed to produce the approximate sound of a half-neutered cat dying in agony while wet, which isn’t really a major component of the classical or folk tradition. Switch to the cello. You’ll produce the sound of a dying cow. Much less unpleasant for your neighbours and funnier. MOOooOOOoooo. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-musical-chords-to-me/717988.md?page=2)