This reminded me -
A D E D - Wild Thing
If you have some chords that are hard to play, you can often transpose them to a different key and have much easier chords to play.
1-B#/C
2-C#/Db
3-D
4-D#/Eb
5-E/Fb
6-F
7-F#/Gb
8-G
9-G#/Ab
10-A
11-A#/Bb
12=B/Cb
13=B#/C
14-C#/Db
15-D
16-D#/Eb
17-E/Fb
18-F
19-F#/Gb
20-G
21-G#/Ab
22-A
23-A#/Bb
24=B/Cb
25=B#/C
For instance:
Suppose your chords say Bb, Eb, F…looking at the above chart, Bb is 11, Eb is 16, and F is 18. So you could subtract 1 from each and get 10, 14, and 17, which are A, D, and E, easy chords. Or, you could add 2 to each and get 13, 18, and 20, which are C, F, and G. Or you could subtract 8 from each and get 3, 8, and 10: D, G, and A.
Any of these would preserve the “interval” between chords, but some may sound better than others because they’re closer to the original chord formations on guitar.
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If you’re just trying to fit the chords to your vocal range, any of the above might work.
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If you want to play with the recording and stay close to the original sound, it’s best to subtract. In the above example if you subtract 1, then capo 1, you’ll be back at the pitches originally intended because you lowered when transposing, then raised it back with the capo. But if you really liked playing it in C and were willing to capo up to the 10th fret, you could play it there.
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It’s very important to transfer the type of chord. For instance if you’re transposing a C# minor, make sure the end result is also a minor. The same holds true for major 7’s, dominant 7’s, augmented chords, etc.
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Transposing won’t make every song easy. For instance, “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” can be transposed so the first part is easy, but then it rises half a step at the end. So you might be playing in D for much of the song, but the key will end up as Eb. If you set it up to end in D, the first part will be in Db. Sometimes, there’s just no getting around the issue.
And in case you haven’t found it, here’s a source of many songs:
Oops, missed the Edit window. *For instance:
Suppose your chords say Bb, Eb, F…looking at the above chart, Bb is 11, Eb is 16, and F is 18. So you could subtract 1 from each and get 10, 15, and 17, which are A, D, and E, easy chords. Or, you could add 2 to each and get 13, 18, and 20, which are C, F, and G. Or you could subtract 8 from each and get 3, 8, and 10: D, G, and A.*
Requisite Elliott Smith pimping here. His easiest songs that I’ve tried are “Needle in the Hay” and “2:45 AM”. Very nice, but downbeat songs.
The three songs I can play on guitar, and I know nothing about music:
Jane Says by Jane’s Addiction, is all G and A minor if I recall correctly
Just Like Heaven by The Cure is as well (I couldn’t do the fancy stuff in the bridge)
Strangely, I could also play Under the Milky Way by the Church. (Or Cult?)
You can play most of John Denver’s stuff with those chords. And everyone knows a JD song or two.
Crosby, Stills, and Nash’s Southern Cross is another easy, three chord song. As I recall (it’s been a while since I played it), it only uses A, D, and E.
I understand the no barre chord thing… but they become invaluable when learning to pick out songs you don’t have tab to. It took me a while to learn them but after it clicked I can’t live without them.
There’s a G chord in it, too. I don’t recall there being any any E chords in it, though, playing what I know of the song on my mental jukebox.
Most of Pink Floyd’s repertoire for the rhythm is your basic G,C,D,F and an occasional A.
Look for “Pigs on the Wing”, “Wish You Were Here”, “Mother” as being surprisingly easy to play.
Even Gilmour’s solos aren’t too difficult, he plays very slowly with simple bends and pull-offs, sprinkled with short noodling that rarely lasts more than a half-dozen notes. Polishing that simplicity into the transcendental ambrosia of virtuosity that is his final product still takes great skill and gear (that I haven’t achieved yet), but you can get 90% of the way there really easily.
I’ve been playing guitar for about 15 years now and I remember the first song I learned to play was Jane’s Addiction’s “Jane Says” as **Rasa ** recommended. It’s a simple G-A and back again for the most part.
There’s one program that’s really helped me learn the guitar, use my ear, and figure out chords to a song. It’s called Digital Music Mentor and I have been indebted to its technology. It’s not perfect, but it’s helped me so much and I recommend it to guitar players.
Other easy songs:
One by U2 (Verse: Am Dsus2 Fmaj7 G x2 Chorus: C Am Fmaj7 x2)
Talkin’ 'Bout a Revolution by Tracy Chapman (G Cadd9 Em D over and over)
Closer to Fine by Indigo Girls (Long chord pattern, but instantly recognizable)
Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell (Chords here by permission of the artist. This is a nice gentle intro to barre chords)
Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and Chris Isaak are three artists whose entire catalog is pretty much fully accessible.
The verses for Counting Crows’ “Round Here” is an easy picking repetition (think Dm but slide it up 4 frets)
E|-----5--------5------------
B|--------8--------8------8–
G|—7--------7--------7-----
and the chorus is
C D Em G
Hey, Malkavia, I just noticed something in your OP that got me curious - you’re saying you have a tough time reading tab? (Yeah, I’m perceptive - that took me three days to figure out?) D’ye mind if I ask what about tabs you’re having trouble with? I’ve found them extremely useful even for advanced players because you can write out unusual positions that you wouldn’t have thought of first time through.
Somehow, that came out dirtier than I meant…
Anyway, even if you only want to stick to chords and the odd riff or fill, tab can be a useful thing to figure out.
I have no problem using my index finger to form Barre chords.
The problem I have is forming ‘barre chords’, where you use your thumb to fret the low E and your index finger to barre the B and C strings, and using your remaining fingers to complete the chord.
I find this extemely difficult!
Does anyone have any hints about to form this kind of chord?
In addition to the chords listed in the OP, you should be able to play other common open chords, like dm, A7, E7, em7, B7, am7, D7, G7. Flipping through my guitar notebook, here are some songs with just a few chords and no barring. I’ve listed all the chords used in the song, but not necessarily in the right order.
Bob Dylan - “The Mighty Quinn” (G, D, C)
Bob Dylan - “I Shall Be Released” (C, dm, em)
Bruce Springsteen - “Atlantic City” (em, G, C, D)
Dolly Parton - “Jolene” (A, C, G)
“Long Black Veil” (G, D, C)
Oasis - “Wonderwall” (em, G, D, A, C, A7)
Oasis - “Live Forever” (G, D, am7, C, em)
Simple Minds - “Don’t You Forget About Me” (E, D, A, C, G)
Love - “A House Is Not A Motel” (em, G, am, C, D)
The Decemberists - “The Crane Wife 3” (D, A, G)
Joan Baez - “Diamonds and Rust” (em, C, G, D)
Joan Baez - “Love is Just a Four-Letter Word” (G, D, em, am, D7)
The Rolling Stones - “Ruby Tuesday” (em, D, C, D7, G, A7)
The Rolling Stones - “As Tears Go By” (G, A, C, D, em, D7)
Van Morrison - “Wonderful Remark” (G, D, C, em)
Van Morrison - “And It Stoned Me” (G, D, C, am, em)
Cat Power - “Metal Heart” (am, C, G, D)
Editors - “An End Has A Start” (am, em, C, D,G)
Flying Burrito Brothers - “Older Guys” (G, D, em, C)
“Will The Circle Be Unbroken?” (E, A, B7)
Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel - “Make Me Smile” (C, G, D, am)
Tons more open up if you can add just F and bm. Once you learn barring, then you can play almost anything. Really, the only way you’ll be able to play barre chords is if you make yourself play them. It is discouraging at first when you get a loud buzz or a muffled sound, but soon your hand will figure out the right position and develop the strength needed to play it right. It may be less frustrating to start with a song that uses all open chords except one (The Band’s “Up On Cripple Creek” has a f#m in the chorus; “Victoria” by The Kinks has a bm). When it’s just one chord, it makes less of an impact in the song if you don’t play the chord perfectly at first. Hopefully, you’ll be confident enough in your open chords to motivate yourself to get that one barre chord just right so you can play the whole song start to end.
Hmm - there is no “C” string in standard tuning EADGBE, but I suspect I understand the crux of your question: how do you form chords where you use your thumb to fret low notes - especially chords where you also anchor your index finger to form a sorta-barre? Is that it?
A few points:
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That approach is really the domain of the blues player - and an electric bluesman typically. If you aren’t focused on this style, that approach may be considered bad form. Classical and shredding, to cite two examples, both view a thumb-on-back approach to hand position as essential.
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So, starting from electric blues - you have a couple of things typically happening:
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[li]Blues and rock playing requires you to use what I refer to as a Cheater’s A: rather than fretting it with one string per finger (all 2nd fret, the DG & B strings), you just fold in the tip of your index finger and flatten the pad of it over all three strings, pushing down and bending the digit knuckle back. You have to do this to play Chuck Berry rock and roll, where you just play the A and D strings while playing a Cheater’s A and bouncing your ring finger off the D String, 4th fret. Try this - the riff is woven into the world’s DNA by this point.[/li][li]At the same time, when you play an electric for rock, it is a very noisy affair. Feedback, errant string scrapes, the squeaks and honks of kicking effects pedals on, etc. I’ve always said a good electric player spends 50% of their time trying to get the sounds they want and the other 50% keeping everything else quiet - seriously. As a player, you just find yourself (in addition to striving to be an accurate picker, which is key to lower noise) using your non-chording fingers to mute unused strings. A classic way to do this is to let your thumb just rest on the E - you can bang a full Cheater’s A with Townshend abandon and keep the bullfrog E from runing the chord. [/li][li]So personally, my approach to that type of chording - which by the way is usually associated with Jimi Hendrix, who did it liberally and had HUGE honkin’ hands - started from the Cheater’s A + muting strings with my thumb over the top. After years of living in that position, it wasn’t a stretch to get used to fretting that way.[/li][/ul]
Does that help?
I think you mean B and E.
Your index spans the entire fret…they just don’t show it that way. You can also play abbreviated chords by fingering the lower (DGBE) strings and not strumming the top (E/A) strings.
@Lisa: I play “Jolene” Am, C, G, Am, G, Em, Am
You can play almost the entire Neil Diamond songbook with 3-4 chords, primarily E, A and D, just by altering the rhythms and chord order slightly.
Not necessarily. I play barre chords much like how WordMan describes, as I learned the blues way. As for a good way to learn it, I don’t have a good answer for that. I just kept at it until I was able to do it. It took a while. Took even longer to master the minor version (index over GBE strings, thumb on low E while muting A and ring finger 2 frets ahead on the D string)
Interesting. I’ve never seen that done. There are a few songs I’ll play using thumb for the bass (Am/G, Am/F#) but it’s awkward.
I do too, actually. I didn’t double-check the chords I posted. Good catch.