glug
Mine is C Major,A Minor,D Minor, E Major,E Minor and G 7
Also I love playing open chords. Barr chords don't have that nice ringing tone as open, and i'm more of a rhythm guitarist than lead.
AlanRatcliffe
Any add9 chord, particularly Amadd9. Think Andy Summers (The Police).
I also like the 2 chords - a triad with no 3rd, but a 2nd instead (pure Zappa).
And just in case anyone gets the wrong Idea and starts thinkin' I know what I'm doing musically (I do have a rock guitarist rep to maintain): The chords I most often use are the good ol' fashioned 5th chords. Yup, That's right folks, good old "power chords" - particularly when I can do the big six note versions.
Riaan
Some variations of standard chords that I happened to stumble across while struggling with the fingering, some variations of bar chords with open strings, power chords... the names of which I've no idea. If it sounds good and in key to my ear, I use it and never bother to look up what it actually is. I recently tried to explain a simple tune I came up with to a (musically trained) vocalist friend. It went something like this:
"It's like an A bar chord at the fifth, but without fingering the G,B an E strings"
"So what chord is that?"
"Funny type of A I think"
"What key is this tune in"
"Kind of an A key I think"
She just shook her head and asked me to tab the whole thing so that she could work it out on piano. This is proving to be a real obstacle when working with others...
glug
I'm not 100% sure but where ever your root note is, thats the name of the chord or chord scale.
On barr chords the 5th and 6th strings are your root notes. The 5th fret, 6th string is an A note so im sure thats some type of A chord
AlanRatcliffe
If I understand you correctly, it's an interval not a chord. A - D - A, which is a D5th. Or an A4th.
dirkv
i use the 5th chord variations quite a bit, i am also a fan of anything maj9. oh yes, and i love C shape Barre chords!
Spyke
Plain and simple - B minor.
Most of the songs that i hear that i like actually have it in the progression somewhere.
sepheritoh
I tend to stick to the majors and minors with Sus 2 or Sus 4 for variation. I rarely use the sus, dim or aug chords standing on their own. Pretty much the way I learned from the 70's folk and classic rock. Leonard Cohen, Pete Townsend, Richie Blackmore, Neil Young, etc. all used the sus2 and sus4 this way.
For me a chord on its own is just a chord. It takes on a complete sound only when part of some chord progression. My favorite key is G (G Em Bm Am C D7). It sounds great to substitute the odd minor chord with a major. JJ Cale loved to do this (e.g. he often use A major in place of an Am).
Dm is also a nice chord to use. (ala. Gilmour, Santana and Knofler)
Gray
And just in case anyone gets the wrong Idea and starts thinkin' I know what I'm doing musically (I do have a rock guitarist rep to maintain): The chords I most often use are the good ol' fashioned 5th chords. Yup, That's right folks, good old "power chords" - particularly when I can do the big six note versions
What are the six note versions Alan?
Renesongs
My Favorite is the kick ass E7+9 as used by Hendrix, SRV, Gilmour, Clapton and more
AlanRatcliffe
Gray wrote
What are the six note versions Alan?
Using all six strings for one big-ass 5th chord. Townshend used to use them on occasion. If I can find a chord tab blank somewhere, I'll post 'em.
Renesongs wrote
My Favorite is the kick ass E7+9 as used by Hendrix, SRV, Gilmour, Clapton and more
Ahh, thanks for reminding me - I use that all the time. Wonderful chord!
Riaan
Oops...I made a mistake in my description of the chord example. It should have been "like an A bar chord but with the B and E strings played open". See what I mean by my ignorance being a real obstacle... :-[ ... An online chord generator (
http://www.gootar.com/guitar/) gives this as A add9. Quite a handy webpage, that!
Riaan
What an amazing chord generator that is ... after playing around with it, in this roundabout way it turns out my favourite chords are mostly add9's...
AlanRatcliffe
Those 5th chords.
E5 The first one in particular is a massive full sound.
G5 - Use your thumb to fret the G note on the low E string (Hendrix style)
A5 - actually only 5 strings, but a nice full sound anyway
D5 - only 4 strings, but works well added in with the usual D, Dsus4, Dadd9 finger wiggling
Riaan
Maybe the Viagra that some bloke advertises on this site will help with the fingering of these chords... ;D
arjunmenon
Plain and simple...+9th chords, minor 7ths, E7+9 (As in Foxey lady by Hendrix and Cupid's dead by Extreme) and voicings with open B & E..In fact, i'm in the middle of penning a 40 chord work-out with open B & E...Hope to post it here sometime in the first week of April.
Cheers everybody
Arjun
Gray
This may be such a stupid question but with those 5th cords is it standard or dropped D tuning?
AlanRatcliffe
Standard. Why?
Oh I see - the first chord should be played on the seventh fret not the 5th - my bad.
Satriani
As was mentioned earlier, a chord only REALLY gets its properly intended sound when used in a logical sequence of chords, but as stand alone chords, my favourites are probably
Minor add 4
Major add 4
Major add 2
Minor add 2
Sus2 and Sus4
any Major or Minor chord with the 3rd in the bass
CornFlakes
I always tend to play in the key of “A minor, major etc.” when I pick up my guitar. Don’t really know why maybe it’s just a bad habit or something.
I don’t let me start on E.
