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Am I the only one here who doesn't use chords much?

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axisusaxisus Frets: 28280
In my old age I seem to be forgetting chords! Basic Major and minor are mostly all in my mind somewhere, but everything else - gone!

It hadn't particularly occurred to me until recently, but I rarely seem to play chords on guitar. For many years now my playing has either been endless terrible widdling over backing tracks, or learning a melody line to play over a song backing track. On the occasions that I knock up my own backing tracks I tend to do all the chords stuff on keyboards. Acoustic guitar has been on the backburner for years, but with that I was usually working out fingerpicking arrangements for songs rather than strumming away with chords.

For some reason at the weekend I dug out a music book and I found myself stumbling terribly over anything but basic chords. I think I maybe need to go back to basics, but it feels like it will be a bit of a chore. To be honest, that kind of playing hasn't been necessary, nor interested me for many years. Not sure whether to bother or not.

Anyone else play mostly single notes instead of chords? I get the feeling it's probably just me! 



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Comments

  • I can identify, pick up a guitar noodle, put down guitar...

    Try some Rush.. Limelight for example..  the way Alex LIfeson voices chords to fill out the sound is awesome, obviously Pete Townsend does it too but in a completely different style.
    My trading feedback

    is it crazy how saying sentences backwards creates backwards sentences saying how crazy it is?

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  • axisusaxisus Frets: 28280
    I can identify, pick up a guitar noodle, put down guitar...

    Try some Rush.. Limelight for example..  the way Alex LIfeson voices chords to fill out the sound is awesome, obviously Pete Townsend does it too but in a completely different style.
    Limelight .... awesome song
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  • darthed1981darthed1981 Frets: 11673
    Yeah, I'm terrible for picking up, doing a noodle, putting down.
    We have to be so very careful, what we believe in...
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  • octatonicoctatonic Frets: 33725
    axisus said:
    In my old age I seem to be forgetting chords! Basic Major and minor are mostly all in my mind somewhere, but everything else - gone!

    It hadn't particularly occurred to me until recently, but I rarely seem to play chords on guitar. For many years now my playing has either been endless terrible widdling over backing tracks, or learning a melody line to play over a song backing track. On the occasions that I knock up my own backing tracks I tend to do all the chords stuff on keyboards. Acoustic guitar has been on the backburner for years, but with that I was usually working out fingerpicking arrangements for songs rather than strumming away with chords.

    For some reason at the weekend I dug out a music book and I found myself stumbling terribly over anything but basic chords. I think I maybe need to go back to basics, but it feels like it will be a bit of a chore. To be honest, that kind of playing hasn't been necessary, nor interested me for many years. Not sure whether to bother or not.

    Anyone else play mostly single notes instead of chords? I get the feeling it's probably just me! 
    Do you play in a band?
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  • NeillNeill Frets: 941
    BB King always claimed he couldn't play chords and he did all right.
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  • stickyfiddlestickyfiddle Frets: 26753
    I don't use 6-string chords very often, and tend to favour 3- or 4-sting voicings & inversions. But I play plenty of those, whether at home on my own or playing with others
    The Assumptions - UAE party band for all your rock & soul desires
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  • axisusaxisus Frets: 28280
    octatonic said:
    axisus said:
    In my old age I seem to be forgetting chords! Basic Major and minor are mostly all in my mind somewhere, but everything else - gone!

    It hadn't particularly occurred to me until recently, but I rarely seem to play chords on guitar. For many years now my playing has either been endless terrible widdling over backing tracks, or learning a melody line to play over a song backing track. On the occasions that I knock up my own backing tracks I tend to do all the chords stuff on keyboards. Acoustic guitar has been on the backburner for years, but with that I was usually working out fingerpicking arrangements for songs rather than strumming away with chords.

    For some reason at the weekend I dug out a music book and I found myself stumbling terribly over anything but basic chords. I think I maybe need to go back to basics, but it feels like it will be a bit of a chore. To be honest, that kind of playing hasn't been necessary, nor interested me for many years. Not sure whether to bother or not.

    Anyone else play mostly single notes instead of chords? I get the feeling it's probably just me! 
    Do you play in a band?
    As is probably fairly obvious - no! I'm just a life long mickey mouse bedroom player. Hat's off to all you guys who play in bands, I've never been up to scratch plus I don't have the balls to play in front of people.
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  • NeillNeill Frets: 941
    I think a lot of guitarists struggle with chords for two reasons, first we spend far too much time practicing fast single note runs to sound impressive.  Second, it's difficult to grasp the theory on a strung instrument, compared to when you play chords on a keyboard.  For example most guitar players would know how to change a major chord to a seventh just from experience, but if you were to say now add a flat 7th to the chord you just played I suspect a lot of us would be thinking now where the feck is the 7th...  But on a keyboard it's obvious, so with a keyboard it's easier to develop an understanding of how chords work.  Personally I wish I'd spent more time learning this stuff rather than wasting time practicing The Stumble etc.   
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  • EricTheWearyEricTheWeary Frets: 16253


    Neill said:
    BB King always claimed he couldn't play chords and he did all right.
    There's a lovely film interview with BB King where he says he never learned to play chords and then he plays some amazing Quintette de Hotclub style rhythm 'yep, never learned any of that kind of thing.'  Played piano and drums, could sing like an angel - not great with money though. I think he certainly understood at least a reasonable amount of theory, he could play over chord changes other than standard blues ones. If you listen to Freddie King, for example, he clearly struggled live over anything other than standard blues changes. 

    The cowboy chords and big bar chords were rarely much use to me in a band situation although I guess depends on the band.My happy place was small/ partial shapes but for at home playing they don’t necessarily sound like much so the temptation is to twiddle. 

    One of the nicest ways to use chords is to play The Police covers. Roxanne or Walking on the Moon or whatever, they aren’t necessarily difficult but there was a beauty in how Summers used chords - it was like he was making pretty patterns with his fingers. They are very satisfying in the way that learning a bunch of unconnected shapes isn’t. 
      
    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
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  • RolandRoland Frets: 8590
    I don't use 6-string chords very often, and tend to favour 3- or 4-sting voicings & inversions. But I play plenty of those, whether at home on my own or playing with others
    Very much this. Unless you’re playing solo guitar then 6 string chords confuse the sound, and get in the way of other instruments. For solo playing I like to play a bass line on the 5th and 6th strings. In a band I let the bass player do this. When there’s a keyboard player as well then I cut back to chord fragments, let the keys carry a lot of the melodic and harmonic content. My guitar then has greater rhythmic significance.

    So, in sound bite terms you could say “Roland doesn’t use chords much”. In reality I’m constantly thinking in diads and triads, and asking myself if I should use a different inversion. I even do this when playing riffs. Even when playing lead I’m thinking about how what I’m playing harmonises or counterpoints what the rest of the band are playing. So it’s all chordal, and I only use single note lines for fills.
    Tree recycler, and guitarist with  https://www.undercoversband.com/.
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  • DavidReesDavidRees Frets: 334
    I'm with @Roland on this. Primarily a finger style player when playing on my own I will occasionally hit a relevant note on either the 5th or 6th string with my thumb but when playing with others I don't. Giving others their own musical space in whatever is being played will increase your own musical value no end ...

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  • ewalewal Frets: 2558
    I very, very rarely use standard chords. Most of the time I have my guitar in an alternative tuning and just see what comes out. I use a lot of open string drones and simple two or three note shapes against them. I like to think I've shaped a reasonably distinctive style doing this, but it's really my way of covering up for limited technique born out of years of laziness
    The Scrambler-EE Walk soundcloud experience
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  • axisusaxisus Frets: 28280
    ewal said:
    I very, very rarely use standard chords. Most of the time I have my guitar in an alternative tuning and just see what comes out. I use a lot of open string drones and simple two or three note shapes against them. I like to think I've shaped a reasonably distinctive style doing this, but it's really my way of covering up for limited technique born out of years of laziness
    That's me on acoustic! rarely play acoustic these days mind you.
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  • maw4neumaw4neu Frets: 549
    Your not alone . . .  Im 58 now and I struggle to remember songs that I've not played in ages . . so much so I end up having to re learn them from scratch . . . Its frustrating but I suppose the "good" side of old age is the fact that your always learning :-) or should I say re learning . . . 
    Id just like to point out that, despite all the video and DNA evidence, it genuinely wasn't me, your Honour  ! 

    Feedback : https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/58125/
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  • GuyBodenGuyBoden Frets: 733
    I am the opposite, I love harmony and players that know chord inversions inside out. In my opinion harmony underpins all of western music. Stacking every third note in a scale to create Major and minor chords is very basic stuff, the magic happens with complex chords and harmony not based on stacking every third note in a scale. The plus side is also that single note noodling sounds much better when you can hear the underlying harmony, IMO.

    See my Difficult Chord of the Day posts for inspiration and perspiration:
    "Music makes the rules, music is not made from the rules."
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  • How about you go with the Freddie Green approach? Get yourself a copy of 'Swing and Big Band Guitar' and learn loads of shell voicings of jazz chords. 
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  • Also opposite. I hardly ever play single note runs, except as fills when playing with a band. It just doesn't sound very good when sitting around at home, I'd rather play a song. 
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  • chrisj1602chrisj1602 Frets: 3894
    I’ve just bought a new acoustic to get into chords and some different styles of playing. I downloaded some jazz lessons and chord charts, have found it very interesting and I picked up some new voicings and ideas.

    I knew I had basically been in a massive rut of picking up an electric and doing the same shit time after time and needed to change my approach.
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  • stickyfiddlestickyfiddle Frets: 26753
    I’ve just bought a new acoustic to get into chords and some different styles of playing. I downloaded some jazz lessons and chord charts, have found it very interesting and I picked up some new voicings and ideas.

    Anything new is always good. 

    I'm a fan of using different tunings to get my brain into a different space - it can be really inspirational.
    The Assumptions - UAE party band for all your rock & soul desires
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  • I like playing 6th/5th String root minor Chords around the middle of the neck, then playing lead lines over them, although rarely strumming the full six strings, use playing the bass strings or treble strings on different beats, whatever sounds good.
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