Speaking of Guitar

[reberclark]

Speaking lately of guitar on this board I have realized that although I may be able to write for the guitar I really don't understand the voicing for it - and so my guitar parts in JABB suffer from a lack of realism. I found a very cool website of guitar voicings:

http://www.chordbook.com/guitarchords.php

that let's you enter your chord and then it provides a visual example as well as inversions, tablature, and sound examples. It's pretty cool and I wondered if I could get some input from some real guitar guys here on the forum as to the useability of the voicings on that site.

Thanks!

[ejr]

This is why Real Guitar is so valuable to me. I can play piano chords on my MIDI keyboard and it translates them into guitar chord voicing and lets me "strum" up or down.

[reberclark]

Well, yeah, if I could afford Real Guitar I'd go for it...but I'm trying to get by on minimal outlay of funds for this one instrument.:)

[Tim Perry]

The site seems to be down at the moment, but I used to frequently use site that sounds similar to that, such as:

http://www.ultimatechordbook.com/
http://chordfind.com/
http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/

They are useful sites, although I have not been using them lately as I've been trying to come up with voicings on my own. I'm no pro on guitar, but most of the voicings listed on those sites are physically playable. The most common voicings tend to be given first. Trickier (and likely less common) voicings often have spacing of multiple frets between consecutive fingers, involving big stretches. Some of the inversions here: http://www.ultimatechordbook.com/chord_book.cgi (there are 6+ pages worth for many chords) look obscenely uncomfortable and some look impossible to me. In general, if you see a voicing that require notes to be played on more than 4 frets at the same time, then it only be played in the open position/with a capo or possibly with the aid of a thumb.

In my experience, voicings that involve a barring of the first fret where the chord is applied are somewhat more common--but that likley also has to do with the way the guitar is tuned. More dissonant voicings (my favorite kind) tend to be trickier. Voicings that involve open strings tend to be the easiest. I often like to incorporate open strings into chords that are higher up the neck, as it can add an interesting darkness to the timbre... but I don't typically see such chords listed on chord sites.

[reberclark]

Tim - Thank you for a very nice post. I will visit those sites and, yes, chordbook.com does seem to be down.

I, too, like a little "hair" in my chords (as you say the more dissonant ones) and will explore the options.

Thanks again for a thoughtful post.

[rbowser-]

Something I still refer to at times is an actual physical book >gasp!< called "The Guitarist's Picture Chord Encyclopedia" by John Pearse.

Quoting from the back of the book:

"Here is the finest chord book for guitarists ever published...Author John Pearse is one of the most respected personalities in the guitar world...he spent over a year selecting and annotating each chord."

The book is tabbed like a dictionary, from C to B, with 8 positions for each chord shown, illustrated with a photograph of John playing the chord, next to the Tab.

Major, Minor, Major 6th, Minor 6th, Seventh, Minor Seventh, Diminished, Augemented, Augmented 5th, Seventh Flat Five, Seventh Flat Nine, Major Seventh, Minor Seventh Flat Five,, Seventh Suspension Four, Ninth,, Minor Ninth, Ninth Augmented Fifth, Ninth Flat Five, Major Ninth, Eleventh, Augmented Eleventh, Thirteenth, Thirteenth Flat Nine, Seven Six, Nine Six---310 pages of this. Omg - Some of those chords actually exist??!

It's a great guide to what voicings are actually possible. I had fun looking at it again after seeing your post, Chip.

Randy

[Michael_uk]

Hello Randy,

Speaking of 'physical books', my guitar chords reference book is 'The Gig Bag Picture Chords for Guitarists In colour'. I find this a pleasure to loook through. It's set out in a very similar way to your 'The Guitarist's Picture Chord Encyclopedia' with similar chord definitions. This has 256 pages so no quite as many chords as yours. ;) Here's an example:

http://www.michaelsroom.co.uk/addons/guitar_book.jpg

Best wishes,

[ejr]

Funny you should mention this. My nephew is a novice guitarist and I bought something like this for him not long ago. He loves it.