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It would be a fun challenge for all of us responding to this to go ahead and do a short video showing how they would play these chords! I agree on a 4 string it would be easier to obtain all the notes in these chords whereas on 3 string you often "hint" at what the chord is. The reason for this is in, let's say, the E7 chord you need 4 notes to play the full chord. On 3 string you might leave out a note and simply play 1,5,flat7 which would be E,B,and D notes. If you're not used to thinking of notes as numbers this can get confusing very quickly.
I will add to this that many very good 3 string players, like none other than Justin Johnson, often suggest leaving out any chord extensions and simply barring across all three strings on whatever fret puts the root of the chord on the third string. This works pretty well if you're singing the song or playing along with another instrument that's playing the melody. I personally prefer hearing some of those extensions like the minor 3rd or the dom. 7th. In case this is making your eyes roll back in your head I'll put a video on Here it is
on the E7 swap the top and bottom C string fingering. it might be easier. same chord just a different voicing.
i left the vcomment on the video as well... might be worth a try.
Yup, I just answered you on utube. You're right it's much easier to play it that way. After I posted the vid I realized I was doing it the hard way but didn't have time to re do the video. Thanks!
I'll also add that I think some of the discussion about these chords comes from the fact that there's no absolute correct way to label chords. From years of reading big band and jazz chord charts I've found at least 3 different ways to label many chords. CM7, Cmaj7 , and C with a triangle symbol which I can't do on my keyboard all stand for the same chord - C,E,G,B natural which is one inversion of C major 7. There are many instances where confusion can pop up due to no hard and fast rules. Often these chords are hand lettered over the melody line and CM7 can look like Cm7 and that just mucks it all up. It even gets more so when you have to read the Nashville System which uses roman numerals in place of chord names. So if a song is in the key of C the chart will read Imaj7 for Cmaj7. Whew, that's why I love being able to simplify stuff with 3 string gits!
Thanks for posting that. What a great song. I would have tried playing the chords more like the song if I'd seen it first but hopefully my little vid helps some. I noticed he had a capo on the 2nd fret so all the chords might actually be 1 step higher. That means the first chord would actually be B mInor rather than A minor.
the capo looks like its on the 3rd fret. so Cm ???
Yup, capo is on the 3rd fret which puts it in Cm. Right again Timothy (and Ron)
Here's a page with chord charts for a three stringer tuned GDG. Almost every chord for that song is listed (E7 would just be two frets up from D7.) I think an Esus4 could be played 4-2-2.
Neat song. Another alternative for you would be to use DGB tuning on a 3 string. Chord shapes are the same as on a 6 string guitar, just using the 2nd 3rd and 4th strings. I like it a lot for folk/strumming tunes like this one.
As far as that E7 chord goes, in the context of this song it is a dominant 7th chord I'm pretty sure. Comes up a lot in these kinds of "western" sounding folk/country minor key tunes and I'm very fond of that sound. I think it would be considered a "borrowed" chord where you substitute a major chord when the actual key would call for a minor chord. It not only adds the tension you normally get with the V chord, but to my ear gives an additional feeling of uncertainty and dread that's perfect for songs like this.
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