Guitar Chord - Playing Chords: Open Strings, Inversion, and Note Doubling

Playing Chords: Open Strings, Inversion, and Note Doubling

The implementation of musical chords on guitars depends on the tuning. Since standard tuning is most commonly used, expositions of guitar chords emphasize the implementation of musical chords on guitars with standard tuning. The implementation of chords using particular tunings is a defining part of the literature on guitar chords, which is omitted in the abstract musical-theory of chords for all instruments.

For example, in the guitar (like other stringed instruments but unlike the piano), open-string notes are not fretted and so require less hand-motion. Thus chords that contain open notes are more easily played and hence more frequently played. Many of the most popular tunings—standard tuning, open tunings, and new standard tuning—are rich in the open notes used by popular chords.

Basic discussions of guitar chords differ from basic discussions of chords in musical theory because the guitar has the same notes on different strings. Consequently, guitar players often double notes in chord, so increasing the volume of sound. For triadic chords, doubling the third note, which is either a major third or a minor third, clarifies whether the chord is major or minor.

A chord is inverted when the bass note is not the root note. If, in a particular tuning, chords cannot be played in root position, they can often be played in inverted positions. Additional chords can be generated with drop-2 (or drop-3) voicing, which are discussed for standard tuning's implementation of dominant seventh chords (below).