10 Ways to Play the Most Beautiful Open Chord Shapes
photo by Made Underground
A great way to make your chord progressions and songs sound awesome is to use open chord shapes.
I always love to use these chords to add some flavor to my chord progressions. One of my favorite chords is Fsus2.
That chord has got the whole package for me. It’s sounds beautiful, gentle, tight, cool and rough at the same time.
When you move an open chord up the neck the name of the chord changes and the chord gets extended with 1 or 2 notes. This way you can get beautiful sounds.
While you can play barre chords at every fret on the fingerboard, open chords can only be played at certain frets. If you play them at the right frets they sound amazing, if you don’t… well they just sound terrible. So be careful.
Because of all the extended chord names I didn’t bother to name every single one of them. That’s not the point here.
It’s all about incorporating these chords into your songs and chord progressions, putting your creativity to the test, experimenting with all the possibilities, replacing some basic chords for these extraordinary ones, learning to hear what sounds right and what feels good.
Learn these chords and put them into practice.
Enjoy!
Here is an example of how to read the chords below:
E = eadgbe (the strings from left to right)
E = 022100 (the numbers indicate where to put your fingers on the fret)
E string = 0 – you play an open string. (no fingers on the fret)
A string = 2 – put your finger on the 2nd fret.
D string = 2 – put your next finger on the 2nd fret.
G string = 1 – put your next finger on the 1st fret.
B string = 0 – you play an open string. (no fingers on the fret)
E string = 0 – you play an open string. (no fingers on the fret)
1 – Open chords in the key of E
022100
2×2200
4×4400
577600
799800
9×9900
11×11 11 00
0 14 14 13 0 0
2 – Open chords in the key of E (different approach)
022100
x44200
x66400
x77600
x99800
x11 11 9 00
x12 13 11 00
0 14 14 13 00
3 – E chord shapes
022100
133200
355400
577600
799800
8 10 10 900
10 12 12 11 00
4 – C shapes
x32010
x54030
x10 9080
5 – D shapes
xx0232
xx0454
xx0565
xx0787
xx09 10 9
xx0 10 11 10
xx0 12 13 12
xx0 14 15 14
6 – Open chords in the key of A7
x02020
x04030
x05050
x07070
x09080
x0 11 0 10 0
x0 12 0 12 0
x0 14 0 14 0
7 – Fsus2 shapes
x33011
x55033
x10 10 088
8 – F#m7(11) shapes
2×2200
4×4400
5×5500
7×7700
9×9900
10×10 10 00
12×12 12 00
9 – Bb triad shapes
xx0331
xx0553
xx0775
xx0997
xx0 10 10 8
xx0 12 12 10
xx0 14 14 12
10 – Dmaj7sus2 shapes
xx0220
xx0550
xx0770
xx0990
xx0 10 10 0
xx0 12 12 0
xx0 14 14 0
Feel free to leave a comment. I’d appreciate it.
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Thanx, Klaus
Het klinkt vast allemaal heel mooi.
En.. Oeps ik schrijf nu niet Engels..
But I don’t understand all that numbers!
So tell me wednesday:)
grtzz.
hi Klaus
this is very helpful, its something I only recently started experimenting with, it definately adds a richer sound if used right
Tom
Hey Chloe
I will expand on the topic wednesday. No worries!
Regards,
Klaus
Hey Tom,
Good for you!
Yes, these kind of chords will add that brilliance to the sound where you can really hear what your guitar is made of.
Klaus
Over die A7 akkoorden is ook nog een leuke video ‘The Land of A7′, zie http://www.vimeo.com/2037696 bijvoorbeeld. Klinkt inderdaad allemaal erg mooi, rijk en warm.
There’s this movie soundtrack that I’ve been listening to for quite a while, always wondering about the chord shapes that sounded really great. Now I realized it’s basically all the E chord shapes mentioned in No. 3, so thanks for another helpful post:-)
tirzah
Hi Michiel,
That is a good example of how to play those shapes in A7.
It’s perfect to mix it with the blues.
Marty does some really cool stuff. He is great.
Regards,
Klaus Tol
Hi Tirzah,
I am glad I helped you out with this post.
Thanx for the comment!
Klaus
Hey Klaus!
I am currently following you on twitter and I really appreciated the comments but I never actually logged in this web page. I never imagined that this site would be so helpful! I think motivation from other players is a really important thing for guitarists because each and everyone of us can get discouraged every once in a while.
Thanks so much for the feedback, the tips and all the encouragement we all need!
I will surely tell my bandmates about this webpage!
Keep up the good Work!
Hey Richard,
I love interacting on twitter with fellow guitar players and sharing guitar info. That’s what it’s all about.
Learning and teaching.
Thanks for the kind words and sharing my blog with your bandmates.
I really appreciate it!
Klaus Tol
I dont undr stand what the xs mean
Hai Angel,
An “x” is a mute. It means you have to mute that particular string. Muting a string means you cannot hear that string.
Regards,
Klaus
these are amazingly helpful! they are fantastic! :)
Hi Coram,
My pleasure.
Enjoy the chords.
Klaus