Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2021 February 5

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February 5

dead strings in guitar chords

I bought a guitar, and learned to play four chords so far, go me. Preliminary question: What is the customary term for a string not played in a chord (marked X in the charts)?

I am puzzled by some of the chord charts I find in books. A, Am, C have X on the low E string, though the high E string is (also) played open. D, Dm, F have X on the two low strings, although A is rightfully part of each chord. Why? Balance? —Tamfang (talk) 08:30, 5 February 2021 (UTC)

My chord book calls them "unplayed strings". You might call them "muted" if you hit them with the plectrum but prevent them from ringing by touching them lightly. As for the second part of your question, the chord shapes in those charts have the root in the bottom position. There's no law that stops you from playing E or A – if they're part of the chord, then you'll be playing some sort of inversion. You probably haven't learned the barred version of F yet, that uses all six strings. --Wrongfilter (talk) 09:23, 5 February 2021 (UTC)

• Playing a different lowest note than the root of the chord makes it sound different. For instance, if you were to play the open A on the second set of chords you mentioned, you'd have D/A, Dm/A or F/A. You'd have slash chords (or one version thereof at least). You'd effectively be playing inversions (2nd, 2nd and 1st inversion respectively). Yes, they are still the same chord in many ways, but it would have a different sound to it, which you may or may not want. EDIT: and yes, barre chords approach this differently. Word of caution, you'll almost certainly hate those when you first get to them, everyone does, but stick with them, as they make life a lot easier down the line. Fgf10 (talk) 09:32, 5 February 2021 (UTC)

1. Per the others above, the X in the tablature means "string doesn't sound", and you can accomplish this in two ways: either don't play the string, or mute the string with your fretting hand by lightly touching (but not fretting) with a finger; depending on the chord shape you can do this any number of ways; you can use your thumb or you can use part of a finger which is fretting the note on the string above or below, or you can use an unused finger. How you accomplish this depends on the context of the chord, and there's no one right or wrong way to do this. There's also a subtly different sound between simply "not playing" a string and muting, but still striking the string. The latter technique still produces a subtly percussive sound, and can be an intentional technique called "raking" where you mute some of the strings and still intentionally strike them all. That's a fairly advanced technique, and at the stage you're at right now, I wouldn't worry about it. Just find a way to either miss or mute the X'ed out strings.
2. So two things about guitar chords that will come up as you get a little more proficient are chord voicing and chord inversions. A most of the chords you are learning now are triads, which are the root, third, and fifth of a chord, so for a D major chord, that's "D", "F#", and "A". The voicing of the chord is the specific "D", "F#" and "A" you play in a chord. On the guitar neck, there are a half dozen different ways to play those three notes, and even moreso if you include octaves of those notes, which most standard fingerings do, which you choose depends on what you want the specific song to sound like. As a beginner, play it the easiest way for now, but as you get better, you'll want to use different voicings in different contexts for different effects. For the most part, the two most important notes in "anchoring" a chord are the root (played as the lowest note) and the fifth. The root in the bass establishes itself as the most important note, and the fifth just above that tends to "anchor" that note as the root. That's why power chords work. The other notes give the chord its character; the note between the root and fifth establishes whether you have a major chord, minor chord, or suspended chord, and chord extensions like the 7th, 9th, 11th, or 13th add additional character to the chord. Furthermore, you can invert a chord by making a different note the lowest (bass) note of the chord, this is commonly the third (called "first inversion") or the fifth (called "second inversion"). Further furthermore, the role a chord plays in a chord progression determines a lot about how it is conceptualized. For example, a chord notated as "D/F#" in one context (D in first inversion) can also be conceptualized as an "F#m(#5)" in another context, it depends on the role the chord plays in functional harmony. That's probably more chord theory than you need as a beginning guitar player, but just to let you know that you should try your best to play the chord as written. If it is written as just a "D", then don't add the "low A" note to it. If it is written as "D/A", then let the "A" ring out. The composer intended different things with those chords, and there are subtle differences that matter in the context of the song. --Jayron32 13:56, 5 February 2021 (UTC)

Thanks all. —Tamfang (talk) 01:46, 11 February 2021 (UTC)