Talk:Guitar/Open Chords

Standard guitar terminology uses first to fourth to indicate the freting fingers, FOR GOOD REASON*. I've made a start at fixing this but will let the original authors complete it. The diagrams will need to be redone too.R. Christie 22:43, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

The reason* is that the terms index, middle etc are used for the plucking hand. Although this article has presumedly borrowed from the German book it would be foolish for it not to use orthodox convention. R. Christie 00:40, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

Chord construction
I've cleaned up some of the ambiguity here. However, in my opinion inclusion of these explanations is just asking for trouble. Beginners are not equiped to grasp concepts such as intervals and triads etc. Explanations are likely to raise more questions than answers and only serve to confuse beginners. My preference and advice is to remove the explanations completely and just provide the hows. Send readers elsewhere for the whys. R. Christie 02:32, 21 August 2007 (UTC)


 * On the German wikibooks, they have a page called Chord Types (babelfish translation), which is actually the first page in the "Rhythm Guitar" section. Perhaps this would be a more useful purpose for our Guitar/Chords page. I am beginning a discussion on the Talk:Guitar/Chords page about possible directions. --NickPenguin 02:46, 21 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Actually on re-reading it there isn't too much to confuse here except the 7th chord stuff. The thing is, once you start on the explanations it snowballs, in order to explain one thing you need another term, which needs explanation etc.
 * The page you refered to above seems to be explaining that barre chords can be found at various positions and with a few standard fingerings. It all very quickly becomes complicated to anyone who isn't familiar with the layout of the notes on the fingerboard. R. Christie 04:24, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

Replacing German chord diagrams with English chord diagrams
If no one minds, I'm going to replace the images. They are good images but having the German fingering notated may be confusing to readers.

Thanks --Sluffs (talk) 17:54, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

The Page is misnamed
The page isn't really about open chords because it includes -- as it should -- F major, which is a first position chord with no open strings. Also, there are many open chords it doesn't include, such as for example, this D major voicing:

Fig. 1

D Major

||-|-|-|-|--●--|-|-|---  ||-|-|-|-|-|-|--●--|---   ||-|-|-|-|-|-|--●--|--- O ||-|-|-|-|-|-|-|--- X ||-|-|-|-|-|-|-|--- X ||-|-|-|-|-|-|-|---

The best name I can think of for the page is "Beginning chords". "First-position chords" wouldn't quite be accurate as the D major voicing that it shows is a second position chord with an open string (see Fig. 2 below).

Fig. 2

D Major

||-|--●--|-|---  ||-|-|--●--|---   ||-|--●--|-|--- O ||-|-|-|--- X ||-|-|-|--- X ||-|-|-|---

"Cowboy chords" is an often-used term for these kinds of chords, but perhaps not dignified enough for this book.

-- 20:10, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

Issues with Cmaj chord section
The Cmaj chord section states, "Alternatively, you can use (x42o1o). (x32o14) or (x32o13) provide C chords with different voicings."

New to guitar, but seems like missing information here:


 * 1) Isn't (x42o1o) just different fingerings with the same chord voicing?
 * 2) Is the image for (x32o14) missing?
 * 3) Is (x32o13) even possible?  If barring with the 3rd finger, won't that block 1st and 2nd?

Is this perhaps what #3 intended?

C Major

O ||-|-|-|--- ||--●--|-|-|--- O ||-|-|-|--- ||-|--●--|-|---  ||-|-|--●--|---   ||-|-|--●--|---

Which would would be (332o1o).

PensiveCoder (discuss • contribs) 05:57, 4 May 2021 (UTC)