Why the obsession to learn all the chords?

I'm very new to learning the guitar, and I'm seeing that there seems to be a lot of talk on the ether waves about learning the entire fretboard and all the chords.

Is this really necessary? Why not learn just the chords that are part of a song and then just make some up ( which are probably already in existence) when improvising?

Should I really memorize and learn to execute all the chords out there and if so, why?

Why do we learn the alphabet before starting reading? I think for the same reason why we need to know chords before playing songs.

Just my opinion.

Carmine

You don't have to learn them all at once, but over time you will learn a lot of them. Some you may forget and have to lookup, others are used all of the time, so you won't forget them.

As a baseline, I think you should know all of the major and minor chords. From there, you can easily derive suspended, 7th, 6th, etc. variations. Then you have the barre shapes - you memorize 2 shapes and then you need to know the bass strings to know what chord they represent on which fret. For instance, the bass E string on the 3rd fret is a G. Play a barre E shape on the third fret, and you are playing a G chord.

My personal feeling is that you shouldn't just learn all of this stuff for wrote - it won't stick. Learn this stuff in the context of songs - it will stick much better since you'll have context. Get song books of music you like that shows the chords and play along.

Hope that helps.

Carmine has the right idea but I'll detail it a bit more :)

Chords are like words. Obviously words comes from letters. In the same way, chords are an arrangement of different notes from a given scale.

Do you know every words from the english dictionnary ?
I don't. Do we need too ? Not really unless your a writer and you want to be able to express yourself in different ways depending on the mood.

If you like to and can express yourself with only open chords, you dont need to learn other stuff. I think we shouldnt stress ourselves with this. Wanting to learn new chords will come on its own someday just because we will want to express ourselves differently.

As for learning the fretboard. I think it's very important if you are into writing melodies and even more if you are into improvising . If I ask you to write a word, well you write it down without much thinking, its natural. That's what you want to be able to do when improvising. No barriers between what you feel and what you play. To achieve that, you need to know your "alphabet" and a bit of grammar (fretboard and scales) :p

I think there's a tendency lately to learn everything we can learn in music because we think it will make us better musicians. That's so wrong. That makes us more an encyclopedia then a good book. Music is simple. Expressing ourselves with what we know, that's all.

Theory is one of those things in music where people who study it will tell you that you definitely need to learn it and the people who never learned theory will tell you not to bother with anything but the basics.


I'm in the latter group.

However, everyone is different. I have a friend that I started playing guitar with at the same time about 10 years ago... He went on a theory obsessed journey to learn all the theory he could... I just started playing in bands and started writing and playing songs. 10 years later, our technical ability is about the same. I would say I'm a better lead player becuase I have a better overall feel and improvisational ability and he is clearly better at rhythm and song structure. We have our strenghts and weaknesses becuase the paths we took. He loves to tell me I'm doing it wrong, and I love to follow him up in a jam so I can let my guitar say what I need to say about that.

All right, then. I will use the list of chords like a dictionary.

'Read' each chord to get a feel for it, and then if I'm missing something in my repertoire I will try and find a chord that will express what I want to express with my music.

Otherwise, I'll dabble in that sea of chords when I'm bored; a bit like reading a dictionary occasionally :)

I assume that the beginners lessons on this site will give me the basic chord 'vocabulary' to make me 'literate'.

Originally Posted by: StringybarkOtherwise, I'll dabble in that sea of chords when I'm bored; a bit like reading a dictionary occasionally :)

Maybe more like a thesaurus. :-). As you get more advanced, you'll want different ways of playing some chords. Much like using a thesaurus to spice up or liven up your writing, you can do the same thing with different chord voicings.

Something that will happen when guitarists get together is the swapping of interesting chords. A player may do something a little different and the others will ask "what is that...how are you playing that chord...oooohhh, that's cool!!".

It's all part of the journey...

Originally Posted by: maggiorMaybe more like a thesaurus. :-). As you get more advanced, you'll want different ways of playing some chords. Much like using a thesaurus to spice up or liven up your writing, you can do the same thing with different chord voicings.

Something that will happen when guitarists get together is the swapping of interesting chords. A player may do something a little different and the others will ask "what is that...how are you playing that chord...oooohhh, that's cool!!".

It's all part of the journey...

So, if we use a cooking analogy (I should never post anything on an empty stomach!), all those chords are also like a spice market :)

If it tastes ( sounds ) bland, try some spices. I gotta go and eat now :D

Sounds like you've got the right idea. You'll likely source new chords from a book or by looking on-line. But hey, for all of you (maybe some of you already do this) here is another thing you can try. When you're just taking a break from formal practice, grab your guitar, setup a nice clean sound (maybe add a little Chorus effect for fun) and then just start combining notes to make up your own chords. Any combo, anywhere on the neck... with or without open strings. See what you come up with.. most of them will sound bad, but you'll probably stumble on to some of those cool ideas Maggior was talking about.

Here's a couple of simple examples for you... if you know Dm and Dmaj, great. Now, go ahead and play either,but just leave the high E string open, so you're only fretting on the G and B strings.

Got that Cmaj down pat? Ok, slide the whole chord shape up two frets, so the root that was C on the 5th string is now D... BUT, leave the open strings open (don't play the low E string, only the high E).

With a bit of fun experimentation you can come up with some neat sounding chords.

Originally Posted by: carminemarottaWhy do we learn the alphabet before starting reading? I think for the same reason why we need to know chords before playing songs.

Just my opinion.

Carmine

Agreed - always good to build a solid foundation, even though you can wing it and play your favourite music by ear. Instead of guitar tab. Like most guitarists/musicians ;)

PS As an after-thought, don't forget the Ultimate Chord Finder in the toolbox top right of Guitar Tricks :D

one of the hardest things to do is learn chord structure...what's a 5th or a 9th? Is Diminished or Augmented?

All that kind of stuff. I am not going to pretend to say that I am comfortable with this kind of thing. I am not. I've mentioned on this board a few times that when I started playing decades ago, I avoided it all like the plague. I wanted to be 'self taught'...that actually went pretty well for me.

but.............

I could have been that much better had I understood what I could do inately. I'm finding this to be a hinderance now.

In the 80's, I was playing metal.....Chord theory? Naw > Barre Chords.

Now I'm playing much more finessed, musically diverse and with much more acoustic influence....and I would love to have a command of chord structures.

Where you place your fingers on a chord has a name...if you know that, you know the fretboard.

Originally Posted by: JeffS65
Where you place your fingers on a chord has a name...if you know that, you know the fretboard.

Yep, but don't ever let that get in the way of experimenting or just forging ahead with some cool sounds even though you don't understand the theory behind it. Not knowing the theoretical basis behind everything you play does not inhibit you from creating great music, no more than knowing the theory behind what you play guarantee that you will create great music. Some players just have a really good ear, and that's all they need. Other's delve deeper into understanding what it is that they are playing. Whatever keeps you on the path of your music goals.

Originally Posted by: Slipin LizardYep, but don't ever let that get in the way of experimenting or just forging ahead with some cool sounds even though you don't understand the theory behind it. Not knowing the theoretical basis behind everything you play does not inhibit you from creating great music, no more than knowing the theory behind what you play guarantee that you will create great music. Some players just have a really good ear, and that's all they need. Other's delve deeper into understanding what it is that they are playing. Whatever keeps you on the path of your music goals.

Agreed and really what I had always done. I am a noodler and experimenter by nature and would just muck about with different finger placements to 'see what would happen'. That will probably never change.

I think why I'm finding my lack of chord theory a hinderance now is that I am learning mandolin and piano/keyboard and using those as part of my writing. Much more instrument integration in my noggin these days and now I'm finding it would be nice to understand a little more chord structure stuff.

Though, even with those instruments, I do experiment until it sounds right so who knows...I might be totally full of it ;)

It depends on your goals but assuming a very high level of ability on guitar is desired, I believe a guitarist should continue to learn and expand their knowledge of chords continuously throughout their musical life. Time should be allocated to work on this area of guitar on a regular basis.

Chords should be applied in a musical way as soon as possible once they are learned so they are retained, but more importantly so they are useful. Depending on how the style of a guitarist develops, they will find they favor some chords more than others and will begin to know what which ones help them achieve the emotion and style they are looking for and which ones they don't really need or use.

They won't all be relevant so it is not necessary to be concerned about 'knowing all the chords' as there are limitless possibilities. Instead, be concerned about gradually building your chord vocabulary over time and finding ways to apply them as appropriate in your own music.