chords

does any boddy know some chords that sound good together???

i don't know what your situation is, but believe it or not... a bit of knowledge of theory helps quite a lot before getting your chords together for a song. Depends what type you're after and if you're singin it, what your vocal range is cause you gotta know what key your song is in... Commonly used $hit: if you're in C major use chords like C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am and Bdim and vary them... chuck in some hammer ons and pull offs (which will in most cases turn them into some sort of a sus chord) and you've got yourself a very basic rythem to start with.
G major's also real common. Use chords like: G, Am, Bm, C, D, Em, #Fdim.
Cheers

What do you mean by a Bdim chord?

Cheers
JE

While it is good to learn theory, you can also jam without any knowledge of it. Here's a few easy ones:

G-D-C: Knockin' on Heaven's Door
G-D-Em-C: All I Can Do is Write it in a Song (Skynard)
C-G-D-A-E: Hey Joe

I also like playing D-Em over and over with an occasional C or G mixed in. A-D sounds good too--throw in an occasional E and you've got a three chord rock/folk song.

Oh, and don't forget the versatile combination of C-Am-F-G (Pink Floyd's "Thin Ice" and Dwight Yokum's "Thousand Miles from Nowhere" and Tom Waits' "Cold Cold Ground"). All these songs start with a few bars of C-Am, then go to a C-F-G progression, then resolve back to the C-Am.

Then there's E-A-B, blues progressions. Try playing E-A, E-A, E-B-E. I like playin' the blues like this, too: A-A-A-A, D-D, A-A, E-D-A-E, repeat. You get the picture. The combinations are endless. Make up your own. Have fun!

DC

[Edited by David C on 07-17-2002 at 08:54 AM]

Yeah, I'd agree with David! Although after a while I got around to learning theory, I mostly jam in the keys of D or G, and know which chords I can go for in those keys.

However, I recently picked up a CD of the Jam, and Paul Weller, who writes most of their material, doesn'r seem to listen to any of the 'theory' behind music. He has some really crazy chord sequences!

But yeah, I've begun to write songs now, and I try to avoid the normal patterns of G C and D, cos you just end up with unoriginal melodies.

JE

well yeah, that's exactly it... the only reason i got all technical and talked about keys (and modes are good to know too) is that most songs that play the same 4 chords over and over (especially if they're open chords) don't sound all that different to others. Though if that's all you're up to, play around with your strumming or picking and come up with a different rythem. It'll make the song sound a lil more original. If you like your G chord, or D chord or whatever... try finding other places on the neck of the guitar to play them, slide them around, use octaves... there's heaps of ways to make a simple chord progression sound slightly intersting.

What i meant by Bdim was a B diminished chord. Diminished chords can sound great in the right song, but they're usually a bugger to play.

Hey, if you know your scales, you can figure out the chords for any key signature. Hell, half the time I'll play a chord and mess around with it untill I get a chord like Am13sus4#11 or something. Thats were theory has come in handy for me. If I dont know a chord, I can easely figure out what its called by jotting down a couple octaves of a scale and doin some paperwork.

yeah, but you are closing off your musical abilities when you do the same GDC over and over again, etc.

Thats why theory is so cool. I dont know all my key signatures off be heart but I could easely figure them out, and play a song in F# major or somethng with a lot of sharps.

Dude you should study theory, but I think it's boring(it's like reading about how you surf and never actually doing it). Just play chords you know and listen to them. I mean really it isn't rocket science.

Can you explain what hammer ons and pull offs are .

Hammer on is the rock and roll term for an ascending slur.
You dont sound the note with your pick, the sound is created by rapidly, 'hammering on' with your fretting.
Same with pull offs, or descending slurs if ya wanna nitpick,
they are sounded by pulling down off the fretboard, sounding a lower note. Doing both these technique rapidly in succession is called trilling.
Anyway, why did you ask that question on this thread?

ok im not gonna say im a pro at this cuz im fairly new ive been playing about a year and a half on acustic and half a year on electrice problem is iv been teaching myself so it takes awhile. its easier for me to write my own songs and put chords to them then trying to read tabs(for sum reason idk why lol) usually i put together A-D-E-and summtimes i just throw in a G or Em. in the end it sounds pretty good i think. well thats enough outta me hope ive helped at least a little. :p Ashley Olson :p

hmm, I dunno if that guy still needed help...seems you resurrected a 4 year old post...

anyway, since this looks like your first post, um, welcome to the board...this is great place