Are open chords useful in rock?

Hey guys,

I'm getting towards the end of Guitar Fundamentals 1. I'm on chapter 6, playing in keys. I've been working through these lessons slowly, and practicing Lisa's sings alongs over and over. I've got to be honest, I'm having fun playing these open chords. And for the first time, what I'm playing sounds musical. I love that techinique of hitting the bass note first. I find myself getting creative too, muting strings, playing part of the chord as an arpegio, then changing to another chord smoothly...it's great.

When I first started playing a year and a half ago, I didn't even know what a major or minor chord was. Somehow I discovered the power chord and turned my gain way up, and learned a pentatonic shape.

I took some private lessons and my teacher had me learn the five open chord shapes. But we immediatly got into the barre chords, and he told me not to waste too much time with the open shapes. He knew my end goal was to play hard rock, like Van Halen, Ratt, and Cinderella. Is it that open chords aren't used much in rock music?

Should I continue working through these open chord exercises slowly and master them? Or speed things up and quickly get to barre chords, and of course the Rock lessons.

The way I see it is, if your getting noticible improvement and making something musical, then stick with it.

I know that AC/DC uses a lot of open chords, so does slash in many G & R songs, I wouldn't skip them unless you are going to play only trash metal and death metal.

My opinion Herman

Originally Posted by: hsnoeckx

I know that AC/DC uses a lot of open chords, so does slash in many G & R songs, I wouldn't skip them unless you are going to play only trash metal and death metal.

My opinion Herman

Ahh ok thanks! I've GOT to start learning some ACDC soon. Satchel from Steel Panther is a huge fan and adherent of ACDC:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr7NQHrLQxY

That little Yamaha amp sure sounds good too.

Originally Posted by: mattpcollins

Hey guys,

I'm getting towards the end of Guitar Fundamentals 1. I'm on chapter 6, playing in keys. I've been working through these lessons slowly, and practicing Lisa's sings alongs over and over. I've got to be honest, I'm having fun playing these open chords. And for the first time, what I'm playing sounds musical. I love that techinique of hitting the bass note first. I find myself getting creative too, muting strings, playing part of the chord as an arpegio, then changing to another chord smoothly...it's great.

When I first started playing a year and a half ago, I didn't even know what a major or minor chord was. Somehow I discovered the power chord and turned my gain way up, and learned a pentatonic shape.

I took some private lessons and my teacher had me learn the five open chord shapes. But we immediatly got into the barre chords, and he told me not to waste too much time with the open shapes. He knew my end goal was to play hard rock, like Van Halen, Ratt, and Cinderella. Is it that open chords aren't used much in rock music?

Should I continue working through these open chord exercises slowly and master them? Or speed things up and quickly get to barre chords, and of course the Rock lessons.

The way I see it is, if your getting noticible improvement and making something musical, then stick with it.

Having started playing in high school in the early 80's, played in a band in the late 80's and learned much of how to play from a lot of those bands, I can very much say; yes you will need those chords. That teacher was giving you terrible advice. I can name a ton of songs from that era that used many, some all of those 'five basic' chords. I mean, the verse in Ratt-Round & Round has a version of an open G (G5) in the middle for the groovy pedalled riff. Without that G, the riif is not as cool. And for the record, learning any and all of 'Out of the Cellar' is a great way to learn 80's guitar. And, of course, anything George Lynch.

So, bad advice from the instructor.

Yes, you will play a lot of power chords. That is true but if you don't spend time learning all different kinds of chords, and learning songs is a great way to do it, you'll limit your understanding of what make a lot of great songs interesting....and pretty much exclude every AC/DC song too! (Herman was right)

Russell Parrish (ie - 'Satchel') has played with Jeff Pilson, Rob Halford, in Rush and Van Halen Tributes and even in a band post-Racer X with Paul Gilbert often playing bass. The point of that is that Russ is a very well rounded player with a huge variety of skills that you don't always see in Steel Panther.

Never exclude a skill or ignore one. Always add.

This thread has been niggling at me ever time I see the title, so I suppose I'll add my two cents...

I think that whenever creativity is constrained by shoulds and conventions and ought-tos, it suffers, and so does the artist. Putting aside all of the technical reasons why it's good to learn open chords that others have discussed, how about that it expands your creative horizons beyond the tiny box of a particular genre? The great musicians and artists are the ones who are not defined by rules and conventions, and therefore sound unique and expand the art form.

You like the sound of open chords. That's more than enough reason to pursue and play them in pursuit of YOUR style and authentic sound.

Dial in some reverb, crank up the distortion (edit: I like Crunch or Super Crunch for lots of energy and character) and play several bars of open G-D-A-A in a Rocky riff style, ending the final bar of that riff with an emphasised sustained E chord, and tell me then if you think there's any use for open chords in Rock. = ]

May not be to your generational taste, but a prime Classic Rock example, the rhythm guitar riff in "Satisfaction". Watch Brian Jones fretting hand in this clip, you can see he's playing open down the bottom of the neck. E-A-D or E-A-D/A. Inarguably rhythm for that song it sounds better/right down there too.

I'm about 3/4 the way through guitar fundementals 2. I'll be glad to get to the barre chord chapter finally! I already have plenty of practice on them so that should go smoothly.

I've been spending way too much time and energy obsessing on the "pinky G" open chord, that is...pinky on high E. It just doesn't work well for me. I can get my ring finger over to the high E string more quickly and accurately. But now the teacher, Lisa McCormick is teaching the open G sus4 chord. You have to use pinky G on that chord. She makes it look easy. But then, she looks to have some pretty meaty fingers. I don't want to use the small hand excuse (especially after I've seen little Asian girls playing Yngwie Malmsteen on a full size guitar), but there is just no flesh to my pinky finger, by the time I curve it on to the high E string, my nail hits the fretboard. If I file it anymore it will bleed.

Another thing, when she teaches these open chords, she always pulls out the acoustic guitar. For all I know her guitar might be easier to fret open chords on than mine. I have a Jackson Dinky superstrat. I bought it because I liked the neon orange color, it has a pointy headstock, and a Floyd Rose. All my favorite guitarists (such as EVH) played with Floyd Roses so I needed one too. BTW when he plays his triads, their partial chords on strings 2 - 4 and they sound great.

What I'm getting at is, I'm giving myself permission to skip the high E string, at least on a G sus4 chord. The rest of the open chords I'm all good on.

My goal in life is not to become a Gordon Lightfoot. My goal is to play hard rocking riffs like Unchained. I also want to become good at two-handed tapping, harmonics, use the whammy bar alot, pick slides...I love all all that fancy stuff.

Edit: It's great they let you edit you post so late. I found a good comprimise for an open G.

-Pinky on high E

-Middle finger on A

-Optional Index finger easily reaches B string for a G sus4

I guess I'm just thinking out loud here.

Well I finally got through Guitar Fundamentals 1 and 2, and moved on to the Rock lessons. The first chapter: "rockin' your open chords". I guess that answered my question! As I suspected though, you usually mute your 3rd interval when running a decent amount of gain. Although the A major works good with that extra 3rd.

By using 4 strings in these mostly power chords, they sound so rich and good. It takes some practice to mute unwanted strings though. My ring finger is callousing up real good. Soon I'll be able to whack all the strings without even looking, and that's when the style comes in...

Happy Holidays to you all, I hope 2021 is a productive guitar year for you all.

Matt

The chord progression for Pachelbel's Canon in D, I – V – VI – iii– IV – I – IV – V, is surprisingly common in rock music.[br][br]The chords in a major scale are:[br]I 1st chord: major.[br]ii 2nd chord: minor.[br]iii 3rd chord: minor.[br]IV 4th chord: major.[br]V 5th chord: major.