Question:
Are these G chords? Why the added notes?
?
2014-01-28 16:15:44 UTC
Reading the tablautre online for Tonight, Tonight by The Smashing Pumpkins and the intro is written as followed:

||-------||----------------- |-------------------|
||---0-0-||*-0--------------|------3-(3)--3-----|
||---0-0-||--0--------------|0--0-0-(0)--0-----|
||---0-0-||--0--0-0-0-0-0-0-|-0--0-0-(0)--0-0-0-|
||---2-2-||*-2--2-2-2-2-2-2-|-3--3-3-(3)--3-2-2-|
||---3-3-||--3--3-3-3-3-3-3-|-3--3-3-(3)--3-3-3-|


Are these G Chords? Why the extra notes? And missing notes? I've only been playing for about a year and a bit on and off but I usually just play easy power chords. It's to my understanding that the G chord is written as

3
0
0
0
2
3

Could anyone help me out? Still a relatively new player! Thanks!
Three answers:
cnewshadow
2014-01-28 23:33:48 UTC
This might come as a surprise to you (in fact, it probably will), but there is more than one way to play pretty much every chord on a guitar.



It might help you to understand what a chord actually IS first.



A chord is the 1st, 3rd, and 5th note of the major scale the chord takes its name from.



Since you are familiar with G, I'll use that as my example.



The first note of the G major scale is G. That's the root note, or the note the chord is named for. The third note is B. And the 5th note is D.



So a G major chord is G,B, and D played together and NO other notes.



"But, cnewshadow, I'm playing all 6 strings, so there are more than 3 notes!"



Nope, look again. The 3rd fret of your low E is sounding a G. The second fret of the A is sounding a B. Then you have the 3 open strings. What strings are those? D, G, and B. All notes found in a G major chord. The 3rd fret of your high E is also sounding a G.



So, when you play all 6 strings with your fingers on those frets you are playing, in order: G, B, D, G, B, G. You're playing all 6 strings, but you're repeating the same 3 notes.



Now, you don't NEED to play the high E for it to be a G major chord. You already have all 3 of the notes you need without it.



So, your tablature is telling you to play a G chord, it just omits the high E string from it. The next chord is Gsus4. Remember how I said a chord is the 1st, 3rd, and 5th note of the scale? Well, I fibbed a little because I didn't want to confuse you with too much at once. You can replace notes in chords with other notes. In this case (Gsus4), we are replacing the 3rd note of the scale with the 4th note. The sus4 means "suspended 4th".



The third one is a G chord as well. Only instead of dropping just the high E, it drops BOTH E strings. That chord is sounding BDGB.



So, to sum it up, there isn't ONE correct way to play a chord. As long as you are sounding all the notes you need to form the chord, it is a correct version of that chord.
Marcus R
2014-01-28 23:20:22 UTC
They are actually all G chords, you just have a few variations. Some have more open notes but they are playing the same notes. The only one that is different is the 33003/33000 it is actually a Gsus chord. A Gsus or G suspended chord is taking the normal G chord G B D also known as the root(G) 3rd(B) and 5th(D) and then taking the 3rd and raising it up a half step(one fret) to the 4th which in this case is C so a Gsus chord would be G C D
LoreleiTheUnicorn
2014-01-28 18:35:17 UTC
FINNICK ODAIR!


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
Loading...