C Chord my way

allan

One man one life make the best of what you have
Joined
Aug 31, 2017
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131
Location
Stoke on Trent UK
well for many years l have played the C chord like in the diagram l have been told many times ITS WRONG l try to explain the not on the e string is a G which is ok. but some folk still say l am wrong. I also find it much easier to play this way. would like your thoughts l know l am old but its never to later to learn (mind you in thinking l will still stick to tit). OH yes l play the E sting with my pinky

Screen Shot 2017-10-28 at 13.40.37 by Allan Sharman, on Flickr

regards
allan
 
Well, the notes are all the right ones, but it is an inversion of the C chord. The proper name would be C/G rather than simply C :)
 
thanks for that its the way l have always played it but l will remember that now
thanks
allan
 
The above is correct. I think of it this way; our brains are conditioned into thinking of the root as being that first big bass note we hear and in this case you are changing the root to a G. Why do we teach people to play a C chord without the 6th string? It's an E. It's legal in the chord. But it sounds lousy because it isn't the root. It sounds fine on the other end (high E) because you brain has already heard the root C.
 
Playing the C chord with the G fretted on the low E string is indeed a C/G, as Michael_DK stated. The main reason it works better than an open low E string (i..e C/E) is because the G is the 5th of the root C, and it is more harmonious to the ear than the E, which is a 3rd. Using 3rd notes at a higher pitch than the root seems to be more palatable to our sense of musicality, although there are times when messing around with the minor discordance of a 3rd, 2nd, or 6th below can get you really interesting sonic landscapes, especially if the guitar/pedals/amp are "just right".

Forgive me for the mildly non-PRS content. A really good example I heard recently was in an interview with Steven Wilson (a huge PRS player, so some element of PRS content! He is the reason I got into PRS!) who uses a Tele on his most recent album: he was in the studio wanting to write something, and all his "regular" guitars (i.e. the PRSi) and amps were still packed up from the recent tour, and all he had was an inexpensive Tele and H&K Tubemeister 5 laying about. He messed around with some chords that would very likely have sounded awful on a humbucker guitar through his usual Bad Cat amp, but on the tele through the H&K it had just the right "clarity" to allow the discordance to shine, as it were.

Here's the interview on Youtube, explained around the 5 minute mark:

 
Right, C/G. If you play the "normal" C chord, you really should mute the low E string. You are not alone Allan, I use this version of the C chord the a majority of the time!
 
I was taught to play C this way back when I were a kid, but the logic was to get us using all 4 fingers from the start. Similarly we were taught to play E7 as 022130, A7 as x02223 (no barring either!), and although we only played G with three fingers (320003) those fingers were middle, ring and pinky.
As has been said above the C/G (C 2nd inversion) sounds pretty good, and much more stable than the 1st inversion C/E, but it is an inversion so sometimes won’t work as well as a plain C. (If you have a bass player and he plays the C you can do what you like!)
 
Playing the C chord with the G fretted on the low E string is indeed a C/G, as Michael_DK stated. The main reason it works better than an open low E string (i..e C/E) is because the G is the 5th of the root C, and it is more harmonious to the ear than the E, which is a 3rd. Using 3rd notes at a higher pitch than the root seems to be more palatable to our sense of musicality, although there are times when messing around with the minor discordance of a 3rd, 2nd, or 6th below can get you really interesting sonic landscapes, especially if the guitar/pedals/amp are "just right".

Really good points you're making here :)

In general, 5ths and 4ths are the least disharmoneous intervals (apart from octaves), so the G is realtively safe intervals (depending on what other guys in the band are playing under the C chord!). Well, disharmoneous is maybe not the tight word. Tension is a better word, I think - "small" intervals want to move to resolution. And the further you are from the root, the less tension, generally.
 
well it may not be the root and l do get what you are saying but at the end of the day its still a G note and to be honest l really don't think it matters well not to me but then again l am just a guy who likes to have fun with his guitar I am not interested in going out to perform l am more than happy to play when l want to for my own enjoyment
but l do want to thank you guy
regards
allan
 
That fingering is simply a different inversion of the "C" cowboy chord that every new guitar player learns. C/G denotes that the G is played as the bass note. It's just another choice, and that's one of the wonderful things about playing guitar. If it sounds good, it is good.

The people who say it's "wrong" need to loosen up a bit.
 
I didn't read any of us saying it was wrong. I think we were just saying why it isn't the standard C chord. I agree with those saying play it any way you want to. Nobody told Hendrix he was playing it wrong!
 
well thank you all so much hope l have not ruffled anyone feathers I dare not put how l play the F chord lol
all the best
allan
 
In the context of a band (and especially in the context of a 3-piece band), expanding your chords is highly recommended. Playing with another guitarist demands that you differentiate, but when you’re the sole source, adding bass notes and/or octaves can fill up the tonal space. What’s right is what works for you or the song.
 
well l have played like that since 1959 I went for music lesson with a guy called Professor Billington here in stoke on trent UK and it was him that told me how to do it besides when you go to the F chord its just a matter of rolling your fingers over. at the age of 70 l don't think l will be changing now lol
all the best
allan
 
It's weird how changing some chords can be easy, and others difficult.

I've always played the second-position D chord one way - index finger on the second fret, third string; ring finger, third fret, second string; middle finger, second fret, first string. With the occasional pinky grabbing the F# on the fourth string. I've seen people play that form two different ways - one with a half-barre on the second fret, the other the same as mine but with the index and middle fingers reversed. The latter form makes some sense for doing some pull-offs and hammer-ons, but I can't get my fingers to do it for anything.

The G chord I always played middle finger on the low G, index on the low B, three open strings, ring on the high G. Then I saw someone playing that but with the ring finger on the D on the second string, pinky on the high G. So I tried that. Now I have trouble going back to the way I used to play it - the four-finger version is now an instinctual move.

Goofy.
 
yeah l have played it like that too think the hardest for me is the B chord unless l go lower down the neck, all to do with my fingers and my bone condition
 
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