Guitar player's question...

Ok, here's a pretty specific question. I ask here because I don't have an account at any guitar forums or anything. So the question is, is it ok to form power chords (3 chord power chords ala polly) using only my first and 3rd finger? I know a lot of people use their 1st finger for the top string, then their ring and pinky for the below 2 strings. So, whats the best way? and if I should chooose to keep on doin it my way, will there be any problems in the future?

 

I wouldn't worry too much about it brother. Just do whatever you feel most comfortable with. As long as you are sounding all the correct strings, and only the correct ones, you should be fine. I do it both ways, depending on the chord change really. If you find it becomes a problem, it should be a pretty easy switch to make. I don't know how helpful that was, but I hope you gained something at least What kind of music do you play?


Peace

 

Yeah thanks for the info. man. I play most anything (thats within my range at least, hehe). I can play a couple floyd songs, several nirvana songs, a bunch of stuff by modest mouse, "patterns in the ivy" by opeth, and a few other random songs/riffs that i've picked up. Been playin for about 5 months or so.

 

Hah, i wanna get to the point where I can improv. well though...I can make up some stuff that sounds decent, but i have virtually no knowledge of scales and stuff so that doesn't exactly help. Hey, just saw you're from chicagoland...what town do you live in?

 

yeah, it may cause you some problems. i dont know the names of most chords and stuff as i taught myself, but there are chords that are like power chords, but you use your middle finger to press the string below on the fret in between your other fingers (hmm...am i making sense).
maybe the tab below will help...


e--3-------------
a--5-------------
d--5-------------
g--4-------------
b---------------
e---------------

sorry if that was confuzzling...or even just irrelevant!

 

what surfingdreamer just put there is an example of a major chord, which is best done by using the index on the low E, and ring and pinky on the next two and then the middle finger for the g string.

i myself use my thumb for the low E. then ring for the A string, pinky underneath that.
i use the middle finger for major chords, but otherwise i barre the rest with my index finger. This makes it easy to switch in some lead stuff on the higher strings, while still in the same key as the power chord you were just playing.

make sense?

Peace

 

Um, maybe best drawn out...
A major chord (compare with E chord)
----5----- (thumb used)
----7----- (ring finger)
----7----- (pinky)
----6----- (middle)
----5----- (index)
----5----- (index)

A minor chord
----5---- (thumb again)
----7---- (ring)
----7---- (pinky)
----5----
----5---- (all index finger)
----5----

and from there, with the index finger barred on the 5th fret, you can bring your other fingers up to the high strings for lead parts.

hope it makes sense, and helps.

Peace

 

I'm in the Palatine/Schaumburg area. I'm not great at improvising either, but I can jam with some blues stuff. What town are you in?

Peace

 

do what is comfortable, with the chords rob showed i just bar straight across with my index and dont bother w/ my thumb

 

use your pinky where you normally use your third. it may seem like a hassle now, but it will save you a lot of grief in the future. if it turns into a habit, it'll be a bitch to get rid of.

 

You could do basic powerchords such as

e--2------
a--4------
d--4------
g---------
b---------
e---------

with two fingers, but it would just be less comfortable.

 

Thanks for the help everyone...

To Ilovemyguitar, I live in carol Stream...I'm about 20 mins from schaumburg.

 

That's cool, we should get together and jam sometime man.

Peace

 

Yeah, fo shizzle...pm me or somethin w/you addy or ill give you mine to see how far/close you are.

 

I've played using just index and ring finger for power chords a long time and it sucked because when i tried to learn new chords my pinky wasnt ready and not used to being there so i played much slower like that. i reccomend doing it with the pinky from the beginning.

 

Why the hell does everyone seem to live in Chicago. Nobody lives in Eastern Virginia.

 

Pssh...eastern virginia. Everybody knows that chicago is where it's at.


Ok, here's round 2 for this topic!

Something else I haven't really been sure about is for example if I were to play:

----0-----
----0-----
----7-----
----7-----
----5-----
----0-----

How acceptable is it to strum wildly and hit the adjacent strings (that aren't being used) like if you're naturally muting them? I know that sometimes it's ok, if you're playing kinda sloppy and quick i guess, but for the most part should you only try to hit the strings you're playing? It just seems so much harder to play very fast and with good rythm just aiming and "swooping down on" the 2 or 3 strings i wanna hit.

 

My Uncle Denny lives in Virginia Thought I'm not sure how comforting that is for you. Just move to Chicago.

Peace

 

Robowalker, I think that is a practice issue. The more you play, the more comfortable you will be just hitting those 3 strings. The chords will sound best with just those 3 strings played, but if you are playing loud it will not usually be noticable that you are hitting muted strings. One thing though, I would make sure that on a chord like that (a d power chord) not to play the low E string, that just wouldnt sound good at all.
In my experience, anyways.
Peace

 

dude, don't let anyone tell you how you're supposed to play guitar. correct or incorrect fingerings, correct or incorrect notes...who cares. don't listen to any of that. just play the music the way you want to play it. hold the notes the way you want to, play the notes the way you want to. nothing's wrong as long as it sounds good to you.