Very important question

griehund

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This has been bugging me for quite a while.

How many folks play first position G chord with index, second, and third finger?
And how many folks play it with second, third and pinky? :?:
 

Alan_M

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** correction***
2-3-4 for me. 8)
I totally spaced what I was typing to what I was thinking... growing old ..sigh
 

adorshki

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Almost always 2-3-4, due to my general philosphy of always trying to reserve index for barring, unless I'm trying to keep pinky available for another use.
Also kind of forces the rest of 'em to get more use, which enhances skill. I can use as much extra skill as I can get. :lol:
 

fronobulax

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griehund said:
This has been bugging me for quite a while.

How many folks play first position G chord with index, second, and third finger?
And how many folks play it with second, third and pinky? :?:

What's a G chord? Can you play one on bass? Would you want to? Would it sound much different from strumming all four open strings at once?
 

griehund

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fronobulax said:
griehund said:
This has been bugging me for quite a while.

How many folks play first position G chord with index, second, and third finger?
And how many folks play it with second, third and pinky? :?:

What's a G chord? http://www.chordbook.com/guitarchords.php

Can you play one on bass? I don't see why not :)

Would you want to? What the hey, I wasn't doing anything else this afternoon. :lol:


Would it sound much different from strumming all four open strings at once? You got me on that one. I don't know what it would sound like on bass. Doesn't seem like there's enough stringy thingies. :lol:
 

walrus

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Second, third, pinky. Depending on the song, I will add my ring finger to the B string. Those are two different chords, with two different sounds.

Here's another one - an E chord - I play it with the second, third, and fourth fingers, leaving the pinky free to do an E7 or something. But I've seen people who leave the second finger free and play it with the third, fourth, and pinky. I always wonder why, since the second finger can't be used for much.

But - there is usually more than one way to play any given guitar chord. Once you learn it a particular way, it is tough to change! As long as it sounds good! Sometimes I will finger a chord a different way to make it easier to get to the next one I am playing - it's all very fluid...

Griehund - why does it bug you?

walrus
 

Ravon

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Learned it 2 1 3 . But now depending on the song, I can pretty much switch it up.
 

griehund

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walrus said:
Second, third, pinky. Depending on the song, I will add my ring finger to the B string. Those are two different chords, with two different sounds.

Here's another one - an E chord - I play it with the second, third, and fourth fingers, leaving the pinky free to do an E7 or something. But I've seen people who leave the second finger free and play it with the third, fourth, and pinky. I always wonder why, since the second finger can't be used for much.

But - there is usually more than one way to play any given guitar chord. Once you learn it a particular way, it is tough to change! As long as it sounds good! Sometimes I will finger a chord a different way to make it easier to get to the next one I am playing - it's all very fluid...

Griehund - why does it bug you?

walrus

It doesn't bug me in an annoying sort of way, more like a curious sort of way. I've seen it done both ways and fell into the 2,3,4, habit cause I like to leave my first finger for barring and I can use it to box the C. I use the 3, 2, 1 C chord so I can add the 7 with my pinky. If I'm in E I can go both ways to either bar the A and B7 and use my pinky for effect or switch to the 3,2,1 and save my pinky to box the low E. When I see someone use the 2,1,3 G chord I always wonder where they're going and how they're going to get there. Always amazes me how many ways there are to do the same thing and make it sound so different. There's more than a half dozen ways to skin a post-mortem feline. :?
 

West R Lee

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And if you want to hammer the B string on the 1st fret with your index finger, the ring finger on the low E is the only way to do it. But the middle finger on the low e method slides nicely into some C shapes to me sometimes.

West
 

chazmo

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Oh, man. I love this stuff. G shapes are so much fun. I'm surprised no one's mentioned cheater thumb on low-E string, 3rd fret. My hands are too dang stubby to cheat much, though, plus I play mostly 12-string. :)
 

kitniyatran

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I use both the OP's positions, and sometimes throw the D in on the 2nd string, 3rd fret, also. I also use a few up the neck forms, as well.
 

evenkeel

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Short answer is it depends. On what came before, what is coming after and what is going on while playing the G. Sometimes all four fingers are in the mix with the ring finger on the "B" string. Sometimes pinky, ring and middle with the index adding some individual notes. The "Homeward Bound" refrain for example. Sometimes the index, middle and ring. And yes, sometimes the thumb wraps around and joins the fray.
 

dreadnut

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2nd, 3rd, pinky makes it easier to switch to "C", it also allows your fore finger to play Gsus.

This is probably a bad habit but on lots of songs I just use my thumb and middle finger to play the "G" and I mute the "A" string with my thumb. It's served me well for years.
 

Jahn

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I do it like this, using the pointer/middle/ring/pinky. then i use the ring/pinky as an anchor so my pointer and middle fingers can wander all over that area of the board to do fake Gs and Cs and Em7 or Am7 if i lift the ring and stuff.

G-chord.jpg
 
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