Small Suggestion for Chord Charts

Feel free to get outside the box here.
kpenhorwood
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Tue Mar 22, 2011 9:50 am

This is just a small suggestion but it would be helpful if you put chord diagrams in with your chord chart PDF. Of course the more I learn the less I will need this but some of these have chords I don't know and I end up drawing them by hand on the Chord Chart. Even a few blank guitar tab diagrams would work so we can fill out just what we don't know. I tried cutting and pasting my own blanks but the PDF is locked. again, very minor suggestion.


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TGNeil
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Wed Mar 23, 2011 9:56 pm

Hi Kevin,

Welcome to TG and thanks for the comments. As you may have guessed by now, the decision to leave diagrams off of the charts was conscious from the beginning. As you also figured, as you learn more they would become unnecessary. That is all part of our teaching philosophy. I encourage students to learn enough theory to understand chords and shapes so they are not dependent on bad transcriptions or tablature. This also helps to get you away from rote memorization of songs and into using your ears as part of your memory scheme.

Neil


unclewalt
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Wed Mar 23, 2011 10:33 pm

I would suggest investing in a good chord encyclopedia in print. Not only can you look up the common shapes until you have them memorized, but it helps you learn by showing all the alternate voicings, with which you can experiment -- for example by playing an otherwise easy song using different shapes up the neck. Or by throwing a sixth chord where a 7th would usually go, just to see how it sounds. Etc. I have one published by Alfred, authored by Steve Hall, that has a really nice primer on chord theory. Obviously, you shouldn't use it as a crutch -- just as you learn multiplication tables as a kid, the best thing is to memorize all the basic chords, and as many more complex ones as you can.

Also, there are lots of online chord directories, including ones with a "reverse" feature, where you can enter the shape and learn what chord it is. Some are good, some are crap. As a knowledgeable, eager-to-help fellow member, I would normally link to some of the better ones, but, well.... you should be able to dig through and find them on your own.


kpenhorwood
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Thu Mar 24, 2011 1:53 pm

Thanks for the replys. I do have a couple of good chord books/charts so I am set there.

I can understand your decision to leave them off and it makes more sense to me the longer and more lessons I go thru here. I ran into a lesson last night where you are teaching ear training as part of the lesson and found that such an interesting task. I really enjoy this site and forum very much. Thanks for all the good work.


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