Probably a dumb question on D/F# and D7/F#

[kpenhorwood]

So I pulled down a chord chart for "The Only Living Boy in New York" and the chart listed the chords D/F# and D7/F#. Excuse my ignorance as I am still trying to learn but these confused me because doesn't the D and D7 chords already have F# in them? Am I missing something or having a major brain freeze? Can someone help me as to what or how this would be played other than the standard D and D7 chords.

Again sorry if this is a dumb question....I really am trying to figure out the variations. I did get the C C/B C/A C/G run on my own.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Kevin

[kpenhorwood]

I probably should add that the song is capo'd at the 4th fret.....does that change things?

[suziko]

It's not a dumb question.

The backslash means that you play an F# as the bass note for those chords. Usually with a D chord, the open D is the bass note. With these two chords, you need to fret the F# (2nd fret, 6th string) and play it as part of the chord. So, for example with D/F# you play the F# on the 6th string with your 2nd finger, the A on the 3rd string with your 3rd finger and the D on the second string with your 4th finger. With D7/F# you play the F# on the 6th string with your 2nd finger, the A on the third string with your 3rd finger and the C on the second string with your 1st finger.

The capo doesn't change the shape of the chord. It just changes the key.

Let me know if that helps.


Suzi

[jayswett]

At the risk of getting my wrist slapped, I will cautiously add that another way to play the D/F# chord is to play a normal D chord, and wrap your thumb over the top to fret the 6th string, 2nd fret. There are times when this fingering is a bit easier. Having said that, it is definitely beneficial to become comfortable with both fingerings.

[kpenhorwood]

Okay, that makes sense then....so what you end up playing is F#, A, D, A, D, F# for the D chord. That is a way then to play all six strings with a D. For the D7 then you would play F#, A, D, A, C, F#. I didn't connect that the open A and D on the 5th and 4th strings were part of a D chord ( I know it was obvious) ......it makes total sense now.

Thanks for your help.

Kevin

[kpenhorwood]

Duh, it just hit me as I saw Jay's response. Neil covered this in his Free lesson for Free Bird on playing the D/F# with the thumb wrap. I didn't even think of it until I saw these posts.

Thanks everyone.

[Chasplaya]

Certainly not dumb, and Suzy is quite right with her explanation. Another way to play both these chords not always advocated by Neil but he does at times suggest this as an alternative is to use your thumb to hold down the F# on the 6th string and the other strings as you would normally. Neil doesn't generally recommend this as its not good practice to use your thumb like that as it pulls your hand under and round the neck thus making it more difficult to make subsequent chord changes. But if you watch people like Eric Clapton for example in Tears In Heaven he uses his thumb quite a bit on the 6th string. So not necessarily wrong but I guess you need to pick the right time to use it as such.

Edit; Duh Just saw Jays post...

[suziko]

You guys are totally right about the thumb wrap. In fact, I often do that for the D/F#, depending on how the chord change goes. Sorry about that. I didn't mean to imply there's only one fingering option

Suzi

[tgjameela]

Hi Kevin,

If I may, I'd like to add something as well, when playing this chord, mute the 5th string, the A. Using your thumb for the F# in the bass makes it not very possible. So for that you might wanna use your index as already suggested by Suzi. Although I do use my thumb for that one all the time, but when strumming you really need to avoid the 5th string. Pick the 6th string (on the first beat for example, that is if you wanna use your thumb) and continue strumming the other strings bút the 5th string.

Sure, an A is part of a D-chord, but you don't want to hear that one when playing a F# in the bass.

Hope that helps as well!

Cheers

Vanessa



kpenhorwood wrote:

Okay, that makes sense then....so what you end up playing is F#, A, D, A, D, F# for the D chord. That is a way then to play all six strings with a D. For the D7 then you would play F#, A, D, A, C, F#. I didn't connect that the open A and D on the 5th and 4th strings were part of a D chord ( I know it was obvious) ......it makes total sense now.

Thanks for your help.

Kevin

[michelew]

nesh16041972 wrote:

Hi Kevin,

If I may, I'd like to add something as well, when playing this chord, mute the 5th string, the A. Using your thumb for the F# in bass makes it not very possible. So for that you might wanna use your index as already suggested by Suzi. Although I do use my thumb for that one all the time, but when strumming you really need to avoid the 5th string. Pick the 6th string (on the first beat for example, that is if you wanna use your thumb) and continue strumming the other strings bút the 5th string.

Sure, an A is part of a D-chord, but you don't want to hear that one when playing a F# in the bass.

Hope that helps as well!

Cheers

Vanessa

[/quote]

I didn't know that about avoiding the open A. I figured it was safe as it's part of the chord I guess. So why don't you want to hear tha A here? Does it start to sound like a type of F# min chord?

So much to learn. I definitely need to start the theory again.

Ta

Michele