any guitarists out there?

[steppemum]

Hi, I play the guitar reasonably competantly. For songs I know I can play them pretty well. But I recognise the limits of my ability!

I go to a big church which has music lead by a band with keyboard, guitar and drums. I do not play at all in this church. Years ago, I used to lead similar in a small church with guitar and if lucky, a drummer, or another guitar etc.

I will shortly be helping out a small church leading their music some sundays. I am practising to get back up to speed, but I tend to get caught out by tricky bar chords in the middle of songs.

C#m being one!
F#m I can just manage, but I forget the difference between F#m and F#m7 at speed. Is it Ok to play F#m when it says F#m7?

I have very little music theory background.
I play by reading the music/chord chart (I can read proper sheet music well) and I have not the foggiest about chord families and chord progression etc.

is there an easy way to work out an alternative chord and if it is Ok?
So if there is a random C#m in a song, is there an easy way to see if there is an easier chord?

second question. I was watching a song on youtube recently and the song was written in bflat, and he used capo on second and then used G chords. Is that always true of a bflat song? If I used the same chord set, could I change any bflat song using capo and G chords? So song is at t pitch, but avoiding b flat chords?

Third question - Is it Ok to play the straight version of any chord, rather than the fancy version
eg D instead of Dsus4
B instead of B7
E instead of Esus?

I can do some, but not all.

Thanks!

there must be someone out there who plays the guitar!

trying again - any guitarists?

Only been playing a couple of years so no expert here, but I'd say..try out the songs and see how they sound! A D won't sound quite as nice as a Dsus4 if needed but you can probably get away with it! Some though like the B/B7..not so sure!

Also..have a look on Ultimate Guitar. www.ultimate-guitar.com/ as they have so many song on there and you may find the worship ones. They show the chords and if you hover over them they show multiple different ways to achieve each one, so often there is simpler fingering.

Or here www.jamplay.com/tools/guitar-chords/1-standard/3-c/38-minor for some varied fingerings!

I share your pain..some barre chords are just awkward!

thanks, I'll check out those sites.

The most frustrating thing is to get one random chord in anotherwise playable song, eg the C#M, just once at the beginning of the chorus.and I just can't learn it to change quickly enough when it is so little used. If I could just play an alternative suddenly that song becomes totally accessible.

I know I don't have a good ear, so i don't trust my ability to see if it soudns right. I can tell if it is ritgh off/out, but some I think are ok really aren't!

I can't answer the guitar stuff as I am no guitarist I'm afraid. But I am a musician (classically trained) so I can cover the F#m7 issue. Playing without the 7 would technically not cause a dissonance, but you will lose something quite integral to the flow of the music. The 7 is very often used as a progression into the next chord - a dissonance that will then be resolved when you move on. So will it sound wrong? Not necessarily. Will it be missing something? Absolutely, and it may be obvious to listeners that you're missing the 7 if they're sensitive to such resolutions.

I'd suggest you just practice over and over and over until you've got the F#m7 down. It'll come, you'll be grand! One day you'll wonder how you ever found it a challenge :)

See this guy www.worshiptutorials.com
He has a free beginners guitar course which covers all the chords and for ones like f# major he gives alternative fingering so you don't have to do a barre chord. He's also got loads of free vids on YouTube and covers strumming patterns too.

Neither F#m7 not C#m are difficult chords to play - no different to the other chords when you started learning.

You can always transpose the songs to a different key or use a capo but i do tend to regard that as cheating

For playing on the fly, power chords are your friends.

They don't contain the note that defines major or minor tonality and they get you used to barring - all you need to know is where the root note is and the number of frets over (2 or 3 depending on the register/high or low power chords) to put your middle and ring fingers.

Reading TAB might help you speed up, too (it tells you which fret to put your fingers on each string), as will learning your barre shapes - A minor shape, C shape, etc - when you want to develop your playing, as all you do is shift the shape (with a barre or capo) up the neck - so an A minor becomes a B flat/A#min up one fret, then Bmin, then C, or an F becomes F#/Gflat, then G, then G#/Aflat, then A, etc, etc.

But, above all, practice!

Thanks everyone, lots of helpful points there.
I know that the 7 chords do sound better. For me at the moment for some songs it is going to be a case of sing the song without it, which is OK but less good, and try and learn it to put in later, or not sing the song. Generally this is not a performance, and once people are off and singing, I could probably stop playing and they wouldn't notice! This is about making it possible to sing. (and doing the best job I can)

candles - both are barre chords, and the C#M in particular is several frets down, and metal string guitar, that is a challenge!
I've been playing for years, and when I was a new guitarist, an older guitarist encouraged me to do proper barre chords and not 'cheat' which I have always done, but I do find those ones harder, mainly just harder to do a quick change to.
I am rusty, and practicing every day, but my fingers are not as nimble as they were 10 years ago, and I've forgotten a lot. I need to be up to speed by september, so I am balancing what is doable with where I can short cut. The aim is to get better over time, but I want to be able to be as felxible as possible from day one.

I do sometimes use a capo, but I don't think it ever sounds as good. I rarely transpose, as it tends to make the songs the wrong singing pitch (apart from those I deliberately transpose to make them easier to sing!) Dh is really good at transposing, his musical knowledge is better than mine, but he has never been able to strum!

Mitz - that is the sort of thing I really need to know but have never managed to get!
You said reading TAB - sorry I haven't a clue what that means! Can you explain. I think learning what the chords are as they move frets sounds really helpful.

I am totally self taught, learnt 28 years ago and used it a lot for about 15 years, and almost not at all for the last 10. There are huge gaos in my knowledge, as you can see!

candles - both are barre chords, and the C#M in particular is several frets down, and metal string guitar, that is a challenge!

I know! But, honestly, it is just practise.

They're actually easier to play on a steel string guitar, if anything, because the neck is narrower and the action lower.

If you can play Bm, you can play C#m - it's the same chord but on the 4th fret. F#m7 has one less finger than F#m. If you can play F (as a barre chord) you can play F#m7.

Another here echoing the advice to practise. That really is the key to it. Neither of the chords with which you have difficulty are out of the ordinary and with practice you should be able to change to them seamlessly. Another possibility would be to use different inversions which you may find easier. Years ago I bought a book of chords; there are hundreds in there and I use it as a sort of reference book when I get stuck with anything new or unfamiliar.

Another thought: when I was taught chords, my teacher suggested playing only the top 4 strings. That way you can avoid barre chords until your wrist strengthens. The chords don’t sound so full (obviously) but you may find it helps.

TAB. If this formats correctly;

The highest pitch string
E------------
B------------
G------------
D------------
A------------
E------------
The lowest pitch string.

E--x----------
B--x----------
G--x----------
D--5----------
A--5----------
E--3----------

Means put a finger on fret 3 of the low E string and one on fret 5 of the A and the D, playing them together. Do not play the other strings.

This is a G5 or power chord. This will fit where Gm, G and any variation is required because it has no specific tonality. You can move this all the way up the neck to get other chords. And you can do the same spacing with the root note on the A string as well, which gives you easy access to a chord that fits anywhere from A-G in two places, one on the low E, one on the A.

Other help in reading TAB is available online. But this is enough to start with.

Tbf, though, power chords aren't right for most music precisely because of their ambiguity.

The real answer is to practise the chords you need to play. It's actually harder to try and play the E, A and D strings without touching the G, B and E strings.