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The Em-chord
Find chord shapes
Some general comments on chord-voicings and
fingerings.
Too many guitarists think of chords as ways to place the fingers,
and not as a way to get good sounding harmonies. If you are just strumming the
chords, open chord voicings where you play all or almost all strings may be a
good choice. To get access to more chords, you supplement with
barré-chords. For rhythm guitar, particulary electric rhythm guitar,
barré chords will often be a better choice left-hand damping is easier.
But still you need to know how to play one chord in more than one position, to
facilitate smooth chord changes. (You do not want to jump up and down between
3rd and 10th every time you chage a chord. Three-, four and five note voicings
may not work very well in this context. You have to be very precise with your
picking hand and/or be able to damp out the strings you do not want to play,and
it requires som control. Skip-string voicings requirese precise damping, and
are generally not a good choice.
If you are playing solos and chords, you should always know how to
play the chord you are soloing over, close to where you are playing the solo.
It makes it easier to get home if you are about to get lost in a solo. For more
sophisticated fingerpicking, chord soloing and bass-line + chord style playing,
it is crucial to know may chords. You should be able to play the right chord
over any bass-note played anywhere on the neck, or you should be able to play
the melody on top of any seqence of chords. The good chord-soloists play
bass-lline, chords and melody – and they even improvise in that style. For
this playing you need to know how to voice the chord with the right bass-note
at the bottom and the right melody-note on top, without compromizing a
sophisticated harmonic structure. Then the skip-string voicings maight become
very handy, in addition to the other chords.
If you find some of the fingerings too difficult (they are all
playable – I have tried all chords on these pages), go here
for some tips on how to work your way around the problems.
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| Voicing: 1-5-1-3-5-1 |
Voicing:
3-5-1-3-5-1 |
Voicing:
1-5-1-3-5-3 |
| The basic Em. You should notice
the relation with the Middle
minor shape. |
Just four different
fingerings of the same chord. It is the Partial
F-shape on the bottom three strings. |
Again two alternative
fingerings for the same chord. |
For a discussion of open Em chords, go to Open Chords -
The Basics - Em
Back to the top
Back to the top
Closed chord positions
(play only fretted notes)
Em is the most open of all
basic triads, as you have chord notes on four strings: 6, 5, 2 and 1. You can
in fact get a full Em chord by playing the top three strings open, and
you can add the bass-root on the open 1st string. You can of course use all
these open strings as you play Em positions up the neck. |
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| Voicing: 3-5-1-x-x-x |
Voicing: x-5-1-x-x-3 |
| Just four different fingerings of the
same chord. It is the Partial
F-shape on the bottom three strings. |
Again two alternative fingerings for the
same chord. |
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| Voicing: x-x-1-5-x-3 |
Voicing: x-x-x-5-1-3
Alternative fingerings. |
Voicing: x-x-1-5-1-3 |
Voicing:
x-x-3-5-1-x |
| Notice how all the chords
in this group, and the first two in the next group are derived from the D-minor
shape. You can also see how this shape connects with the D7-shape
on strings 4,3 and 2. |
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| Voicing: x-x-x-1-3-5 |
Voicing:
x-x-5-1-3-5 |
Voicing: x-1-x-x-3-5 |
Voicing: x-1-5-x-3-x |
Voicing: x-1-5-1-3-x |
Voicing: 5-3-5-1-x-x |
| The F-shape
creates a minor chord in first
inversion when played on the three top strings. |
The F-shape
with an added 5th on the 4th string. You can of course see how it relates to
the E/Am-shape. |
Two skip-string voicings
derived from the same basic form. |
Here the root on the 3rd string is
added. |
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| Voicing: x-x-5-1-3-x |
Voicing: x-3-5-1-x-x |
Voicing: x-3-5-1-3-x |
| The basic form, which is
the E/Am-shape |
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This could be a visual
illustration of the relationship with the C6
chord |
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| Voicing: 1-3-5-x-x-x |
Voicing: x-x-x-3-5-1 (1.
inv) |
Voicing: x-3-x-3-5-1
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Voicing: x-3-5-3-5-1 |
| The Bottom minor
shape |
This is the A-shape
moved across to the top three strings. Note that this is the open top three
strings moved up one octave. |
This is the same as the
previous, but with a third added in the bass. |
And here we add the fifth on the
4th string. |
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| Voicing:
x-x-1-3-5-x |
Voicing:
x-5-1-3-x-x |
Voicing: 1-x-x -3-5-x |
Voicing: 1-5-x-3-x-x |
| These are all fractions of
the Fm-shape barré chord. But in there you also see the Top Major
shape and the Middle
minor shape. Notice the relation with the basic open Em
chord. |
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