10 Ways to Play the Most Beautiful Open Chord Shapes
A great way to make your chord progressions and songs sound awesome is to use open chord shapes.
I always love to use these chords to add some flavor to my chord progressions. One of my favorite chords is Fsus2.That chord has got the whole package for me. It’s sounds beautiful, gentle, tight, cool and rough at the same time.
When you move an open chord up the neck the name of the chord changes and the chord gets extended with 1 or 2 notes. This way you can get beautiful sounds.
While you can play barre chords at any fret on the fingerboard, open chords can only be played at certain frets. If you play them at the right frets they sound amazing, if you don’t… well they just sound terrible. So be careful.
Because of all the extended chord names I didn’t bother to name every single one of them. That’s not the point here.
It’s all about incorporating these chords into your songs and chord progressions, putting your creativity to the test, experimenting with all the possibilities, replacing some basic chords for these extraordinary ones, learning to hear what sounds right and what feels good.
Check out the youtubes Part I, II & III and the corresponding Chord fingerings below.
Have a great time!
Here is an example of how to read the chords below:
E = eadgbe (the strings from left to right)
E = 022100 (the numbers indicate where to put your fingers on the fret)
E string = 0 – you play an open string. (no fingers on the fret)
A string = 2 – put your finger on the 2nd fret.
D string = 2 – put your next finger on the 2nd fret.
G string = 1 – put your next finger on the 1st fret.
B string = 0 – you play an open string. (no fingers on the fret)
E string = 0 – you play an open string. (no fingers on the fret)
1 – Open chords in the key of E
022100
2×2200
4×4400
577600
799800
9×9900
11×11 11 00
0 14 14 13 0 0
2 – Open chords in the key of E (different approach)
022100
x44200
x66400
x77600
x99800
x11 11 9 00
x12 13 11 00
0 14 14 13 00
3 – E chord shapes
022100
133200
355400
577600
799800
8 10 10 900
10 12 12 11 00
4 – C shapes
x32010
x54030
x10 9080
5 – D shapes
xx0232
xx0454
xx0565
xx0787
xx09 10 9
xx0 10 11 10
xx0 12 13 12
xx0 14 15 14
6 – Open chords in the key of A
x02020
x04030
x05050
x07070
x09080
x0 11 0 10 0
x0 12 0 12 0
x0 14 0 14 0
7 – Fsus2 shapes
x33011
x55033
x10 10 088
8 – F#m7(11) shapes
2×2200
4×4400
5×5500
7×7700
9×9900
10×10 10 00
12×12 12 00
9 – Bb triad shapes
xx0331
xx0553
xx0775
xx0997
xx0 10 10 8
xx0 12 12 10
xx0 14 14 12
10 – Dmaj7sus2 shapes
xx0220
xx0550
xx0770
xx0990
xx0 10 10 0
xx0 12 12 0
xx0 14 14 0
A great way to make your chord progressions and songs sound awesome is to use open chord shapes.
I always love to use these chords to add some flavor to my chord progressions. One of my favorite chords is Fsus2.That chord has got the whole package for me. It’s sounds beautiful, gentle, tight, cool and rough at the same time.
10 Ways to Play the Most Beautiful Open Chord Shapes
When you move an open chord up the neck the name of the chord changes and the chord gets extended with 1 or 2 notes. This way you can get beautiful sounds.
While you can play barre chords at any fret on the fingerboard, open chords can only be played at certain frets. If you play them at the right frets they sound amazing, if you don’t… well they just sound terrible. So be careful.
Because of all the extended chord names I didn’t bother to name every single one of them. That’s not the point here.
It’s all about incorporating these chords into your songs and chord progressions, putting your creativity to the test, experimenting with all the possibilities, replacing some basic chords for these extraordinary ones, learning to hear what sounds right and what feels good.
Check out the youtubes Part I, II & III and the corresponding Chord fingerings below.
Have a great time!
10 Ways to Play the Most Beautiful Open Chord Shapes
10 Ways to Play the Most Beautiful Open Chord Shapes
Here is an example of how to read the chords below:
E = eadgbe (the strings from left to right)
E = 022100 (the numbers indicate where to put your fingers on the fret)
E string = 0 – you play an open string. (no fingers on the fret)
A string = 2 – put your finger on the 2nd fret.
D string = 2 – put your next finger on the 2nd fret.
G string = 1 – put your next finger on the 1st fret.
B string = 0 – you play an open string. (no fingers on the fret)
E string = 0 – you play an open string. (no fingers on the fret)
1 – Open chords in the key of E
022100
2×2200
4×4400
577600
799800
9×9900
11×11 11 00
0 14 14 13 0 0
2 – Open chords in the key of E (different approach)
022100
x44200
x66400
x77600
x99800
x11 11 9 00
x12 13 11 00
0 14 14 13 00
3 – E chord shapes
022100
133200
355400
577600
799800
8 10 10 900
10 12 12 11 00
4 – C shapes
x32010
x54030
x10 9080
5 – D shapes
xx0232
xx0454
xx0565
xx0787
xx09 10 9
xx0 10 11 10
xx0 12 13 12
xx0 14 15 14
6 – Open chords in the key of A
x02020
x04030
x05050
x07070
x09080
x0 11 0 10 0
x0 12 0 12 0
x0 14 0 14 0
7 – Fsus2 shapes
x33011
x55033
x10 10 088
8 – F#m7(11) shapes
2×2200
4×4400
5×5500
7×7700
9×9900
10×10 10 00
12×12 12 00
9 – Bb triad shapes
xx0331
xx0553
xx0775
xx0997
xx0 10 10 8
xx0 12 12 10
xx0 14 14 12
10 – Dmaj7sus2 shapes
xx0220
xx0550
xx0770
xx0990
xx0 10 10 0
xx0 12 12 0
xx0 14 14 0
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