Printable Version of Topic

Click here to view this topic in its original format

GMC Forum _ PRACTICE ROOM _ Making Acoustic Chords Sound More Interesting

Posted by: disquisingmistakes Nov 12 2007, 12:21 PM

hello everyone. ive been playing guitar for about 3 years now. not super good, but i know how to do pretty much...i love writing music, mostly for acoustic guitar because unfortunatly i dont know many people to play with. but like everything i write sounds so generic and dull and empty. bar chords in standard tuning sound so generic, im tired of writing stuff in G because thats the only key i can make stuff sound good in. like how do other bands make their acousic stuff sounds so interesting and full? do they use down tuning for most of it? and if they do is there anything on here about writing stuff in dropped D or Eb? becuase im pretty clueless how to follow the right keys with dropped tuning. i would really appreciate being enlightened to this alittle more. im tired of my music sounding so generic. thank you guys so much!

-james

Posted by: Hardtail Nov 12 2007, 01:44 PM

I'm no expert at writing music but I started on the acoustic and have enjoyed playing it my entire guitar "career".

Some things I can suggest:

1) Practice using a little Arpeggio blended in with the chord changes. Sometime it can be real simple and other times more complicated. All play styles use this to some extent.

2) Practice variants of chords. A good chord chart or website or GMC is a great place to try out different chords. Acoustics can really sing when using variants. What I mean by that is that for some reason it is easier to distinguish variants on an acoustic than it is on an electric a lot of times. Below is a variant sample in the key of E:

E-A-B chord progression changed to a Eno3-A2-Bsus. Played open it sounds real cool.

Hope that helps a little.

Hardtail

Posted by: disquisingmistakes Nov 12 2007, 01:49 PM

QUOTE (Hardtail @ Nov 12 2007, 07:44 AM) *
I'm no expert at writing music but I started on the acoustic and have enjoyed playing it my entire guitar "career".

Some things I can suggest:

1) Practice using a little Arpeggio blended in with the chord changes. Sometime it can be real simple and other times more complicated. All play styles use this to some extent.

2) Practice variants of chords. A good chord chart or website or GMC is a great place to try out different chords. Acoustics can really sing when using variants. What I mean by that is that for some reason it is easier to distinguish variants on an acoustic than it is on an electric a lot of times. Below is a variant sample in the key of E:

E-A-B chord progression changed to a Eno3-A2-Bsus. Played open it sounds real cool.

Hope that helps a little.

Hardtail


thanks ill have to check out one of those charts somewhere. maybe ill get some sort of inspiration. lol...

Posted by: Resurrection Nov 12 2007, 04:37 PM

QUOTE (Hardtail @ Nov 12 2007, 12:44 PM) *
2) Practice variants of chords. A good chord chart or website or GMC is a great place to try out different chords. Acoustics can really sing when using variants. What I mean by that is that for some reason it is easier to distinguish variants on an acoustic than it is on an electric a lot of times. Below is a variant sample in the key of E:

E-A-B chord progression changed to a Eno3-A2-Bsus. Played open it sounds real cool.
Hardtail



This is good advice. Acoustic playing is great for experimenting with chord variations.

Powered by Invision Power Board (http://www.invisionboard.com)
© Invision Power Services (http://www.invisionpower.com)