Friday Five

[ericcoleman]

I'll have my Friday Five up in the morning ... but ... if there is anything you would like to know my top five on, let me know.

Oh, and as you may have noticed, I do tend to be a little confrontational about my choices, expect this to continue. The next 4 or 5 will be music, and I do take that very seriously.

Comments

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Since I do use more than 5 chords (though not necessarily all in one song), and we write VERY different songs, I must conclude that your conclusion is incorrect.

So, what ARE your 5 top songwriting tricks?

[ericcoleman]

I really don't have any. I use G, C, D and Em for most of my songs. If not then it's Em, A, D, with no 4th chord generally. The only real trick is that I capo to get different keys. I do voice the C oddly occasionally, and that voicing is

|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|1|_|_|_|
|_|2|_|_|3|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|

Which is a Cadd9 something since the Cadd9 is actually

|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|1|_|_|_|
|_|2|_|_|3|4|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|_|

Everyone uses pretty much the same chords, and we all sound different. It's how you play them more than what the chords are.

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Or a CM7-something. The CM7 has just the 1 and the 2.

Your Cadd9 reminds me of what Art and I call the Indigo Girls' G, which I have been told is actually not a "G-something", just an alternate G fingering:
___________
|_|_|_|_|_|
|_*_|_|_|_|
*_|_|_|_*_*
|_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|

Sometimes I pick this one over the regular G for the sound, but sometimes I pick it for ease of quick fingering from the D--keeping one finger down can help tired fingers go exactly where they need to.

There's other chords with more than one fingering, like Am7. (I love minor 7ths. They almost taste like dark chocolate.):
___________ ___________ ___________
|_|_|_|_*_| |_|_|_|_*_| |_|_|_|_*_|
|_|_*_*_|_| |_|_*_|_|_| |_|_*_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_* |_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_*
|_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_| |_|_|_|_|_|

You can similarly get two different A7s, one of which sounds a lot darker than the other. Two E7s too... And these aren't even bar chords!

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Pesky LJ stripped out my extra spaces, and then used a different font for the posting than it did for my typing, so it doesn't even line up right. Grumble.

[ericcoleman]

It's not a G ... it is the same fingering as a G, only with the middle and index finger moved up one. I have a book of chords here, it is a Cadd9 minus the high note ...

[ericcoleman]

Ahhh ... now that I see the whole thing ... yeah, that is the way I play a G, the 3 fret B string gives a nice resonance to it.

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

I understood that the chord you drew was some sort of "C-thing" and not a G at all.

The first chord I drew was a G, however. The other 3, if you can see them in the muddle LJ made of my diagrams, were Am7.

[ericcoleman]

So, obviously, the 5 chords that I generally use are G, C, D, Em, A