Hey Devin (and anyone who'd like to chime in),
I've been playing for four years now. I'm a terribly slow learner but I make up for it with effort, enjoyment, and a sense of achievement in even the most minor of accomplishments. I practice about an hour/day everyday. When I started out it was recommended to me to play the G chord with my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th fingers leaving the B string open. As I recall the logic to this was that the C chord was an easier transition from that G chord position. I noticed that you play (and your tablature) suggests playing the G chord with all four fingers playing a d note on the 2nd string rather than leaving the B string open. I like the sound of your G chord a little better. Is that what you would recommend to me? Transition to the 4 fingered G chord?
Thanks for any thoughts, Winston
Hi Winston,
that is a very common variation of the standard 3 finger G chord. It's an embellishment that sounds better in many contexts and allows to transition to several D chords with ease. Not always required though.
Hey Winston,
I agree with both you and Alex -- I like the sound of the four finger G chord better (320033) in most cases and I think it fits in better with bluesier country songs because the three finger G chord (320003) has a little "happier" major sound to my ear...and like Alex said, that four finger G chord lets you transition to the D chord easily since your ring finger stays planted on the same note. It's also really easy to transition from the four finger G chord to the Cadd9. I don't use the Cadd9 in bluegrass much but I'll use it more for country.
A lot of times when I'm using that four finger G chord, I'll actually just use three fingers (3x0033)...my middle finger will fret the low E string and lay a little flat to mute the 5th string. It's an easier chord to play and you have your pointer finger free to do a hammer-on embellishment...hammer from pointer to middle 2nd to 3rd fret low E string. Nice country and bluegrass sound.
For the majority of songs in the key of G, I'll use the "four finger" G chord, but when I'm playing songs in the key of C, I usually use the three finger G chord with middle ring and pinky...like you said, it makes it very easy to switch between the C and G chords and it works very well for a I-IV-V progression in C.
That's my take on it anyways.
Lead Instructor at CountryGuitarOnline.com
Thanks for your insights Alex & Devin. I was thinking maybe I should make a complete switch but after reading your comments it sounds like each of these G chords have their uses. Thanks again. Much appreciated.
I wish I could do the 4 finger G chord! Due to having broken my fingers so much when I was younger, I can''t get my ring and little finger that close to play a 4 finger G chord, so I'm stuck with the 3 finger version. I'd like to do the 4 finger version instead.
Another thing I didn't notice mentioned is that with the 3×0033 fingering, you're playing a chord with no major third. The third interval is what gives chords their happy/sad sound — major third being happy, minor third being sad. More importantly in this case, the third isn't as strong-sounding an interval as the perfect fourth or perfect fifth and the 3×0033 fingering is made up entirely of P4s and P5s, giving it a very resonant/consonant sound. That resonant sound is very characteristic of bluegrass music. Sometimes, bluegrass guitarists also play D chords as xx023x — again, that doesn't have a third. You shouldn't think of it as transitioning to a different fingering, it would be better to add this fingering to your arsenal for certain songs or to for some variety within a song. For example, if I'm playing something like I'll Fly Away, I might want a lighter sound and leave the B string open, whereas for a song with a more driving sound, I'll play the G5 variant. But in bluegrass, I'd say the G5 is much more common.
