Clean Chords

Pro tip: please watch the short video version of this post that I link to here: https://www.guitarsuccess4u.com/cleanchords.  It will give you a much clearer grasp of what I’m sharing here.

Transcript and diagrams included below.

---

If you play open chords on the guitar, do you want those chords to sound clean? Sure! We all do. 

Now, some of the chords we play don’t involve all 6 of the strings. And that’s ok.

However, if we let all the strings ring on these chords, even the ones we don’t need, our chords can start to sound muddy.

Let’s take a look at three color chords in the key of G. The first chord is a G5 (no 3rd), a strong, open chord that literally only consists of the notes G and D over and over.

I fret this with my second finger on the low G on the 3rd fret of the 6th string, and then I add my 3rd finger on the same fret of the 2nd string for a high D. One more note – the high G on the 3rd fret of the 1st string, with my 4th finger. 

The special trick I want to make sure you observe is that I’m using my 2nd finger to mute the 5th string so that I don’t have an “A” sounding in this chord.

So, the notes (from low to high) are G, D, G, D, and G.  Listen to how clean this sounds with that 5th string muted. This sounds much cleaner than if the 5th string A were to ring open, unmuted.

Next up is a version of the IV chord in G, which many people like to call a C2.

Literally, the only difference between this chord and the G5 chord is that I move my 2nd finger over to the 3rd fret of the 5th string for C.

With the 6th string omitted and the 4th string muted, we only have the notes (from low to high) C, G, D and G. 

Now comes the special trick.

I’m again going to use my 2nd finger to mute an unneeded note from the open 4th string, D. But in addition to this, I’m going to wrap my thumb around to mute the unneeded open 6th string E, just touching it – not fretting it. This is much more attainable with a moderate guitar neck size; classical guitars are too wide for a thumb wrap. 

So, this version of C2 sounds much cleaner than if I were to let the 6th and 4th strings ring open (as I demonstrate in the video).

One more color chord on the V chord with a D5 (no 3).

This chord literally only has 3 notes. They are: open 4th string D, my 1st finger on the 2nd fret of the 3rd string for A, and my 3rd finger on the 3rd fret of the 2nd string for another D. The notes are simply D, A, and D.

It’s time for a special trick, and this actually involves three fingers.

First, I’ll let my 3rd finger rest against the open 1st string to keep it quiet.

Second, my 2nd finger is going to lightly touch the open 5th string, and maybe even the 6th string. I’m not fretting these notes at the 3rd fret – I’m just silencing them with the tip of my 2nd finger.

And then, as before, I’m going to use my thumb to wrap around and silence the open 6th string.

So, half of the strings will ring, and half of them will be silenced, allowing for a much cleaner chord than if strings 6, 5 and 1 were to ring open.

Once I’ve gotten my fretting hand disciplined and trained to complete these tricks for each of these chords, I can just enjoy them in sequence. And my strumming hand is free to strum any or all of the strings.

I can try to strum only the strings I need, but the added bonus is that if I do graze the silent strings, they sound percussive, and they add to the palm muted feel that provides some artistry. (See the video for a demonstration.)

These three chords can be easily used in G Major, as I said, but also in the A Dorian mode, the D Mixolydian mode, and the E Aeolian mode, which of course, is E natural minor. This is just a glimpse of what’s possible, but I feel like it puts us on the right track for much cleaner playing.  And whether the people listening to us know it consciously or not, we are playing with greater skill and precision, because only the notes we want to ring are sounding.

Again, the video will shed a lot more light on how these chords look and sound on the guitar.

So, use these strategies to help make all your chords sound clean.

And don’t forget to check out GuitarSuccess4U.com where you can take your guitar playing to the next level!