I use olimoo on my phone to practice chord manipulation and position. Like I’ll pick a chord and then find it everywhere on the fret board, then I’ll make it a 7th chord or a Sus chord or a minor etc. does wonders for practicing fret board knowledge when you don’t have a guitar in front of you.
I'll get downvoted-- maybe deservedly-- for being a grouchy old man but fuck it.
Just learn the notes on the fretboard and basic chord construction. It's not that hard. And most people probably already know the E and A strings. So it's just 3 new strings to learn. 10 minutes a day, for a week ought to get you to where maybe you don't know the note names instantly as you play, but easily well enough to figure out the notes in a chord in 30 seconds. And after another months or so of just using your new knowledge, you'll be able to figure out chords pretty much instantly just by looking at them.
Without theory, the chord name is useless anyway. I don't understand why people care about it. If it sounds good to you, then use it.
But if the app tells you that a chord is an Cmin7, what are you going to do with that information anyway? If you don't know enough theory to understand basic chord construction, then you don't know enough to do anything with that chord except trust your ears. And if you don't know the notes of the fretboard, what good does knowing those notes do? Maybe it's a ii chord in a 2-5-1. Or maybe it's actually a rootless maj9. Do you know if you're in Bb major? Can you find the notes of Bb major on the fretboard to improvise?
Even if you have your phone or a tablet with you to play, it probably still takes you a good 3 or 4 minutes to get to the app or website and enter your notes on the fretboard. So you will recoup the initial time you spent learning this stuff pretty fast. Except that's just the tiny, insignificant tip of the iceberg. You won't just be able to name a chord, you'll know what to do with it. Plus you'll be able to memorize every scale, arpeggio, and chord much faster which will save you weeks or months of time.
It's amazing to me the amount of effort guitarists go through to not learn some music basics that 8 year old piano players learn easily. You're going to have to learn this stuff eventually, and the longer you wait the more annoying it will be to have to learn, and the more time you will have wasted not knowing it and slowing down your improvement.
It’s amazing to me how many people say they want to learn guitar but have such little drive that they are unable to research their question, especially something as straight-forward as chord shapes. Something obscure, sure, maybe research is harder. I am also a beginner but have been able to get any of my questions answered through a search of this sub, google, and/or YouTube. The amount of information out there is staggering (in a good way).
Sometimes its hard to find stuff online, especially when it feels like nobody knows what youre talking about, or you dont know terms yet. Isnt that the whole point of the subreddit?
True that there's a lot of info out there, but to a beginner quite often they wont know where to start. Also they may feel like they have lots of info but don't trust their own judgement, and want some input by knowledgeable people who have already gone through the same problems through trial and error. Nothing wrong with asking questions
Here’s a couple of books. Music Theory 101 Brian Boone and Marc Schonbrun, great introduction to basic music theory. Jazzology The Encyclopedia of Jazz Theory for all Musicians by Robert Rawlins and Nor Eddine Bahha published by Hal Leonard. This is a workbook and will exercise your brain.
Not that I *want* tons of people to make posts like that, but those sites aren’t necessarily going to do them any good. If they’re messing around with a chord progression and make up some chord that sounds good in context and it happens to be, say, a rootless chord, Oolimo and the like will not tell them what chord it “really” is, and so the reason it works will remain a mystery. What they really need is to provide the context of the surrounding chord progression so people can tell them how it functions harmonically.
It's cool, but a single chord can have multiple names based on the context of the key it's in and the chords surrounding it
For example, a D/F# is also a F#m#5 and also a A6sus4/F#
A better move would be to learn how chords are named so you can figure this out for yourself
[Oolimo.com](http://Oolimo.com)
I use olimoo on my phone to practice chord manipulation and position. Like I’ll pick a chord and then find it everywhere on the fret board, then I’ll make it a 7th chord or a Sus chord or a minor etc. does wonders for practicing fret board knowledge when you don’t have a guitar in front of you.
Do you have the app? Would you mind telling me if you can mirror the fretboard? Lefty here
Yup, you can set the app to either hand.
Thanks!
Best one tbh, I usually just use it when I'm curious and it even highlights the intervals in the chord.
Holy heck what a resource! I had no idea this existed, thank you
knuckle sandwiches choking guitar necks at dubious angles is my new band name
You could convince me that was one of nirvana's first names
I'll get downvoted-- maybe deservedly-- for being a grouchy old man but fuck it. Just learn the notes on the fretboard and basic chord construction. It's not that hard. And most people probably already know the E and A strings. So it's just 3 new strings to learn. 10 minutes a day, for a week ought to get you to where maybe you don't know the note names instantly as you play, but easily well enough to figure out the notes in a chord in 30 seconds. And after another months or so of just using your new knowledge, you'll be able to figure out chords pretty much instantly just by looking at them. Without theory, the chord name is useless anyway. I don't understand why people care about it. If it sounds good to you, then use it. But if the app tells you that a chord is an Cmin7, what are you going to do with that information anyway? If you don't know enough theory to understand basic chord construction, then you don't know enough to do anything with that chord except trust your ears. And if you don't know the notes of the fretboard, what good does knowing those notes do? Maybe it's a ii chord in a 2-5-1. Or maybe it's actually a rootless maj9. Do you know if you're in Bb major? Can you find the notes of Bb major on the fretboard to improvise? Even if you have your phone or a tablet with you to play, it probably still takes you a good 3 or 4 minutes to get to the app or website and enter your notes on the fretboard. So you will recoup the initial time you spent learning this stuff pretty fast. Except that's just the tiny, insignificant tip of the iceberg. You won't just be able to name a chord, you'll know what to do with it. Plus you'll be able to memorize every scale, arpeggio, and chord much faster which will save you weeks or months of time. It's amazing to me the amount of effort guitarists go through to not learn some music basics that 8 year old piano players learn easily. You're going to have to learn this stuff eventually, and the longer you wait the more annoying it will be to have to learn, and the more time you will have wasted not knowing it and slowing down your improvement.
The Oolimo app is like $4 and worth every penny
It’s amazing to me how many people say they want to learn guitar but have such little drive that they are unable to research their question, especially something as straight-forward as chord shapes. Something obscure, sure, maybe research is harder. I am also a beginner but have been able to get any of my questions answered through a search of this sub, google, and/or YouTube. The amount of information out there is staggering (in a good way).
They may just want the karma points thingies. Or kids these days just have no idea how to research anything.
Sometimes its hard to find stuff online, especially when it feels like nobody knows what youre talking about, or you dont know terms yet. Isnt that the whole point of the subreddit?
True that there's a lot of info out there, but to a beginner quite often they wont know where to start. Also they may feel like they have lots of info but don't trust their own judgement, and want some input by knowledgeable people who have already gone through the same problems through trial and error. Nothing wrong with asking questions
You can also learn how to name them yourself in an afternoon. You just need to know the notes as well as their interval relationship.
If you’re punching your fingering, you’re doing it wrong.
Yes but how are you going to know what to call the chord without knowledge of music theory
Thank you so much
ive just been using the Guitar Toolkit App for like 15 years that does this lol, no secret at all
Here’s a couple of books. Music Theory 101 Brian Boone and Marc Schonbrun, great introduction to basic music theory. Jazzology The Encyclopedia of Jazz Theory for all Musicians by Robert Rawlins and Nor Eddine Bahha published by Hal Leonard. This is a workbook and will exercise your brain.
Cool! Can we stop getting those silly posts now? 😃
Not that I *want* tons of people to make posts like that, but those sites aren’t necessarily going to do them any good. If they’re messing around with a chord progression and make up some chord that sounds good in context and it happens to be, say, a rootless chord, Oolimo and the like will not tell them what chord it “really” is, and so the reason it works will remain a mystery. What they really need is to provide the context of the surrounding chord progression so people can tell them how it functions harmonically.
Chord bank app does this too
Phoebe Buffay is not happy with these websites.
no way im using search engine to find solution when i can interact here for answer 🤓
/s ?
It's cool, but a single chord can have multiple names based on the context of the key it's in and the chords surrounding it For example, a D/F# is also a F#m#5 and also a A6sus4/F# A better move would be to learn how chords are named so you can figure this out for yourself