Originally Posted by: KasperowFor example, can you take the G Major Chord Shape
and move it two frets down the neck for an A Major Chord? Or move it up the neck for an F Major?
Someone, please clarify this for me.
Hi Kasperow. Firstly, I think you're getting your terminology slightly wrong. When we say "down the neck" in guitar-terms, we mean moving towards the headstock of the guitar, and "up the neck" to mean moving towards the pickups & bridge. This is because even though we are physically just moving side to side, we are going down in tone (moving towards lower tones on the guitar) when we move our fretting hand towards the headstock, and up in tones when we're moving towards the pickup and bridge.
Ok, now that's sorted out, what you're talking about is an "open" chord. "Open" chords are called "open" because they incorporate open strings. They are not considered "movable" as you're suggesting, because if you move your hand higher or lower on the fretboard, you're changing the notes that are fretted while leaving the open strings the same. Nothing says that you can't do this, but you're not going to have a major chord with the new position.
For instance, G Major is made up of the notes, G, B, and D. If you now want A Major, you need the notes A, C# (C sharp), and E. Using the G Major shape in your example, notice how even though there six notes, one for each string, its actually just G, B, D, G, D, E starting from your low E string going to the high E string. Moving the shape to the fifth fret, you'll have A, C#, D (the open D string), G (the open G string) E, and A. The open strings now clash with the fretted notes trying to make the A Major chord, so this "open" chord for G Major works just in the one position for G Major.
Barre chords are considered "movable" chord shapes because they do allow you to move the shape up and down the fret board and create the same chord in a different key. Guitarist also use "capos" clamped on to the neck of the guitar, effectively raising the entire pitch of the instrument. So if you clamped a capo at the 2nd fret, using your example, the open strings D and G would now be raised to E and A respectively, so your "open" G chord played at the 5th fret would actually make A Major.
Its still fun though to experiment with open shapes any where on the fretboard. Most times, the chord will sound terrible, but you can sometimes come up with neat sounds if you omit a few strings. Other times, you get lucky... for example, play a normal C Major chord, then slide it two frets up so the root note is now D on the 5th fret, 5th string (A string). Play only the top five strings (leave out the open low E) and you have a nice, airy sounding D chord!
