When you first start playing the guitar, it’s only natural to want to take your pick and rake it across all six strings—even if you have no idea how to make it sound good, there’s just something powerful about commanding all of that sound. With a little bit of training, we learn that many chord shapes fall on smaller sets of strings, and most of us overcome the habit of strumming through all six strings, all the time.
Breaking Up—Actually Not Hard to Do
The first step to playing partial chord shapes is to pick apart chords that you’re already familiar with. Take a look at the common chord shapes shown in Example 1a —E, A, C, and G, all played near the nut with a mixture of fretted and open strings. Compare those same chords to the ones shown in Example 1b , and you’ll find that while the smaller chords don’t sound quite as full as the chords in Example 1a, they still sound very similar. Chords are really just collections of a few different notes. In the case of basic major and minor chords, there are only three notes , so when you play six strings, you’re usually duplicating one or more notes of the chord. Therefore, when you isolate a few adjacent strings of a chord shape, you’re often still playing all of the important notes of the chord. (See “What Makes a Chord a Chord? ” for more information.)
In partial chord shapes, there are typically two or three strings you don’t want to sound. In Example 1b, all of the unwanted strings are on the bass side of the guitar, so if you’re careful you can target your strum to just the top three or four strings. If you’re strumming vigorously, you can deaden (or “damp”) a few of the strings by gently touching them with one of your fretting-hand fingers (the fretting-hand thumb often works well for deadening the sound of the low E string). You can also try picking the notes with your thumb and fingers, which allows you to grab just the important notes while leaving the rest untouched. Try using all of these approaches as you practice—you’ll find that each is appropriate in different circumstances, so it’s good to know them all.
Play Difficult Chords with Ease
So, why would you want to play chord sounds that sound less full than the ones you’re already used to? For beginning guitarists, one of the most important reasons is that smaller chord shapes tend to be much easier to grab than chords that have a lot of fretted notes. If you’ve ever had trouble with barre chords, take note!
Example 2a shows the dreaded F chord, which has plagued beginning guitarists since the advent of standard tuning—due both to the way it falls on the fretboard and to the fact that it shows up quite often (for instance, F is an important chord in the key of C). As shown here, it’s played with a full barre at the first fret, where string tension is higher than anywhere else on the guitar neck—ouch! To get around this, many players opt for the version shown in Example 2b , which satisfies the definition of a partial chord—all of the important notes of the F chord are here, and we no longer have to deal with that pesky full barre. Many players still find this chord troublesome, though, so you can also try the chord shown in Example 2c . To make the most of this chord, try bringing your thumb up around the neck so that it gently touches the low E string, preventing it from ringing out as you strum. Likewise, use the fleshy part of your index finger to deaden the high E string. If you’ve had trouble with the F chord in the past, this variation is a playable, full-sounding alternative, and as long as you’re damping the appropriate strings you won’t even have to adjust your strumming technique to play it! For an even more compact shape, try Example 2d . Here, you’re playing all three notes of the F chord without doubling a single one.
This same technique can be applied to just about any chord that gives you trouble—Examples 3a and 3b show a series of partial chords that can be substituted for the popular finger-busters B, Bm, Fm, and G barre. Note how similar the G-chord options are to the F chords in Examples 2b and 2d—these shapes (and all of the other shapes in Example 3b) are movable, which means you can slide them up and down the neck to make other chords. This is true of any chord that doesn’t include open strings and is the primary reason that barre chords (and the alternatives shown here) are so useful.
A Few Good Shapes
It’s important to play and practice partial chords in context to get a feel for what works well (and what doesn’t). The open G chord in Example 4a can be broken up in a number of ways, but that doesn’t mean they all sound good—the three-note shape in Example 4b includes all the notes of a G-major chord but sounds pretty muddy without some treble notes to balance it out. If you’re looking for a bassy sound, consider playing a G5 power chord (Example 4c ). (See “Power Chords ” for more information.) Otherwise, consider shifting the whole thing to a higher register (Example 4d ) or choosing a shape that offers a more well-balanced sound.
Once you land on a few shapes that work well, make a conscious effort to move them around the neck. Example 5 shows the F chord from Example 2c at different places on the neck—even if you’re unfamiliar with the layout of the fretboard you can use this same approach to “walk” various chord shapes up the guitar neck, and make a mental note of where different chords fall that might be useful later.
For more practice with partial chords, see the short song “Partial Advice .” The tune alternates between single-note melodies and three-note partial chords. Notice that while the chord progression in measures 1 and 2 is repeated in measures 3 and 4, the Am and G chords in measures 3 and 4 are voiced differently, yielding a different sound from the first two measures. A similar thing occurs with the Em and D chords in measures 9–10 and 13–14. As you explore partial chord shapes, be sure to experiment by playing different three- and four-note groups from any shape you already know for different sounds!
