G Major

[Phil]

I have a question for you all. In the first fret section of this site it says to play the G Major chord as follows

|-3
|-0
|-0
|-0
|-2
|-3

But according to the teacher i used to have and the chord chart i downloaded for the song "everybody hurts" it's played like this

|-3
|-3
|-0
|-0
|-2
|-3

Which one is right??????

[The Fury]

They are both right.

Its just that they have different sounds which are beneficial in different circumstances.

If you check out the chord finder you will see that there are about 10 different ways to play some chords and all those chords are as "right" or as valid as each other.
www.cyberfret.com/chords/chord-finder/index.php

All a chord needs is 3 notes, this is known as a triad. For a Gmajor chord the notes are G B and D and your 2nd example has a D in place of a B as in the first example.

[Phil]

Oh ok, i thought that each chord had one single 'right' way to be played. So even though we learn our basic chord shapes will we also need to learn the variations for each?

[The Fury]

I'm no guitar teacher, but I would say its probably better to learn which notes make up which chords rather than all the positions of all the chords. The reasons for this is that there are are probably a really really high number of possible chords and chord shapes.

If you know, or can work out easily, the notes of a chord you do not need to know loads of chord shapes, just the basic ones.

For example, if you know the notes for a Gmajor are G B D, you can work out other positions without learning them.

Learning scales and key signatures will help.

[Phil]

Ok, so i now know that each note can have a number of possible fingerings, but i've come across another variation. I bought a guitar chord book to use at work and according to the book you strum all strings when playing A major and every string apart from the top E when playing D Major. This is different than i was originally tort and it seems strange to be strumming the A string when playing the D chord. Is this normal?

[Pezcore]

yes.

[The Fury]

You may or may not have read this:
www.cyberfret.com/chords/slash-chords/index.php

The bit about chord inversions refers to what you are talking about.(playing the A string in a D chord)

[Perfect4th]

Originally posted by The Fury
I'm no guitar teacher, but I would say its probably better to learn which notes make up which chords rather than all the positions of all the chords.

Learning scales and key signatures will help.

Dittos, Good advice!

Peace!