The toughest chord

[Greg B]

This came up over at the Jazz Guitar forum and I thought I'd ask around here.

What's the toughest chord you've had to play in a song?

m6 in this position (Cm6 in this example) just nails me every time:
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Also, there's a 7th chord with a D string root that Ted Greene uses in his progressions quite a bit. This one just stops me in my tracks almost every time.

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[millring]

332335 (it's 'breaker' in ...you old heart breaker" in Moon River.

[omaha]

0-0-0-2-3-2

[t-bob]

Jul 25, 2011 11:27:48 GMT -5 @omaha said:

X-0-0-2-3-2

Doug taught me that one on Saturday. My left hand's still sore.

[drlj]

Depending on the day and the time, they are all tough.

LJ

[Phil N. Theblank]

For me after 5 weeks of playing the guitar, I would say the B7. Because, I just got calluses on my i, m & ring fingers and now I’m feeling the pain of using the pinky in that chord.

According to Kenny Werner in his book "Effortless Mastery". One shouldn't think of music as hard [tough].

"It is good to view things as familiar or unfamiliar, rather than as difficult or easy. If you give yourself the message, 'This is difficult,' the piece may discourage you, and it will still be difficult to play even after you've learned it. However, if you believe that all music is easy, then you'll assume that you are unfamiliar with the piece because ‘it hasn't become easy yet.”

[brucemacneill]

365343, the C form barred on the 3rd fret of a classical.

[John B]

A B major. x24442. Or any of the barre chords with the root on the 5th string.

[Deleted]

Greg -

When I finger those voicings, I end up playing the m6 as shown, but with my thumb fretting the root. For the 7th chord with the root on the fourth string, I invert that fingering so I'm playing the 5th with my ring finger, and the 3rd with my pinky (or possibly thumb, but maybe not in first position). Or, depending on where I'm headed, I might end up voicing the 3rd on top.

Those are tricky ones, for sure.

[Greg B]

Phil: That's a really good point about knowing the difference between difficult and unfamiliar.

Also, that B7 chord has a very important shape. The "backwards triangle" That shape shows up a lot in other chords.

I was amazed at the Eb7 chord. My first thought was What the Hell?

Then I thought how if anyone asked me to play an Eb7 I'd jump to the 6th fret and play it there.

Then I realized that a D7 is a half step down from Eb7. So take this
x x 0 2 1 2

And move it up a fret
x x 0 3 2 3

But that D doesn't work as the root any more so you have to move that up as well
x x 1 3 2 3

Now, what if we take that G note off of the top E string and put it on the bottom E string?
3 x 1 3 2 x

And there ya go. It all seems so logical now.

[Dub]

Any chord I can't make becomes "the toughest chord" for me. Some of Merle Travis' chords are just killers. To wit...

D7
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G6
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Other times the chords themselves aren't tough but getting quickly from one to the next is a challenge. One sequence I'm still struggling to master quickly is...

B7
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Em7
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C6
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A7
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[Deleted]

3X254X


It's a G add9 something or other and it's the first chord in Cindy Walker's tune "Miss Molly." Playing the first chord is fine, but returning to it at the end of a measure is a bear.

Busts my knuckles every time.

[Greg B]

Give this a try.

Before I got hurt, I could play it at a slow tempo. I haven't really practiced it at all since.

Here's Tim Lerch playing it.


Relatively accessible example my ass! It's friggin hard!