Beautiful Ringing Open Chords on Guitar

Only Possible in Fingerstyle

Hey guys, Marco here. Welcome to another awesome lesson. Today I want to talk to you about beautiful ringing open chords.

In this fingerstyle guitar lesson I want to show you how to transform basic and simple chords into beautiful ringing open chords that sound unique.

Most of the time we refer to open chord as basic chords played in the first position (three frets) of the guitar however in this lesson we will expand this concept a little bit and play open chords that are not basic.

This approach can only be possible if we play using fingerstyle technique so if you are a “Strummer” you can either make a change in your playing or change lesson.

The reason why I want to show you how to play open chords is because they are simple to play yet really effective. However, some of the chords I am about to show you can be quite stretchy on the fingers. If you are a beginner, take things step by step and take few breaks while practicing.

This lesson should help you improve different aspect of your playing such as chords, finger stretch and plucking fluidity.

Time to grab your guitar and get started.

Good luck!

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The Video

Chord Progression and Structure

In this exercise there are two different sections:

The first section with the chord progression F – G – Am.
The second section is more challenging with the chord progression F – G – G – C – F – G – C.

Some of the ringing open chords will be played in a completely different way than the basic chords you already know.

In the example below I am going to show you the different between the basic chord in F major.

Notice that the F open chord I am showing you in this video also have the B open string which will make it an Fmaj#11.

Simple or More Difficult?

One of the question I get asked the most is whether or not the ringing open chords are more difficult than basic chords.

One of the thing I can say about ringing open chords is that some of them can definitely be easier to play that basic chords. In the example above you can see the difference between the two F major chords where it’s clear that the open chord is way easier.

However, these chords could become extremely challenging if you are not familiar with fingerstyle guitar.

The ringing open chords can only be played by plucking the strings.

I this lesson, the plucking pattern can be quite intimidating for guitar players who’ve never used finger-picking before.

My advice is to spend sometime practicing the finger-picking technique before exploring ringing open chords.

Open Chords Vs Ringing Open Chords

Another question I get the most is about the difference between Open Chords and Ringing Open Chords.

The Open Chords are basic chords played in the first position of the neck. You can also label them as basic chords or beginner chords as they represent the set of chords beginners learn when they start playing acoustic guitar.
The Ringing Open Chords are chords which have to be played with the over-ring technique. In this approach you must sustain the majority of the notes you play and let me “Ring out”.

Due to the over-ringing, the ringing open chords can be more challenging for beginners.