What chord is this and why?

Rocker

As a follow on to what the @TheBigDipper wrote above, the C major chord has the notes CEG, yet it sounds 'wrong' if the low E is played as part of the C major chord.  IMHO the low G in the C/G chord alluded to earlier sounds fine.  Music can be hard to understand sometimes.......

viz

Rocker said:

As a follow on to what the @TheBigDipper wrote above, the C major chord has the notes CEG, yet it sounds 'wrong' if the low E is played as part of the C major chord.

That'd depend on what's happening in the music, sometimes a first inversion is called for. But yep, when just played with the E lazily sounding out it sounds no better than D thumb-over  

Anyhow there's a thread about whether the guitarist "should" play the inversion elsewhere. 

Good chat as always

CaseOfAce

Rocker said:

As a follow on to what the @TheBigDipper wrote above, the C major chord has the notes CEG, yet it sounds 'wrong' if the low E is played as part of the C major chord.  IMHO the low G in the C/G chord alluded to earlier sounds fine.  Music can be hard to understand sometimes.......

Indeed - music can be hard to understand sometimes Rocker - take a listen 40 seconds in here and you'll heard a C power chord being followed with a low E note underneath it giving a lovely build up of tension resolving to F and G power chords...

and yes - I've just used a Lita Ford song to demonstrate music theory - I win the internet today!! 

viz

And Jump!

Tannin

What is a "D thumb-over"? I'm guessing a D/F#?

That's a wonderful, wonderful chord and if you want to say bad things about it I'll meet you outside with your coat off.

But it's important to manage the  repeated 3rd on the first string, either by muting it or by replacing it with a 2 (the open E). 

(Mind you, you wouldn't catch me playing it with my thumb over when I've got two perfectly good fingers going spare.)

It often seems to me that the TOP note of a chord is every bit as important as the bass note, and arguably has more influence on the overall character of it.

Example #1: the D/F# just mentioned. (Or ordinary D, which I very often play as Dsus2 because that 3rd on top with no deep bass note to thicken the sound makes it too twee. D minor is worse, and I tend to do the same thing, or else play it up the neck somewhere.)

Example #2: G7. Heaps of guitarists hate the open position G7 chord with that high F making it sound horribly twangy . (If you are playing country or bluegrass, sure. For anything else it sucks.) This one is particularly bad because you've got that open B string making a shouty tritone.  I habitually fret the 2nd string when I play it (turning the 3rd into a 5th and the tritone into a minor 3rd), which is vastly better. Or play 3234xx instead. 

Example #3. A7 played with the 7 on the first string (x02223) is a bit much for most contexts; most people, most of the time prefer to play 002020 with the 7th on the 3rd string and the ring-out high note being an E. (Again, and as always, it depends what you want.) Something similar applies to E7 played with the 7 on the second string (022130), which is a bit much for some contexts; most people, most of the time prefer to play 020100 with the 7th on the 4th string

Example #4: consider the difference between ordinary open A (x02220) and the A you play for extra cut-through (x02255). We are not just getting more high notes, we have also swapped the last two notes from a 3 and a 5 to a 5 and a 1. Very different sound.

Anyway, there is no musical term for the choice of high note the way there is for the choice of bass note ("second inversion" "Am over E" and so on), but it is just as important, maybe more important. 

PAL

C .