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Guitar chord forum - chordie → Chordie's Chat Corner → Two Questions
I've got a couple of quick questions. hope someone has an answer...
How do I get an avatar on my profile? I keep hearing my pictures are too big. Anybody have a good idea of how to shrink pics?
Also, I'm looking for a chart that can show me chords on up the neck (not barre chords).
Thanks in advance for any advice.
e-mail me your pic and I can shrink it.
do you mean chords up the neck that have open strings ringing? Any chord you play as a barre chord can be played as not one.
Yes, open chords up the neck. I don't know the official name, but I'm just looking for more variation.
Also, you don't need to do my picture. I gotta figure it out so I can change it anyway (and just for the sake of knowing how). I was actually just making sure I wasn't doing something wrong.
Thanks
If you are using Windows, their photo utilities can adjust size. I don't remember exactly how, but if you diddle around you may be able to find it. I think I used Windows Live Gallery. My current avatar I mocked up in Paint.
Okay, I'll give it a shot. Not for sure if I've got Windows LG, but I'll check.
BTW, like your avatar.
One way to develop such a chart is to write down all the notes on the fret board. Then when you are looking for ways to play a particular chord, you can look for the notes that are in the chord and circle those on the fret board diagram (it would be helpful if you have a lot of copies). When you see a pattern that your fingers can reach (you know, not like having one finger in the 11th fret and another one on the 2nd fret unless you've got some really interesting fingers), try it and see how it sounds. There's a neat E-chord shape that works in a song that needs a low droning E where I play the A string at the 7th fret and the D and G strings at the ninth fret and the rest open. For the A and B chords in that song, I use an F-shaped barre at the fifth and seventh frets. Please don't tell anyone that I am working on a song with an evil-B in it.
- Zurf
I downloaded a free app called pixresizer.
I did a search and found these:
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/forum … out-barres
http://www.guitarhabits.com/10-ways-to- … ord-shapes
http://www.fretjam.com/floating-guitar-chords.html
Okay, I'll give it a shot. Not for sure if I've got Windows LG, but I'll check.
BTW, like your avatar.
If you've got a Window's-based computer just go to My Pictures
Next, put your cursor over the picture or graphic you want, and press the "right click" button on your mouse. A menu will appear with over a dozen options. About half way down the list of options is one called, "Open With"--click on that. When you do, you'll get four options; choose
"Microsoft Office Picture Manager."
The picture will now open with tools that allow you to manipulate the image. At the top of the screen, you should see an option that reads, "Edit Pictures . . ." Click on that title. A variety of editing tools will appear on the right hand side of the picture.
To get the picture small enough for Chordie's standards, you first want to crop the image, which means you cut away unwanted parts of the picture. If you click on the "Crop" tool, the image will be surrounded by eight, evenly spaced, bold black lines. These are Crop handles. Click on a crop handle (start with the upper right hand corner handle) and move your mouse toward the center of your image. As the handle moves towards the center of the picture, you'll see the outer edges of the image become a little foggy--that represents the part of the image you'll be cutting away. Move different handles to cut off diffrerent parts of the picture. Don't worry if you cut too much, the original image will be unaffected. You can also start over without doing any damage to the original.
When you've cut down the image, save it. The Save button is located under the "File" pull down menu at the top of the screen. Call it, "Chordie Avatar." Now you'll have the original image on your computer, plus your Choride image.
Probably the cropped image is still too big for Chordie, so you'll use another editing tool to shrink it down even more. Click on the "Edit Pictures . . . " again, and your tools will reload on the right side of your screen. Now click on "Resize"and then click on "Percentage of original width x height." You'll see 100 in a little box. That means your image is full size. If you click on the little down arrow, you can start to reduce the size of the image. Under "Size setting summary" the computer will tell you in terms of percentage and pixels, just how small the image is getting. Keep shrinking it until you get it to the size you want, and then click "Ok" and save the image again.
If the image meets Chordie's size limits, it can now be uploaded.
On the chords thing, it kinda depends on instrumentation how "unbarred" you can get. In my band (me plus rhythm guitar, bass, and drums) if I need to play a B7 and don't feel like playing a barre chord, I might play this
x
9
8
7
x
x
which is a colorful dominant chord. When playing with other harmony instruments, avoiding root and 5th doubling is a really good idea since most guitarists are crap at keeping their instruments tuned on stage. Including me 
In those groups, I can get away with playing really, really thin color tones (3rds and chord extensions only) because other instruments have the root handled. Lots of times I just play 3rds and 7ths. My B7 then becomes
5
4
x
x
x
x
or down an octave
x
x
x
7
6
x
You can play an F chord (not the dreaded way) like this:
1
1
2
x
x
x
Which you might notice is also how to play a Dm7. (Head explodes.)
There are other "jazzier" voicings that are not barre chords....for instance instead of playing Dmaj7 as a barre chord
5
7
6
7
5
x
you can play
x
5
6
4
5
x
(This is actually a Dmaj9 but unless you're playing bebop or with a bunch of douchebags it'll sound cool).
Instead of D7, you can play either:
5
5
5
4
5
x
or
7
5
5
4
5
x
I play most minor 7s not as barres. I prefer any of these voicings, example Dm7:
x
10
10
10
x
x
12
10
10
10
x
x
or if I'm feeling nasty
12
10
10
10
x
10
(In these last three examples you have to do a lazy barre on the d/g/b strings but it sure beats clamping your index finger down and praying to God everything rings.)
Is this the kind of stuff you're talking about or did I just miss the point entirely?
Edited for note to self: Next time ask the last question first.
That's exactly it BGD!! Thanks so much. Gonna print these off. And Zurf, thanks for the advice that sounds like a nice practical method that I'll put to use.
Also, thanks to Ben, Z, and M.B. I'll get this avatar thing figured out if it kills me!
auxi there is a free program called Picasa from Google it has a lot of nice features including a easy way to resize photos.
I used M.B.'s technique to resize mine.
(of course, that was a few years ago... I really need to upload a new one)
auxi you should research voicings but also look in to chord substitutions. That'll blow your mind.
Guitar chord forum - chordie → Chordie's Chat Corner → Two Questions
