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[sowhat]

Sounds horrible on an acoustic guitar.

Ah... thanks for having mentioned that, Randy! That probably explains why i never used this technique before... not that my playing doesn't sound horrible, but still...

[jingle_jangle]

Um, I guess, Randy, you're talking about spanning all six strings with the forefinger? That gives you the tonic note of the chord (chord "name" note), on the first and sixth string, two octaves apart. But just playing the fifth with the fourth finger on the second string, two frets up, gives you a minor seventh chord when all six strings are strummed.

Correct??? Yeah, this played for everything would sound pretty bad...Gotta toss a major in there to wake up the fingers and sound musical, even though it is the Ramones...

[jingle_jangle]

The second position barre I thought we were talking about, spans the second, third and fourth strings (AM chord notes) with either the third finger, bent slightly backwards to clear the first string, or the side of the pinky finger.

[melibreits]

Dave, you were asking about drop-D tuning? I use it once in a while.... I kind of stumbled onto it when I was playing out of a borrowed songbook, and one of the songs had a chord sheet for both drop-D and conventional tunings.... I tried the drop-D and really, really liked it, and later on that same day I wrote a song in that tuning, and have written a couple more in drop-D since..... I mainly use my acoustic for these, as it has a really nice, boomy percussive sound that sounds fabulous for that type of thing.

[randyz]

Paul: My technique is even cruder than what you describe. I'm basically fretting only the top three strings and letting my 'barre fingers' mute the lower three strings. An example of a song application would be 'Ziggy Stardust' by David Bowie. I strum open chords (G, Em, C, and D) relatively clean while I sing the verses (Ziggy played guitar...), and then for the chorus (Making love with his ego...) I hit the stompbox and go to the 5th fret (A), 3rd fret (G), and 1st fret (F) on the top two strings, work my way back and forth, and then hit the stompbox again and go back to clean open chords. It's very simple but sounds alright by me. Amaze your friends with cheap chords (and I'm not talking about my pants)!

Disclaimer: No one should intentionally play guitar the way I do. It won't make you sound better and you may even get laughed at!

Next time I'll explain how to jingle jangle like The Byrds on a six-string guitar by making extensive use of your pinky...

[shamustwin]

Here's my favorite two fingered chord, though it might not what y'all have in mind - I use my index fingertip to barre the first and second strings (E & A)at the second fret, use my ring fingertip to barre the fourth and fifth strings (G & B) again at the second fret. All other string ring freely. It's a pretty chord. I use it on a song on my CD called "Too Much Gravity" (I think there's a clip on CD Baby), it's the arpeggio in the intros, on a 6 and a 12 string. It's a B-something.
I use it in a new song - down a step on the first fret ( B-flat something). That has a real dramatic sound to it. It can be used at various places up the neck, as well.

[stubby]

I use open tunings a lot. You could make a career out of one finger chords, like Ritchie Havens. Hey, he doesn't even use a single finger much of the time (the thumb isn't a finger is it??)!!

I was actually going to post a question about open tunings and Rickenbackers. I'll start a new thread so I don't make this thread wander.