What chord is the open strings of a guitar? 

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Fun fact: This chord is also nearly identical to the “So What chord” Bill Evans used on the Miles Davis song “So What” (with the exception of the high E). It’s interesting how the overtones of the instrument can have such an impact on the sound of a chord. What sounds jazzy and moody on the piano sounds more muddled on the guitar.

This might just be your best video yet - not only are you answering a question that's common but I haven't seen anyone answer yet, but you also add context, provide a tangible and fun example, and turn it into a really cool song. 👏

4:36 “it’s not that pleasing to the ear” but it is so pleasing after you’ve finished tuning

Fascinating take on a chord every guitar player has heard countless times, yet probably not thought about its "name". Bravo, David!

The contrast between her voice and that dark progression sounded absolutely incredible. Wow

I loved the song at the end! Sounds like something Radiohead would write!

Glad to know Im not the only one who has fiddle about with the open chord and its various barred brothers. I've encountered it twice . 1st in The Strokes ' "Whatever happend" where both guitars hammer it in the pre chorus to build tension. 2nd is The Smiths' Nowhere Fast.Johnny Marr, bless the genuis, uses it as the last chord of the chorus before the re-intro. He does a classic cowboy whammy dive on it, or rather the E9sus4, right after a higher voiced e minor.Great video as always.Cheers! *Just remembered Deaner uses the All Barre chord on Ween's "Mister Won't you please help my pony" at the second fret

The song was already better than anything you hear on the radio these days. Very nice melody line. Bravo!

Love how the lyrics keep referencing "all open"! Can tell you had fun with this one!

Wow, I learned more about theory in this one simple video then I have gotten out of whole classes. Love the song as well.

In the band I was in ages ago, we used to joke that if we ever release an album, we'd dedicate it to the Em11 chord, without which we wouldn't have made it thus far.

I remember asking my guitar teacher exactly this as a young kid. He was cool enough to go through it with me then.

The song reminded me of “The Masterplan” by Oasis so much, it sounded very cool

Nice tune! Great melody to boot! She has an amazing voice!

It's as if Noel Gallagher and Thom Yorke wrote a song together. Pretty great!

Wow, David. Always love your work, and this one is absolutely next-level fantastic!

This is actually something I worked out on my own years ago when I was putting together all my various bits and bobs of musical knowledge into a more complete whole. Given what I knew, and the chord-naming conventions I was seeing in different chord books, I'd figured it was called an 'Em7sus4' (this was still early on in my musical education, and I wasn't clear on the 'sus' vs 'add' at the time), and that stuck with me. I liked the sound of it, and when playing, if I wanted to add a bit of flavour in to a piece, I'd tear my fingers off the strings as I quickly strummed (or brushed the strings, depending) before hammering back on to the next proper chord, just to make it sound a bit more musically interesting, _without_ having to know a lot or be very proficient in order to sound really cool (if it was a softer song, then the 'tearing' and 'hammering' were likewise softer in nature). When I began teaching guitar, I noticed a lot of people were worried about learning very much early on, and so this was the first thing I would teach them; it sounds neat, and the name itself seems pretty cool and impressive, and they felt like they'd not only learned something, but learned something _awesome_ to start with, which made them feel good about themselves and usually set things off well going forward. Still, it's good to have it confirmed that my early-on musical brain didn't totally fail me in naming this chord. Also, love the song, it even sounds a bit Beatle-y to my ear (and sounds even _cooler_ at double speed!).

The song created to show the usage of this chord is mind blowing. Please publish this on music streaming platforms, I'm sure it'll be a hit. If possible, you can also make a dedicated video on just the song.

Love your videos! My daughter (still a baby :) ) likes to play the piano, so I got her a little keyboard. Sometimes I’ll have your videos on in the background while we are playing. because you don’t just show theory, you also show the practice.

This isn’t something I’ve necessarily wondered but I’m very interested so this is going to be a good video. 😁

Thak you David! That was such a brilliant answer to the question ive been asking for over 30 years! Really appreciate it. Here's to the exquisitely melodious Lizzy Sarah. Wow! Thanks again to the both of you.

Hell yeah! Amazing song at the end. Congrats!

Loved the song at the end great work

wow. Thanks so much for this. I've been learning guitar for a few years now and, early on I really frustrated all my musician friends as I'm a terribly logical person and I asked them this exact question. None of them, even the guitarists, could answer me. And so i was frustrated. Amazing stuff...

I keep coming back to this video for the song at the end. So so good!

the song is amazing! love the melody! great video!

So well done, awesome, thanks for posting.

That tune you made is incredible. An amazing chord progression!

it's crazy how much you can learn for free and in a entertaining way in this chanel, keep up the great work David

Love the song you came up with!! Sounds brilliant in that chord progression

this is so good David! well done!

I’ve been wondering this for a long time. Thanks

That song you've created is brilliant

Another excellent video David! Nice song too.

This song is just amnazing! As I remember you as a great Beatles-fan, first I expected to pull an example from them but this is a way new level. I loved it!

Amazing video, superb song; this should go viral!

I loved the song at the end, I wish I heard more music like that on today's radio, hehe. I always like your videos, I love playing music, but I don't know music theory, I usually play by ear, but it's fascinating learning different chords and patterns, and how to implement them in songs.

very nice song and great video as usual!

Very helpful video to have it all explained again like that, thank you very much sir! :)

Your channel is amazing. This gave me an idea for posible video that I'd love to see you make -- please talk about the most popular alternate tunings for guitar, of course including your fantastic ability to highlight real song samples playing in those tunings. Thank you!

I was actually just thinking about this lately. Very interesting video.

Love the song. Beautiful vocal & rhythm melodies.

Songwriting in the making - well done video, David! I'm impressed by your interesting take on this everyday chord, and what you developed from it and how.

Well done. Clearly illustrated. From theory to complete song, Sweetwater is lucky to support you.

Unique tutorial, Thank you

Love your content. Great work!

Respect man - you are so a cool teacher and to compose such a nice song is amazing

nice video , your production and editing is getting better and better

Pretty nice song and great theory explanation! Thanks

I was surprised you made a 10 min vid on this topic but after watching I see every minute was necessary :)

love the Am twist and sound that gretch makes. remind me the goddess PJ harvey doing rid of me live.

Nicely done, sir!

Didn't expect the song at the end... amazing! 👏

Wow, that's really really impressive! The song sounds fantastic!

Awesome job!

Nice song! Best wishes from Argentina and thanks for the video!

Depends on the context of the rest of the song. But just on its own, absolutely. I really like the chord progression you created.

a complication to using the open strings of a guitar is what exactly that sound is: the open strings of a guitar. even in a justifiable song context, this specific voicing of Em7add4 will always sound like a guitar that's been accidentally bumped or strummed frantically by a toddler. as a guitarist, it is incredibly difficult for me to hear it as anything intentional. maybe a capo higher up on the neck would change the timbre enough for it to sound like an actual chord?

Nice info! Cool looking guitar too!

Really nice recording. Sounds great

How does David not have more subscribers - you learn more from 20 minutes of watching him than you do from 20 days of most other online teachers and musicians. Absolutely boss man - and even though much of the material is quite complicated for those of us who come to music late in life it is accessible if one just takes the time and rewinds the video for the more tricky parts. Great work David - I don't subscribe to many channels - I have to yours.

Okay, wow! The sample song is just great!

This song is beyond awesome. Thank you very much.

Great song! what a great way to start the creative process with a musical puzzle - well done!

Entertaining video! It is always fun to figure out the names of chords when they aren't "normal". I remember going through this exercise in college music theory.

Nice to see you play the guitar, and BASS. I derived from this a 4 chord loop of Em, Cmaj7, Em7(add4), then A

Woaaah David, the song is amazing! Please do a full version!

That's a very nice chord progression, I like it a lot

Loved the mellotronberry fields synth sound 😊

Great video (and tune)

Incredibly masterful; in nearly every way!

Very nicely done composition

Love the psychedelic vibe of your song, with a perfect Beatley finish.

Sending appreciation for bringing excitement and a seriously creative edge to theory which would normally bore many away from such explorations. Instead, your economy of purpose ignites interest.

It's a passing chord in quite a few Beatles numbers and plays an important part in the pre-chorus of XTC's Senses Working Overtime ("and all the world is biscuit shaped...") where it follows an A chord and then a second fret version follows a B.

Great video. Using the chord in a song for more than a beat where it is commonly used was a nice touch.

it took me until the fadeout of the video to finally recognize the line "it's all open". that's so good!

Wow - that's wonderful David... loved this...from a gigging guitarist of over 50 years experience, since the sixties... me...

i came up with sth simpler: i decided that 'a' is the root so alternating between Fm#7 shell voicing and open strings i get that pedal point in 'a' which removes that 'a' wanting to become 'b',... additionally, when going from open strings back to F#7 i retain e and a strings ringing to give me A5 and play g/b - f#/a - d/g double stop line before starting Fm#7 again

Em7 (add 4) was my guess as well! After 30+ years of playing guitar those notes are like an old friend. 🤘🏼

That song at the end was the cake under the cherry! Beautiful. Wouldn't mind playing around with the raw tracks if you were so inclined to share them with us.

I like it. I was just thinking, man this song needs a bass line and boom, there it was. Couple pointers, don't be afraid to use some of those cool extensions in the bass. Go ahead and play a 4 or 7 or 11 in the bass. Even if it's just for one note on one beat, it can help make those chords pop. And use that thing's lower register. It's there for a reason. Let the guitars have the upper octaves. On another note, anyone else getting serious late 90s Matthew Sweet vibes from this?

Very interesting, David, thank you.

Great final product

Just taken up the guitar again, my first lesson was in 1961 by a guy called David. I have just started taking lessons again, but I never knew where the notes landed on the staves let alone what chord they formed. Thank you. Well done today on pop master today. I am in Crowborough.

Finally, a video about music I can play!

A very interesting video. I'm hopeless at music theory but as I was strumming along I found A7 and Am7 to be more satisfying to my ear.

Beautiful vocals

Love to take lesson from this guitar teacher. He is amazing..

Very educational. Great song. The first four bars remind me of a tune I've heard somewhere before. Wish I knew what it was.

Nice choice of the Mellotron flute sound for the song, adding to the "Stairway to Heaven" vibe I got from the progression on the guitar.

I go for Em7(add4) based on the fact that one of the most common voicings of a m7 chord is simply to barre across all the strings with the A string muted.

I really like the song you got out of it!

Budgie's classic, "Parents", builds its verses around the progression from Em to EmM7 to Em7 to A7, which of course sounds very similar to what David came up with here.

Nice video!!! And amazing chord progression!!! The only thing I miss was ending with the mayor third chord. That sounds more emotive for me

Bravo. Interesting topic, well presented. The song is nice, too.

This is effn brilliant! hahaha piano man. Bravo! Well done!

yo that sounded ultra dopee

Thank you for this! I'm yoinking this chord progression.