Skip to main content
Music Radar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Artist news
  • Guitar Amps
  • Guitar Pedals
  • Synths
  • Guitars
  • Drums
  • Keyboards & Pianos
  • Controllers
  • Software & Apps
  • More
    • Recording
    • DJ Gear
    • Acoustic Guitars
    • Bass Guitars
    • Tech
    • Tutorials
    • Reviews
    • Buying Guides
    • About Us
More
  • EVH trance state
  • Antonoff on Please Please Please
  • “Mick looked peeved. The Beatles had upstaged him”
  • 95k+ free music samples

Recommended reading

Guitar chords
Acoustic Guitars 30 essential acoustic guitar chords, with charts
Woman playing on a digital piano with headphones on
Music Theory And Songwriting Technically capable, but struggle to make your tunes sound musical? 5 simple music theory hacks to make your tracks stand out
Music theory basics: understanding intervals, and how they define the distance in pitch between two notes
Music Theory And Songwriting 10 music theory tricks every producer and songwriter should know
David Gilmour
Guitar Lessons & Tutorials How to play guitar like David Gilmour: Bluesy diads, slides, quarter-tone blues curls and more
Acoustic Guitars From Parlour to Jumbo: The beginner's guide to acoustic guitar body shapes (and which one is right for you)
Keyboards & Pianos Piano basics: the black notes - what are they for and how do you use them?
MusicNomad fret tuition
Guitar Lessons & Tutorials Can you fix your guitar's frets yourself? We try three innovative approaches from MusicNomad to investigate how they might conquer a major cause of fret buzz
  1. Tutorials
  2. Guitar Lessons & Tutorials
  3. Guitar Chords

Guitar chord vocab: close-voiced finger-stretchers

Tuition
By Adrian Clark ( Guitarist ) published 10 July 2015

Put your fingers to the test with these massive stretches

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Intro: flex those fingers

Intro: flex those fingers

Let’s get moody with close-voiced chords! These are most associated with keyboard instruments, where they’re the easiest chords to play, but they're much harder on guitar, so make sure you warm up before attempting these monster stretches…

Page 1 of 5
Page 1 of 5
D7

D7

As we said before, these chords aren't for the faint-hearted, so let’s start gently(-ish) with this D7.

Page 2 of 5
Page 2 of 5
E6

E6

Just take it slowly, and make sure your thumb is right behind the neck. Applying an even spacing across the top four strings gives us this E6, which will also work as an Amaj7 without a root (get your bassist to play that) or a C#m7.

Page 3 of 5
Page 3 of 5
C7

C7

Shifting the same shape across to the next four strings gives us another dominant 7 shape. The root of the chord is on the B string, so this is C7…

Page 4 of 5
Page 4 of 5
G7add6

G7add6

And if all that hasn’t brought tears to your eyes, try this one. It’s shimmeringly ambiguous, and will work as a G7add6, an Fmaj9 or even - with your bassist providing the root - a Dm13.

Page 5 of 5
Page 5 of 5
Adrian Clark
Read more
Guitar chords
30 essential acoustic guitar chords, with charts
Woman playing on a digital piano with headphones on
Technically capable, but struggle to make your tunes sound musical? 5 simple music theory hacks to make your tracks stand out
Music theory basics: understanding intervals, and how they define the distance in pitch between two notes
10 music theory tricks every producer and songwriter should know
David Gilmour
How to play guitar like David Gilmour: Bluesy diads, slides, quarter-tone blues curls and more
From Parlour to Jumbo: The beginner's guide to acoustic guitar body shapes (and which one is right for you)
Piano basics: the black notes - what are they for and how do you use them?
Latest in Guitar Chords
Music Theory
How learning and understanding chord symbols can prove a major benefit for sharing your musical ideas
Woman playing a guitar chord on an acoustic guitar
Get strumming: The 22 essential beginner, blues and folk guitar chords every guitarist should learn first
Billie Joe Armstrong
"You can learn hundreds of songs with a few easy chords and some basic rhythm playing chops"
A man plays acoustic guitar with a capo on the neck
How to use tried and tested chord progressions when crafting your song
A man plays a chord on an acoustic guitar in a stylish, light home environment. Window behind provides a space for copy
How to understand and use suspended chords
Julian Lage
“There are so many hurdles guitar players get into that are attributed to knowing 30% of the neck. Just map it out - it takes a week”: Julian Lage unlocks the secret of mastering guitar
Latest in Tuition
Compressor settings
The ultimate compression cheat sheet – go-to settings to help you make better music
Piano basics: the black notes - what are they for and how do you use them?
Circle of fifths
The ultimate guide to the circle of fifths and how it can help you make better music
From Parlour to Jumbo: The beginner's guide to acoustic guitar body shapes (and which one is right for you)
Tokyo Dawn Records Nova
Fantastic (free) plugins and how to use them: TDR Nova
Podcasting
The head of Audacity shares his top 5 tips for beginner podcasters

MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...