Open C chord vs C add 9

Mike A

BLUES NOODLER
what a great lesson course. rhythm and strumming with chord changes is my bigest weekness.when I first picked up a guitar 4 years ago it took me five months to form the shape of the basic five cowboy chords. so my first chord transitions i learned were G to a Cadd9 .as the open C was a real struggle . so a guy showed me the Cadd9 and to strum the open G and Cadd9 and do arpaggios .so is it appropiate to use the Cadd9 in place of the C chord? if not when is it the right time to use the Cadd9?
 

MikeS

Student Of The Blues
Staff member
FWIW, My 2 Cents. It depends on what you want to hear in a song. It's not "wrong" to use a Cadd9, but i you are trying to "Play it the original" then if the original uses a C you gotta use a C. Plus, you gotta learn an open C and Open C7 eventually anyway. The Open C7 is a great CAGED chord that you can and will use all over the neck.
 

Jalapeno

Student Of The Blues
so is it appropiate to use the Cadd9 in place of the C chord?
Do you like the sound of it? Do others you're playing with like the sound of it? It is a C chord with the D note added so it has a distinctive sound that a plain jane C chord won't. In the key of C it is still considered a tonic chord, unlike for instance, the C9 (C9 as opposed to the Cadd9. The C9 has the Bb added also) which would change the harmony.

It is a common substitution/addition for what it's worth.

Eric
 

sdbrit68

Student Of The Blues
well, yes, and well no

Stuff I have written, I use both. during the basic strumming I may use a Cadd9, then transition to a C...............many songs do this for 80's ballads as it adds a different voicing but still in the same sphere. Every Rose Has its thorn, I remember you and almost every other ballad does G, Cadd9, D, C
 

Randy S

Blues Junior
It is quite common in the key of G ( where the C is the IV chord) because if you use the "Rock and Roll" G, then moving to the Cadd9 just requires you to move the top two fingers down a string. To my ears and I think to a lot of people the Cadd9 sounds great in that key.

In the key of C where it is the I chord it sounds off to me to use a Cadd9. And using a Cadd9 and then moving to a F (IV chord) is awkward to me. But the note D is in the key so there is nothing "wrong" about it.

Finally there is the key of F. There is just not much music in that key (at least not music that would be popular with this audience). But in that key the IV chord is a Bb- there is no open chord form for a Bb so it has to be played (in that area of the fretboard) as a 5th string barre chord. To me it just more natural to then move up 2 frets and play the C as 5th string barre chord also. Once again though, the note D is in the key so there is nothing 'wrong" about using a Cadd9.

A lot of people struggle with moving from the open G to the open C. Some teachers advocate playing the open G by not fretting the 5th string with your index finger, instead using the underside of the middle finger to mute the 5th string. That seems to make the change to the C chord easier for some. Check out Justin Sandercoe's site- he advocates that approach and you can get some lessons on doing it that way.
 
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Jalapeno

Student Of The Blues
And using a C9 and then moving to a F (IV chord) is awkward to me.
Randy (not Mike A <wink>), in the key of C you can finger it like the C7 and that makes the move to F easy.

Finger the C chord like you're going to play a C7 and put the pinky on the B string instead of the G string like this:

Screen-Shot-2020-07-27-at-6-32-24-PM.png
Screen-Shot-2020-07-27-at-6-34-59-PM.png


Then the move to the F chord is as easy as a normal C to F move. It is still not as easy as the big G to C9 but in the key of C it is a natural move. Assuming you don't have trouble fingering the C7 :LOL:

Eric
 

Randy S

Blues Junior
Randy (not Mike A <wink>), in the key of C you can finger it like the C7 and that makes the move to F easy.

Finger the C chord like you're going to play a C7 and put the pinky on the B string instead of the G string like this:

Screen-Shot-2020-07-27-at-6-32-24-PM.png
Screen-Shot-2020-07-27-at-6-34-59-PM.png


Then the move to the F chord is as easy as a normal C to F move. It is still not as easy as the big G to C9 but in the key of C it is a natural move. Assuming you don't have trouble fingering the C7 :LOL:

Eric
That's a good one. Thanks!
 

Mike A

BLUES NOODLER
Hey Thanks All! Great Info..I can Finger the Open C Just Fine . it's the transition's i.e D to C in time. i am on lesson 1 Basic Quater and eighth note strumming and by the time Griff transitions the measure from D to C , i am still forming the shape..it's like my fingers have no Brain..well back to transition practice:mad::mad::mad::mad:..
I thought Guitar was suppost to be Fun?:unsure::whistle::D
 

Jay Dee

Blues addicted
It never ends. Every time I master one cord there's another chord lurking to make my fingers do something that my brain understands :whistle:
I think this is fun o_O
 
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sdbrit68

Student Of The Blues
Hey Thanks All! Great Info..I can Finger the Open C Just Fine . it's the transition's i.e D to C in time. i am on lesson 1 Basic Quater and eighth note strumming and by the time Griff transitions the measure from D to C , i am still forming the shape..it's like my fingers have no Brain..well back to transition practice:mad::mad::mad::mad:..
I thought Guitar was suppost to be Fun?:unsure::whistle::D
it takes time.

What I do personally, and its worked for me. When I wanted to get better at barre chords, I really struggled on 5th string minor, but easy with 6th string for some reason (probably all the 7 chords I played)

Anyways, what I do is I take the chord and practice it ten times a day. So for you transitioning to the c. I would go D to C ten times, then A to C ten times, if time allows E to C ten times. this is based on switching shapes, not necessarily chords.

After that, as I learn new voicings, say I am playing knocking on Heavens door, G, D, AM, G , D , C I would pick one chord, and use a different fingering of it as a substitution. Like now I am working on CAGED, I will simply use another version of the chord
 

LeftyJohn

West Wiltshire/Exeter, UK
Hey Thanks All! Great Info..I can Finger the Open C Just Fine . it's the transition's i.e D to C in time. i am on lesson 1 Basic Quater and eighth note strumming and by the time Griff transitions the measure from D to C , i am still forming the shape..it's like my fingers have no Brain..well back to transition practice:mad::mad::mad::mad:..
I thought Guitar was suppost to be Fun?:unsure::whistle::D

I found Justin's One Minute Changes was the exercise that transformed this for me. Still using that approach now for Example 14 - the Em7 and Cadd9.
 
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