guitar questions...please help!?

Question

We have a poster with guitar chords on it, and there are some chords, like Bbm and Cm and Cm6 and Dm6 and there's a bunch of them, and they have a curved line on top of them, it looks like a turnt ( and it goes from the first number on the string to the last number. What is that symbol? Also, what does it mean when a tablature asks you to "tune down half a step"? Thank you very much for your time!

Wow...thank you everyone! You have been a big help!

Answer 1

These people are right. The curved line indicates that the chord is "barred." This means that you hold down all of the strings on one fret with your index finger. For example, to play a Gm7, you place your index finger across the fretboard and hold down all the strings on the third fret. Then you place your ring finger on the A (5th) string on the fifth fret. These chords are moveable, as you can slide up and down the fretboard and keep the same pattern. If you move that Gm7 up two frets, it becomes Am7.

Tuning down is a practice commonly used in metal and grunge. Virtually every Alice In Chains song was tuned down half a step. All this is tuning each string down half a step from the current note. (E-Eb, A-Ab, D-Db, G-Gb, B-Bb, E-Eb). Sometimes you will see songs that require you to tune down a whole step. This is the same thing, only you tune down an extra half step (E-D, A-G, D-C, G-G, B-A, E-D). Another different style of tuning is "Drop-D" tuning. This is used in a lot of Nirvana songs (All Apologies, for example). All you do here is tune the low E (6th) string (the top one) down to a D.
*note: when tuning down, remember that between each note there is are two half steps (i.e. there are two half steps, or a whole step, between A and B; A-A# is a half step, as is B-Ab), except between B-C and E-F. In these cases there is only one half step between these two intervals (there is technically no such thing as B#, Cb, E#, or Fb; although you may see them sometimes, they are particularly rare and are only used in a certain context.

Answer 2

Not quite sure what you mean but if it's on music scores, ie dots, then it may be the Treble Clef sign. This is similar to an & with a line down the middle.

On tablature it could be that you tune down 'half a step' to make a song easier to play. For example a song in the key of Db would be easier to play in C so tuning down would mean tuning the guitar on Eb, Ab,Db, Gb, Bb and Eb so that when you played a chord in the shape of C the sound would be Db. This is useful if the original song was in such a key and thus difficult to play. Bands do this if their singer cannot reach the required key but the band cannot easily transpose or play in an unusual key.

To save doing this you can always use a capo d'istra (capo) which fits on your guitar fretboard so that if you wanted to play a song in the key Eb you can place the capo on the third fret and play in a C shape but still be playing Eb. Thus a sequence of Eb Cm Ab Bb7 would be played in the easier shapes of C Am F G7 but still be the correct chords.

Answer 3

I think ... the line means you put your index finger over all the string where shown on your chart.Tune down half a step?

If you have a chromatic tuner this can be easy. A half a step down is having every note “half a step” down – a half step is an interval and to the guitar it’s a one-fret distance. So, E becomes Eb and so forth.

From the low E to the high E it goes

Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb

Answer 4

Tuning down a step means to consecutively tuning each string down a half step so D would become Db (Db=D flat) and so forth. Most rock songs are done in 440 with a half step down. (440 is standard tuning - how many times the string vibrates in a second) or in Drop D which is tuning the E string to a low Db and each string tuned consecutively down a half step.