Guitar Vocabulary: Open Position

Playing an open position on the guitar simply means that one or more of the strings is sounded without any fret being fingered. The whole string vibrates to sound the note.

Here are some common "open" terms you'll encounter as you learn guitar…

Open string; a string that is not fretted, no finger is pressed onto the string.

Open chord; a chord with one or more notes played on open strings.

Open voicing; a fancier term for an open chord.

Open position; A finger position for playing chords or scales in which one or more notes are played on open strings. Most often somewhere near the head of the guitar fretboard.

Open tuning; the guitar's is tuned in such a way that playing all the open strings makes a chord.

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