Frets make chords possible.

You only have to put your finger somewhere in between two frets to get a particular note, so you can play more than the tiny handful of chords that can be played on something like a violin.

There are non-fretted guitars but they are rare, and I think early banjos were not fretted.

▲

jagged-chisel 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Frets make chords easier

	▲	BigTTYGothGF 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It makes hard chords easy, and impossible chords possible (if not easy). Most barre chords, for example.

▲

ErroneousBosh 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> Frets make chords possible.

What do you think double-stops are?

▲

bluGill 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

There are those who say it isn't a chord until you have 3 notes. I'm going to skip the complex music theory behind the arguments (I haven't studied them enough to understand much less form an opinion).

Of course in most music contexts there is more than one instrument playing and so the others can fill in the missing note making a full chord. Only a "one-man-band" really feels the loss.

▲

ErroneousBosh an hour ago | parent [-]

Power chords only have two notes (although more than two octaves, I don't know if you count that)

	▲	williamdclt an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		It's self-consistent: those who say that a chord must have at least 3 notes also say that power chords are not technically chords
	▲	dahart an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		What do you mean about more than two octaves? The basic power chord is 3 notes, for example E2 + B2 + E3. One of those is an octave.

▲

amanaplanacanal 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Whimpy-ass chords. You need three or more notes for a serious(tm) chord.

▲

ErroneousBosh an hour ago | parent [-]

Five for the Hendrix Chord, E7♯9 ;-)

That's E, G♯, B, D, F

	▲	telotortium 27 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Every jazz player knows you can drop the fifth, and the root too if the bass is filling it in. That gives your fingers room to add even crazier extensions