Folks talk about playing in either open position, with some ringing, open strings, or closed position, with all strings fretted. The universal chord is an inspired, third way.
There's a fourth, too -- the "ghost" chord.
This is a closed chord that you finger, but don't press down on. Touch the strings at all the right places, but back completely off on the pressure. Now strum it. You can tell what the chord is.
The easiest way to convince yourself of this is to play one of these, then play a universal chord. Hear that? Not the same. You can make your instrument a kettledrum: tuned percussion.
An evening of doing this at a jam and you'll have taught yourself the right amount of pressure to make it work fine, at least for common, closed chords like D, G, and A.
Better still (or at least as good), if you're still having trouble playing a closed-form chord -- say, you're moving to mando from guitar and can't yet slap-down a full, closed-form G as fast as the folks you're jamming with -- this gives you a way to practice getting your fingers where they need to be. After all, if you aren't quite playing the notes, it's okay if some of your fingers aren't quite in the right place yet.
Ah, but what about something like C? Even the three-fingered C still has that high, open E string. Lots of options.
- Play it up the neck. Move an A up three frets and you have a C. Use the barred A, which is easier to get to the right fret.
- Use your pinky to silence the E. I like it on the fifth fret, parallel to the ring finger, because if you actually press down, you get a useful chord. I use that C-with-an-A on top, for lots of tunes, Nice sound.
- Rotate your hand around a little, toward the back of the neck, and use the inside of your left hand to damp the E. You'll feel what I mean.
- Damp the chord with your right hand after you play it.
Right behind this in the parade are all the different things you can do with ghost chords:
- Vary the rhythm in your right hand. Lots of options, here.
- Vary the speed and direction you move across the strings with your pick. Try pulling your pick up, slowly enough that it's a rhythmic strum instead of a rhythmic chop.
- Vary where you play the chord: barred versus stretched A's for example.
- Pretend you're a guitar player and play boom-chucks. A full-throated, walking bass lines on the G string, alternated with ghost chucks, is yet another sound to throw into your backup-menu mix. I imagine this might sound particularly nice on a mandola, but haven't yet had a chance to try.
The ghost chords and their variants all have different sounds and a different feels -- like playing a bodhrán near the rim versus in the middle. Keep thinking, "It's a drum."
