Playing fingerstyle guitar instrumentals, you will use shell chords a lot. As you need to free up left hand fingers for melody notes etc. All you need is the hint of the chord. You also end up with 3rds, 5ths even 7ths in the bass with some weird looking chord shapes. It confuses some people when they play guitar and watch you and can't quite figure out what chord you are playing, but when you show it and explain it the light goes on. Chet Atkins was very good at this. First picking the key that made it easiest to play and then reconfiguring the chords to allow the melody to pop out.

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