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(Basic) Chords are made up of 3 alternating ( i.e. 1st, 3rd and 5th ) notes played simultaneously. i.e. at the same time
When learning guitar, learning chord shapes is often the first thing you do.
- But do you know what each chord is made up of ?
There are lots of sites on the internet that provide every imaginable chord.
Apart from being very unlikely that you'll be able to, it is unnecessary for you to memorise all these chords shapes.
If you understand how scales work and how each chord-is constructed, you will easily be able to understand how to modify chords and to add other notes - without having to use chord diagrams or charts. It's actually very simple and very logical.
On the guitar there are two families of chords shapes that form the basis of all chords.
The E, A, and D chord shapes
The notes in the E, A and D chords are all 'stacked' in the same order. 5th at the top, 1st in the middle and 3rd at the bottom.
The E chord is the top 4 strings ( and the bottom two can also be played.
The A chord is the middle 4 strings ( and the top and bottom strings can also be played )
The D chord is the bottom 4 strings ( the A bass can also be played - but not the top E bass string ).
and the C and G ( and F ) chord shapes
These chord diagrams show the first 3 frets of a right handed guitar - with the first fret being the left-most
and the bottom of each box being the bass E string - which is uppermost when you're holding the guitar.
The numbers in the above diagrams represent which finger you'd normally use to play these ( N.B. this can change ! )
The notes in the C, G ( and F ) chords are 'stacked' with the top 3 notes being : the 1st note ,the 3rd and 5th.
How chords are constructed
Constructing The A major chord
Adding other notes to the Amajor chord
Adding other notes to the Dmajor chord
Constructing The E major chord.
Adding other notes to the Emajor chord
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The notes in the chords can be played one after the other . A sequence of notes is called an arpeggio
A Basic Arpeggio exercise that will show you where the notes of the A, D, and E chords actually come from.
Starting from the open 'A' on the second bass ( A string ) count along the 2 > > 2 >>1 > sequence to find the 3rd and 5th notes.
Park your hand over the 3rd and 5th notes and just take your fingers off when playing the 1st ( open ) note.
1,4,5 arpeggio on the A, D, A, and E strings
( The '1,4,5' mentioned here refers to the 3 major chords in this progression:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
A bm c#m D E f#m gdim A
The 1, 3,5 refers to the notes that make up each of those chords. Confusing ? Yes !
We have to seperate the concepts that there are 8 chords in each key and that there are 3 notes within each chord.
Play this pattern twice on the A string, 1,3,5 / 1,3,5 ( like a bass line )
then drop down and play the same pattern on the D string directly below
for 2 bars of 1, 3, 5 / 1,3, 5 -
Then back up to the A string for another 2 bars.
Then up to the top bass E string for another 2 bars to finish.
Try voicing these as you're playing them. Try singing some words to them.
This is a typical '1,4,5 pattern - which is commonly used in popular music. ( Blues, blues-rock, rock'n'roll etc )
A B C D E F G A
(1 4 5 refers to the chords in the key - not to the notes in the scale )
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Stacking the 1,3,5 notes to make up the A, D and E chords.
The notes within the A, D and E chords are stacked in the following order.
Each chord is formed with 3 fingers with its respective bass note being the open string immediately above it.
1 the string above the chord - which is plucked using the thumb - if you're not using a pick.
5 (uppermost) ,
1 (middle), and
3 (lowermost)
-each finger is controlling part of the scale .
Taking the 3 off reduces the chord to A add 2 ,
and moving the 3rd along one fret 'suspends' the note to a 4th. Asus4 ( April Sun in Cuba ) .
These alterations can be made to the A, D and E chords.
The A and E chords are especially important to learn as they are the most easily 'barred' so they can be moved along the neck to make all the other chords.
The C and G ( and F) chords are 'stacked' differently but are not as versitile as they're not so easily barred and moved. ( the A, D, E and C, G, chords are the two main chord shape groups on the guitar and are often referred to as the CAGED chords.
C and G ( and F ) from the top:
1,
3,
5.
The 1st chord is made up of : the 1st, the 3rd and the 5th notes of the scale 1,3,5
Tonic ( MAJOR )
The 2nd chord is made up of: the 2nd, the 4th and the 6th notes 2,4,6
Super-tonic ( Minor )
The 3rd chord is made up of :the 3rd, the 5th and the 7th notes 3,5,7
Mediant ( Minor )
The 4th chord is made up of :the 4th, the 6th and the 8th notes 4,6,8
Sub-dominant ( MAJOR )
The 5h chord is made up of :the 5th, the 7th and the 2nd notes 5,7,9 ( 2nd )
Dominant ( MAJOR )
The 6th chord is made up of :the 6th, the 8th and the 3rd notes 6,8,10 ( 3rd )
Sub-mediant ( Minor )
The 7th chord is made up of :the 7th, the 2nd(or 9th) and the 4th(or 11th notes 7, 2 ,4 Leading chord ( Diminished minor 'dischord' )
The 8th chord is the same as the first chord –
Tonic ( but an ' ocatve' above it ) ( MAJOR )
Once we have assembled these 'tri-tonal' chords and we play them as a sequence, we find that they form:
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th
MAJOR minor minor MAJOR MAJOR minor diminished minor, MAJOR
1,3,5 2,4,6 3,5,7 4,6,8 5,7,2 6,8,3 7,2,4 1,3,5
This is the same for all of the 12 natural keys.
Understanding how a musical key works makes it easy to transpose songs into any of the other 11 keys.
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