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Chords

  • A [[Scale]] contains notes, which can be considered ingredients to create chords from them
    • Create Chords using tertian movement, meaning Root - 3rd - 5th

C major scale:

  • We can see that if the diff between Root and 3rd note is 2 step then it is a Major Chord, if it is 1.5 step then it is Minor Chord
    • This means that whenever we are doing a Major chord, we can just flat the 3rd note to get the Minor chord. ^bbc10e
    • So when we are seeing chord name (E.g: C#/flat Minor/Major), the #/flat tells us where it is on the fretboard, Minor/Major tells us if we should flat the 3rd note or note.
  • The order of chords will always stay the same no matter the major scale. That is:
    • 1th, 4th, 5th chord is always Major chord
    • 2nd, 3th, 6th chord is always Minor chord
    • 7th chord is always Dim

C minor scale:

  • Constructing all chords for Cm, we would have
  1. Cm
  2. D dim
  3. Eb
  4. Fm
  5. Gm
  6. Ab
  7. Bb
  • The order of major/minor/dim will always stay the same no matter the minor scale:
    • 1th, 4th, 5th chords is always Minor chord
    • **3th, 6th, 7th chord is always Major chord
    • 2nd chord is always Dim

Roadmap​

  • We can use this roadmap to easily find notes in every key
    • If it is a minor key, the fret for 2nd -> 3rd, 5th-6th is right next to each other
  • From this, we can apply the Major/minor chord formulas to identify all chords in the chosen key 
    - Then we can play our Pentatonic scale like this:
  • Another roadmap but with root starting on 5th stringGiUn81O.png
    - Then we can play our Pentatonic scale like this:

Power Chord

  • Chords made from the Root and 5th note from the Root.
    • The index finger will press the Root note
    • The Root note is the same note that gives the name of the chord.
  • Root 5th and 6th Shape:
e|----| 
B|----| 
G|----|
D|--3-| 
A|--3-| 
E|1---| 
e|----| 
B|----| 
G|--3-|
D|--3-| 
A|1---| 
E|----|
  • Shape from 5th string and 6th strings are similar, the only difference is that shape from 5th string is one string lower, and we have mute the 6th string

Bar Chord

  • One example is F chord where we use the Index finger to barre the whole fret

  • This is much more convenient as to change chord, we just need to slide to a different fret with the correct Root note, without having to change finger shape (or just change the finger shape a little bit)

  • Example moving: C - G -F

C chord G chord F chord

  • The name of the shapes stem from its open position chord, C shape -> C chord in open position
    • We can think of shapes as an advanced version of open position, we use our index finger to barre the fret to stimulate a Capo, and the other fingers just play the shape like in open position => Can think of it as moving the open position up the neck using index finger as Capo
  • There are a few main Shapes:

E shape

e|1----| 
B|1----| 
G|--2--|
D|----3| 
A|----3| 
E|1----|
  • Using this shape, the degree of the note starting from 6th string is 1-3-1-3-5-1, meaning the Root note is on the 6th & 4th & 1st string, the 3rd note is on the 5th and 3rd string, and the 5rd note is on the 2nd string.
  • For further understanding, we can relates the E shape to the [[Scale#Major Scale | Major Scale]] like this:
  • The blue notes are the note used in E shape major barre chordA shape
e|1----| 
B|----3| 
G|----3|
D|----3| 
A|1----| 
E|-----|
  • Root note in this shape is on the 5th string, we have to mute the 6th string

C shape

e|1----| 
B|1----| 
G|1----|
D|----3| 
A|----3| 
E|1----|
  • NOTE:
    • We can use either E shape or C shape to play any chord, it is gonna be the same chord but it will sound slightly different.
    • Similar to [[Chords#^bbc10e]], we can apply the same rule to flat the 3rd note to achieve Minor chord

6th string root​

Major: Minor:

5th string root​

Major: Minor:

Sus4 Chords

  • Sus stands for suspended and it describes the sound of this type of chord well.
  • The 4 stands for the note that's a 4th interval away from your root note.
  • A major chord is made up of a root, the major 3rd interval, and the 5th.
  • For a sus4 chord voicing, we’re exchanging the 3rd for the 4th.

7th Chords

Major 7th: 1-3-5-7 notes​

  • Example: Amaj7: A - C# - E - G#
  • Movable shape:
    - E/6th string root:  
    - A/5th string root:  
    - D/4th string root:

Minor 7th: 1-b3-5-b7 notes​

  • Example: Am7: A - C - E - G
  • Movable shape:
    - E/6th string root:  
    - A/5th string root:  
    - D/4th string root:

Dominant 7th: 1-3-5-b7 notes​

  • Example: A7: A-C#-E-G
  • Movable shape:
    - E/6th string root:  
    - A/5th string root:  
    - D/4th string root:

9th chords

  • Note
    • 9th chords is quite hard to press so people usually leave the 5th note out for simplicity sake
  • 9th note is 2nd note on a higher octave

Major 9th: 1-3-5-7-9​

  • Example: Cmaj9: C-E-(G)-B-D

- **This shape is actually movable on 5th and 4th string, so we can slide this across the neck to play maj9 chords wherever we want**

Minor 9th​

  • Example: Em9: E-G-D-F#
  • Movable shape:
    - E/6th string root:
    - A/5th string root:
    - D/4th string root:

Dominant 9th​

  • Example:
  • Movable shape:
    - E/6th string root:
    - A/5th string root:
    - D/4th string root:

Chord Progression