28 Chords Every Guitarist Should Know

The title speaks the truth and if you realize that you don't know a certain chord and then start feeling bad, you really shouldn't because you'll know it now.

This lesson is definitely directed towards beginning guitarists, but you never know - there may be something new here. I built this list based upon what chords are the most common or well known, but I have found that this is a really good system for memorizing guitar chords.



Much like learning a new scale or mode, the best way to learn a new chord for guitar, is to not just print it out (and I highly encourage you to print off any of the material on this site), but also to write it down for yourself. Play it a few times and repeat the name of the chord back to yourself. Its no different than memorizing a new mathematical formula. You general have to solve a lot of problems using the same method, before it finally sinks in.

I remember hearing Joe Satriani talking about recording himself playing a ton of chords, one chord at a time, and then recording the name of each chord after he played it. He did this with a small cassette and would play the cassette on his way to work, and would try to guess the chord before the recorded version of his voice would come on and declare the chord. That's a great example of how you can train your ear, but its not necessary, unless you've had your Wheaties for the day.

Anyways, check out the list for yourself.

1. A
2. Am
3. A7
4. Am7
5. B
6. Bm
7. B7
8. Bm7
9. C
10.Cm
11.C7
12.Cm7
13.D
14.Dm
15.D7
16.Dm7
17.E
18.Em
19.E7
20.Em7
21.F
22.Fm
23.F7
24.Fm7
25.G
26.Gm
27.G7
28.Gm7

LEGEND:

1. The frets are denoted by numbers.
2. An X means that you do not play the string nor is it fretted.
3. An O means that the string is played open and not fretted.
4. Red Dots represent where your fingers go.

NOTE:
Take notice of the fact that many times by simply altering one note, you can change a chord's structure from major to minor, or major 7th to minor 7th.


Click To Enlarge


Click To Enlarge

Read More......

Construction Of A Suspended 4th Chord

I'll make a strong attempt to explain to you exactly what a suspended chord is and how it is constructed. Its really not that difficult of a concept, you just have to read this a little slowly. Keep repeating to yourself each key piece of information before moving forward.

First of all a suspended chord has its roots in counterpoint music. Counterpoint is a term that represents music that contains two voices that are working in harmony with each other. It stems mainly from Renaissance music. A great example of counterpoint is Jason Becker's version of Air.
That link will take you to a youtube video, so I suggest that you read this article before checking it out.

Originally, the suspended chord was played on piano by holding down the remaining notes of one chord, while the other hand introduced a new chord over-top of the first chord. In other words, it was expanded to a larger chord, with the first chord still held, or suspended.

On the guitar you could achieve the same results by tapping the second chord with the right hand, but this is not necessary, considering that a suspended chord can now be duplicated as you would normally play any chord.

A suspended chord is considered to be neither major, nor minor.

This makes it a favorite amongst Jazz players, because it allows for a broader interpretation when it comes to improvising.

The Suspended 4th chord (Sus4).

Most chords are constructed with a major or minor 3rd. A Major 3rd is a leap of 4 half-steps from the root note.

Try this:

Play the 3rd fret on your low E, which is a G note. Count 4 frets up from that and you'll land on the 7th fret (B). That B note also happens to be the 2nd fret on the A string. Now play the 3rd fret on the Low E string (G) and the 2nd fret on the A string (B) and you'll see that its the basis of your run-of-the-mill G chord.

A Suspended chord is constructed in a similar fashion, except that a suspended chord doesn't contain a Major or a Minor 3rd. It instead contains a perfect 4th.

A perfect 4th is 5 half-steps from the root note. Try that same experiment. First fret the 3rd fret on the Low E and then count up 5 frets. You'll land on the 8th fret (C). That C note can also be found on the 3rd fret of the A string. Now play the 3rd frets of the E and A strings, together.

This may not all make sense right away, and that's ok. Read through this article a few times, with your guitar in hand and play through the experiments. We'll come back to suspended chords at a later time to talk about Sus2 chords.

Now for the full Gsus4 chord.



Click To Enlarge

You'll notice that the 3rd fret on the A string (C) is not included in this chord. In fact you don't play the A string at all for this particular fingering. However, you will also notice that the C note happens to be the 1st fret on the B string.

Read More......

7th Chord Structures - pt. 1

7th Chord Structures - pt. 1

As promised, today's topic will be about the infamous 7th chord. 7th chord structures present a very unique sound and can give any musician a unique perspective on their playing, especially when 7ths are mixed with other chord structures.

The 7th chord is generally used in Jazz, Blues and Latin music, but there are many ways to incorporate its pure sound into other genres of music.

To be honest with you, 7th chords are not hard to learn, but there are so many principles that apply. That is why I have chosen to keep this entry simple. In a later entry, I will expand upon the many variations of a 7th chord.

I'll show you the formula for creating a Major 7th chord out of any major scale and I will do the same with a Minor 7th chord. Keep in mind that this article is a follow up to the last one, which was about power chords. I spoke in the last entry of a very specific teaching style known as Metacognition. I am very fond of using this method to teach myself things, as well as to teach others.

The definition of Metacognition, as I had explained before, is the study of study. It sounds redundant, but it is far from. When it is in use, it means that you are learning something new by assimilating it with something that you already know. Scientists now know that this is indeed how the brain processes and compartmentalizes new information.

So, to start you off in the wonderful world of 7th chords, I'm going to show you the easier variations of them. I'm going to show you barre 7ths. I'm doing this because they are very similar to the power chord structure, yet they still retain the 7th sound, and much like the power chord, the fingering changes little.


Let's get started!

The Triads and the Power chords were both similar in the sense that those structures were created from taking 3 distinct notes from the major scale, to construct those chords.

This time, with 7ths, you are using 4 distinct notes.

The Major 7th formula (1, 3, 5, 7)
The Minor 7th formula (1,b3,5, b7)



Click To Enlarge




Click To Enlarge

I have, as usual, posted the major scale with the actual notes defined. If you want to do a little "homework" feel free to locate these notes on your guitar and make an attempt to arrange them into the proper chord. Its not rocket science - I always rely on my ear when I feel a little confused at times and training your ear is better than theory.

One thing that you should realize is that the barre chord versions of these founding 7ths present a slightly different sound, in terms of voicing. Eventually, we will cover as many of the 7th chord structures as possible, but there are a lot and there's so much to discuss outside of chords. In the mean time, this should wet your appetite until we come to that bridge.



Click To Enlarge

Read More......

Power Chords

Power Chords

Might as well keep up with this chord structure thing, and the last two articles were about the construction of triads. What comes to my mind now, are power chords.

If you already know how to play power chords, and a lot of you do, you might as well read this article to find out a little bit more about them.

Also, if you haven't yet, make sure to check out the two part article on triadic chord structures, because I'm connecting these chord segments in such a fashion that it really sinks in. This type of studying is called metacognition, and it is a really affective way to learn anything. The next article will deal with the structures of Major and Minor 7th chords.

First of all, power chords are thought to be used primarily in heavier styles of music. It is true that it is present in metal, rock and punk genres of music, but traces of it can also be found in Andalusian style Flamenco. Dave Mathews was also quite fond of the chord structure and his musical influence were the sounds of South Africa, which makes you wonder.

It is not called a power chord because it is used in powerful forms of music, instead it gets its name from the fact that it uses the power to the 5th.

A power chord is either a Major or Minor triad, except that the 3rd that is found in a triad, is left out.

The formula for creating a power chord is different than the formula for creating a triad. The formula for a Major triad are the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the Major scale.

The power chord formula are the 1st, 5th and 8th notes of a major or minor scale.

What gives the power chord such a full sound is the fact that the 1st and 8th notes are the same note, so it doubles the sound. The 8th note is optional and is not always used, however, the 8th note is also an octave of the root (1st). To add the 8th note gives it an even fuller sound. Take a look at the below illustrations. They are structured out of A.



Click To Enlarge




Click To Enlarge


You will notice that it does not matter whether or not you construct a power chord from a major or minor scale. The 1st, 5th and 8th notes don't change between the scales.

The chords are simple yet unique in that sense. They are unique because the aspect of major or minor depends on the modulation of the chords. Simply put, it all depends on the melodic structure of a song. A way of looking at would be that the chords are chained together as notes in the progression of a particular scale.

Stay tuned. Next time its major and minor 7th chords.

Read More......

Triadic Chord Structures part 2

Triadic Chord Structures - Part 2

Last time we were talking about Triadic chord structures. I showed you the Major triad formation and a Minor triad formation, and I had also promised to show you the next two. The Diminished and Augmented variations of those structures.

If you had played through the chord formations that I had given to you, you would had seen a common pattern, both in the Major triad structure and the Minor triad structure. Well, the good news is that the Diminished and Augmented versions of the chords are no different. What's the bad news? There is none! that's more good news.

As I had explained before, a triad is constructed from the major scale, by taking the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of that scale and playing them together to sound the chord.

The last example was in G, but this time we're going to start in G# - the 4th fret on your low E string.

I'm going to go ahead and show you the Diminished and Augmented chords. They will run one octave like last time, spanning from G# to G#. Go ahead and play them through a few times and then when you're done, consult the Major scale at the bottom. Play it through a few times and then after that, consult the formulas for creating the Major, Minor, Diminished and Augmented triadic chords. Using the formula (which, is very straight forward) and the scale, see if you can't recreate these chords using a little detective work. I know you can do it! You may make a few mistakes at first, but after a little focusing, the notes will jump right out at you.




Click To Enlarge




Click To Enlarge


The G# Major scale



Click To Enlarge
The Formula Is:

Major triad contains (1 3 5) of a major scale.
Minor triad contains (1 b3 5) of a major scale.
Diminished triad contains (1 b3 b5) of a major scale.
Augmented triad contains (1 3 #5) of a major scale.


Note: Start with the G# Major triad chord. 4th fret on the low E string, 3rd fret on the A string and 1st fret on the D string. Come back to this chord if you get lost. Try to find these notes in the G# Major scale above. Once you feel like you understand how these notes structure this chord, start build the other chords off of this one. After you get the hang of it, try it else where. You can use the Major scale pattern anywhere, starting on the low E string.

Read More......

Triadic Chord Structures part 1

Triadic Chord Structures part 1


I'm going to show you some musical theory, but I'm going to make
it so simple, that you'll be amazed at how easy this stuff is. It
all depends on how its delivered to you. I'm going to keep it
really simple. I have devised a way for any guitarist to understand
this.

1. First of all, you have one note. Simple. A note is a note. One, uno - no more no less.

2. two notes stacked together, are not quite a chord. They are referred to as an interval, but we will use this term loosely, because there are many sub-forms of intervals.

3. A chord is three notes or more.

4. A chord containing three notes is a triadic chord, hence triad (3).

A three note triadic chord has four structures that are very easy to form. They flow in this order:

a) Major triad or basic triad
b) Minor triad
c) Diminished triad
d) Augmented triad.

A Major triad is the "mother" of these structures. The major triad contains the following notes of a major scale. The 1st note (known as a tonic - the "root" note), the 3rd note and the 5th note.

Simply put, if we wanted to make a G major triadic chord, we would build it from the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the G major scale. So G would be our 1st note.

I don't want to give you too much information at once, so I'm going to make this entry a two-parter. In the next section, I will show you the G Major scale and how to find these notes. I will then show you in that section, how to flat or sharp the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes accordingly, in order to create a Minor triad, Diminished triad and Augmented triad. its very, very easy. For now, I want you to take this information and temporarily forget about it.

I have compiled two sections of notation below. The first section shows you all of the major triadic chords, starting with the G Major triad. It spans an octave, ending on the next G Major triad.

The 2nd section shows you all of the Minor triadic chords, starting with the G Minor triad. This too, spans an octave. Starting with the major triad chord section, finger the chords and play all of them, one at a time. Repeat this process several times. You will find, that the pattern is the same. You do not need to alter your fingering.
You will only have to slide the fingering up a fret at a time.

Memorize this pattern.

Next, move on to the Minor triadic chords. You will see that the pattern is almost identical. Only one note is altered. Play all of these chords several times through. Memorize THIS pattern. Go back and forth between playing the major triads and the minor triads, comparing the structures of the patterns.





Click To Enlarge





Click To Enlarge

Read More......