Guitar Chords More Than Words
Guitar Chords More than Words is an interactive tutorial to quickly teach you to strum guitar chords fast. This practical method will save your fingers and hands from pain while making chord changes easy!
A chord consists of three or more notes at specific intervals. These intervals have much to do with scales (another topic altogether), but we won’t get into it here.
Basics
Extreme’s “More Than Words” is an exquisite ballad and was the band’s signature tune, once shunned for being too uptempo and hard rock-oriented. Now they embrace it and include it on every set list; starting out in G major before moving through Cadd9 (simulate G major by moving your first finger up one fret and lifting off your third finger in Cadd9) to Am7 to D and back to G major again as part of a beautiful progression.
This carousel allows you to travel forward or backward, using the arrow buttons on either end.
Major
Beginners often make the mistake of learning multiple chord shapes without applying them in context of a song, leading them down a path to frustration and hindering their development as guitarists.
Once you have mastered open chords, move on to barre chords like G major, C major and D major. As soon as these have become familiar, most songs should become easily playable before moving onto more advanced ones like minor seventh, dominant seven diminished minor7b5. Mastery of these advanced chords will require additional music theory knowledge as well as practice with a capo; once achieved though they will enable you to play any genre of music effortlessly – as demonstrated by Extreme’s “More Than Words”.
Minor
Chord progressions often contain specific intervals that sound good together, like when using the major scale listed above to form chords from it and creating chord progressions from it will yield I (C), IV (G) and V (A). Most listeners will recognize such progressions easily.
Chords that use notes from the major scale but are non-diatonic will stand out more prominently in a progression, like this example with non-diatonic minor ii (A). Substituting such chords will add some flair and make your progressions sound more distinctive – plus playing songs this way may make transcribing chords by ear easier, since different transcribers might arrive at slightly different chord types when transcribing complex harmonies by ear.
Diminished
Diminished chords are an essential component of songwriting. Used for various purposes ranging from replacing V chords in chord progressions or serving as bridges between different chords, diminished chords can serve as powerful instruments.
A diminished chord is a three-note triad composed of C, E and G notes. To perform it, position your pointer finger at fret 4 of the B string for Eb note while your middle and ring fingers play C and A notes respectively on G string frets 5-6 respectively.
diminished chords are used extensively across pop, rock, jazz, country, hip hop and heavy metal music genres. Additionally, diminished chords are frequently employed as passing chords to add tension or dissonance before eventually resolving to either a major or minor chord that harmonically aligns with the key of each song.
Augmented
Music is often described as an universal language, and understanding how specific chord types evoke specific emotions in listeners is crucial for creating compositions with more emotional depth. For instance, certain types of chords elicit feelings of sadness or melancholy such as augmented chords, suspended chords or chromatic chords – this knowledge allows musicians to craft more emotive music compositions.
Augmented and diminished chords may be more complex to understand than their diatonic counterparts, yet they can add depth to chord progressions by adding dissonance and tension. A progression that shifts back and forth between G7 and G+ may create the impression of despair as illustrated by Eddie Money’s song, “Baby Hold On.” Additionally, augment chords may also serve as replacements for dominant seventh chords like Pink Floyd’s The Warmth of the Sun.