Beginning students of music find basic open chords easy to master. An open G chord, for example, consists of two Gs and three E’s.
Chords are composed of three-note groups known as triads. Understanding this basic fact will help you grasp how different chords are constructed and named.
Major Triad
Major triads are undoubtedly among the most essential chord shapes you’ll learn, comprising of three notes (root note, third and fifth). Triads can stand alone or form part of larger four and five note chords – knowing triad shapes is invaluable for soloing, ear training and harmony purposes.
As a simple man, triads can be an invaluable asset. By creating an easily customizable sound space with limited resources available to you, triads allow for the creation of small sonic spaces to allow room for other guitar players, bassists, vocalists and more to enter. Furthermore, their versatility means they can be applied across genres or styles of music.
Triads can easily be moved up and down the fretboard as long as you remain within one group of strings, for instance from E shape to A shape yields the same chord, as does moving any other shape on the fretboard; this process is called chord inversion and may alter its sound significantly.
Minor Triad
Major chords feature three perfectly aligned thirds; in contrast, minor chords feature one flattened third, which produces an unpleasant sound when played. Therefore, minor chords tend to sound more somber.
By applying the CAGED system as a framework, we can come up with various minor chord shapes on the fretboard based on intervals found within your scale of choice. Similar to major triads, these minor chord forms utilize all five intervals.
Once we have the basic minor triad shape, we can use enharmonic equivalence to convert its sound into one with minor chord quality – giving us what Lynyrd Skynyrd used in their song Simple Man: an F#m triad.
Don’t forget to practice all triad shapes in each key you play music in; this will build a solid foundation and allow you to learn new shapes faster while keeping them longer in mind. Practice them across strings as well for maximum freedom when improvising and playing chords.
Major Scale
Starting out learning guitar chords and arpeggios should start with learning the major scale. Comprised of five open chords, it makes learning these fundamental building blocks of music simple for beginners.
The major scale can be found all across the fretboard and is an effective way to remember fingerings for chords in songs as well as assist when performing solo improvisations.
Understanding the major scale requires knowledge of intervals – whole steps are two frets apart while half steps consist of just one fret. An octave represents the easiest form of an interval; here, two strings vibrate at twice their usual rate.
Major scales and octaves are essential when learning guitar music. By understanding how fretboard patterns interact with one another, the easier it will be for you to navigate between notes and compose melodies of your own.
Minor Scale
Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd is an outstanding example of how simple chord progressions can be turned into rock anthems. It utilizes C, G and A minor played over and over with some unique arpeggio patterns for added interest.
‘Simple Man’ employs chords derived from natural minor scale, which only includes notes within its key signature. This choice is essential as the arrangement of notes within any minor scale has an impactful influence over its sound and mood.
C Major scale has a lively, joyful sound while A Minor offers more somber tones. This difference lies in their respective order and placement – with each having an effect on how their notes come together to form the overall melody of each scale.
Minor scales come in two varieties, natural and harmonic. The harmonic minor differentiates itself by raising the seventh scale degree so you can play authentic cadences from V – i scale degrees.