Chords and lyrics can provide the perfect way to accompany songs, often being simpler and less time consuming than tabs.
Play a song by reading and strumming chords above lyrics in rhythm with melody, possibly noting X’s or O’s to indicate which strings to muted while which should be strung.
Basic Chords
Chords are composed of notes grouped at specific intervals. For instance, a C major chord comprises the first and fifth notes from the C scale. A chord can also be known as a triad.
Major and minor triads produce lively and optimistic tones; their distinct sounds come from different intervals between notes.
Barre chords require your fingers to hold down multiple strings at once, making them more challenging for beginners. But with practice and making sure your fingers come right behind the frets, these chords will become easier over time and soon you will be playing barre chords effortlessly! With some effort you could soon be playing barre chords like an expert!
Major Chords
Most chords are composed using intervals, and each interval has its own distinctive sound. Major intervals generally sound brighter and happier compared to minor ones.
C major chords and C major seventh chords, for instance, are typically identified by their intervals. C major chords feature only the first and third degree scale chords while C major seventh chords include second, fourth and fifth degree scale chords on top of it.
Chord progressions are an integral component of nearly all music genres. Their placement determines how a song feels and creates tension or release; so experimenting with various sequences to see which works best will allow you to find chords that complement one another better. Furthermore, knowing your key will aid you in discovering which chords will pair nicely together.
Minor Chords
Once you have an understanding of major chords, it is time to move onto minor guitar chords – otherwise known as triads – which contain three notes – the root, minor third and perfect fifth. Intervals refers to distance between musical notes; thus a minor third lies three semitones from its root while seven half steps above is a perfect fifth.
Playing minor chords will allow you to create soothing, funky or upbeat rock sounds like those found in George Gershwin’s “Summertime”, The Commodores “Brick House”, Dire Straits “Sultans of Swing” or Dire Straits’ “Sultans of Swing”. Playing minor chords will expand the depth and variety of your songs with them adding rich colors that bring new life and depth.
Climbing the musical ladder begins with learning chords and scales; applying these concepts makes learning songs that much simpler. Fender Play makes music theory simple so you can put your chord knowledge to use!
Major Triads
New players often have trouble knowing which chords belong in a given key, and this question often gets raised as part of their onboarding process. The solution to this dilemma can be found through understanding major scale theory.
Major chords consist of three notes that form a triad, including the root note, major third note and perfect fifth. They are known as major chords due to containing major intervals (i.e. the third being one major third higher than the root).
C-E-G is a major chord. If you go up one semitone from that chord, E-C becomes a minor chord – providing an ideal starting point for most songs, yet you can use this default set of chords to explore more interesting possibilities.
Minor Triads
Major chords tend to sound brighter and happier while minor chords tend to sound darker and melancholic – this doesn’t come from some arcane music theory concept but simply from how we perceive note intervals.
To form a minor triad, begin with the root note of a chord and add its third harmonic note from above as an addition – for instance an A minor triad comprises A, C and E notes.
Once again, adding a minor seventh above the second note (A) creates an even more expectant quality and works particularly well when leading into dominant chord progressions like Radiohead did in their song Creep as an excellent example of how minor chords work well in chord progressions.