Guitar chords are essential components of any song. They give the song structure and help listeners understand what they can expect, while being fun to play!
Switching between guitar chords may initially seem daunting, but with practice it will soon become second nature. The key is developing muscle memory for your fingers and chord shape recognition.
String names
A standard guitar has six strings, each named for a note. The thinnest string is known as the 1st string; and its thickest counterpart, often known as the low E string is known as the 6th string or even “First”. Convention dictates whether you refer to these first string as High or First strings – these designations may or may not apply!
Most guitarists use mnemonic devices or acronyms as a way to recall string names. Some might seem silly – Eddie Ate Dynamite or Eat A Dead Grasshopper Before Breakfast are examples – but these clever devices can help jog memory.
Memorizing the names of strings can be essential if you wish to play chords that rely on open strings, so don’t stress about memorizing all of them; focus on those most essential to your music first and learn the rest later. Let’s start off with natural notes on one string before moving on to sharps and flats.
Chord names
Chord names provide us with a way of remembering which notes comprise a chord combination. There are official and colloquial terms used, but all serve the same purpose – helping us recall which notes make up a particular chord, for instance “E7#9” comprises major third, perfect fifth, minor seventh and sharp ninth from E major scale.
However, sometimes a note is added or deleted from a chord to produce something entirely new. A sus chord, for instance, is a power chord which removes its third note and replaces it with another note to create a more subdued sound and often serves as an effective transition between major and minor chords. Similar chords known as sus2 chords also often find use when performing blues music.
Triads
Triads are an integral component of chord theory. Consisting of three notes arranged as lowest, middle and upper notes of a chord in every major and minor key, they are known as perfect intervals as they offer both harmonic consonance as well as melodic consonance – making them the ideal building block for chord construction.
Triads possess different properties depending on which scale degree is being studied, which makes each key signature different when building triads due to differences in fret separation of white notes in its key signatures. This makes creating triads unique experiences every time, which makes triads even more intriguing!
Variation in position can allow you to craft different kinds of triads. Root position, with all three notes aligned vertically, is often depicted as the snowman shape. Other positions include first inversion and second inversion which offer further opportunities for voice leading and chord sound development.
Intervals
Intervals are the distances between two musical notes that vary in tone. Depending on their context, intervals can be classified as harmonic, melodic or size intervals – but note that accidentals only change its generic size without altering either harmonic or melodic forms.
There are various techniques for training intervals with reference songs; the most widely-used method involves memorizing song melodies containing first few notes of every interval type; when hearing these songs again later, your brain recognises these intervals and links them back to your instrument.
As an easy way to calculate intervals, one effective strategy for working out intervals is thinking in terms of half steps and whole steps; for instance a major third is three half-steps away from Tonic (C), while four half-steps separates a minor fourth (C-Eb). This makes remembering vertical intervals easy when learning chords vertically up and down fretboard – an invaluable skill when performing tasks such as playing by ear, improvising and transcription.