Barring chords at high positions on your neck can be challenging without a cutaway; to overcome this challenge, learn shapes which can be moved along the fretboard without altering their root notes.
This method allows you to focus on learning ONE musical key at a time. After memorizing its natural notes, only later should you move onto learning those with sharps or flats.
Major Triads
Triad chords are comprised of chords built upon the first, third and fifth scale degrees of any key signature. Triads typically sound very complete and resolved but they may also feature bright or upstanding qualities that stand out.
Practice moving triad shapes up and down the fretboard to familiarize yourself with their sounds, which are useful when linking with other patterns such as CAGED patterns.
To invert a major triad, simply raise its bottom note an octave. This creates a different sound and can be used to form different chords; arpeggios, melodies and riffs can make use of inversions; however diminished triads should not be used this way as their flattened fifth gives them a dissonant tone that sounds rather melancholic and discordant when inverted this way.
Minor Triads
Triads are chords composed of consecutive, or stacked, thirds. Major triads feature one major third at the base and two minor ones on top; minor triads utilize one minor third in the middle and a perfect fifth as their final component.
Minor chords can also be created by lowering the third and adding an octave, as in C-E-G becoming a minor chord by shifting it down one step (to E) and adding the octave.
This technique is often employed when creating chords that sound more emotional or dramatic, so give your songs more drama with this technique by including it when performing them live.
Sus4
Sus chords are created by subtracting the third note from a major or minor chord, creating tension and dissonance. According to classical theory, sus chords must resolve themselves and are usually combined with another parent chord containing the same root note.
Substituting either the second or fourth chord for the third can create sus2 or sus4 chords – lighter and less stable forms than their parent triad, these chords don’t adhere to major/minor standards and thus cannot be defined either way.
Tom Petty frequently utilized Fsus4 chords in his songs; these chords can also be used to postpone resolution and delay closure, giving an impression that something is concluding or about to end.
Sus7
Sus chords can add extra tension and movement to your voicings, drawing from open chord shapes that can be embellished with additional notes for intricate chord progressions.
Drop 2 chords operate similarly, often appearing in jazz music’s Tin Pan Alley style, except with one key distinction: sus chords add an additional fourth instead of third to each note in their chord progression.
Sus chords can also feature sus2 voicings with the fourth replaced with second, known as sus2. These typically resolve less strongly than sus4 chords and more closely resemble dominant functions. Still, they can work as subdominants of tonic chords to produce interesting progressions of chords – or can even serve as the pedal point of an entire phrase!
Mixolydian
Mixolydian scale is one of the essential modes to know for guitar players interested in blues and rock music, particularly those interested in blues and country. Similar to major scale, but featuring an unusual flattened seventh, giving it its unique country and blues sound.
Mixolydian can be found in C, and here are four one-octave patterns you can use to play this mode on guitar. Note that darker shaded notes represent fretted strings while lighter hued notes represent open strings.
Practice each pattern until it becomes second nature, then try linking them up and down the neck to form melodies – this will give your solos an authentic blues/rock sound.