Guitar chords are combinations of notes that produce musical harmony when strung together on an instrument. Chords are commonly found in songs.
The black dots on a chord diagram represent frets you should press with your fingers; sometimes they even contain numbers to help indicate which finger should use which fret.
Barre chords can be challenging for beginners as they require holding down multiple strings with just one finger at the same time, but once mastered they become extremely useful.
1. C Major
C Major is often one of the first chords beginners learn, drawing upon an E major open string chord with its root placed at fifth string third fret to create a fuller six string version (ideal for Townshend-style windmilling).
C#9 chord extensions are the go-to way of expanding E major open string chords, adding the flat 7th and sharp 9th notes from C major scale into an E major open string chord.
Another useful variation is a sus chord, which replaces the third note with its 2nd counterpart. Practice making these transitions until they become second nature – having an in-depth knowledge of C’s patterns will make reading music and speaking harmony with greater ease and precision.
2. E Major
E Major is a key that’s widely utilized for blues and rock music, offering a gritty sound with some seductive qualities, perfect for lyrics addressing rejection and powerful physical desires.
Minor is also an ideal key for use in minor chord progression, since its minor, melancholic quality sets it apart from C. The Circle of Fifths tells us that every major scale has an accompanying minor scale one major sixth (six semitones) above and three semitones (3 semitones) below it – another useful insight!
Ayla will show you some of the essential chords to learn first and how to play them with progressions. Keep practicing these and soon enough you’ll become an expert!
3. G Major
G Major chords are great to start learning on because they lack sharps. That makes fingering easier; but for best results it is wise to build muscle memory slowly before moving them further up the fretboard.
This chord resembles C Major in that it contains a minor third between root and fifth notes. As it contains five notes, its sound will be fuller than with C major.
As is true with all scales and keys, it’s advisable to begin practicing G chord hands apart until you become comfortable playing each octave of notes in each octave individually. Once this step has been accomplished, work can begin on connecting them and forming chords; once your knowledge of G chord is secure it should translate well to other chords in future studies.
4. B Major
B Major chord is an iconic rock chord with a melancholic sound often associated with breakup songs. Additionally, this key provides chord progressions like I – VI – IV.
B Major requires using all five fingers simultaneously, so it is best to warm up first before attempting it. Also known as a barre chord, this one will require your to place multiple fingers across multiple strings simultaneously.
An effective way of learning the fingerings for B Major guitar chords is to look at a chord diagram. Each box represents a fret, while each number indicates whether index finger, middle finger or ring finger should be placed there.
5. D Major
D Major is an accessible chord that works across several musical genres. Comprised of the first, third, and fifth notes from D scale’s scale of notes 0-5, D Major offers strong sound that lends itself well to rock songs.
This chord can add suspense when played immediately before or after another major or minor chord, as well as being used to bridge between motifs in songs – for instance from an F Major 7 chord to C Major.
Its open form resembles that of a C chord, making it an excellent choice for beginners. Additionally, like other triads, any of its notes may be doubled without altering its designation as a major chord.
A chord is any collection of three or more notes played together to produce music, typically in major keys for its upbeat sound.
In this article we will cover some of the basic chord shapes you should know – triads as well as common extensions or alternations techniques.
Major
Beginners learning guitar often begin their musical studies with learning the major chord, which is a simple three-note triad that forms the basis for many other chords.
Typically speaking, chords stacked up with more tones tend to sound darker and melancholic due to how sound works physically. This phenomenon stems from how sound travels.
To appreciate this concept, a knowledge of music theory may help. Chords are built from scale degrees; basic triads consist of first, fourth and fifth scale degrees in whatever key signature is being used as their bases; these triads serve as the building blocks upon which musicians construct more advanced chords such as seventh chords or augmented chords.
Minor
Minor chords (often referred to as triads, meaning three notes) are created by flatting the 3rd note in any key’s scale, and typically tend to be darker and brighter than Major chords – used by bands like My Bloody Valentine and The Who among many others.
Understand why guitar chords are named the way they are is simple once you know how they’re composed; learning the scales will provide a good starting point.
The second step to learning chords on guitar is mastering intervals between those scales. Major and minor triads serve as the building blocks for other chords; once these have been mastered, intermediate guitarists progress onto seventh chords – which require stacking three thirds together before adding an augmented fifth interval between one of those thirds to create one chord tone.
Sus4
Sus chords are an excellent way to add some variety and movement into your progressions. Being triadic chords without the 3rd, they offer more neutral sounding notes that allow for easier switching-in/out between major/minor chords in songs and add motion that creates movement in them.
These chord shapes are a popular variation on open chord structures, often found in jazz, soul and funk music. Brian May’s intro for Queen’s Crazy Little Thing Called Love features such a Dsus4 chord as an example.
Make sure the 4th of each chord resolves down to the 3rd of the next one you play; this creates suspense and tension before its resolution; this technique is known as adding two chords.
Sus3
Sus chords, typically found in fingerstyle guitar playing, consist of open chord shapes that can be easily decorated using hammer ons and pull offs. Sus chords provide students with an introduction to dissonance and resolution concepts.
As these chords don’t contain a third, they fall somewhere in between major and minor and are frequently used to substitute for ii and V7 chords in progressions. To improvise over these chords use arpeggios or scales.
The Police’s classic track, “Message in a Bottle,” begins with an all-sus2 chord progression (Root, 4th, and 2nd). This song serves as an impressive example of how using just one chord can add harmonic and melodic depth to a tune – give this technique a try to see how well it fits with your music!
Sus2
By eliminating the major third, we create sus2 chords (also called open sus2) which are commonly seen in modern genres like rock and pop to add tension.
Pianists frequently employ sus2 chords to build tension. Additionally, these chords work effectively in improvised contexts as they can be played in any key.
Sus2 chords may be more challenging to play than standard triads, but they’re extremely useful – for instance in KT Tunstall’s song Other Side of the World it features multiple descending sus2 chords as part of its intro. They also work great as tonic chords in major keys; when combined with different scales/modes such as Mixolydian they add movement and resolution.