Contrary to popular belief, most chords don’t originate solely in one major scale; musicians frequently employ chords from various scales and modes for their musical compositions.
Practice curving your fingers upward to prevent touching other strings and muffle the sound of fretted strings, this finger positioning will come in handy when playing other chords.
Major Triads
Triads are an extremely flexible chord type found across various musical genres. Triads consist of the first (root), third, and fifth notes in an interval scale separated by three intervals – making it suitable for block chords, arpeggios, power chords as well as being easily moved up and down the fretboard within their group of strings for easy voicing options that add variety to your soundscape.
Triads are one of the easiest major chords to play and can be moved anywhere on the fretboard for maximum versatility and sounding variations. Additionally, more complex augmented and diminished chords can be created from these shapes by adding or subtracting minor seconds from between their bottom notes and middle notes respectively.
Major Sevenths
The major 7th is one of the more difficult chords you can play on guitar, making it an essential one to learn as you advance. These chords can either be played as barre chords (see links below the pictures) or with a capo and consist of four to six notes depending on its root note.
Triad chords are one of the easiest chords to form, composed of only three notes connected by an interval (i.e. if starting with C chord, you will hear that there is an audible difference in sound between C and B due to being one third apart).
Maj7 chords are an organic product of harmonizing major scale notes, so learning their construction can be an excellent starting point to expanding one’s chord vocabulary. Once familiar with their shapes, one can experiment with using them more creatively within progressions.
Minor Triads
Major triads may seem simple, but they still deliver quite an impactful punch. Bass lines benefit greatly from using major triads as accompaniment, or they can serve soloists or be played melodically as melodic hooks. Furthermore, these chords have an eerie quality which adds tension and drama.
Triads are one of the cornerstones of chords, scales and arpeggios on a fretboard; knowing how they work gives an invaluable advantage for learning new shapes.
Minor triads consist of the root, third and fifth notes from any minor scale and are represented by notations Cm, CM or simply c. The distance between any two notes and their fourth note always falls on an interval of a perfect fifth no matter what scale is in use. Similar to major triads, minor ones can also be constructed using open or closed shapes – open triads use similar shapes but begin on different strings.
Minor Sevenths
As we have seen, chords based on the major scale can be formed in many different ways. Most musicians do not stick with one key for an entire song – instead borrowing chords from different keys – meaning learning both major and minor triads along with their open chord shapes is essential for any aspiring guitarist.
Know how to play minor seventh chords on your guitar is also extremely valuable, since these chords are basically major triads with an added flat seventh note – creating more melancholic tones than their dominant seventh cousins and adding tension into any song.
To play a minor seventh chord, bar your fingers across the first, third, and fifth strings as shown below. This will form a barre chord with its root on the low E string. There are numerous forms for minor seventh chords – some have already been covered here!