Learning Chords

PunkStar · Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2004 6:35 pm Post subject: Learning Chords

G'day and welcome to another of PunkStar's bandwidth wasting internet lessons on playing guitar. Hosted by the good people here on this forum.

I like that intro, it makes me sound half-way professional.

Today, I will be discussing current free-trade agreements and how they relate to the Australian economy.

Nah, I don't actually know anything about that kind of thing. I'm just a 16 year old kid who watches too much tv and and doesn't have enough to do. And yes, my homework is done. So don't ask.

As the subject of this post suggests, I will be rambling incoherently about learning chords today.

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I said I'd ramble incoherently, but just for you I'll speak English.

Chords are the diet of most guitarists. Actually, chords are what most guitarists do. Most of us can't read musical notation. I compare musical notation to trying to read Japanese. It's possible, but I just can't be bothered doing it. I'll leave the notation to the piano players. Besides, it's their domain. They can get to all the notes whenever they want them anyway. So they can do the hard work. And we guitarists can slack off a bit. But seriously, chords are easy enough.

But first you need to learn to play chords. There is a whole bunch of theory behind how chords are formed. But you don't necessarily need to know that. Ok Ok, that's just my way of saying I don't actually know. I'll find out sometime in my life and post up a tutorial on that too. But the theory isn't important at the moment. Let's just learn the shapes first.

A chord is defined as a series of 3 or more notes played at the same time. At least that is how one of my guitar books defines it (although sometimes I don't think that's perfectly accurate). There are many different types of chords. Some examples are open chords, bar chords, power chords, and seventh chords. There are also many others. I'm just going to give a general overview on chords and show you the best way to learn them.

Basically, the best way to learn a chord is to find out what it looks like then memorize it. They're easy enough to remember, so you don't have to worry about that. That is the way I've learnt the chords I know. I don't know of anyway other way to be Ahonest.

Now, I could sit here and type up a whole list of chords in tab form. But I'll be here all night and day for about the next two years if I were to do that. But also it's not a very efficent way of helping you learn them. The best way to find out many of them is to go to your local music store and buy a book that teaches you the chordshapes. There are many around. And occasionally in some newsagents, there are little books that have many chords in them. They make them so you can put it in your guitar case and use it as reference in case you forget any. It's a good idea. So go out and buy one of the above mentioned ideas. It'll work better than me just typing up a bunch of chords and only getting five-twenty eighths of them. Also, there are many chord dictionary's on the internet and many programs have been written to teach you them. It's just a case of finding them. Many are completely free. which is always good.

There is only one problem with chords. You have to know how a song sounds to be able to use them. You must know the strumming patterns of the song. And those can be wide and varied. So get to know your song. Most hymns and songs like that have a strumming pattern that pretty much matches the melody line. So it makes the job a little bit easier. It just depends on your musicianship skills I guess. That's why it's good to learn with a better guitarist. Take me for instance. I'm a terrible guitarist. But I'm getting better because I'm playing regularly with considerably better players who actually have rhythm and know what they are doing.

Thanks for reading the above article. Join in next time for the next one whenever I get around to it.

Keep rocking!

Sixstring · Kitten Joined: 28 Dec 2001 Posts: 140

Great post, PunkStar. Mind if I add a bit? Of course, if you do, it will be too late to say so, since I will have already done it. So, let's learn the theory behind chords, shall we?

There are a couple simple things you must know in order to build chords on the fly, without a book handy. Also, knowing the theory will allow you to shape the chords differently all over the neck and not rely on a single pattern. That's called "voicing", btw.

What must you know? I'm glad you asked! First you need to know the notes on the neck on all the strings. Second, you need to know the pattern for the major scale. For the notes on the neck, there's a great tool here. (No personal affiliation).

The pattern for the major scale is measured in whole steps and half steps. The distance from one fret to the next, in either direction, equals a half step. Example: E-F = half step. The distance from E-F# would be two frets, which would equal a whole step. Simple!

The pattern is 2 whole steps, 1 half step, 3 whole steps, 1 half step. (2 wholes and a half, 3 wholes and a half, is how I refer to it.)

Whatever note you start on is called your Root note. Let's take the key of C... That would have you starting your pattern on the note of C, which would be your root. Using that pattern starting from C would mean you would play, C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. Now look at those notes and notice the distance between them. C-D equal a whole step, D-E equals a whole step, E-F equals a half step (2 wholes and a half, so far), F-G equals a whole step, G-A equals a whole step, A-B equals a whole step, B-C equals a half step (3 wholes and a half). You will end on the same note you started on- C- but at an octave higher.

Root- C
whole step- D
whole step- E
half step- F
whole step- G
whole step- A
whole step- B
half step- C (root)

Make sense?

Each of those notes is given a numeric name of 1 through 8. (btw- they are numbered with Roman numerals- I through VIII)

The root is the one (I), so it would look like this:

C= I
D= II
E= III
F= IV
G= V
A= VI
B= VII
C= VIII

To build a major chord, you take the 1, 3 and 5 of the major scale. In the key of C it would be the notes of C (I), E (III) and G (V). Let's look at another key. Let's try A.

A= I
B= II
C#= III
D= IV
E= V
F#= VI
G#= VII
A= VIII

A major, then, is made of A, C#, E.

Try it- play a standard open A chord and check the notes you are playing. They will be either a 1,3 or 5. This is true of all major chords in any key!

Don't confuse it with minor chords, 7ths, or any other variant chord- this is just for "major" chords.

This has been Basic Chord Theory 101, we now return you to your regularly scheduled program. Smile

PunkStar · Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2004 1:41 am Post subject:

I don't mind at all. In fact, you've just saved me a bit of work. Done well. Thanks for that. Very Happy

quackzed · Not So Newbie Joined: 20 Jan 2007 Posts: 9

heres another little bit to help people out with weird chords and how theyre made...
lets do chords with a c root.
c major - C E G (I III V) the root(c), a major III(e),and a V(g).
-all major chords have a major III note.. it's why theyre major chords
c minor - C Eb G (I iii V) the root(c) a MINOR iii(e flat)and a V(g)
-all minor chords have a minor(or flat) iii . makes them minor.
So all major chords have major III(2 whole steps( from c) and all minor chords have a minor iii.(1 1/2 steps from c) in minor chords the e is flattened to make the chord have a minor iii.

c7 -C E G Bb yep four notes! basically a major chord (see the E? its not flat so it's major!)with a minor seven (Bb(B flat) note.also called a dominant seventh chord. these pop up alot in blues and in turnarounds cause they have a certain unresolved sound that leads your ear back to the key chord or the beginning!

Cmaj7 - (C E G B) (I III V VII) ok so its major so the III tells us,
have you noticed the V note is always the same !!! good every chord has a V note... in c it's g! count it on your fingers!
((basically if a chord has anything other than a perfect 5(g in key of c))it will tell you in its name(m7b5) etc...tells you to flat the 5 ))
and a VII (a major 7 note (B)
cm7 (C Eb G Bb) (I iii V vii) minor iii and a minor 7
lets simplify....

III/iii the 3rd of any chord says weather its minor or major!
-in c ,E = major chord,Eb = minor chord

V is perfect fifth(g) unless stated in chord name C

so the mname of the chord tells us the spelling of the chord or how to make it...
cmajor =I III V
cminor =I iii V
c7 =I III V vii(if the vii was major the chord would be...)
cmajor7 I III V VII
cminor 7 I iii V vii(see how the 7th note is minor...
major 7ths have a VII(not flattened)
minor sevenths have a vii(flattened 7th note!)

other numbers in chords tell you what note to use
cmajor 9=I III V VII and IX (yes it includes the 7 too)
a cmajor11 has I III V VII IX XI (1 3 5 7 9 and 11 note)
all 9s have the seven too
and all 11s have a nine and a seven plus the 1 3 and 5
all 13 chords have a seven nine and eleven(plus the 1 3 and 5)
usually you can leave some notes out of really big chords like this
the 5 is the first to go because its always the same and tells us nothing...
then you can omit the 11 ,then the 9 if its a thirteenth chord
or just the 5 and 9 if its an 11th chord etc...

that should simplify(!?) how to build 7th chords and 9th chords and 11ths and 13ths

cmajor9 =C E G B D(9)
cminor9 =C Eb G Bb D(minor seven with a 9 note)
c9 =C E G Bb D

sus chords replace the 3 note with either a 2 or 4
so
csus2=C D(replaces E) G
csus4=C F(replaces E) G

diminished chords have a minor iii and a flat 5
augmented chords have a major III and a sharp 5

c dim= C Eb Gb
c aug= C E G#

here are some chords... see if you can figure out the spelling...

Cminor7flat5
C, Eb(minor), Gb(flat 5) ,Bb(minor7) Smile

Cminor11
C,Eb(minor),G,Bb(minor7),D(9),F(11)
notice how the 9ths and 11ths dont change (but the 7 is minor)

so now maybee you can figure out how to play those weird chords!

PunkStar · Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 3:46 pm Post subject:

Well said, good job.

Herb · Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 7:20 pm Post subject:

There is another way to simplify the thinking of complex chord voicings, too. I'll just cite a couple of examples but it will give you the idea. Taking quackzed last two examples, the Cminor7flat5 can be thought of simply as an Eb minor chord with a C in the bass. The C minor 11 is a just a C minor chord with a Bb major chord (the 7, 9, 11) played over it. Wink

guitarnut37 · Puppy Joined: 23 Feb 2002 Posts: 223

Hmmmm, just noticed something I never noticed before. In sixstring's post, he says that G major is made of G, C# and E. That is not true. A G major is G, B and D. An A major consists A, C# and E.

PunkStar · Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 2:55 pm Post subject:

You are right. From the context, he must have meant the A Major. I will edit his post so that anyone who only reads his post won't get confused. Thanks for pointing it out. Very Happy

markm2553 · Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 5:19 am Post subject:

I afraid I'm still stuck with a chord book...

But you guys do a great job of explaining!

PunkStar · Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 6:15 pm Post subject:

Speaking of chord books, I personally want to invest in one of these sometime.

http://www.activemusician.com/item--EM.PWCM

But then I'm a technocrat who will play with a piece of technology just because it is there. Very Happy

It's overkill for just learning chords though.