There can be more than one reason why a student may struggle when trying to change chords smoothly. So the first thing to do when dealing with this challenge is to diagnose why the problem exists. You need to determine if your student has one of the following problems:

• A. A physical coordination problem
• B. He/she has not been practicing
• C. A lack of understanding of what needs to be done
• D. A mental processing problem

Most guitar teachers assume the reason is either A. (a physical coordination problem) or B. (little or no practice). Fact is, most of the time this is wrong. The majority of students actually do attempt to practice. And true physical coordination problems are rare.

For most guitar students almost all guitar playing problems are caused by their brains, not by their hands! This is why many efforts to help them may not work well.

As I mentioned before, there can many reasons why a student is struggling with this (or any other issue) so it is not possible to give a one-size-fits-all solution in an article. There are however three powerful guitar teaching tips that can help solve this problem with beginning guitar students.

1. Get your students to keep their strumming hand moving in correct rhythm no matter how far behind the fretting hand may be in forming the next chord. In other words, tell your students (when practicing this way) to not allow the strumming hand to wait on the fretting hand! Practicing in this way will solve a lot of other rhythm and timing problems in the future for this student! The student should practice this way about one third of their practice time until the problem is resolved.
2. Get your student to not use the strumming hand at all and simply change chords with the fretting hand quickly (rapid fire, one after another). The student should practice this way about a third of the time until the problem is resolved.
3. Make your student play a chord he/she needs to master. Tell him/her to grip the strings hard when playing the chord, then to relax totally (without taking fingers away from the strings/chord), then tell the student to squeeze again all fingers at the same time! Then relax.

The goal here is to train his/her brain to make all fingers move and relax together and not one finger at a time (which is how beginning guitar students make chords on their own – big mistake)… Repeat this exercise until the student can do it well.

Next, have the student move fingers off the strings but maintain the basic chord shape while hovering over the strings…. Then press down on the strings and make the chord… repeat this many times and then gradually move further and further away from the strings before making the chord again. Eventually from an open hand the student should be able to form the chord easily… but in each case you must be sure all fingers are moving and relaxing at the same time, not one finger at a time! The student should practice this way about a third of the time until the problem is resolved.

Notice that these solutions of the problem are all ‘physical’, but they are designed to overcome the student’s “mental processing problem” because the student has not learned to separate and isolate each motion. The beginning guitar student’s brain is overloaded with too much information to apply at the same time, this is why we work on method #1 and #2 above to free the brain from too much processing at once. The last method (#3) is designed in order to break the student’s mental processing habit of sending separate and linear messages to each finger of the hand. What we want is to train the brain to process and send one message to all fingers involved.

To get more help on teaching guitar and building a successful guitar teaching business, check out these fifteen free guitar teaching tips.

About the author: Tom Hess is a highly successful guitar teacher, professional touring guitarist and recording artist. He coaches other guitar teachers on how to teach guitar.

The main focus of this lesson is to instruct on how to play the simplest of chords on a keyboard while showing how to obtain them with some small amount of understanding. Hopefully, this will help the guitarist understand how chords are played on the guitar easier than using the guitar alone. It will also provide the guitarist with a quick introduction to the keyboard. By using the information provided below, the guitarist can more easily figure out what notes are being played with particular chords.

Having some small amount of musical training while I was young, I can say where things usually begin when a new student is being taught piano. It starts at middle C.

Middle C – The Starting Point

So, where is middle C? The placement of middle C on a musical staff can be researched on the person’s own time. I am sure it is found in a number of other places on the Internet. This lesson will show how to finger all the major chords, minor chords, and dominant 7th chords, hopefully without overwhelming you with music theory. So, let us have a look at a diagram of the some keyboards.

Note that middle C is off centre and not the middle note in the keyboard. This is because this and many other keyboards as well as full-size pianos are not symmetrical about middle C. The reasoning behind that is for some other topic of research that goes into the development of music as a whole. What is important is that you can learn how to locate middle C with a little practice.

Other common sizes for keyboards are 73 keys, 76 keys, and 88 keys. These can be seen below in Figure 3, Figure 4 and Figure 5, respectively.

While middle C is not usually (see Figure 3) in the middle of the keyboard, it is almost there. It makes a practical place to start in terms of range of musical sounds. It also makes a very good place to start when studying music theory.

The C Major Scale

The notes of the C major scale are:

Each note in the C major scale can be numbered using regular numerals and Roman numerals:

Note that I listed the next C in the scale while showing an octave instead of stopping at B as shown in Figure 2. This has to do with showing the formula for a major scale. This will make learning how to apply the formula to other notes easier later.

Notice that when the C major scale is numbered using Roman numerals, some are numbered with capital letters and some are numbered with lower case letters. (Jumping a little bit ahead, all chords in the C major family are built using only notes from the C major scale.)

When playing chords in the C major family, very little thinking has to be done because only the white keys are played. When each finger of the right hand assigned to one key, everything falls into place. If you place the thumb of the right hand on middle C, the rest of the fingers will each fall on one key naturally. Refer to Figure 6 below as an example.

So, start by playing the C major chord, commonly referred to as C. Place the thumb of the right hand on middle C (or any C), skip using the index finger, place the middle finger on E, skip the ring finger, and place the little finger on G. That is the simplest C chord you can make. To play the D minor (commonly shown as Dm) chord, just move the hand to the right one white key so the thumb plays D, the middle finger plays F, and the little finger plays A. To play the E minor chord (commonly shown as Em), move the hand to the right one white key. This is the same for all successive chords for the C major scale.

Now go back to the C major scale where it is numbered with Roman numerals. Those notes numbered with capital Roman numerals have chords that are major chords. Those numbered with lower case Roman numerals have chords that are minor chords. The exception to this last statement is the vii° chord. The vii° chord is a diminished chord. (It is a chord with a minor 3rd and a 5th that is lowered by a half a step. This information can be left for later exploration of knowledge of music theory.)

So:

Chord Names

When it comes to playing chords an octave higher, it is easy using a piano or other keyboard instrument. When playing guitar it is different because you can form different version of the same chord in different places on the fingerboard. If playing an electric guitar it is easier to play chords one octave higher because the fingers can be placed that high on the fretboard (fingerboard) more easily due to the way the guitar is built.

For the C major scale, the chords are shown for the respective note below:

Difference between Major Chords and Minor Chords

A full chord must be constructed of at least three notes. Any chord in the family of the C major scale (and any major scale for that matter) begins with the note which is the name of the chord, the third note up from that note and the fifth note up from the note of the name of the chord. For a C chord, that means the chord is made up of the notes C (I), E (iii), and G (V) of the C major scale.

What makes a minor chord minor? The answer is that the 2nd note in the chord (the major 3rd) is made a minor 3rd. This means that the 2nd note is reduced by a half-step. Example: D notes: D, F#, A – note that F# is not a note in the C major scale. Now it can be seen that the D chord is not a chord in the C major chord family. Dm note: D, F, A – note that the major 3rd (F#) is reduced to F.

I once saw a musical play about a couple of piano students that made humorous the stories their careers starting from their early days. The piano teacher asked the question of the students “What makes a minor chord sound minor?” The answer was that a minor chord sounds sad whereas a major chord sounds happy. When you play a minor chord in comparison this generally sounds true.

Just using the knowledge associated with the C major scale we know where the major chords are for the notes: C, F and G. We the know the minor chords are for the notes D, E, A, and the diminished chord is associated with the note B. Remember, the method for playing all of the chords in the C major scale is provided in the paragraph below Figure 6. All chords in the C major chord family can be played by using the thumb, the middle finger and the little finger. Actually, for later use and knowledge, the same holds true for playing the chords to the left of the right hand but starting with the little finger and moving to the right. The fingers used on the left hand are the little finger, the middle finger and the thumb.

Extending the Knowledge of Minor Chords to Find the Rest of the Major Chords on the Keyboard

Figure 7 shows an octave of keys from the notes C to C. The top of the figure shows how an octave normally looks while the bottom of the figure shows the octave as if the black keys in the octave were extended to the full length of the white keys. The extension of the black keys is done to show that there is movement of one half-step between all keys, black or white even though some white keys have no black keys between them. Note that there is no sharp (#) or flat (b) between the notes E and F and B and C.

Aside: However, the movement from the notes E to F and B to C or the movement of F to E and C to B is still only one half-step. This is important to understand because using this knowledge along with of what notes are in the C major scale allows us to figure out for ourselves the formula for the major scale if we so wish. More importantly, with this knowledge, if we forget the formula for the major scale, we can refer to the C major scale to figure out the formula.

Because we know what makes a minor chord minor, we can extend that knowledge to figure out what the major chords are for the notes D, E and A by using the chords Dm, Em and Am. Place the right-hand fingers on a keyboard for one of the minor chords mentioned. Just move the middle finger (the one on the 2nd note of the chord) up a half-step. To moved up a half-step is to move up by one key – black or white. Refer to Figure 7 above for reference.

Using Dm to find D: Using the notes D, F and A => move the middle finger up by one half-step gives the notes D, F# and A. Refer to Figure 8 as an example. Imagine moving the fingers from the notes indicated on the bottom chord of Figure 8, Dm to the top chord of Figure 8, D.

Using Em to find E: Using the notes E, G and B => move the middle finger up by one half-step gives the notes E, G# and B.

Using Am to find A: Using the notes A, C and E => move the middle finger up by one half-step gives the notes A, C# and E.

Using Bdim to find B: Using the notes B, D and F => move the middle finger up by one half-step and the little finger up by one half-step gives the notes B, D# and F#.

We can also use the above knowledge to figure out what the minor chords are what the minor chords are for C, F and G. To do this, simply finger the chord and move the middle finger down one half-step. Cm has the notes C, Eb and G. Fm has the notes F, Ab and C. Gm has the notes G, Bb and D.

Now it is possible to figure out all of the major and minor chords for all the notes on the keyboard. It is good to note that this method is easiest to use for the white keys. The only chord that has not be explicitly discussed is Bdim. Bdim has a minor 3rd and a minor 5th. You should be able to figure out or research what the notes are for the chords B and a Bm. You could also use the major scale formula to obtain the B major scale and work from there.

NOTE: It is important to reference the keyboard (a real one or the diagrams) when studying this material to have a visual aid.

The Major Scale Formula

The major scale (as well as every other scale) has a set formula. However, if you know the C major scale and the key spacing, you can figure out the formula every time. Again, it is important to know that there are no black keys between the keys B and C, and E and F.

Half-Steps and Whole-Steps:

A half-step is a movement (up or down) form one key to the one immediately next to it. (Refer to Figure 7). Examples: C to C#, G# to A, E to F, B to C, A# to A, C to B or G to
F#.

A whole-step is a movement of 2 half-steps. Examples: C to D, E to F#, A# to C or F to D#.

C Major Scale Formula:

• W = Whole-step
• H = Half-step

By using the major scale formula you can figure out all the major scales. This information can be used in many ways. Such as figuring out all of the major chords on the keyboard. However, because a major chord is made up of the 1st note of the chord, the major 3rd from the 1st note of the chord, and the major 5th from the 1st note of the chord the major scale formula will provide you with the major chords in the root note chord family for the root (I) note, the fourth (IV) and the fifth (V) notes of the major scales. Again, remember that you have already been provided with the method of figuring out all the major and minor chords for all the keys on the keyboard. Stick with the white keys for now.

Notes Aside

By figuring out all of the major scales and putting them in ascending order you end up with half of the Cycle of Fifths. This is information used for chord progressions in many songs. The numbering of the notes in the chord family (originally presented in the scale) is also often used in chord progressions of songs.

When figuring out a major scale, it is a good indication that it is correct if the 7th note is a half-step below the 8th note.

If the chords in the music you are playing are contained within the major scale, you can use that scale to solo.

Dominant Seventh Chords

Dominant 7th chords are often associated with a bluesy sound. To figure out how to play a dominant 7th chord, reduce the (major) 7th by a half-step and fit it into the chord fingering. Dominant 7th chords are written as follows: A7, B7, C7, etc.

The 7th of the C major scale is B. The dominant 7th is A#/Bb. A# and Bb are the same note. They are called equivalent harmonics. The notes of the C7 chord are C, E, G, and A# or C, E, G, and Bb.

Applying This Knowledge to the Guitar

One of the main advantages to learning about music theory using a keyboard is that the keyboard is a much more linear instrument than the guitar. One key follows directly after another. On the guitar, when you get to the last fret on one string, the next note on the next string is not the next note as it is on the keyboard. The same note of the same pitch appears at more than one place on the guitar.

To take this theory and apply it to guitar remember that standard tuning on a 6 string guitar is (low to high): E A D G B e. You can remember this by using the letters of standard tuning as an acronym for

Eddie Ate Dynamite, Good Bye
Eddie.

Another piece of information that is important to know about the guitar is that a movement of 1 fret (up or down) is a movement of a half-step. A movement of 2 frets is a whole-step. Now you can pick out scales and chords on the guitar as well as the keyboard.

The rest is for you to explore.

Palm Muting

Palm muting is a common technique in all styles of guitar music and is performed by laying the side of the strumming hand across the strings just before they meet the bridge. It is important to ensure the palm of the hand is placed correctly, if the hand is too far back no muting will occur if the hand is too far forward too much muting will occur.

Palm muting is shown in notation with the letters PM followed by a broken line, this line encases the notes that are to be palm muted.

The exercise below uses a G5 chord, which is played with an eighth note strum pattern with all down strokes. Practise applying palm muting to the chord as described above.

Palm muting is a very useful technique to add dynamics to a song, mixing palm muted and non-palm muted notes can also make the rhythm more interesting and help to drive the song along.

Below is the Intro to “Glycerine” recorded by Bush and taken from their debut album Sixteen Stone. The song comprises of only four chords but uses a mixture of palm muted and non-palm muted notes to create a syncopated rhythm, this adds interest to the otherwise repetitive chord progression.

Glycerine (Bush)

Below is a power chord riff taken from the intro to “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Metellica and features on their second album 1984’s “Ride the Lightning”. The riff employs chromatic descending power chords, which should all be played with down strokes and palm muting except for the last chord in bars two and four, which are non-palm muted and accented. The mixture of chromatic chords and palm muting creates a menacing riff, which is a major component of the metal genre. The riff is also a great power chord work out requiring both speed and accuracy so start off slowly making sure all of the notes are heard in each chord.

For Whom The Bell Tolls (Metallica)

Augmented & Diminished power chords

Augmented and diminished power chords are only slight variations of our original power chord shape. In comparison to our original power chord an augmented power chord has a sharpened fifth, meaning the fifth has been moved up a fret. A diminished power chord compared to our original power chord has a flattened fifth meaning the fifth has been moved down a fret. Shown below are all three types of power chord all starting on “A”:

A power chord contains two notes; the root and the fifth. In an “A” power chord played on the sixth string the root note is on the sixth string fifth fret and the fifth is on the fifth string seventh fret. To make this chord in to an “A” diminished power chord simply flatten the fifth by playing the sixth fret on the “A” string. To make an augmented power chord raise the fifth by playing the eighth fret on the “A” string.

The picture below shows the movement of the fifth:

To illustrate the use of augmented power chords I have chosen the main riff from “Lose Yourself” by Eminem which consists of a simple two bar power chord riff starting out with a “D” power chord in the first bar moving to a “D” augmented power chord in the second.

The riff should be played with down strokes (except the last note of bar two) and palm muted throughout. All of the chords should be played staccato. To play a chord staccato simply cut the chord short with a rest, this can be achieved by taking the pressure off of the chord. Beats two and four should be accented shown by a > under the note head.

You will also need to barre both the sixth and fifth strings using your first finger throughout in preparation for the 10th fret double stop at the end of the second bar.

Lose Yourself (Eminem)

To illustrate the use of diminished power chords I have chosen the verse from Since U Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson. The verse starts with a G5 chord that lasts for one and a half bars, on the third beat in the second bar the A5 chord is introduced with the rhythm changing slightly on the fourth beat from two eighth notes to a quarter note.

When playing the E5 in bar three remain in the power chord shape by using your third finger on the second fret of the “A” string, when it comes to the “F” diminished power chord in the final bar use your second finger on the first fret of the bottom “E” string.

Since U Been Gone (Kelly Clarkson)

Inverted Power Chords

Inverted power chords are formed by placing the fifth of the chord on top of the root making the fifth note of the chord the first note to be played. For instance, an F5 inverted power chord could be played with the root note “F” on the third fret of the “D” string and the fifth note “C” on the third fret of the “A” string. The “F” inverted power chord is illustrated below:

The most famous riff of all time Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple utilizes inverted power chords. Use one finger to barre both notes as appose to two as this will make changes quicker and easier. Watch out for the rests making sure you completely kill the sound. Ritchie Blackmore played the riff with his thumb and first finger while Steve Morse used a pick to give the riff a tougher sound, so perhaps experiment and find what works for you.

Smoke on the Water (Deep Purple)

To give inverted power chords a fuller sound you can add the octave of both the root and the fifth. This is demonstrated in the intro to The Wind Cries Mary by Jimi Hendrix.

To play the power chords use your first finger to bar the “E” and “A” strings and your third finger to bar the “D” and “G” strings. In the second bar use your first finger to bar the eighth fret and hammer on with you third finger.

The Wind Cries Mary (Jimi Hendrix)

I hope this article has been of interest. If you are interested in rhythm guitar and power chords and would like to study the subject further the Troy Stetina Metal Rhythm Guitar Series is a good place to start.

Also check out… Three’s A Crowd – Part 1

The extra note in a major chord is the 3rd note from the major scale and the extra note in minor chord is the 3rd note from the minor scale. Below demonstrates the construction of these different chords:

The third note in a chord dictates whether it is major or minor. Because a power chord has no third, it is therefore neither major nor minor. This gives the chord its raw and powerful characteristics.

The late Link Wray (1929 – 2005) is credited for inventing power chords. He found that when adding distortion to a major or minor chord a dissonant sound was produced, by removing the 3rd the dissonance was lost with the chord still maintaining its diatonic functionality.

Below are the two most popular shapes for playing power chords:

The note your first finger is on names the chord. If you played the 6th string root shape on the first fret it would be an F5 because your first finger would be on an F. In order to move the shape and play different chords we need to know all of the notes down the 6th string:

And the 5th string:

Below are sets of exercises that consolidate all the information covered so far and assist in improving orientation along the two strings.

Start by trying all the exercises on the 6th string. As soon as there is little hesitation when changing from chord to chord try the exercises on the 5th string.

With the shapes learnt and the strings explored its time to put everything together. Below are some songs using Power chords, hopefully something for everyone.

Power chords are usually played with down strokes, this helps co-ordination making it easier to strike just three strings, it keeps the right hand in the same position allowing it to be used to mute unwanted strings or apply palm muting.

Brain Stew (Green Day)

Lithium (Nirvana)

Song 2 (Blur)

All The Small Things (Blink 182)

All Day And All Of The Night (The Kinks)

I hope this article has been of interest. There is a lot here to get your head around so take it slowly, just by knowing how the notes progress up a string (remembering that E and B do not have sharps) it is now possible to work out any note on the guitar. And that’s something many players cannot do!

Also check out… Three’s A Crowd – Part 2

We’ll start with some basics:

What is a chord substitution?

It’s using one chord in place of another (or part of another) in a chord progression.

Why would you want to substitute a chord?

Well, you might have a progression that sounds good, but you want to see if it can sound better. Substituting chords can dress things up a bit. Or if you’re playing in a highly improvisational format, changing a chord to something close is one way to throw ideas at the soloist.

How does chord substitution work?

In two major ways: first, the chord might be close to the original – so it sounds ‘mostly’ right. If the chord called for is C major (made of C-E-G notes), you might try A minor (A-C-E) or E minor (E-G-B), which each have two of the same notes… it’s the one note that’s different which makes it a substitution. This is easiest to see in standard notation:

In the second way, the chord is different from the original, but leads naturally into it. These substitutions are usually for just part of the duration. In the following example, F major is played for two bars in the original progression. You might try C7 for the first bar, and F major for the second bar. The C7 naturally resolves to F, so even if the C7 is a bit of a leap from where you ’should’ be in the progression, it leads you right back to the path you were originally on.

Original:

Substitution:

Now that we’ve covered the basics, I’ll go through fourteen different substitution ideas, and why each one works.

#1: Chord extensions . You can always add things to the core notes of a chord – playing C6 instead of C, or G9 instead of G7. Since all of the notes of the original chord are also in the substitution, they retain the original idea of the harmony. The one thing to pay attention to is the seventh note of the chord – if it’s a dominant chord to begin with (having a b7 note), you’ll want to keep a b7 tone in the substitution. If it’s a major chord to begin with, you’ll want to add a major (natural) seventh if you use one. Minor chords are the switch hitters – you can extend them either way… choose the one that places the seventh (7 or b7) in key.

Original:

Substitution:

#2 – Chord simplifications . These are the opposite of extensions – you can use a diminished triad, like Bº (B-D-F) in place of a 7 th chord a major third lower – in this case, G7 (G-B-D-F). That works because the notes of the diminished triad are completely contained in the seventh chord:

Other simplifications can snag just a portion of the original chord – if D9 (D-F#-A-C-E) is called for, a D triad works… as does Am or F#º. Each of those has three tones out of the original chord’s five:

#3 – Chord suspensions . Suspended chords replace the third with a fourth, and that creates tension that wants to resolve – the fourth wants to move down a half step to the third. Use these for the first half of a chord – use Fsus-F-C or F-Csus-C in place of F-C.

Original:

Substitution:

#4 – Secondary Dominants . You can always use the dominant chord of your target for just part of the original chord’s duration. We did this with C7 and F just a little while ago, using a measure of each instead of playing two measures of F. This is called a secondary dominant, which I covered in an earlier article. Secondary dominants actually work for any chord in a progression, not just a dominant chord.

Original:

Substitution:

#5 – Relative majors and minors . If the original chord is minor, the major chord built on the third (C for an Am chord) will work as a chord substitution; if the original is major, the minor based on the sixth will work. In both cases, the substituted chord will have two of the original chord’s three tones:

#6 – Minor chords a third above a major . Like the relative minor (the sixth above a major), this chord will share two tones with the original:

#7 – Back and fourths (a term I invented to explain this one to students!) We’ve all seen how a blues progression moves I-IV-I before the V7-I cadence; you can use a chord of the same type, a fourth higher, for any chord – as long as you make a chord ’sandwich’ (original-substitution-original). If the progression goes C-F-G7, you can play C-F-Bb-F-G7.

Original:

Substitution:

#8 – Diminished 7 th chords a third above a dominant chord . Since the simplification of a seventh chord into a diminished triad (substituting B-D-F for G-B-D-F) works, you can combine the simplification and extension to create a new substitution – using Bº7 (1-3-5-bb7, or B-D-F-Ab). The new chord will share three tones with the original.

#9 – Dominant 7 th chords a minor third above a dominant chord . This one will share two tones – instead of G7 (G-B-D-F), you’d play Bb7 (Bb-D-F-Ab). You still have two tones in common. I’m showing this chord inverted, so you can more easily see how close they are:

#10 – The tritone substitution . A tritone is three whole steps from the original chord. If the original is dominant – a 7 th , 9 th , 11 th , or 13 th chord – you can use any dominant chord that’s three whole steps up from the root of the original.

For example, if the original is G7 (G-B-D-F), a tritone up from G is C# – so you could use C#7, or the enharmonic Db7 instead (Db-F-Ab-C). This works for a couple of reasons… first, the new chord shares two tones with the old one; second (and really cool – one reason this substitution is used so often in jazz!), the new chord will almost always blend into the chords on either side by half steps.

Let’s say the original change is Dm-G7-C. We plug in Db7 instead of G7… and now the roots move chromatically, D-Db-C. You’ve got one tone in Db that’s ‘connected’ to the chord on each side – F is in the Dm chord, and C is in the C chord – and even the Ab makes for chromatic steps A-Ab-G moving from the Dm chord to the C!

I’ll show the G7 and Db7 chords inverted, so you can more easily see the chromatic movement:

#11 – m7b5 chords a fifth above in place of a dominant chord . Instead of using G7 (G-B-D-F), you can use Dm7b5 (D-F-Ab-C). Again, you have two common tones from the original chord – the Dm7b5 is shown inverted to highlight the similarity:

#12 – m7 ai fifth higher than a dominant (for part of a change) . This actually turns a V-I progression into ii-V-I, a very common jazz progression. Instead of using G7-C, you can use Dm7-G7-C.

Original:

Substitution:

#13 – Dominant alterations . These start getting tricky… when you have a dominant chord in the chart, you can place b5, #5, b9, or #9 in the chord. It’s best to establish the original chord first , then do your substitution. C7-F can become C7-C7b5-F, or C7-C7+-F, or C7-C7b9-F, etc. These work best when the dominant chord is going to resolve down a fifth. For more on altered chords, see my article “Altered States”.

#14 – Stepping . Most chords can be ’stepped into’ chromatically – you can substitute C-Ab7-G7 or A-F#7-G7 for a C-G7 change. You can actually over/under shoot your chord by quite a ways and still step into it, if you treat the change carefully… C-B7-Bb7-A7-Ab7-G7 can be made to work under the right circumstances.

Although stepping chromatically is the most common of this fairly rare type of substitution, it’s not the only choice – altered dominants work well when stepped into by whole steps, as in C-A7#9-G7#9-G7 for a C-G7 change. Unaltered dominants will even work when stepped into by minor thirds – you can use C-Bb7-G7 instead of C-G7.

You can even combine stepping with other substitutions – if you substitute an altered dominant, you can step into it by a whole step, like this:

Original:

Substitution:

Chord substitutions don’t come easily, and they don’t come naturally to most players. Don’t be afraid to experiment in your practice sessions – eventually you’ll be taking chords in unexpected directions, and resolving them to the original progression.

Also in this Series

• Untangling Chord Progressions
• Extended Chords
• Altered States
  

Download mp3 (Right-click and “Save as”)

This is not as hard as it sounds, but it does take a while to get. And…. there is an effective process that I use to help my students learn it.

1st. This is a finger style song using your thumb, index, middle, and ring finger to pluck with. Try and make the chords sound decent before trying the rhythm. When playing Am7, thumb=6th string, index=4th string, middle=3rd string, ring=2nd srtring. Thus, pluck strings 6,4,3,2 (not 5 or 1) at the same time. If it sounds good, move to the next: Bm7b5: pluck same strings, but you’re fingering a new chord…. E7: pluck same strings, but you’re fingering a new chord…. Am9 is just a way to end the progression (an extension of Am7).

2nd. Focus on the bass line – the thumb does all the work. This is done on purpose. You will not have to worry about moving your thumb around for this exercise. It is always plucking the 6th string. You can focus on the “groove” (rhythm). When plucking the strings with your index, middle, and ring finger, hold the fingers together as a unit. You should be able to feel the sides of the fingers touching each other. Once you get the hang of this, it makes it a lot easier.

3rd. Now that you have the picking hand working, it’s time to work with the fretboard hand. The idea is to create separation of parts (bass player and chord player). By relaxing your hand just after plucking the small chords with your fingers, a punchy chordal rhythmic pattern can be produced. At the “same time” remember that you want the bass notes to sound relaxed and ringing (especially when the 6th string is open). Take a listen to the MP3, you will hear the feeling of two players.

Your main goal is to create a nice Latin groove with a bass line. If you came up with something different but it accomplished this goal…. you’re there! If you have any questions about this lesson, I would be more than happy to answer them. My e-mail: peter@petersimms.com

Enjoy!

Also check out… Finding A Latin Groove – Part 2

Adding To the Guitar Chords

Now that we have our chords, we are going to take a note and sustain it through all of the chords. The note is going to be on the 1st string (bottom string), 3rd fret. In order to easily hold the original chord shapes and the pedal point, it could be necessary to change the fingering of the chords.

A way to play through the chords with the pedal point could be like this:

You might be wondering about why the A Minor chord changes to an A Minor 7th. This is because the pedal note on the A Minor chord is an entirely new note that was not found in the chord before. In all the other chords, the note was present before, in a different octave.

Let’s look at the notes:

• G Major G B D
• E Minor E G B
• A Minor A C E
• C Major C E G

Out of all the original chords, A Minor is the only one where the note “G” is not present. So when you ad the note “G” as the pedal, it actually changes the name of the A Minor chord.

Which Note Do I Use For A Pedal Point?

Why did I use the “G” note (bottom string, third fret) for the pedal point? That note is in the key that the chords are in. Without getting into too much detail, you can figure out a new pedal point with the same chords. Just use your ear. If a note sounds good as a pedal point for the chords, then it is probably in the key. Try and see if you can take a group of chords and come up with your own pedal point chord progressions.

Later!

Any note can be altered in a chord, but not all alterations will lead to an “altered chord.” That’s because we have easier ways of noting certain alterations – let’s look at each scale note in turn:

Roots – if the root is altered, the chord changes names. Chord names have two parts – the root name (given as a letter) and a quality name that describes what’s happening above the root. Since every chord is identified from the root, a C major chord with a raised root (C#-E-G) would be called a C# diminished chord; an F minor chord with a lowered root (Fb-Ab-C) becomes an augmented chord on the new root (E-G#-B#). Changing the root in a complex chord structure can lead to an altered chord, but it’s never the root that ends up as the alteration.

Seconds – in traditional harmony, chords are built in thirds. The second is the same note as the ninth – the note right after the octave – so it’s always called the ninth. Beginners make a common assumption that calling a note a ‘ninth’ means it’s in a different octave, but that’s not the case – it’s called a ninth even if it’s the lowest tone in a chord, and even if the root is in the same octave.

Ninths can be raised (#9) or lowered (b9).

If the ninth is used in a chord, you’ll also know if the chord contains a seventh – chords like C9 or Am9 always include a flatted seventh; chords like Bbmaj9 always include a natural seventh, and if there’s no seventh at all, it’s an ‘add9′ chord. You’ll sometimes see chords noted as ’sus2′, which implies the third has been replaced by a second; although I disagree with this naming, that’s beyond the scope of this article – at least you’ll know what’s implied.

Thirds – if a third is lowered, the chord is called minor; if a third is raised, it’s the same tone as the fourth – a suspended chord. Since we have easier ways to indicate the alteration of a third, you’ll never see it altered.

Fourths – if you lower the fourth of a chord, you end up with the same note as the third. Consequently, you’ll never see a chord with b11 – chords that include both a natural third and a flatted third are written as a major chord with a #9. If the fourth is raised in a chord, it’ll be indicated as #11 or +11.

Fifths – these can lead to altered chords in half the cases. Raising the fifth in a major chord gives us an augmented chord (1-3-#5), and lowering the fifth in a minor chord gives us a diminished chord (1-b3-b5), so fifths can be an altered tone only if they’re raised in a minor chord (example: Cm7#5) or lowered in a major one (example: C7b5). In the past few years, the m7b5 has replaced the half diminished chord in most charts, so that’s the exception to the rule.

Sixths – These are only called sixths if there’s no seventh present. You should never see a ‘Cadd6′ chord – it’s simply C6. If the seventh is present in the chord, the sixth is called a 13th . Raising this note gives the same tone as a flatted seventh – and that’s implied in a 13th chord – so you’ll see b13, but not #13.

Sevenths – if a seventh is lowered, the result is a dominant chord, simply written with a number… lower the seventh of Cmaj7 and you get C7. Raising the seventh gives you the same note as the octave, so Cmaj7 with a raised 7th = C major.

Since that completes our tour of the notes, I’ll recap what can be altered:

• Root – never
• 2nd /9th – you’ll see b9 or #9
• Third – never
• 4th /11th – you’ll only see #11
• Fifth – sometimes; you’ll see b5 or #5
• 6th /13th – you’ll only see b13
• Seventh – never

That gives us a total of six altered notes: b9, #9, #11, b5, #5, and b13. Even better, the #11 and b5 are the same note – and so are the #5 and b13! That means all altered chord fingerings are going to have one or more of the following:

• The root tone raised one fret to make b9
• The third lowered one fret to make #9
• The fifth lowered one fret to make #11 or b5
• The fifth raised one fret to make #5 or b13

That’s it in a nutshell – four possibilities. Doesn’t seem quite so scary now, does it?

In my last article I talked about the importance of knowing where the basic chord tones are in voicings – here’s a quick review – roots are shown as squares:

If you’ve learned how to form extended chords, and you know the root, third, and fifth in each fingering, you can form any altered chord – no matter how complicated!

You’ll need to be careful about one thing, though – some voicings have notes doubled. In the first two diagrams, there are two fifths – if you alter one to make a b5 or #5 chord, you’ll need to get rid of (or change) the other one. Altered 9ths (b9 or #9) can include the natural third, and b13 chords include the fifth, so it’s only doubled fifths you’ll need to worry about, and only when the fifth is an altered tone.

One quick word about chord symbols before we dig into examples: a “+” means the same as a #… unless it’s at the end of a chord name; then it means a raised fifth. In other words, G9+ is 1-3-#5-b7-9; G7+9 is 1-3-5-b7-#9. You’ll see either plusses or sharps in chord names, and sometimes both (as in G7#11+). A minus sign doesn’t mean a flat, though… if you see one of those, it means the same as ‘minor’.

Now we’ll see how this works in practice… I’ll just show one possibility for each voicing – you can refer back to the extended chord article to construct others.

Am7b5

Start with one of the A seventh forms (see the article on extended chords), lower the third to get a minor, and lower the fifth to complete the chord:

E13#9

Lower third by one fret, or raise a root by three to get the #9 – having both the third and #9 in the voicing gives it the tension of that raised ninth. If you’re starting with a 13th chord that includes the ninth, just raise it a fret:

Bb7#9+

From a seventh form, lower a third by one fret (or raise the root by three if you’ve only got one third), then raise the fifth:

Fadd+11

To an F major chord, lower a fifth by one fret. You’ll want to use a voicing that begins with two fifths:

G7b9

Using a seventh form, raise the root by a fret:

(Did you notice that the top four notes of G7b9 form a diminished 7th? More on that in a minute!)

D7#9b5

From a seventh form, lower a third by one fret and lower the fifth by one:

Ok, I already hear some of you screaming that it can’t be – the 7b9 voicing is a diminished 7th, and the 7#9b5 I just showed is identical to the m7b5 fingering I gave earlier!

A couple of things about altered chords: first, they tend to have five or more tones if you played the ‘real’ voicing (many of which are unplayable on the guitar), and some tones are more important than others. It’s common to drop notes from altered chords, just as we did for extended chords. Let’s look at that last pair, the m7b5 and the 7#9b5. You’ve got:

Am7b5 = 1-b3-b5-b7 = A-C-Eb-G

and

A7#9b5 = 1-3-b5-b7-#9 = A-C#-Eb-G-B#

since B# is enharmonic to C, we can re-write that as A - C -C#- Eb - G … see how that actually contains the m7b5 tones?

Ah, but it won’t sound like a #9 without a natural third, will it? Well, you could use a voicing that includes both:

but you’ll be limited in the number of positions you’ll be able to play – and leaping all over the neck to grab the ‘right’ chord doesn’t lead to smooth changes.

The other big factor is context. Since it’s the 9th being altered, the odds are pretty good that the progression is leading your ear towards a major/dominant chord here – playing the minor will give you the #9, creating the effect in the context of the piece most of the time.

There are actually a few ‘cheats’ like this you can use. I find it easier to think about the altered chord tones since there are only four possible notes to alter, but you might prefer thinking of substitutions. Here’s a couple examples:

C7b9 = C-E-G-Bb-Db Gº7 = G-Bb-Db-E

C9#11 = C-E-G-Bb-D-F# Gm/maj7 = G-Bb-D-F#

Certain guitar voicings, because notes are left out, also work – if you look at the highest four notes in the last diagram you might recognize a voicing of Eb13:

A7#9b5 = A-C#-Eb-G-B# Eb13 = Eb - G -Bb-Db( C# )-F-Ab-C( B# )

Even though Eb13 is not really a substitute – the other three notes all clash with the A7#9b5 – the four notes in that particular voicing are a perfect fit!

You can even take simplification to extremes, grabbing the highest note, any altered ones, and whatever else fits…

C13b9 = C-E-G-Bb- Db -F- A Db+ = Db-F-A

but the more you take away, the more you’re trusting other instruments will fill in the blanks. If you’re at the point of knowing the notes in a 13b9 chord well enough to figure out the chords it contains, you didn’t need this article anyway!

In the next article I’ll talk about how altered chords are used as substitutions.

Also in this Series

• Untangling Chord Progressions
• Extended Chords
• Chord Substitution

Altered chords can be scary, because there’s so darn many of them! A major chord has only 3 different notes, so you can pretty well master the major chords by learning just 3-5 different fingerings. A 13th chord can theoretically have dozens of different fingerings – so it’s understandable that many intermediate guitarists figure enough is enough, they’ll just stay intermediate.

But getting to the stage of playing these advanced chords doesn’t really require learning hundreds of new chord shapes – it only demands that you can relate new chords to old ones in a logical way. By the end of this article, you’ll be able to form any chord extension that you want!

Extended chords are the 9th , 11th , and 13th chords. Like 7th chords, each can come in various ‘flavors’ such as dominant, major, and minor. Extended chords are most often in the dominant form, so that’s what I’ll cover in this article – just lower the 3rd for a minor form, and raise the 7th for a major form when you need them.

To begin with, you’ll need to know the seventh chords. There are a lot of different dominant seventh voicings available, but when I play chord changes, I think about what note I’m going to put on top of the chord – keeping the top note close together from one chord to the next gives you the smoothest changes. Since there are four notes in a seventh chord (1-3-5-b7) I normally work with just four voicings. Chord roots are indicated by squares:

The next step is learning which other chord tones fall on each string. Most beginning and intermediate guitarists only worry about where the root falls, and place the rest of the fingers from rote. Take a little bit of time to learn the rest of the chord tones in these voicings (the b7 is shown as just 7 to avoid overcrowding the diagrams):

Starting with these simple chord forms, we can now add – and subtract – notes to make extended chords. Subtracting a note from a chord might be a new idea to you, but it’s useful, and sometimes essential, in forming extended chords – the formula for a 13th chord is 1-3-5-b7-9-11-13, which is seven notes… and we have only six strings to work with. Something’s got to give!

The most common note to sacrifice in any extended chord is the root. You probably haven’t thought about playing chords without a root before, but it’s a very handy note to drop: because it’s only a whole step over the b7, and only a whole step below the 9th , including the root can make a chord sound muddy. The root is often going to be picked up by another instrument anyway, such as bass or keyboards, so chances are good it won’t be missed.

Knowing where the root is on each of the four seventh inversions, and knowing it can move up two frets to the 9th (which is the same note as the 2nd note in the scale), it’s a simple matter to have the 9th chords at your disposal:

(any 1st string note can be doubled on the 6th string for a fuller sound)

Moving on to 11th chords, the 11th (which is the same note as the fourth) and the 3rd are only a half step apart. The third is almost always dropped from 11th chords. Just like 9th chords, the root is optional, but so is the 5th – and the easiest way to form these chords is to drop a 5th by two frets, making it the 11th:

Last, we have the 13th chords. The 11th is almost always omitted from a 13th , and the root, fifth, and ninth are the usual choices for dropping a note. That leaves the 3rd , b7th , and 13th as the notes we truly need.

The 3rd and b7 are already in the basic chord we’re building from; I just raise the 5th by two frets (which may mean moving to the next string) to get the 13th . Then you can include one of the optional tones, the root, fifth, or ninth, and you have a nice 13th voicing:

Pretty painless, huh? In the next article, I’ll explain how these extended chords get altered to make your chord vocabulary even larger.

Also in this Series

• Untangling Chord Progressions
• Altered States
• Chord Substitution

Chords are usually labeled with Roman numerals; capital letters mean major chords, lower-case letters means minor. The other chord symbols (+ for augmented, º for diminished, etc.) get added to the Roman numerals. Roman numerals are handy, because they make easy transposition… I-IV-V can be thought of in any key – it takes less work to go from C-F-G to Eb-Ab-Bb if you think in terms of scale degrees. I’ll use Roman numerals throughout this piece.

Harmonizing Scales To Get Chords

Chords in any key are built on the steps of the scale. To start with, let’s look at a harmonized scale in triads (all the examples will be in C):

And harmonized to seventh chords:

I’ll talk only about major keys here, but all the ideas can be applied to minor keys as well – just use the minor scale notes to create the chords.

Playing through those chords one by one, you’ll see that any chord sounds complete by itself, except the chords built on V (when harmonized as V7) or vii (as either viiº or vii7b5). These two chords have a lot of tension in them, and they want to move, or ‘resolve’ to another chord to sound complete.

Cadences

Chords naturally want to move down by fifths – that is, the root is going to move five steps down the scale. A V7 chord will naturally want to move to a I chord; that’s true of major keys where V7 –> I, and minor keys where V7 –> i. This is the strongest resolution in music, and it’s called the authentic cadence.

G7-C G7-Cm

V7 –> I V7 –> i

Moving down by a fifth (G-C) is the same as moving up by a fourth:

so chord movement by fourths is also very common. The change IV –> I gives almost as strong a sense of closure as V7 –> I, and it’s called the plagal cadence. You probably recognize that sound – it’s sometimes called the ‘Amen’ cadence because of its use in church music.

F-C

IV –> I

Since these cadences sound so complete, they are used at the end of chord progressions. Almost all chord progressions will end up on the I chord.

The Natural Harmonic Series

Because chords want to move down by a fifth, we can line them all up in order to create what’s known as the natural harmonic series. This flow will sound very natural to the ear:

Bº Em Am Dm G7 C

viiº –> iii –> vi –> ii –> V –> I

The IV chord can be tacked on to the end, and it will usually go back to I:

Bº Em Am Dm G7 C F C

viiº –> iii –> vi –> ii –> V –> I?IV

Most jazz music is based on the natural harmonic series, with the ii –> V –> I progression being used frequently.

Dm7 G7 Cmaj7

ii –> V –> I

The Blues Progression

Blues music has developed into a standard 12-bar format. Although you can have blues progressions that use other formats, just about all of them will use the I, IV, and V chords in this pattern:

The V in parenthesis in the last measure is called a ‘turnaround’… if you’re going to do another chorus, the V leads back into the I chord at the start of the progression. The last time through, you stay on the I chord through the final measure.

These two chord progressions, the ii-V-I from jazz, and the I-IV-I-V-IV-I from blues, form the core of most music you hear today. Now let’s start dressing them up…

Chord Extensions

We looked at how chords can be built by harmonizing the major scale in triads and seventh chords – we don’t have to stop there! 9 th , 11 th , and 13 th chords can be substituted as extensions.

Chords get extended by keeping them in the same chord type – for a C chord you can use Cmaj7, Cmaj9; Am can become Am7, Am11… G7 can become G13, G9, etc.

The Secondary Dominant Principle

The V7 chord wants to move down by a fifth, to a I chord. What if we make that a I7 chord instead?

G7 –> C7

V7 –> I7

That change sounds pleasing, because the chord root is moving as an authentic cadence… but it doesn’t sound complete, because the final chord is Domnant. That C7 wants to resolve someplace, and the natural place is a fifth lower:

G7 –> C7 –> F

V7 –> I7 –> IV (in C, or)

II7 –> V7 –> I (in F)

We can string together a whole bunch of 7 th chords, and lead eventually to a final resolution. In the key of C, the D chord is usually minor, but a D7 chord will sound good if we resolve it like this:

C –> D7 –> G7 –> C

I –> II7 –> V7 –> I

The reason this works is that we’ve temporarily moved to the key of G… D7 is the V chord in G. Since G is the V chord in C, we call the D7 the ‘V of V chord’. This temporary key change is called a modulation, and it allows us to use chords outside of the home key:

Substitutions

The principles of extension, natural harmonic series, and secondary dominants can be used to substitute chords and dress up a progression. Let’s say the basic chord progression is C-F-G7-C for one measure each:

C F G7 C
| / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / |

We can plug in a secondary dominant:

C F D7 G7 C
| / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / |

or turn that G7 measure into a ii-V-I progression:

C F Dm G7 C
| / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / |

We can add extensions:

C Cmaj7 F Fmaj7 Dm7 G7 C
| / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / |

And since the authentic cadence can be either V-I or V-i, we can use a secondary dominant to step into any major or minor chord in the progression:

C Cmaj7 F A7 Dm7 G7 C
| / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / |

In that last example, the A7 is quite a leap from the F, but it’s the V of D (or D minor), which is the V of G… which is the V of C.

Chromatic Steps

Other chords outside the key can be used effectively. Although the introduction of an ‘outside’ chord will initially jar our ears, it’s what you do with it that matters in the end. Chord can be approached by a chromatic half step, either between to chords a step apart (as a passing chord):

C F F# G7 C
| / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / |

or this:

C C#m7 Dm7 G7 C
| / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / |

Or we can ‘overshoot’ a chord change, and step down:

Cmaj7 Fmaj7 Ab9 G9 Cmaj7
| / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / |

Using these substitutions can bring you hundreds of new progressions. If there’s enough interest in this topic, I’ll write another one on the use of altered chords, like E7#9b5.

Also in this Series

• Extended Chords
• Altered States
• Chord Substitution

Like most topics, there’s a lot of discussion about this, not only among both teachers and students, but most guitarists are willing to give you an opinion on it as well.

Before we delve into chords, though, I’d like to make a quick point that learning chords is not always the best way to start out, particularly for younger children. Many teachers advocate learning the notes within the first five frets on each of the strings before moving on to chords. There is some merit to this. For starters, it helps someone who’s not played a single note on the guitar before a chance to develop a little dexterity and also proper fretting technique. I think we’re all agreed that it’s usually easier to fret and sound a single note than a whole chord. For someone starting out, the inability to get a full sounding chord can lead to much frustration which, in turn, can lead to deciding that maybe the guitar is just too much trouble and not worth learning. For younger students, and also for some adults, the confidence gained by playing some single notes on various strings is all they need to make the next “step” into chord playing. We’ll be touching on this a little next time out.

If you use this technique with younger students, the next logical bit of progress is to introduce what many people call “cheater” chords. G, for instance, can be played with only one finger if you don’t play the fifth and sixth strings (fingering: XX0003). Likewise you can do a “half C” chord by only playing the notes on the first three strings (fingering: XXX010). This again is simply a matter of building up both confidence and good finger positioning. Believe it or not, I find that teaching the C and G major scales to be very helpful in the forming of chords. Once someone is used to using his or her fingers on certain frets to play the scales smoothly, it’s a small transition to learn to leave the fingers in place, thereby forming C, G and “middle of the neck F” chords.

But when it comes to teaching chords in a more “traditional” sense, I tend to start out pretty much the way I describe in Guitar Noise’s Absolute Beginners article – Absolute Beginners Part 1: Chords. E minor is first chord we learn, followed by E major, A minor (which is the same fingering as E major), then A and then we stop for a bit. D major and B minor come next and then we’ll finish up with C major and G major. I know a lot of teachers prefer to use “two finger” chords first, E minor, E7, A7 and Am7, and, depending on the student, I may indeed stick with those at first, particularly as they lend themselves very nicely to learning to change between chords.

And speaking of which, it’s kind of silly, to me anyway, to teach chords without going over transitions. That’s why I’ll usually teach Horse With No Name right at the start. I want a student to get used to the idea that chords are supposed to have movement and that movement should be, for the most part, rhythmic and regular. So switching between the Em (022000) and the “horse chord” (200200) is just another way to get a beginning guitarist started in a friendly and easy manner. We will also work on changing from E minor to E major and, if things are going well, from E major to A minor.

When working on transitions, I find the best thing to do is to start by giving each chord eight beats, usually all downstrokes, and then changing to our new chord for another eight beats and then changing back. It’s important to do this in a steady rhythm since most chord changes occur in a song setting (which, to no one’s surprise I’m sure, is rhythmic). For me, I’d rather have the student miss getting all the notes right but keep the rhythm steady than to stop the rhythm in order to reset their fingers. That’s why I don’t care how slow we start out, tempo-wise. Chord changing, like most things about the guitar (and so many other things) is truly a matter of repetition and practice. It will come with time and patience. Good rhythm skills, though, are hard for a lot of people to come by and that’s why I stress them so much in learning to change chords.

If a student has gotten to the point where the “eight beat chord change” is comfortable, then we’ll move to changing the chords every four beats, then two, and finally changing on each beat. This may take the student a while, but there are all sorts of other things to be learning in the meantime.

Usually, I’ll group the chord changing exercises by pairs, E minor and E major, E major and A minor, A minor and A major, E minor and A major, E major and A major. As I’ve mentioned, the seventh chords are easier for some students when starting out. Then we’ll try to switch back and forth between three different chords. There are so many songs that involve only the E, A and D chords that most people know. Wild Thing comes immediately to mind for some reason. And any blues song in A is now playable to most beginners.

There are two things (three really, but the third is part of the second) I’d like to quickly add to this discussion. First, chord changing is something that can be done quite easily during a person’s “free time.” By this I mean why watch a football game without your guitar? You don’t even have to strum it (although I recommend you do) to work on changing between the chords. If it’s too noisy, then do it during the commercials. That’ll give you easily ten minutes practice out of every thirty of a program.

Second, I almost always start teaching beginners about the roots of chords as we learn them. This way we cannot only learn what strings to strum or not to strum (like the low E (sixth) string of the D major chord), but we can also learn what I call the “bass/strum” technique. This is simply hitting the root note of the chord on the first beat followed by the full chord on the next three beats of the measure. Because I teach the E, A and D chords first, this is a fairly easy concept for most students to get. It’s also a little sneaky because hitting the open-stringed root note first gives the student a little extra time to get the rest of the chord in place.

My other reason for teaching the “bass/strum” is that when we get to the C and G chords, as well as others where the root note isn’t an open string, the student is conscious of the need to get the bass strings in place first. This isn’t as easy a thing to teach. If a guitarist learns to make a G chord by placing his or her fingers on the high E (first) string first, then that is often how he or she will try to switch the chord in transition. And because most of the time you switch a chord on a downstroke, this can lead to all sorts of rhythmic hiccups.

Beginners should definitely check out the article Absolute Beginners Part 1: Chords.

This answer can be edited and improved by you on the Guitar Noise Wiki. Go to Beginner chords and select edit to make improvements.

The focus of this article is how to get chord voicings that are different from the old standard ones that are made in the open positions of a standard tuned guitar. You know, E (major), A (major), and D (major), etc.

The idea came about for this article because, again, I was jamming with a friend of mine, trying to stubbornly impart some of my knowledge. Just a little knowledge that I thought would help us cope with the others’ chord changes and riffing without too much thought.

Simple Chord Shapes

What I have found in my beginner’s stage of playing guitar and jamming is how do I get some of the chords that are in the same range as what my friend is playing on the guitar?

The application of finding different voicings of the same chord arises from using the same simple shapes of chords that you will find within the first three or four frets on the fretboard – or is it fingerboard? Let’s begin with E, seen below in Figure 1, beside the chord diagrams for A and D.

You can see in the above diagram of the chord E where the frets are fretted on the fretboard, which strings ring open, and what the notes are played on each string (below the diagram). Remember that a major chord is made up of a major triad, three notes. These notes come from the chord name’s major scale and are the 1st or root, the major 3rd and the fifth. The major 3rd is simply the 3rd note of the major scale. A minor third would be a half step below that.

The rest of the major chords within the first four frets are shown in Figure 2:

Please take note that while all of the major chords within the first four frets are provided above in Figures 1 and 2, there are other some other chord voicings for these chords within that area. One such chord I can think of is:

When I use the type of shape above, the chord shape for E (see Figure 1), where I fret notes with the lowest fretted string being the fifth, I call it an “E Shape” as seen in Figure 4. I do not know if anybody else calls it this. Later you will see this shape used to make other chords.

The first thing you can do with this “E Shape” is move it up and down the neck of the guitar to different frets as in Figure 4. Always keep the finger closest to your head on the fifth string. This is marked below with the circle on the mentioned fret placement on the diagrams. The diagram below on the left is the “E Shape” used in place to make the open position E chord. The diagram below on the right is the placement of the “E Shape” with the circled fret placement at the second (to form E), fifth, seventh, and ninth frets. The fret markers are show for the fifth, seventh, ninth and twelfth frets.

If you have not already noticed at this point, these fingerings do not make major chords (or if they do you must really work hard think of their major chord name) and I am not going to name them in this article. The point is to demonstrate that the “E Shape” is transferable up and down the neck to form “good” (by personal preference) sounding chords.

Making Use of the “E Shape”

So how do you make use of the “E Shape”?

It is quite easy in theory. It takes quite a bit of practice to get a good bar chord. You use a finger bar to make a bar chord. To make and A chord use the chord diagram given below in Figure 5. I have read and practiced what I think is the easiest way to make a bar chord. Placed the fingers that are higher up the fretboard down first. After the higher fingers are placed then place your index finger down to bar the fretboard. You will find that you may find some fret buzz – work through it by moving your finger and pressing down tightly with your index finger.

To follow these steps using the diagram below do the following:

• Place your pinkie (4th) finger on the fifth string, seventh fret
• Place your ring (3rd) finger on the fourth string, seventh fret
• Place your middle (2nd) finger on the third string, sixth fret
• Place your index (1st) finger as a bar across all of the strings, fifth fret
• (You should check out other musical sources for specific fingering diagrams.)

The notes for this A major chord are also given in the diagram below, Figure 5. You can compare it to the often-used chord voicing of A above in Figure 1. Give both of them a few strums to hear the difference in how they sound. The chord voicing for the A given below should sound a noticeable higher and even a little more upbeat when compared to the chord voicing for A in Figure 1.

How do I use the “E Shape” further? Simply move the whole shape, bar included, up to the seventh fret. Now I mean that the bar moves up to the seventh fret. The circled fret placement moves up to the ninth fret as in the chord diagram for B in Figure 5 above.

So as you can see you just have to move the whole shape a fret or two to get a new chord. You may have even noticed that the “E Shape” was evident in the second chord voicing of F in Figure 2. Go back up to Figure 2 and have a look. You will see the same shape as seen in Figure 5 above. Do not forget to make a bar chord using the process I described three paragraphs above in bullet form.

You can easily get 7 chords by using the “E Shape” with the circled fret placement on the fifth string. The high E chord voicing with the bar on the 12th fret will be hard to make on most acoustic guitars. If you have a Stratocaster type guitar you might even be able to get this type of bar chord with bar all the way up on the 15th fret – that is a G chord.

Other Chord Shapes

You may have asked yourself “What about the other chord shapes?” These are all applicable, some requiring more practice than others. You can use the “A Shape” from the A chord in Figure 1 as well as the “D Shape”. Do not be intimidated by the difficulty of the shape. Practice will allow you hands to form almost all shapes almost anywhere between the nut and the 12th fret or above if you have an electric guitar.

How do you find where you should put the bar when using the bar chords?

Let’s look at Figure 1 again.

The key to using this method to getting different chord voicings easily is looking at the fretted notes in relation to the nut. With the E chord one there is one note fretted after the nut on the 3rd string 1st fret in the “E Shape”. This means that the bar in the bar chord with fall immediately behind the note that is on the lowest fret.

Let’s first talk a little bit about natural notes (or tones). A natural tone is one of the notes that does not have a sharp or a flat in it. Those notes that do have sharps or flats are called accidentals. So the naturals are: C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. An accidental would be C# or Cb (C flat).

To make the next available chord that uses a natural note as its root, shift the “E Shape” up one fret and bar all the strings on the 1st fret. This gives us an F chord. See Figure 2 above. You should have a real grasp of using the “E Shape” now so you should try using it on your guitar.

Once you have done that, move on to the “A Shape”. You can see above that the lowest fret fretted is the second. That means that when you use the “A Shape” to make a bar chord the bar must be two frets behind the “A Shape”. See Figure 6 below. You will notice that I have dispensed with that circled fretted note in this figure.

Take note that the easiest way may be to use two bars when using the “A Shape”. However, you may find that you want to use your last three fingers to hold down the “A Shape” and of course your index finger to make the bar. Using your last three fingers to make the “A Shape” provides you with certain advantages if you can eventually get your fingers to stretch that way. You can easily make 7th chords by removing your ring finger. This would be removing the middle dot from the small bar diagram above.

That is right, I snuck in a little variation on your basic “A Shape”. Theoretically you can do this with all of your “Shapes”. If you remove certain fretted notes from the diagram you end up with different chords. Look below at Figure 7. Take note of the blank circles where there used to be solid circles. These are where you can remove your fingers to make other chords that vary on the original at that position. Also note that the solid dot has been marked on the bar made by the index finger.

You should have noticed in Figure 7 that I added something a little different by using an “A minor Shape”. The base of the “A minor Shape” is actually the same shape as the “E Shape”. However, when the “E Shape” is used, by shifting your fingers by one string you can form the chord A Minor. See Figure 8 below.

Placing the “Chord Shapes”

How do find the chord you need quickly? One method is to memorize the fretboard’s natural notes. To do this easily, I use “bands” of natural notes on the fretboard. These bands of natural notes occur in quite a few places between the nut and the 12th fret. After the 12th fret the fretboard repeats itself. If you have already read my article called Basic Music Theory you should already have a map of the fretboard to use.

If you do not have a map of the fretboard then I recommend you make one. I have written fretboards in a couple of different ways. The first way was with all the notes – both naturals and accidentals. I find it easier to read the map of the fretboard if I list only the natural notes. One way to write out a fretboard is provide in Figure 9. Another way to write it out is vertically; turn the fretboard of figure 9 clockwise 90 degrees.

You can see that “bands” of natural notes appear at frets 5, 10 and 12. Places where there are natural notes almost all the way across the fingerboard occur at the 3rd and 7th frets. These are also good to remember as “bands” of notes including the accidentals with them. A diagram with both types of “bands” would look as Figure 10 does below.

Now that you know you can use a few different shapes see if you can find a voicing of G that uses the “D Shape” as seen in Figures 1 and 8.

Figure 10 will also come in handy when you are trying to find the right spot to start all of your scales. Of course you will need a little alteration to place such scales as the C Major scale beginning with the 8th fret of the 6th string. I leave the rest up to you.

Experimentation

I thought I would just let you know that one of the experiments that helped me to realize that I could use “Chord Shapes” in this way was using alternate tunings. I like to play with the blues and often would tune my guitar to open tunings. One such tuning is Open D. Its strings are tuned low to high: D, A, D, F#, A, D. This allows for very simple formation of major chords.

To form a major chord with an open tuning you bar at each fret – just one bar across at each fret. If you draw another fretboard tuned to Open D you can see D by strumming the open strings, E by barring at the second fret, F by barring at the third fret, and so on. This is what led me to realize the use of “Chord Shapes” and bar chords to easily find alternate voicings of different chords.

So experiment as much as you can with your guitar. Warnings about open tunings: be careful about tuning your guitar to an open tuning that puts more tension on your strings than would normally be on them. Also be careful about changing the tuning all the time as this may possibly cause unwanted twisting or other damage to your guitar. There are articles on Guitar Noise and the Internet that can inform you about alternate tunings. You should also check with the manufacturer of your guitar just to make sure if your tunings are going to place more tension on guitar than you would normally have.

Basic Chords

The simplest chords are based on having only three notes in them. On a guitar you will start to learn by letting the strings on your guitar ring by bringing your pick or thumb across 6, 5 or 4 strings.

Below are some chord diagrams for three chords, E major, A major and D minor. When musicians talk about major chords they simplify the names by just calling them by their letter names (see below). Minor chords are indicated by the capital letter of the chord plus a small case “m” beside the capital letter as in D minor: Dm.

The chord diagrams below are standard chord diagrams. The strings on a standard tuned guitar are E A D G B E, left to right.

The thick dark line is the nut or the zero fret on the guitar.

The guitar player places their fingers on the strings where the dots are placed.

“O” above the indicated string means that that string is played with the other strings but is let ring “open”.

“X” above the indicated string means that string is not played or it is actually muted. Do not worry about muting the strings if they are on the bass side of the guitar. Just do not strum them with the other strings.

One way to play a C major chord (or just C as commonly written) is given below.

Remember that the statement above says that the simplest chords are based on having only three notes in them. You may have noticed that more than three strings are ringing in chords you strum. That is because some notes occur more than once in the chord. They may have different pitch or frequency but they are the same note.

So now the questions arise

• How do I know what notes are which in a major chord?” and
• What does the word ‘major’ mean in the term ‘major chord’?”

The answer lies in what is called chord theory. Only basic chord theory is discussed here. Still, this can seem to beyond your grasp before you begin to understand it.

Major Scales

Most people begin playing piano with an introduction to where “middle C” is and how to play the C major scale. You can find one of the C notes on you guitar on the second string, first fret. If you have trouble finding it just look at the C chord diagram above and you will see a dot on the second string from the right.

A scale covers one octave. An octave covers the notes within a range of 12 semi-tones above it. Hard to understand? Just look at the C note of the second string first fret and then count up the string 12 frets (semi-tones) and you arrive at the note C an octave above the previous C.

I would diagram the fret board but I believe that going between the paper and the guitar is necessary for the learning process.

Now, what are the notes in a C major scale? The notes in C major scale are:

C D E F G A B C.

Take a second look at where these notes are on the fret board. If you do not know where to fret the string you will in a second. There is a formula for the major scale, a pattern if you will.

Each fret is a semi-tone away from the next fret. Two frets away means that the note is a full tone away from the next note. The C major scale is the only major scale that has no notes that are sharps or flats.

That makes the C major scale pattern as follows:

When you look at the fret board it looks like this (this fret board is sideways to save space):

You would actually fret the C note here, where the dot is:

These dots are the position markers for the 5th, 7th, 9th, and 12th frets on the fret board:

Homework interrupt:

At this point I suggest writing out the fret board on a piece of loose-leaf paper. I find it easiest if you write the fret board out vertically as if you were looking at the guitar standing up. (This is the way standard chord diagrams are written.) Just turn the above diagram 90 degrees clockwise. The fret board should have six columns of notes and room for 20 to 22 frets depending upon your guitar. The fret board repeats itself at the 12th fret.

A standard tuned guitar will be tuned:

Quick Review

Now you know the C major scale, where the C major scale is on the second string on the guitar, the formula for every major scale (T, T, ST, T, T, T, ST – remember these are the intervals between notes), and you should have a map of the whole fret board of your guitar. The map of the fret board will help you when you are looking for different ways to play the same chord.

Notes of the C (Major) Chord:

Simple major chords are called major triads. Triad refers to the chord being made up of three notes. The three notes of a major triad are the 1st, major 3rd, and 5th of the root note’s major scale. The C major scale is labeled below in terms of what the numbers are:

For the moment do not bother wondering about why some of the Roman numerals are capitals and others are small case and the majors, minors, dom and what the rest of the stuff means on the third line of the list above; just take note of the number. You may write in the regular numbers if you like. That makes the C chord made up of C, E and G.

That makes a C (major chord) made up of C – the 1 or the root (I), E – the major 3rd (iii), and G – the 5th (V). Now that you have your fret board map you can see where these notes are fretted in the open position chord. What is an open position chord? A open position chord is a chord that has one or more strings that are let ring open when played. Look at the C chord below. The notes played on each string are given below the respective strings.

The second C chord shown above and to the right is a 3rd position chord because the lowest fret that is fretted in the chord is the 3rd fret. Take note that it is not the lowest note that is fretted that determines the position of the chord; it is the lowest fret fretted.

Notice that there is a note with sharp in the D chord. D is the 1st note, F# is the major 3rd, and A is the 5th note in the D major scale. The D major scale looks like:

So you begin to see that you can figure out the notes for all of the major chords by figuring out the major scales for each root of the scale and taking the 1st, major 3rd, and 5th of the major scale. When you place the chords on the fret board the notes will match up with the notes in the chord diagrams. You can do this with any major chord to figure out its notes.

Homework interrupt:

At this point you should figure out all of the major scales for just the roots that do not have sharps or flats in them (to clarify: the major scales of C, D, E, F, G, A, and B). The scales for the roots of C and D have been provided but you should write them out on a piece of paper anyway. You should write out all of the scales in order of occurrence on the fret board: C major scale, D major scale, E major scale, F major scale and so on.

Hint: You may have asked yourself how do I know when to put in a sharp or a flat for that matter. For the moment when figuring out the above listed major scales, use all sharps.

Note: There is a semi-tone between all notes that are two frets apart. That means that there is another note between A and B; that note is A#/Bb. (The small case “b” is often used as the flat symbol in standard word-processor programs because it is faster to use it than inserting a symbol or it is simply not available.) A# and Bb are the same note. That extends to other notes such as C#/Db, D#/Eb, etc. TAKE NOTE THAT E# is F and Fb is E; B# is C and Cb is B. THIS MEANS THAT THERE IS NO SEMI-TONE between E and F or between B and C.

When you end with the B major scale and look at all of the scales you should notice that some scales have more sharps than others. When you have the scales written one under the other in the order of C, D, E, F, G, A, and B the number of sharps in the scales do not increase in order.

HERE COMES THE INTERESTING PART – When you put the scales in the sequential order of number of sharps, low to high this sequence has a particular property. All of the scales are now five notes away from each other. If you place the roots of the scales in a semi-circle you have half of what is called “The Circle of Fifths” or “The Cycle of Fifths.”

How does this make a difference to me?

There are many songs that are totally based upon or have sections based upon The Circle of Fifths. Just look at some of the music from the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s, even up through to current day.

When you finish the other half of The Circle of Fifths you will a complete circle that allows you to see all of the major keys in the order of sharps and flats.

Look up more information on the Internet about chord theory, The Circle of Fifths and scales.

But augmented and diminished chords are, as the cliche goes, another kettle of fish. Just the names, “augmented” and “diminished,” give one pause. Do I need a special degree or extra study to employ one of these chords?

Not at all! You may not know it, but augmented and diminished chords are not all that much harder to learn than “ordinary” chords. Chances are that they are simply unfamiliar to you, since they don’t tend to pop up in songs all that often. They used to, though! Pop songs of the thirties and forties were filled with them. Motown and groups like the Beatles used them in the sixties. How often you come across these chords really depends on what type of music you listen to. And for the songwriter, these chords can open so many doors that it’s positively overwhelming!

So let’s take a look at them, how they’re formed and the functions they can serve. If you’re capable of counting to twelve, you’re capable of understanding and using these marvelous chords.

Leading You By The Ear

First, if you aren’t familiar with how chords, be they major, minor, augmented or diminished, are formed, then you might want to take a moment and peruse two old columns of mine called The Musical Genome Project and The Power of Three. I think you’ll find both pieces an easy read. And while you’re at it, take the time to go over Five To One, as the ideas there are going to be essential to the topic at hand.

And if you’re ready, let’s take a look at an old friend, the C major scale:

You may not have thought about this much before, but which note ends the C major scale? Depending on your personality, you either said “C” or “B” and I’m willing to bet that the majority of you picked the first answer. Either answer is fine; one could just as easily argue that there is no end of the scale – it just goes on and on…

But those of you who went with “C” probably did so for a good reason. It sounds like we’ve finished the scale. If you end on B, then you’re likely to feel that the scale is incomplete, that it’s hanging there waiting for an ending. Don’t take my word for this! Sing it or play it and hear for yourself.

This is the sense of “home” that we discussed ages ago in Five To One. And whether you know it or not, a lot of that sense of home relies on the B note, or rather, on the fact that the interval between B and C is a half step and not a whole step. In the study of music theory, half steps are often referred to leading tones. They serve to direct a voice, a melody, a solo or a chord to a specific destination. If that destination gives us a sense of home (and if not totally a sense of home, then at least a sense of respite), then we call that resolution. We even briefly touched on this in A La Modal, when we looked at the use of the C major scale in The Israelites and heard how the use of the half-step between C and C# gave us a wonderful sense of completion.

Believe it or not, most of you are already aware of how this sense of home works, even if you feel you can’t put it into words. This is why chord changes like F to C and G to C sound more complete; there’s more of a sense of finality than, say, Am to C. It’s because of the use of leading tones:

I’ve marked the leading tones here with little slash marks (“/” or “\”), which illustrate the movement of the notes. I also added G7 to this chart, to remind you of the discussion in Five To One about why G7 to C sounds even stronger than G to C – you’re using two leading tones instead of one. Is everyone with me so far? Okay, then, let’s take a look at augmented chords.

But first, I want to plant this in your brain because we’re going to want to look at it a lot in the very near future. Remember that, in Western music anyway, there are a total of twelve chromatic steps going from C to C:

That number, twelve, is going to become very important to us! So keep it in your hat, as they say, and don’t even bother to ask me who they are! By the bye, I can assume you all know that C# (number 2 in this chart) is the same as Db, right? Likewise, Eb is D#, F# is Gb, G# is Ab and Bb is A#. Got it? Good!

So now let’s take a look at Caug. As you read in The Power of Three, one makes an augmented chord by taking the root, adding a major third (the note two full step up from it) and then adding another major third. If it’s easier, just think about adding a half step to the fifth. Either way, you’ve got C, E and G# and it looks like this:

Since an augmented chord has the raised fifth, and since, in this case it’s G#, it’s a fairly safe bet that your ears want it to lead you to an A note. More often than not, an augmented chord will resolve to the fourth (F in the key of C) or the sixth (Am in the key of C. Check out these progressions and see if you don’t agree:

And these progressions are even more striking when you start with the C chord:

Can you hear how you build the tension when you change from the G in the C chord to the G# in the Caug? And then how the tension drains away when you finally get to that A note in either the Am or the F? This is a great thing for songwriters. You can use it as a melody line or, more striking still, use it as accompaniment as the melody holds on a single note common to all chords. And you don’t have to stop there! Check out this progression:

I’ve deliberately used the Fmaj7 here so that we can have sustained tones on the first two strings, namely the open E on the first string and the C note (second fret) on the B string. We start with the C to Caug to Am that we used in Example #6 and then raised the A note an additional half step to Bb, which gives us C7. Then we slip back down to A of the Fmaj7, lower that a half step to get the FmMaj7 (quite the chord, no?) and then finally get back home to our C chord.

Another thing I should point out here is that a lot of writers will use the C6 or Am7 chord (both of these chords use the same four notes: C, E, G and A) instead of plain old Am. As with so much else in music, it all depends on your own taste.

Sadly, outside of jazz, one is hard pressed to find augmented chords used with any regularity. You may find the occasional song (or songwriter – John Lennon regularly peppered his work with a well-placed augmented chord or two) where they pop up. In jazz, you’ll often find the seventh added to them. There is a moveable chord form for this and it looks like this:

Kudos to those of you who, having read my column, Moving On Up, can see the reasoning behind this. We’ve taken our E shape and adjusted the fifth, which is on the B string, accordingly moving it up a half step. The root of this chord is on both of the E strings (first and sixth), while the third is on the G and the seventh is on the D.

Now, let’s put the augmented chord on hold for a moment and take a quick look at our second feature, if you will. Diminished chords also demonstrate the importance of leading tones; perhaps even more so than the augmented chords. Think back on Example #2 and ask yourself, what’s the difference between Bdim and G7? The Bdim contains the same notes except it has not G. In other words, it’s a G7 without a root. So it will always contain two leading tones in it, depending of course on the chord to which you intend to resolve. More on that in a moment…

First a quick bit of stuff that might be confusing. It’s rare to play pure diminished chords, that is, the root, minor third and flatted fifth, on the guitar. Because the instrument is, for the most part, tuned in fourths, it’s hard to create comfortable chord voicings that use adjoining strings. That’s not to say it can’t be done. Here’s a common moveable chord for pure diminished chords:

For this moveable chord, you only want to play the three strings indicated. The root is on the A string, while the flatted fifth is on the D string and the minor third is on the B string. This particular fingering leads itself very nicely to chord progressions like this:

This is a very common progression in jazz or old pop standards. You can hear this at the beginning of We’ll Meet Again or all throughout Ain’t Misbehavin’. And it’s a terrific example of leading tones, here in the bass notes. If you start with the C major chord and then only change the C note, moving it up a half step to C# while keeping the E and G intact, you’ve then got C#dim. This resolves to Dm, from which we go to Gaug7 that will bring us back to C.

But guess what? To a jazz player, this is not a diminished chord! He or she calls it a “half diminished” chord. Why? Well, I might need the wit of Nick Torres to figure this out but I highly suspect that jazz players insist that anything good enough to be called a chord should have four notes!

So let’s remember that our diminished chord is made by taking the root, adding a minor third to it and then another minor third, which gives us the flat fifth. By the way, this flat fifth is called the tritone. It’s as far away from the root as one can get. But more on that later. For now, on top of all that we’ve got so far, let’s stick another minor third:

Technically, in terms of the major scale, we’re adding the sixth to the chord, but in music theory terms we call this a diminished seventh. The diminished seventh can easily be played on the guitar. Here’s Cdim7:

And now we’re in for some real fun! Because of the make up of the diminished seventh chord, you have all sorts of ways to resolve it! Let’s look at a Cdim7 and see a few examples:

This is all a matter of the use of leading tones. When going from Cdim7 to C, for instance, we let the C note stand pat while the Eb lead us up to E while the Gb and A collapse in on the G note. I didn’t plot it out, but the A could just as easily lead up to the Bb and give us a C7. Or, in our second example here, the Eb could lead down to D, the Gb and A could collapse on G again and the C note could lead down to B, which would give us a G chord. We could also, as I hope you see, create G7, Gm or Gm7 just as easily.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! If you’re up for it, and I have to admit that this is a lot easier on a keyboard than on the guitar, try resolving from Cdim7 to any or all of the following chords: Db, Db7, Dbm, Dbm7, Eb, Eb7, E, Em, Gb, Gb7, A, A7, Bb, Bb7, Bbm, Bbm7 and B7. Even if you decide to take my word for it, just reading that list of possible resolutions should put you a little in awe of the possibilities of this chord. But wait, as they say, there’s more!!

More Fun With Numbers

Ask any of my friends and they will gladly tell you that my grasp of science and/or physics is, at best, more than slightly tenuous. Still, I will declare forever and a day that all the wonderful talk about wormholes and dimensional portals and all that sort of fanciful thought probably started with a musician who was under the spell of Augmented Diminished Dementia.

Remember I told you to hand on to the number twelve? Let’s take a look at something incredibly interesting. Let’s take the twelve tones of Example #3 and the Caug chord of Example #4. Remembering that the Caug chord is built with a root (C), a major third (E) and then another major third (G#), what happens if we add yet another major third to the equation?

Goodness, we’re back at the root! How on earth did that happen? We’ll grab a pencil and come join in the fun. The interval of the major third is two whole steps, or four half steps. So if we’re starting with note “1,” then the next note in our sequence will be “1″ plus 4, which is “5″ and we look on our master chart and low and behold, “5″ is E. So far, so good! Adding four to “5″ gives us “9″ and wouldn’t you know it? G# is the note assigned to “9.” That’s our Caug chord, alright! So let’s add four to “9″ and we’re up to “13,” which, being a half-step up from B puts us smack dab on the C note.

Remember again, our total number of chromatic notes is twelve. “13″ is the same as “1″ as far as we’re concerned here. And twelve, as I truly, sincerely (dare I say desperately?) hope you all know, is divisible evenly by four. Repeat with me from your childhood: “Twelve divided by four is three.” This means that each augmented chord is actually the same as two other augmented chords! They share the same notes! Again, don’t take my word for it! Do the math and see:

And do you know what that means? There are only four possible augmented chord combinations! Oh, each one has got three names (or more if you start changing your flats for sharps – for instance, G#aug, from this example, is the same as Abaug, no?), but I think you see where I’m coming from:

Now go back to our twelve chromatic tone chart in Example #3 (or Example #14, since it’s closer!) and see if we’ve left anyone out. Pretty wild, huh? I’m more than willing to bet that those of you who learned how to play, oh, Gaug, for instance, didn’t have a clue that you also learned how to play Ebaug as well.

And knowing this sort of thing can be gold to a songwriter. You’re writing a song in the key of C and you want to really go wild on the bridge. Instead of using the time-honored C7 to F approach, why not go to Caug? And then instead of going to F, think of Caug as Eaug and go to A without batting an eye. Your listeners will blink and wonder how you managed to transport them without their knowing!

If this isn’t wild enough for you, then let’s go back to the diminished seventh chord. Think about this – the diminished seventh, as we saw earlier is built upon a stack of minor thirds. So guess what happens when you throw another minor third on the pile?

Yup, we’re back at the root again! The interval of a minor third is equal to three half steps, and twelve divided by three is four. So depending on what note you choose as your root, you actually have FOUR different diminished seventh chords here at your disposal:

And now you’re probably jumping ahead of the game and you’ve already guessed the next big secret of life: There are only three different diminished seventh chords! We’ll use flats instead of sharps this time but be sure to check and see if I’ve missed any, will you?

So, knowing this, how easy is it to figure out your moveable diminished seventh chords? Pretty easy, I suspect. Just find one note of the diminished seventh chord on any of the first four strings and use this pattern:

As you can see, this repeats itself every third fret up the neck. Not a bad thing to know!

Remember when I gave you a list of possible resolutions for the Cdim7? Well, that was a pretty good clue for what you were getting yourself into, no? And again, for a songwriter, this is like having a passkey (no pun intended) to get free access from one key to the next with a minimum of trouble. C to Db? They said it couldn’t be done! “Ha!” I say. Just use the Cdim7 chord and you’ll be there long before anyone knows you’re gone!

This, sincerely, is one crazy subject that tends to confuse the daylights out of people. So please take the time to read it all over as many times as you need to. I hate telling people this, but it is all numbers and nothing more. Okay, it is more – it’s also a lot of fun! A warning, though… Augmented diminished dementia is fairly contagious. Please do try not to overdo!

As always, please feel free to write me with any questions. Either leave me a message at the forum page (you can “Instant Message” me if you’re a member) or mail me directly at dhodgeguitar@aol.com.

Until next time…

Peace

You must first understand the Major Scale. In example #1, I have written out two octaves of the C major scale and given number degrees for each note (1-15). I’m using the C major scale because there are no sharps or flats in this scale. A major scale consists of a combination of Whole (W) and Half (H) steps. That combination is WWHWWWH. When we start with a C note on your instrument, there will be all natural notes when you play this scale. The system is designed this way. But when you start with any other note, you will need to sharpen or flatten at least one or more notes to create the WWHWWWH combination. I am going to refer to the C major scale throughout this lesson in order to keep it as simple as possible. Let’s get started!

There are 3 types of chords that you can relate all your chords to:

1. Major Chords (bright – pretty sounding)
2. Minor Chords (dark – serious sounding)
3. Dominant Chords (chords with a bite! – bebop guys love this stuff)

There are countless combinations and inversions. If you can understand how they are put together and how they function, you can make chord melodies a whole lot easier.

A chord symbol will describe which notes are being played together out of our scale. There can also be numbers, sharps and flats to indicate if there are any modifications needed to be made.

Our 3 types of chords are as follows:

C major = 1 3 5 = C E G
C minor = 1 b3 5 = C Eb G
C dominant = 1 3 5 b7 = C E G Bb

Here is a little chart with extensions to the chords that I make for my students:

Major Chords: 1 – 3 – 5 – (6) – 7 – 9 – (#11) – 13
Minor Chords: 1 – b3 – 5 (b5) – (6) – b7 – 9 – 11
Dominant Chords: 1 – 3 – (b5) 5 (#5) – b7 – (b9) 9 (#9) -(#11) – (b13) 13
Diminished Chords: 1 – b3 – b5 – bb7 (double flat (bb) = whole step lower)
Suspended Chords: 1 – (2) or (4) – 5 – b7

You can do a lot with only these to work with! A chord symbol will tell you what is in the chord itself. So let’s do a few to see if you have gotten this far.

Major Chords
C (C E G)
C6 (C E G A)
Cmaj7 (C E G B)
Cmaj9 (C E G B D)
Cmaj7#11 (C E G B F#)
Cmaj13#11 ( C E B D F# A)

Minor Chords
Cm ( C Eb G)
Cm7 (C Eb G Bb)
Cm9 (C Eb G Bb D)
Cm11 (C Eb G Bb D F)
Cm6 (C Eb G A)

Dominant Chords
C7 (C E G Bb)
C9 (C E G Bb D)
C13 (C E G Bb D A)
C7b9 (C E G Bb Db)
C7b9b13 (C E G Bb Db Ab)
C7#5 (C E G# Bb)
C7b5 (C E Gb Bb)
C7b9#11b13 (C E G Bb Db F# Ab)
Cdim7 (C Eb Gb Bbb)

Suspended Chords
Csus2 (C D G)
C7sus4 (C F G Bb)

If you use the C major scale with the degrees marked and the chord formulas I presented to you, you should get a good general idea of how C chords are built. You can do the exact same with the other eleven notes of the chromatic scale! The diminished scale has a dominant characteristic, but really sticks out. Therefore it is grouped with the dominant chords, but I separated it in the formulas. The suspended chord belongs to “no one.” The 3rd and the 7th degree are the most important notes to give color (its tonal characteristic) to a chord. When the 3rd degree is removed, it has a floating type of tone. It is not until the other chords in a song or the melody can give away its nature of major, minor or dominant.

Look at the chord symbols and how they describe which degrees in the scale make up the chord. There are other combinations you can come up with. Knowing this system, you can manipulate the chord symbol to describe what notes you want in a chord.

The only other feature I want to talk about is changing the bass note. Just make you chord symbol and use a slash (/) then the bass note.

Example: Cm7/G (this is a Cm7 with a G in the Bass). It’s that simple to write.

That is pretty much it for now. You need to practice it for sure. If you take the time, you will find it easy. Have fun!

There are chords which are enharmonic to each other (chords that share the same notes but have different functions and therefore different names). We will deal with that another time. There are also chord substitutions….they are easy ways to extend the colors of the original chord…. I’ll talk to you about them another time as well.

Tip: When I assemble a chord melody, I want to stay true to a chord, but I will eliminate notes if I need to. “Which notes?” you might ask. Well, it depends on how difficult it is to make it sound good. At that point… I don’t care as long as it sounds good. So bend or break the rules if you need to. The big question is “Does it sound good?” Well, that’s all I’m looking for. I’ll leave the number crunching to the analysts…. ha!

Sooooooo……. are you ready for that aspirin yet? Take some time with this and check out the actual notes with the chords you already play! It always works. When I do that with my students, they always trip out.

Enjoy!

“Sometimes it’s kind of cool to know what you’re playing.”

Also in this Series

• The Art of Creating Complete Song Arrangements
• I Got Rhythm
• It’s Only A Paper Moon

If you think so, then that’s how we’ll start our exploration of chords: with a tune. Actually, a chunk from a tune. Let’s check it out.

Strum each of these chords twice, anywhere on the fretboard.

C, Am, F, G7, C

Now, let’s work backwards to understand just how this musical phrase works, in terms of the chords that we find in it.

G7 to C

Look at the last chord change: G7 to C. Why do we play this? Why not play an Eb7b9 or an F#13b5? Or even something simple like an F major? What’s so great about a G7? Well, play those other chords with C, and listen to what your ear says about each. That will give you the best answer.

The most satisfying chord to play before the C is the G7. What the heck does that mean: “satisfying?” It partially means what we expect to hear, what we are accustomed to hearing, and what we’ve heard in a billion other phrases and tunes.

So, what is it about the G7 that makes playing it before C so satisfying? A few things. Let’s talk about ‘em:

• The sweet note of the G7: B
• The no-no interval, or tritone
• The movement of a perfect 4th up from G to C

Let’s look at each of these under our musical magnifying glass.

The sweet note

The sweet note of a chord is its third: In G7, that’s a B. Play a G7 without a B and you’ll see why B is sweet.

The G7 sounds pretty drab without that B, doesn’t it? It’s like putting up a Christmas tree but not decorating it. Let’s put that B back in before things get out of hand.

The B is what gives the G7 its peppy, optimistic sound. And there’s another reason why B is important in helping G7 to C sound satisfying.

B is just a wee little bitty bit shy, one half-step shy to be exact, from C. This closeness of B to C causes tension. It’s like that box of chocolate Pop Tarts way up on the top shelf that the little kid can almost but not quite reach. We like to have this tension and resolution combo, and the B helps provide it.

Understanding the role the sweet note plays can improve your entire sound. Learn more about the third and the other ingredients that go into chords by reading Guitar Chords. Check it out here:

The no-no interval, or tritone

There’s another reason why the G7 moves so satisfyingly to the C. It’s called the tritone interval. This interval will make your straight hair curly, your milk go sour, and will propel the G7 smack into the C with cataclysmic force. (That last sentence sounds great if you pretend you’re Charlton Heston.)

The tritone is an interval, which means it’s two notes: B and F. Play a B and an F, listening to how unusual they sound together and how much tension they produce. In fact, play this tab:

Tritone to minor 6th

Here’s the sound file for this tab: [aac1.mid]

This movement of the unstable tritone to the stable minor 6th (the C and E notes) is another reason why G7 to C sounds good.

By the way, there’s an interesting newsgroup message that relates some of the beliefs that Ancient Greeks and others had about the tritone. To read this message, surf to this subdomain: groups.google.com. When you’re there, click Advanced Groups Search. Then, enter this text in the box that reads “Message ID”: cornell.791886334@michigan

Up a fourth

What’s another reason why G7 to C will put a smile in your step and a twang in your Tang? What’s the root of the G7? The G. What’s the root of the C chord? The C. What’s the interval between these two roots, G and C? A perfect fourth. Chord movement by an ascending perfect fourth generally sounds good.

We can even take that a bit further by saying that a huge number of chord movements in most types of songs use ascending perfect fourths (or a descending perfect 5th).

Listen to some examples of this interval: play a D note followed by a G note. Just play notes now, not chords. Then, play a G followed by a C note, and an A followed by a D. Now, let’s flesh this idea out by playing a chord progression that moves only in fourths. Play this:

C, F, B dim, Em, Am, Dm, G7, C

Notice I said “fourths” and not perfect fourths. Almost all of the movements here are ascending perfect fourths. One movement, from F to B, is not a perfect fourth, but our furry friend the tritone.

How does this progression in all fourths sound to you? It provides tension from the B dim and G7, you have a mix of all the chord types in the major scale: minor, diminished, major, and you’re moving by one of your ear’s favorite intervals: the ascending perfect fourth. All is well with the universe. Go in peace.

What can you do with it?

What can we use this all fourths progression for? For one thing, use it to write tunes. Let’s say you’ve come up with a melody and you don’t know what chords to put to it. No problem. Assuming the melody is in C major, sing the melody while strumming the all fourths progression given a little while ago. Play it slowly; listen carefully; feel the Force…whoa, sorry. Wrong movie.

Chances are, your melody will sound pretty good over those chords for at least some of the notes. Wherever it doesn’t sound so good, either change the melody, or swap out the chord.

How to practice

The V7-I progression is pretty important, so you want to practice it in as many keys as you can manage. The progression we did in this section is in C. Let’s transpose the progression to other common keys.

Keep in mind that you can play the following chords anywhere on the fretboard – at least at first. Don’t worry about playing a particular voicing, playing all over the neck, or playing on just a certain string or strings. Just play the form of the chord you feel most comfy with.

Let’s do V7-I in these keys: F, G, A, E, D and for extra credit, Gb.

Here are the chords:

Key F: C7, F
Key G: D7, G
Key A: E7, A
Key E: B7, E
Key D: A7, D
Key Gb: Db7, Gb

Now, that shows what to practice. But, how do you practice ‘em? That breaks down into where to practice ‘em, then how often, and other questions.

First, as said a short while ago, play the above progressions in each key wherever you feel most comfortable playing them. This would likely mean open position chords if you’re a beginner.

Practice the V7-I progressions until you can play them in time with a metronome. Start with 90 BPM, and play a phrase like this:

| V7 V7 | I I | V7 V7 | I I |

In other words, strum the V7 twice, then the one twice, and repeat that sequence. Then, go on to the next key. This might be more fun if you had a playalong partner to do it with. So, here’s a Powertab file you can use for that:

http://www278.pair.com/dkoltow/FiveOne5keys.ptb

This file has all the V7-I progressions in the list above. Load them into Power Tab and play along with them. If the tempo is too fast, change the tempo marker, which you can do under the Music Symbols menu.

If you haven’t downloaded the super cool and free Powertab yet, here’s where to get it:

http://power-tab.net

Once you get good at playing these progressions, you’ll want to keep playing while you switch keys. In other words, if you’re strumming along to G7 and C, you’d want to have a buddy or a computer program call out the next key at random. “Key A!” “Key E!” and so on. It’s your job and your joy to play through without missing a beat.

Read the next installment of All About Chords at MaximumMusician.com. We’ll look at why chords are built in thirds, the progression every guitarist must know, how to practice it, and the many uses of regurgitated cat hairballs.

In this article we’ll be discovering ways to add some color to the most popular of open chords, G major.

Now, you may just ask “Why? I mean, no disrespect intended, as I appreciate the kind gesture. But, I’ve written scores of tunes based on a simple G chord…” Well then, here we go. Now, you may be a superb lyricist, the most exquisite poetry may pour forth from your pen. You may just be a stunningly gifted singer, or a fleet-fingered guitar picker; and I sincerely hope that you are. Bottom line is, if you’re showcasing your skill with a limited harmonic palette, your music will eventually become redundant and dare I say it, boring. Yes, it’s a hard truth, but one that will hopefully lead us to some exciting chordal possibilities.

I cannot begin to count the number of times I have been audience to musicians who are otherwise extremely talented, no doubt, but set their melodies on the same harmonic bed song after song after song. Yawn…

Let’s look at a simple way of remedying this situation.

The G is a great place to begin. It falls comfortably under the fingers and is in itself a beautiful sound. Here are 4 common variations on our garden variety G:

Now, let’s have a look at what we can add to these voicings. We’ll be deriving additional chord tones from the G major scale, of which we’ll use two patterns:

In keep with Guitar Noise tradition, I’ve put these in both tablature and standard notation, and for good measure the name of the notes (the pitch that is sounded at that particulat fret) is right in between. I hope this covers everyone!

Our process is to replace one or more notes of any of the open G variations with G major scale tones. Below is an example of variation 3 with an A note (the 2nd degree of the G major scale) in place of an open G string.

What we have here is a Gsus2 chord.

Here is another example. This one has two added scale tones:

These changes create a G major9 chord. The F# and open G create a sweet dissonance balanced out nicely by the high A and open B.

Here are a couple of my favorites:

Ok, the rest is all about you. See what you can come up with and add to your material. There is a world of color and life in this simple little scale. Delve in there and take advantage of what is right under your fingertips…

Remember to slap on that capo and play these new chords in different keys, you’ll notice subtle variations in warmth and resonance as you move around the guitar neck.

Once you’ve exhausted the possibilities of the G major scale, find some other scales to add tones from. The G major chord is found in the keys of D major and C major, so both of these scales can offer further harmonic enlightenment.

In addition there are whole tone scales, diminished scales, melodic and harmonic minor… go where your curiosity takes you. See you next time…

“Bluesifying” Your Chords

Ever notice how some chords and riffs just have this sound which can only be described as “blues-y?” There’s something about what you hear that puts the blues into your head and doesn’t let it go.

It’s not that hard to make a chord progression sound more like the blues. Most of you are aware of how chords are formed from thirds, stacking every other note on the scale one atop the next. The simplest chords, triads, come in four “flavors:” major, minor, augmented and diminished. You can find out all about this in The Power of Three.

Add another third on top of a triad, and you’ve got a seventh chord.

Here’s a quick guideline to “bluesify” any major chord: add a flat 7 on top of the basic triad. This will give you a dominant 7 chord, which lies at the heart of the blues.

Too simple, you ask? Well, check it out. Here’s your twelve bar blues pattern in A:

A for four bars
D for two bars
A for two bars
E for one bar
D for one bar
A for two bars

(If you want to learn about the 12 bar blues, check out our Easy Songs For Beginners Lesson, Before You Accuse Me.)

Now let’s simply change each major chord to its dominant 7th:

A7 for four bars
D7 for two bars
A7 for two bars
E7 for one bar
D7 for one bar
A7 for two bars

Here are common open position seventh chords, plus some moveable shapes:

Another thing that sings out the blues is toying with the third note of the major scale. The note is a major third up from the root, which is our tonal center. When you change that major third to a minor third, you are making it a “blue note.” Toying with the third, by making it minor and then making it major again, gives you a great blues sound:

This is especially effective when used in finger-style play:

Playing with the third of a major chord, especially if you’ve made it a dominant 7th (as in the last two examples) is an extremely powerful way to communicate the blues feeling.

Dressed To The Nines (or Jazzing Up Your Blues)

Jazz is not as far removed from the blues as people might think. Certainly the open structure of blues lends itself quite well to the improvisation of jazz. There are many jazz guitarists with roots firmly embedded in the blues.

But most beginning or intermediate guitarists shy away from jazz while they have no problem whatsoever in embracing the blues. Intriguing, no? This phenomenon is often a matter of perception – we think of jazz as being full of difficult chords and strange scales. Jazz is exotic. Blues is down and dirty.

As with anything, you form such perceptions based on what you know and how you put it into practice. We’ve just seen and heard how simply adding the seventh to our major triad gives us a blues feel. What you throw on top of the seventh – ninths, elevenths and thirteenths – puts you in the realm of jazz.

The ninth is a particularly fun (and easy!!) chord to play. It is important to remember that your chord has to have both the seventh and ninth. If it only has the ninth with no seventh, it will simply be an “add9″ chord. Here are some open position ninth chords, plus a moveable shape (with the root on the A string):

Ninths can be used in most cases where you’d use a seventh chord. So, in the blues, which is often loaded with seventh chords, you can have a field day. Have you ever heard a really slow, almost seductive, twelve bar blues song but couldn’t quite figure out what the chords were? Chances are that the guitarist was using ninths. A popular technique is to slide down to the ninth chord from one fret above. Give this a try:

Finally, let me give you a quick exercise to use all the things we learned today. If you need to give it a name, call it Darrin and David’s Blues:

We are playing our A7 in a shuffle pattern (where you can also play the open G string if you like) when we make use of a couple of passing chords in the middle of measure four. This brings us to an Eb9, which we’ll use to chromatically slide down to the D9. If you want to impress your friends that you know some jazz chords, the first passing chord (x0456x) is a D7#9 and the second (x0567) is an A7add6.

Another thing that jazz players like to do when they play the blues is substitute the tenth measure (D or D7 in this case) with a chromatic climb and return. Here we show the last four bars of our blues song as E9 followed by a step up to F9 before returning to E9 and then finally back to A. I also thought it would be fun to include a jazz style turnaround that holds the A as a sustained tone while chromatically descending from B to A.

Even if you play folk or rock, experiment with things like seventh and ninth chords. No, they won’t work every time. But more often than not, you will find yourself with a great sound that you’ll want to use again and again.

In the key of c the dominant chord would be a G

Chord tones: G B D

T make it a dominant 7 add the F:

Chord Tones: G B D F

Now let’s look at the diminished chord in the key of C which would be a B Diminished:

Chord tones: B D F

To make it a diminished 7 or a minor 7b5 which is how it is most commonly referred to add the a

Chord tones: B D F A

Now if you look closely at the two chords

G7: G B D F

Bm7b5: B D F A

The only thing separating these two notes is the A and the G, so they can be used interchangeably to perform the same function.

There are in reality two types of diminished chords The Half diminished which is the minor7b5: B D F A. And, there is also the full diminished chord: B D F Ab

Here is a form for each of the diminished chords.

   ------ ------ ------ ------
   ---3-- ---3-- ---1-- ---1--
   ---2-- ---1-- ---2-- ---2--
   ---3-- ---3-- ---2-- ---1--
   ---2-- ---2-- ------ ------
   ------ ------ ---2-- ---2--

Just like all bar chords these are universal shapes and can be moved anywhere on the fretboard and you will come out with a diminished chord as long as the shape is retained.

One of my favorite tunes that utilizes the diminished chord is Autumn Leaves. Check out the lesson Jazz Comping V for an arrangement of Autumn Leaves. You should probably get yourself a Jazz real book and go from there.

Well, I hope I have been helpful, please feel free to email me with any questions.